Learnings @ Leadership Network

Your Building Speaks

No, this is not a story of an old creepy abandoned church rumored to be filled with ghosts that speak. Rather, it is a story of a new building that is not only functional but purposeful. My family and I attend Chase Oaks Church in Plano, Texas. This past weekend we held the grand opening for our new facility – a building whose design speaks of its purpose and mission.

From the time the campaign to raise the money began several years ago to the beginning of the design phases to the construction to the relocation just weeks ago, the building was designed with a purpose. Central to the vision and values of Chase Oaks is the concept of bridge building – to God, to one another and to the community. 

During the construction phase, we had a chance to walk through the facility with the advising architect. It was exciting to see and hear how each area of the building was designed to speak – to speak of the commitments we have as the body of Christ finding its ministry launching ground at Chase Oaks. The building is located as close to the corner of a busy intersection as would allow – not because of zoning regulation requirements but because we wanted to be visible and in the midst of the community. This desire extends itself into the large windows that allow the passing traffic to see in and realize that there is life and ministry happening. Just as important, perhaps more, the windows remind us that our mission, our call is “out there” – beyond the confines of a physical building. The building itself appears to be a collection of buildings, intended to convey the image of the passage in Matthew 5 where we are called to be the light of the world, a city on a hill. The kid’s areas are themed in a manner that takes the kids on a quest from the meadows of the nursery to the mountain summit of the fifth grade area. The student ministry building has access to the neighboring multiplex theater parking lot and through cool architecture, multiple decks, indoor basketball cage and gaming areas and a lighted sand volleyball court this will become a place where students do life together. 

Check out the article from last weekend’s Dallas Morning news for more. 

What does your building say?

 

Greg Ligon

Leadership Network

Vice President, Church Innovations and Publisher

megachurches in the 1500's

John Calvin's theology and missionary zeal has made a big impact in church history. Even during his time, some of the churches he planted reach thousands of people at a time:

Scholar peter Wilcox has combed the Genevan archives and dusted off some of Calvin's five hundred-year old correspondence. Much to his surprise, Wilcox discovered a treasure trove of material indicating that the last ten years of Calvin's life in Geneva (1555-1564) were preoccupied with missions' Among the dusty tomes were letters written by the Genevan missionaries themselves revealing just how successful they had been. One French church in Bergerac boasted to Calvin:

"There is, by the grace of God, such a movement in our district, that the devil is already for the most part driven out, so that we are able to provide ministers for ourselves. From day to day, we are growing, and God has caused His Word to bear such fruit that at sermons on Sundays, there are about four- to five-thousand people."

Another letter from Montpelier rejoiced, "Our church, thanks to the Lord, has so grown and so continues to grow every day that we are obliged to preach three sermons on Sundays to a total of five- to six-thousand people."

And it gets better. A pastor in Toulouse wrote to the Genevan Consistory: "Our church has grown to the astonishing number of about eight- to nine-thousand souls."

Calvin didn't just plant small fledgling churches; he planted mega-churches that in turn planted more churches.

Excerpted from Calvin the Evangelist by Frank A. James III. [ht: The Shepherd's Scrapbook]

Reveal Squeal gets louder on the web

The REVEAL study sought to find the answers revolving around this question: "Can we really know if our church is making a difference in the ongoing spiritual growth of our people?" The study’s findings are published in a new book, “Reveal: Where Are You?,” co-authored by Cally Parkinson and Greg Hawkins, executive pastor of Willow Creek Community Church.

Since Willow Creek released the results of this multi-year study, there's been quite a bit of conversation in the blogosphere and now on radio too. MondayMorningInsight.com has already noted the buzz last week in a post titled More Willowcreek "Revealsqueal"::

There have been literally hundreds of articles in newspapers and posts on blogs about the recent "Reveal" Study put out by Willow Creek. The Christianity Today blog got it started when they ran the headline "Willow Creek Repents?" This caused Willow to respond to all the negative coverage with their own take. Well, here are a couple of other stories about about "Reveal"; something we at Leadership Network are now calling "Revealsqueal". Revealsqueal can be good or bad... it just means people are talking. Like this story from US News and World Report; and another from and another from the Florida Baptist Witness...

Reveal Squeal continues to spread, and these blog posts caught my attention -- Tony Morgan clears up the misrepresentations about the study in his post titled "It's not just a Willow-thing", where an official statement was issued by Willow Creek Association, excerpted here:

Earlier today, I received a copy of a statement from the Willow Creek Association addressing misrepresentations in the blogosphere about their new REVEAL project. Some folks erroneously reported that Willow and Bill Hybels were admitting failures in the seeker movement. The reality is that Willow's surveys are finding new insights on spiritual growth issues for all kinds of churches including plenty of churches (40%) that do not consider themselves "seeker-focused" or "seeker-friendly."

... Here are several quotes based on partial or incorrect information:

* World magazine; November 10, 2007: “‘We made a mistake’. Bill Hybels... on a study that showed the Willow Creek model had not produced spiritually mature Christians.”
* Bob Burney, Townhall; October 30, 2007: “The report reveals that what they’ve been doing for these many years and what they’ve taught millions of others to do is not producing solid disciples of Jesus Christ…Numbers, yes, but not disciples….”
* H.B. London, The Pastor’s Weekly Briefing; November 9, 2007: “Hybels goes on to say ‘If you simply want a crowd, the “seeker sensitive” model produces results. If you want solid, sincere, mature followers of Christ, it’s a bust.” Bill Hybels did not say this. Focus on the Family is printing a retraction.

(Be sure to read the entire statement from Willow Creek about REVEAL.)

Sociologist Bradley Wright blogged an 11 part series about the REVEAL study, starting with a review of "Reveal: Where are You?", to analyze the research methodology of using church surveys. Futuristguy is getting reading to dig deeper into his own study and analysis, as he shared his initial reaction and why this is worthwhile in Preparing my own self-study on Willow Creek and Reveal.

And the REVEAL study is starting to get air-play on the radio airwaves. Yesterday, Scot McKnight (author of The Jesus Creed) and David Fitch (author of The Great Giveaway: Reclaiming the Mission of the Church from Big Business, Parachurch Organizations, Psychotherapy, Consumer Capitalism, and Other Modern Maladies) were interviewed on WMBI radio (ht: Bill Kinnon) David Fitch added this postscript after the radio show, The WMBI REVEAL Interview: What I Would Have Said If I Had had the Chance. Scot McKnight in Willow’s Reveal Study, added his main responses to the major criticisms that are circulating about Willow’s Reveal study.

--- DJ Chuang, Director of Digital Initiatives and Asian American Churches

Megachurch Security

As you can imagine, I spent some time Monday talking to press about megachurch security related to the shootings in Colorado.

I got a few quotes in the mainstream press attributed to me and I was accurately quoted. Of course you spend 20-30 minutes with a reporter trying to shape the direction of the story and you get a one line quote which is often the weirdest thing you said.

But here is my direction on this story.

First, yes, Megachurches do  talk a lot about security. Not so much at the Senior Pastor level but the level below that with Executive Pastors and Operational staff. The Risk Assessment process is driven by lots of concerns but rarely a shooter.

Second, security is a larger issue. Most churches start actually in the Childrens areas with extensive check-in procedures out of concern not just for "losing" kids, but guarding against a non custodial parent or relative making an unauthorized visit or withdrawal of a child during the time it is in church services.

Large churches make a big deal about security at larger youth events as well. Let's face it, 400 teenagers from all over a region can lead to some frayed feelings at time. Most churches have not only lots of adult volunteers but often some uniformed police around as well.

Third, for many churches, security starts before you get on the property. Most megachurches hire, (and some municipalities for this) regular police and other peace officers to direct traffic ingress and egress to a site. And this officers are often in full regalia, including sidearms.
The parking handoff usually goes to volunteers to direct traffic, but many of those teams have also been trained to "know the code" if confronted with an extreme situation. Ditto the greeting team, offering team and so on.

While I have seen very few firearms on these volunteers, I do know that many carry radios, pepper spray and other non lethal means of handling a troublemaker. However, it is 100 times more common to see these various team members responding to a person that has taken a tumble, had a heart attack or fainting spell, or other health issue than it is to have a person seeking to  cause a commotion.

Fourth - In many churches in the urban contexts, these have been issues for years. Usually private security companies provide round the clock oversight for buildings and property and parking lots. It is a cost of doing business not just for churches but other event venues. These persons are usually uniformed, radioed and often armed. Their high visibility is designed to discourage trouble and help attenders feel safe.

Fifth - How many pastors have body guards? Very few. If it is a celebrity pastor, much more likely. While many churches have trained ushers on the front rows that are specifically there to help the pastor if a situation develops, I can count on one hand those megachurch pastors that have round the clock security.Yes, there are crazed threats but usually they are handled via normal, run of the mill security. Churches spend much more the security resources on children, youth and parking lots than on guards for the pastor.

Sixth - what about the offering? Most large churches have long established, regular procedures to safeguard any cash that is taken in offerings that insure that no church personnell or outsiders can tamper with the money. Most have on site procedures similar to large retail businesses that take care of the cash. Some have armed personnel that walk the cash to safes and armored car services. I cannot recall a "stick up" of a large church.

Finally - you can't stop crazy. This is a dictum adapted from the Secret Service. There are always times when a dedicated disturbed person can get through the systems and safeguards. There are no foolproof ways to stop that. And yes, most of the time, mentally disturbed individuals are seeking help at churches and find some help to appropriate helpers. Churches are not in the business of turning away those that need genuine counsel and attention. But when it steps over the line, most are ready to respond appropriately to handle the situation without harm to anyone.

On Sunday, that was not possible. It appears that the safety and security systems worked as well as could be expected in that situation. The security officer did what had to be done to prevent further damage.

You cant stop crazy - just ask the mall people, or the workplace/factory security people. In fact, it is my contention that between paid and trained volunteers, plus the systems in place in megachurches, they are safer places than malls and workplaces. But that is just my opinion.

-- Dave Travis, Managing Director of Leadership Network

Megachurches Investing in Economic Development

Found this courtesy of Philanthropy Today:

So-called megachurches — those with members numbering in the thousands — are starting business ventures, sparking economic development, and raising questions about tax exemptions, unfair competition with private businesses, and a monopoly on faith, reports The New York Times ("Megachurches Add Local Economy to Their Mission").

The Times analyzed online public records of 1,300 churches and found that some of these huge congregations have invested in basketball schools, aviation subsidiaries, investment partnerships, and a limousine service. At least 10 own and operate shopping centers; others are beginning to include residential and other commercial developments.

"We want to turn people on to Jesus Christ through this process," says Karl Clauson, a leader of the ChangePoint ministry, a 4,000-member Christian congregation that helped develop and pay for a sports dome and food-storage facility in Anchorage.

Contributing to the economic health of the region is a turnaround for tax-exempt churches, which are often blamed for being a burden on the tax rolls, the newspaper says. The churches often say that outreach and evangelism are the basis for their developments, but it is possible that they are also looking for new sources of income to support their programs, says the Times.

(Free registration is required to view the New York Times article.)

Televangelists, Money and the Senator

Part One

By now everyone has read or seen the reports of a Republican Senators requests from six different ministries for information related to their financial affairs. It seems like a growing part of my job is to talk to reporters to give them some perspective on the work of megachurches and their pastors.

While some of these ministries are based and exist as strong local churches, the requests also inquire as to related media ministries established by individuals. In this case, I think it is more accurate to describe the ministries identified as “televangelism.” Several of the leaders also lead large, mega churches. However, it would be a mistake to lump megachurch pastors into this same sort of category.

All of the targets of the information requests have been featured in numerous media reports in the past 18 months which questioned certain expenditures. These have been widely reported elsewhere.

I will make several observations in the next few posts but a few observations based upon my years of ministry with large church pastors.

1. Most large church senior pastors are fairly well paid. I think our last salary survey at Leadership Network had the average figure at around $130,000 per year. Some are higher, some are lower. (that is salary and housing, there are often other benefits on top of that. While that is a good salary compared to some professional positions, it is average for others.

2. Most large church senior pastors don’t have television ministries. Most of the churches that have television ministries are small, local cable operations that are funded by the church. Those that have extensive television ministries are rare when you look at the big picture.

3. There is an old saying “Sunlight is the best disinfectant.” I really admire those churches and ministries which are very transparent when it comes to administration and finances. Even when they may not give the exact figures for all positions, they are free in publishing the ranges for the tier of staff.

That sort of transparency breeds trust in both constituents and outsiders.

 Part 2 – Should a Pastor   Drive a Rolls?

Part 3 – How much information should be provided?

(This post is also posted on the Leadership Network Learnings Blog)

50% attend top 10% largest churches

To gain some perspective about church sizes and people's preferences, this summary by the Hartford Institute for Religious Research sheds some light -- taken from its Q&A section titled, "fast facts about church sizes":

Q: What's the size of U.S. churches? A: The median church in the U.S. has 75 regular participants in worship on Sunday mornings, according to the National Congregations Study. Notice that researchers measured the median church size — the point at which half the churches are smaller and half the churches are larger — rather than the average (186 attenders reported by the USCLS survey), which is larger due to the influence of very large churches. But while the United States has a large number of very small churches, most people attend larger churches. The National Congregations Study estimated that the smaller churches draw only 11 percent of those who attend worship. Meanwhile, 50 percent of churchgoers attended the largest 10% of congregations (350 regular participants and up). [emphasis added]

Doing some quick calculations, these additional observations surfaced:

• 50% of attenders go to churches under 350 in size
• or, in other words, half of churchgoers like smaller churches, while another half of churchgoers like larger churches
• 4.7 million church attenders (8.4%) go to megachurches
• out of the approximate 300,000 Protestant churches, 1,210 (0.41%) are megachurches (over 2,000 weekly worship attendance)
• 16% of attenders go to churches under 100 in size

Also see the table titled "Approximate Distribution of U.S. Protestant and Other Christian Churches by size" for estimates of how many people attend churches of different sizes. (Note: the above statistics seem to be based on 2005 research.)

What's the church's future?

This week, Pastor Craig Groeschel of LifeChurch.tv, has begun an intriguing series of blog posts about the future of the church:

• Future of the Church 1 (of 5) - larger and smaller
• Future of the Church 2 (of 5) - more Bible, less fluff
• Future of the Church 3 (of 5) - more diversity and more unity
• Future of the Church 4 (of 5) - more missional and less consumeristic
• Future of the Church 5 (of 5) - Higher Tech and Higher Touch

Again, these are theories and tentative ideas, not predictions. I know many people have a fascination with predicting the future, and once in a while it can be good to ruminate about these things. Click-thru the above links to read them -- there's a lively discussion in the comment threads.

On Megachurch Succession/Falwell

I think the comments on the death of Jerry Falwell are about complete now. One of the reporter calls over the past week has been related to succession of the key leadership role in megachurches. There is a section of my new book devoted to this area (Beyond Megachurch Myths – coauthored with Scott Thumma, releases this summer - pre-order now here) But I think we could have said a lot more about the issue. When we start to blog more about the book we will have a section that is “the stuff we wished we would have said” area. Sometimes space is a factor and also in this book we didn’t want to be too speculative but drive the book by solid research.

 On to the issue. First, megachurches are often criticized for lack of succession plans. This is also a criticism in small and mid sized businesses and other not for profit organizations. It is my contention that while FORTUNE 500 type companies do an "ok" job thinking about this issue, churches generally fall out about the same place as mid sized businesses. The worst in thinking about succession seems to be mid sized not for profits. My point, churches aren’t as bad as you think in this area.

Second, in organizations, whether they are churches, not for profit or business, those that view the organization as a “family business” tend to do just fine with succession.

In these cases, across organizational type, when it is clearly understood that this organization is “family run” and the constituency buys into that understanding, succession is natural. Sometimes a family member has their feelings hurt, or feels they should have been selected but the same is true in other succession methods and since there is family involved, they are more likely to stick together in spite of their personal feelings.

 According to my outsiders view of Thomas Road Baptist Church and to insiders that have given me reports, it was understood for the past five years that at the retirement of Jerry Falwell, Jonathan Falwell would assume the key leader position. He had been executive pastor for some time and well versed in all areas of the church. Another son will assume the key leadership role at Liberty University.

To my insiders at the institutions, this seems expected and natural. My prediction is that the sons will bring different emphases to the respective organizations and leave their own marks on them, but the transition will be smooth and beneficial to the organizations. The points of continuity go beyond sharing a last name, but in the training, mind set and values within the organization.

Since we tend focus on the work of churches, I will pray that Jonathan Falwell helps lead the church to continued impact in its community.

There are other types of succession plans and methods. They each have strengths and weaknesses, and they will wait for another day of blogging.

Next post for me: The Falwell/Travis smackdown over the Emerging Church.

On Jerry Falwell

I was in staff meetings all week and away from my regular office and neglected to return the calls of reporters seeking comment on the death of Jerry Falwell. Over the next few days I will post several comments on his death, his ministry, the succession plans and some disagreements we had.

Let me say first that Dr. Falwell has now entered the real land of the living, safe in the Father’s arms. Though his transition from this earth is hard on his family, church and friends, we are comforted that he now truly lives.

Falwell and I shared a denominational label but I didn’t agree with all his theology or politics. In spite of that I can still have great respect for what he accomplished. Starting and leading a large church is not easy in any era or context and for his leadership in that part of the world and in that era is a great accomplishment.

On top of that he started an institution to train leaders not only in ministry but in many other fields. Though Liberty would not be my choice for training, I have met hundreds of leaders trained there and have found them to be excellent pastors and leaders in other fields. I have tremendous respect for the visionary leaders that design institutions and organizations that can help spread their influence.

Dr. Falwell built both organizations, Liberty University and Thomas Road Baptist Church out of a cultural soil in a different time. For many years they seemed (to my outside eyes) as stuck in a previous era. But I think it must be remembered that in the past few years, Dr. Falwell began to try many of the more contemporary approaches. He even hosted Rick Warren in a “Purpose Driven” type of conferences. He expanded the small group ministry at the church. Many of the students were encouraged to engage in very culturally relevant ministries.

I think the other thing about his ministry that was overlooked is that for all his pronouncements on issues of the day, he led the church to create compassion ministries to address those issues. Many of those were right there on the campus of the church. Others were spread to many other sites through training and equipping others. I have tremendous respect for those that put hands and feet to their preaching to put the gospel into action. I doubt he would ever want to be called a “social gospeller”, but he was.

Lord of the Harvest

I have now recieved over 50 reports of multiple hundreds of people being baptized in one day from larger churches around the country. The reports to me started about 18 months ago and the pace has quickened in the last six months.

These reports have tended to flow from those that have a tradition of baptism by immersion and from those willing to baptize quickly when a person says they desire to take that step. I would also say that I have heard some reports as well from churches that do not practice immersion as a mode of baptism but use other means.

Some are calling it "spontaneous baptism" as churches have readied for a call to follow Christ with that commitment and ask people to "do it now." Others report that they have informed their attenders that on a certain day they will be having baptism for all those that desire it and to be prepared on that day. When the day comes, they inform people that they can come on, even if they were not prepared to be baptized as they have clothing and towels at the ready.

Now, I know many churches that have large baptism special services several times a year and do baptize many during those times. But this approach of calling people to make a first-time commitment to follow Christ and be baptized immediately has been observed in almost all parts of the country.

I was asked recently to explain it. My answer was tentative, but I offer it up to you readers for thought. First, I know that many traditions have a long period of instruction prior to adult baptism and I can see their point of view. Still yet other traditions have baptism at infancy and observe confirmation rites to instruct the believers in their heritage and in their commitments to Christ. Let none of what I right demean those traditions.

Some are saying this is a move from God and a new revival is sweeping the country. I would not label it as that yet. In many of the cases It is happening where there is only occasional "calls for the decision." Some traditions that have experienced these spontaneous baptisms typically ask persons to make a commitment through signing a follow up card or coming to a special spot on campus for counseling and follow up. Nothing wrong with that.

But for some, this is an outgrowth of an explicit call for conversion. The message basically is: You've been attending for awhile. You have heard the great Truths of God. Time to step over the line and make a public commitment to become a Christ follower.

I believe that stating the case clearly and calling for the commitment has helped many "over the hump" in their decision to follow Christ.

Some are critiquing the phenomena as a form of "easy believism" and the critics doubt many of the baptized realize the vows they are taking.

So far all of the churches I have spoken with personally have strong follow up plans to work with the newly baptized.

I think that with all the emphasis in the past decade on practical, relevant teaching in many large churches that the leaders are realizing that there comes a time to call strongly for a bold decision and starting point in following Christ. For some of these churches it means public baptism to indicate that decision.

It will be a healthy trend.

Nice Story on Externally Focused North Coast

Northcoast goes Big on Externally Focused

I meant to blog on this a few months ago when I visited out at North Coast Church in Vista, CA. www.northcoastchurch.com. They were making plans then for this weekend of service throughout the whole North County area.

I spoke to Chris Mavity a few weeks ago and they already had about 4000 signed up to participate in this great outreach into the community.

Northcoast is best known probably for its multi site and video venue innovations, but they are just as strong in some other areas.

Check out the article. It even makes mention of our Leadership Network Leadership Communities:

That work became more focused about three years ago, when the church hired Casey Yorman as its first community service pastor. About a year and a half ago, Yorman said the idea of a churchwide project was planted after he attended a meeting with Leadership Network, a national group focused on church strategies for pastors.

Yorman said discussion at the meeting was on what it means to be an externally focused church, or a church that cares about its community rather than just its own congregation.

"Most people think of a church as a secret club, but we want to be externally focused," Yorman said, "a church that cares for its community and wants to show it."

If you want some more on the Externally Focused movement, check out our Externally Focused Conference this May: Externally Focused Conference

I will blog later this week about Larry Osborne's new book. Larry is the Lead Pastor at Northcoast.

Ten Thousand Plus

As some of you know, I just finished a book with my friend Scott Thumma entitled Beyond Megachurch Myths. (To be released in August. Order your copy now at Amazon.)

The book is a research based look at churches over 2000 across the country. Our stats show that the majority of megachurches are between 2000-3000 attenders. Only a small minority are over 10,000 regular attenders.

That being said, I will say that in the past month we have been getting lots of reports of churches peaking over 10,000 people for the first time. Many of these peaks are related to holiday services of course, but do give a glimpse of what may be coming. At this week's Multi Site Gathering at our Leadership Network offices, four or so surpassed 10,000 for the first time.

For most of the reports of those surpassing 10,000 for the first time, the bump was about a 25% over regular attendance. This conforms to other trends for one time attendance bumps. So, a church of 5000 may have seen perhaps 6500 for Easter weekend, and so on.

Anyway, I am interested in seeing reports from church leaders about their churches attendance bumps for Easter. If you have a report, send it my way. Or just lay it in the comments section.
dave.travis@leadnet.org

The Junior High Intern Pastor

Back last month I got to be with my friends at Emmanuel Faith Community Church in Escondido, California.
I blogged about the visit a few weeks ago. I mentioned that during the service the congregation celebrated the Lord's Supper, or Communion at the close of the service.

Pastor Dennis mentioned that assisting him that day with the celebration would be their "Jr. High Intern Pastor." The young man did a fine job reading the scripture and praying and helped to pass the elements to the servers that day.

Now I am a terrible judge of age. At first I though this young man was a college-aged student but the more I looked at him, I think he was genuinely a Junior High or High School student. It doesnt matter to the point of my story though.

I got wrapped up in the service and forgot to ask Dennis later about the young man.

As I reflect though about the experience I am reminded of both my own upbringing and some other churches I know. When young people, even as early as junior high, are deployed or apprenticed in significant ministry opportunities, they are more likely to become our church and Christian leaders of the future.

Many junior high and high school internships involve 3-5 hours a week walking alongside a full-time pastor observing and sharing their lives together. From that observation, mentoring takes place and students are further discipled.

If every full time staff person and pastor had an intern that followed them around for three hours a week for nine months, how would that change the pool of ministry leaders for the future?

What do you think? Hit the comments blog and wail away on me.

And to that young man out in Escondido, if you are older than high school, please forgive my old eyes but your presence was an inspiration.

Executive Pastor Trends

I had a conversation the other day with a young man doing research into Executive Pastors. A long time ago I wrote a paper as a result of a meeting we had with a dozen Senior Pastors/Executive Pastor combinations and we discussed the roles and responsibilities for both roles. We dashed off a paper to provide some insights to other churches.

Since then that paper has been quoted around in lots of other places, dissertations and the like. If I would have known that, I would have taken more time with it.

The question the other day was: How do I see the Executive pastor role changing?

My answer is that the role is changing away from the "classic" formulation of Senior Pastor/Executive Pastor combination to strong Execuitve Team combinations with Lead Pastor and multiple persons in Executive roles.

There are still plenty of churches hiring and formulating the single Executive Pastor roles but the shift is moving toward the broader team. Why?

Rougly I see three things at play:

1. The Senior Pastor/Directional Leader role is the one that has really changed. More large churches are really channeling that role more to the communication/vision gifts than the management gifts. With that recognition, that has increased the need for more administrative giftings in the broader team.

2. There is a cultural/organizational shift in the broader culture (at least in the Americas) toward broader teams. It is reflected in business/academia and the wider not for profit world as well as the church. It is not that one leads the other but that the that leaders across these organizations see the need for a broader leadership core.

3. As staff sizes grow, the need for good coaching and supervision and support increases, not decreases. So the spans of supervision need more capacity instead of less. Thus broader teams.

Of course, I may be all wet here, so feel free to hit the comment button and challenge me here and let's talk about it.

More tomorrow on some other church visits back in February.

Over to Emmanuel Faith

So after leaving North Coast Calvary I drove inland to Escondido to visit with my friends at Emmanuel Faith Community Church pastored by Dennis Keating. I have always admired Dennis' patient leadership there and wanted to take in a worship experience but never had opporunity.

EFCC has 8 different worship experiences on campus in a weekend. There is a Saturday night service in the worship center, 3 EFCC Classic Services on Sunday morning in the worship center, 2 "Resonate" services in the chapel (with the music led by the loud praise Resonate band) and then in a very unique place, a new plant church - Mission Hills - that meets in the Family Center.

This new plant of Emmanuel Faith will move to its own campus later this spring some miles away but has been incubated right on campus for a few years.

I went to the Classic service which was packed for the 9:30 hour. The congregation was a mixture of all sorts of ages. The folks around me were some friendly retirees who made me feel very welcome.

They still have a big choir and orchestra complete with the big drums (tympani) that can really rattle your chest when they get cranked up. The choir sang an anthem reflecting on Revelation 5 which blew me away.

Pastor Dennis taught in a straigtforward manner in casual dress on Four proofs about Jesus' witness from Acts 2.  I know a lot of folks dont seem to go for straight doctrinal preaching like Dennis did that day, but I can tell you that his congregation was with him the whole time. He has a real gift too of getting the people to read the scripture with him and key in on certain points.
After the message, he and the "Jr High intern" led in the observance of the Lords supper.
More on that later.

At the close of the service Dennis dismissed the congregation and said, I will be here at the front if I can minister to you further. I was able to get through fairly quickly to thank him for the encouragement he brought me that day.

EFCC is a really big church but Dennis is an approachable, calm leader. I know that there are many other leaders of large churches that have stronger personalities and may be more prominent, but Dennis is the type of person that I think are the real heroes in American Christianity today. While they lead large churches they keep their eye on both the local and glocal ball. They are not loud or media prominent, but quietly lead their churches in great things.

More later on another church from the visit and the JR High intern pastor.

I like the Diversity in Churches

I was in northern San Diego County preparing for the Coast to Coast Multi Site conference a few weeks ago. Because I dont handle multiple time zone changes well, I flew out Saturday night. Of course that meant I woke up at 3 a.m. California time and had to wait around for everyone else to get up.

I really like the California coast in the morning. Of course I also believe that at anytime it could fall into the ocean but no need to discuss my paranoias.

I enjoy visiting with our client churches. Since I was staying right in Carlsbad I went down to check out North Coast Calvary Chapel. My friend Mark Foreman is pastor there. I first met Mark some years ago at one of our old Senior Pastor forums. He is a great guy with a real pastor's heart. One of our Leadership Network team members, Tim Dammon, attended there when he lived in that area.

The church meets in a shopping center complex with a sort of a Tuscan theme. (Right next to a Ralphs pretty good Grocery. Out in the plaza they set up the various tents and booths which I always love to see in California, but rarely see it work in other places. I guess you trade the weather for the earthquake risk.

I know that Mark's children are in the band Switchfoot which I know nothing about but my kids say is really cool. So I was expecting some really kickin,loud music. Instead, there was a good set of musicians and singers. At that 8 a.m. service we sang a mix of praise and even some old hymn texts such as the Old Rugged Cross and Jesus Paid it all. It warmed the heart of this old Baptist.

The worship centered around the celebration of the Lords Supper/Communion and I found it very meaningful. Mark wasnt preaching that day and instead they had Gary Olver speak on relationships. They were doing this to promote an upcoming outreach event for couples scheduled to use a theater and teach on good relationships. I was disappointed not to see Mark but I enjoyed my time there. For those that dont think you can grow a large church in limited space, I would encourage you to check out how they do it there. I know they are building a new campus, but building in California takes a long time.

Next post....Part Two...Over to Emmanuel Faith.