By NewChurches.com: In Episode 594 of the NewChurches Q&A Podcast, Daniel and Todd discuss how you lead people you don’t like.

In This Episode, You’ll Discover:

Why it’s important to learn how to handle difficult team members
How prayer can draw you closer together

 Shareable Quotes (#NewChurches):

“In a multisite reality, you are not building your team from scratch.” – @danielsangi
“While you should love everyone on your staff or volunteer leadership team, it’s OK for you to like some people more.” – @toddadkins
“It’s important for you to realize that at some point in time you will end up with someone on your team that you don’t completely jive with.” – @toddadkins
“You have to manage expectations for what healthy boundaries are when you bring new people on your staff.” – @toddadkins
“We have to be friendly, professional, and courteous with everybody.” – @toddadkins
“You and your team member are both filled with the same Holy Spirit, so spend time praying for one another.” – @danielsangi

Recommended Resources:

Listen to Episode 588: The Relationship Between a Lead Pastor and a Campus Pastor
Listen to Episode 590: The Relationship Between a Campus Pastor and the Central Location Staff
Listen to Episode 592: What Ministry Planning Looks Like

Help us Multiply the Mission:

Please subscribe
Leave a rating and review on iTunes
Ask a question by clicking Send Voicemail on the right hand side of NewChurches.com
If you’re on a phone or a tablet, then go to www.speakpipe.com/newchurches to download the app and record your message
When you’re recording, introduce yourself and your context in about 15 seconds and then record your question for 30 seconds

This Episode’s Sponsor:

No matter how many people you have on staff at your church, there’s only so much you can accomplish in a day, right? Your church exists to serve your community, so the mission of your church and its staff is to reach as many people as you can.

So BELAY, the innovative staffing solution with over 10 years of experience serving churches with virtual assistants, bookkeepers and social media strategists, is offering a free download of their resource, ‘Church Leaders: Essential Strategies to Unleash Productivity.’

Let BELAY help your church live its mission in your community by helping you juggle less and accomplish more. Visit belaysolutions.com/lifeway for your free download.

The post Episode 594: Leading People You Don’t Like appeared first on NewChurches.com – Church Planting, Multisite, and Multiplication.

Source: Episode 594: Leading People You Don’t Like

The post Episode 594: Leading People You Don’t Like appeared first on Passion for Planting.

By unSeminary: Welcome to this week’s unSeminary podcast! This week I’m chatting with a repeat guest, Danny Franks, Pastor of Guest Services at The Summit Church. The Summit Church has twelve locations around North Carolina and the heart of the church is set on sending. They continually want their people to be asking: how does God want to use me and send me?

As a church grows, it’s not uncommon for the culture and DNA to get watered down. The Summit Church realized that as they launched more campuses and moved to a central model, the guest experience looked drastically different from one campus to another. Listen in as Danny shares how to examine your church’s DNA and replicate it by developing high-capacity volunteers that will in turn invest in others.

We can’t send people that we don’t keep. // In order to be a good sending church, we first need to learn how to be a good receiving church. For The Summit Church this meant taking a good look at their guest services experience at each of their campuses. Guest services covers a person’s visit from the street to the seat and everything in between. It’s about making sure the church is doing everything it can to help its guests know that they’ve been expected, planned for, and that the church is excited to have them return.What is your DNA? // To create a uniform guest services experience at each of your campuses, first ask: What is our DNA when it comes to caring for guests? It will be a process to talk through who the church is and what it looks like to welcome guests well and help them take their next step toward the gospel. After a lot of prayer and discussion through these questions, Danny developed a High-Capacity Volunteer Cohort to help communicate the church’s DNA surrounding guest services clearly to all the campuses.Identify your high-capacity volunteers. // The High-Capacity Volunteer Cohort is an eight-month journey where a small group of two to five volunteers from each campus come together. At The Summit Church there are about thirty volunteers that are a part of the Cohort at one time. They meet each month for an hour and a half to discuss books and principles that help everyone understand what the church’s DNA is. The books cover a wide swath of topics and serve as a springboard for the monthly conversation and there is always a practical component to what they teach. Ultimately the goal of the Cohort is to equip volunteers to be better leaders.Invest and Influence. // As the Pastor of Guest Services, Danny has a dotted line relationship with the Guest Services Directors at each campus. They report directly to the campus pastor and may be responsible for guest services as well as things like small groups and membership. Sometimes all of their responsibilities feel like an impossible task but when they are identifying high-capacity volunteers who are in turn trained, they are replicating themselves in a smaller group that can then go on to invest in and influence others. The Cohort process has allowed the Directors to be more like shepherds and less like administrators. And it’s empowered volunteers to find areas of need where they can pitch in and help with specific problems.Where to begin? // You don’t have to be a multisite church or a mega church to start a High-Capacity Volunteer Cohort. Any leader should be looking for who their high-capacity people are and invest in them. The first question to ask as a leader is what’s the win? What are you trying to accomplish with this cohort? What is your timeframe? Your cohort doesn’t have to last 8 months – you can do a smaller, focused version over six weeks. Next define the parts of that DNA that you want to clearly communicate. If you have trouble identifying who your high-capacity volunteers are, that may indicate there is a problem with your leadership pipeline. Something needs to shift to make sure you are regularly identifying and bringing in those potential high-capacity people. Also be aware of not having a clear end goal in sight. For more tips on how to begin, download this PDF: High-Capacity Volunteer Cohort: A How-To Guide.Resources for your cohort. // Danny has a wealth of resources on his website, including articles, workshops, training events, a coaching network and more, that you can access by visiting dfranks.com. In addition, a great book to read with your cohort would be “People are the Mission: How Churches Can Welcome Guests Without Compromising the Gospel“. In it Danny shows churches how to take a balanced approach to hospitality by developing ministries that are guest-friendly from the outset and gospel-centric to their core. Churches will learn not only how to effectively bring people in and convince them to stay, but also why our hospitality to honor the stranger doesn’t stand in opposition to honoring the Savior. Lastly, download this PDF for an overview of The Summit Church’s High-Capacity Volunteer Cohort: Guest Services 2020.

To connect with Danny Franks, reach out to him on Twitter @letmebefranks, and learn more about The Summit Church by visiting their website.

Thank You for Tuning In!

There are a lot of podcasts you could be tuning into today, but you chose unSeminary, and I’m grateful for that. If you enjoyed today’s show, please share it by using the social media buttons you see at the left hand side of this page. Also, kindly consider taking the 60-seconds it takes to leave an honest review and rating for the podcast on iTunes, they’re extremely helpful when it comes to the ranking of the show and you can bet that I read every single one of them personally!

Lastly, don’t forget to subscribe to the podcast on iTunes, to get automatic updates every time a new episode goes live!

Thank You to This Episode’s Sponsor: Risepointe

Is your church ready? Are you re-opening? Ready to welcome MORE people to worship and grow with your church? Are you out of space or are your interiors dated and needing improvement?

The architecture and design team at Risepointe want to help you align your facility with the mission and vision that God has given your church. That’s why Risepointe developed The Needs Analysis. The Needs Analysis is a comprehensive look at your site to seat experience through the lens of your first time guests. Learn more by visiting www.theneedsanalysis.com. Let them know you heard about The Needs Analysis on unSeminary for $500 off!

Source: Practical Strategy for Developing High-Capacity Volunteers with Danny Franks

The post Practical Strategy for Developing High-Capacity Volunteers with Danny Franks appeared first on Passion for Planting.

By unSeminary: Welcome back to the unSeminary podcast. Today we’re talking with Chris Bell, from 3Circle Church in the Mobile, Alabama area.

When the pandemic started, all we heard about was new restrictions and what we couldn’t do. Chris was immediately challenged to focus on what the church CAN do each day. Listen in as Chris shares ways that churches can apply this as we minister locally, regionally and globally to complete our God-given mission.

What can you do right now? // This question was one that 3Circle Church daily asked and it became their north star, particularly in the early days of the pandemic. Locally this looked like reaching out to churches in the area who didn’t have the equipment or knowledge to stream sermons online and helping them record or get set-up on Facebook. Globally it meant providing resources to ministry partners when they couldn’t travel or do mission trips, and offering training materials online instead of in-person. Ask your staff: what can you do right now? Asking themselves that question gave 3Circle Church the guidance they needed in reaching out to the community around them and focusing on providing the help that they could.Take a local approach. // 3Circle believes all ministry is local and there isn’t a cookie cutter solution to what a community needs. The team at 3Circle is big and through the pandemic they were thankfully able to keep everyone on staff, but it required some positions to be moved around. Where people can’t serve in their normal job function, put them where there is the greatest need. 3Circle had each person on staff contribute towards calling each of the 5000-6000 people in their database to ask how they were doing and pray for them. By interacting with the people in your church family on such a personal level, you will quickly get a pulse on what the needs are locally in different areas and for different families. Options for connecting. // Even though in-person services are relaunching, 3Circle has learned a lot about online services and is going to continue to pursue excellence in this area. When people attend church online, we don’t have control over the variables such as reliable internet or distractions in the home. These factors mean that the online service needs to be more than just a broadcast of the in-person service. To address this, 3Circle started shooting these messages on location with different video cuts to create a more engaging experience that would hold a family’s attention. Though it was more video work, the result helped them to expand their reach and impact more people consistently. Recognize the online ministry opportunities even when you are returning to meeting in-person. Hire staff to support growth and development in the area of an online campus. Empower your campuses. // 3Circle Church takes a local approach with ministry when it comes to multisite too. Because each of their campuses is in a very different area, they each have a different feel and different needs, especially during the pandemic. To have local contextualization at your campuses, it’s important to have a great campus pastor and then support and empower them with the right team. The campus pastor role is one that’s a leader, a shepherd and a communicator. When a campus pastor has strengths in one of these areas, surround them with campus staff that will balance their gifts. For example, if the campus pastor is a grower, then make sure there is a strong shepherd at the campus as well to help them care for people in their community.

You can learn more about 3Circle Church at www.3circlechurch.com. You can reach Chris at his website www.chrisbelllive.com.

Thank You for Tuning In!

There are a lot of podcasts you could be tuning into today, but you chose unSeminary, and I’m grateful for that. If you enjoyed today’s show, please share it by using the social media buttons you see at the left hand side of this page. Also, kindly consider taking the 60-seconds it takes to leave an honest review and rating for the podcast on iTunes, they’re extremely helpful when it comes to the ranking of the show and you can bet that I read every single one of them personally!

Lastly, don’t forget to subscribe to the podcast on iTunes, to get automatic updates every time a new episode goes live!

Thank You to This Episode’s Sponsor: Chemistry Staffing

Great things happen when the right leadership is in place in a local church… lives are changed and churches thrive.

With all the craziness that has gone on in 2020, we know that many churches are beginning to ask hard questions about what their current team looks like and how ready they are to lead into our new reality. Download Chemistry Staffing’s Restructuring Playbook to develop clarity around where you need to be focusing your time, resources, and team.

Source: Lead with What Your Church CAN DO with Chris Bell

The post Lead with What Your Church CAN DO with Chris Bell appeared first on Passion for Planting.

by NewChurches.com: In Episode 528 of the NewChurches Q&A Podcast, Daniel and Todd discuss the dilemma that many multisite churches are facing.

“There seems to be a common question between my multisite friends. We have two locations and they are both meeting at schools and because of COVID we have shrunk back to one location and we are doing small outside services. Likewise, even some of the very large multisite churches are closing locations and collapsing them back to their sending campus. Do you think that this is permanent given renting from schools will likely change, and, if so, what can we do to build momentum when conventional growth metrics are free-falling? FYI, we do online and get pretty solid engagement and reach, It’s been great to reach this new audience, but how do we make sure that we don’t leave our established people behind. Thanks for the steady hand in difficult times.”

In This Episode, You’ll Discover:

What challenges churches that rent their meeting space are facing
How churches can continue to connect with established members

 Shareable Quotes (#NewChurches):

“I’ve talked to several churches whose schools are already telling them they can’t meet there.” – @toddadkins
“Someone may be attending your small group, but they are attending a different church online in the morning.” – @toddadkins
“There are going to be a lot of church planters, house churches, and smaller churches that come out of this.” – @toddadkins
“With the economy being the way it is, and how COVID has affected it, sooner or later there are going to be businesses who want the rental income.” – @danielsangi
“I do believe that multisite is still a valid and valuable strategy alongside church planting.” – @danielsangi
“What our city needs is healthy, thriving, growing, and multiplying churches that are reaching the lost.” – @toddadkins
“You can’t forsake or neglect the in-person or real life phone call or shoulder tap.” – @danielsangi

Help us Multiply the Mission:

Please subscribe
Leave a rating and review on iTunes
Ask a question by clicking Send Voicemail on the right hand side of NewChurches.com
If you’re on a phone or a tablet, then go to www.speakpipe.com/newchurches to download the app and record your message
When you’re recording, introduce yourself and your context in about 15 seconds and then record your question for 30 seconds

The post Episode 528: Challenges Multisite Churches Face During COVID appeared first on NewChurches.com – Church Planting, Multisite, and Multiplication.

Source: Episode 528: Challenges Multisite Churches Face During COVID

The post Episode 528: Challenges Multisite Churches Face During COVID appeared first on Passion for Planting.

by unSeminary: Welcome to the unSeminary podcast. I’m excited to be talking with Michael Volbeda, Executive Pastor of Ministries at Brentwood Baptist Church in the Nashville, Tennessee area. Brentwood went from two to four campuses in 2014 and has since grown to eight locations. As time went on, the church realized it was operating as if it still had only two locations to manage.

Michael is with us today to talk about how Brentwood’s sudden growth forced it to restructure and develop a new way to align its campuses while allowing for customization.

Find the right model for your church. // Many multisite churches have a video venue for their campuses, but that model didn’t fit what Brentwood was trying to accomplish. After researching what other churches were doing, they decided a live preaching model resonated with them best. Rather than having a franchise/cookie cutter structure for sites, their goal was to allow each campus to have a different name and feel, which were chosen to reflect the communities they were in. In this case, Brentwood Baptist is the “parent organization” but at each campus they offer as close to a customizable experience as they can.Maintaining alignment. // There are certain aspects that all campuses hold in common, such as the alignment of the weekend messages. The preaching team meets for a retreat and the sermon calendar is planned in advance. Theological research and background info is provided for sermons, but then campus pastors can take it in whatever direction they want to based on what fits their congregation. Each Monday, all eight campus pastors meet to talk about the upcoming service and share how they are moving forward with the message as well as hone their craft together. Balancing alignment with customization. // Brentwood has maintained a strong alignment across its campuses, but they also allow a fair amount of creativity at each site. Working toward alignment among the different locations while remaining open-handed to allow customization is a tension to be managed. This is what ultimately led to some restructuring as Brentwood realized they were still operating like they only had two campuses instead of eight. After clarifying their mission, vision and values, they created a new approach to strategic planning and ministry alignment that they call OKRs, which comes from the book Measure What Matters by John Doerr. OKRs stands for objectives and key results. What are the most critical things to focus on? // Of all the things a church could be doing, the way to start is to ask what items are the most mission-critical and important. These things begin to help you understand what is an objective. Set some very clear objectives of what you want to accomplish. Then lay out specific key results that you can measure along the way. Drive all activity and focus toward those things. Brentwood has a 5 year vision to have: 500,000 gospel conversations, 10,000 disciples making disciples, and 100 healthy congregations (not campuses). Break down each of these huge objectives bit by bit as an overall organization, and allow campuses to break them down further based on their specific community challenges and needs. Brentwood, for example, realized they needed a better training process for gospel conversations; people needed to understand and see themselves as missionaries where they live, work and play. So that helped them to take their next step and put some dates on that key result.Helping the church change direction. // Setting up OKRs and applying dates to the key results helped Brentwood to hold themselves accountable. Each campus came up with their own version of unique ways to engage their congregation to get involved. Churchwide OKRs, campus OKRs and then individual OKRs developed by the staff helped everyone to row together, and the whole organization was able to pivot as a result. OKRs also were integrated into the Brentwood staff’s performance reviews and were a regular part of staff meetings. They helped people prioritize work for the week or month. Brentwood uses a review system three times a year as a big part of the conversations on what is being achieved in each location.Rethink and adjust paths. // If you’re behind on your key results, or something unexpected happens (like a pandemic), the benefit of the OKR approach is that you are able to reshuffle, tweak, and adjust the key results. The objectives of the church stay the same, but key results can be changed to take current conditions into account.

You can learn more about Brentwood Baptist Church at www.brentwoodbaptist.com. To see a sample of Brentwood’s OKRs, download this document.

Thank You for Tuning In!

There are a lot of podcasts you could be tuning into today, but you chose unSeminary, and I’m grateful for that. If you enjoyed today’s show, please share it by using the social media buttons you see at the left hand side of this page. Also, kindly consider taking the 60-seconds it takes to leave an honest review and rating for the podcast on iTunes, they’re extremely helpful when it comes to the ranking of the show and you can bet that I read every single one of them personally!

Lastly, don’t forget to subscribe to the podcast on iTunes, to get automatic updates every time a new episode goes live!

Thank You to This Episode’s Sponsor: Carey Nieuwhof

Surrounding yourself with other high capacity leaders is so important right now. When you’re well connected, you can put meaning to content and make well-informed decisions.

Carey Nieuwhof created The Leader’s Circle in March 2020, an inner circle of high capacity leaders who have direct access to him and to one another. If you want to stop leading alone and start leading together, apply now to join The Leader’s Circle.

Source: Multisite Alignment by Leveraging Objectives & Key Results with Michael Volbeda

The post Multisite Alignment by Leveraging Objectives & Key Results with Michael Volbeda appeared first on Passion for Planting.

By: UnSeminary

In this season, many churches have been stalled by their plateaued or declining attendance, while other congregations are thriving and making an impact. 94% of all churches in the country are losing ground against the communities they serve. That means that if this trend continues, the message of Jesus will in turn lose ground in cities across the country. Is there a way for churches to combine forces and draw on each other’s strengths to increase the impact of the message of Jesus? 

While 2020 has presented challenges for some churches, it has offered unique opportunities for others. This might be the perfect year for your church to consider a church merger to drive the message of Jesus forward! 

In some ways, the pressure of coronavirus and the resulting economic fallout is simply accelerating changes that already existed before this crisis came into play. While it’s still too early to gain a statistical analysis on exactly what’s happening, it does seem like churches that were struggling before coronavirus continue to struggle now at an even deeper level because of debt and leadership issues. On the other hand, churches that are thriving are using this season to reach new people, expand their influence and ultimately see more people get connected with the message of Jesus. 

I believe there’s no better time than today for your church to consider being a part of a merger.

Broadly speaking, there are two types of churches involved in mergers. Joining churches are those looking to combine their ministry with a stronger church to further their mission. Lead churches are churches with more momentum that are looking to potentially adopt or rebirth another church. 

I’ve been a part of multiple church mergers. In my experience, something incredible happens in the heart of a leader when they connect with the bigger vision of what God is doing and ultimately work together with other believers to see the mission of Jesus grow. It’s humbling to see what takes place in a church as it turns around to pursue that mission. 

3 Reasons this is a Great Season to be a Joining Church

Your Mission is Bigger Than the Troubles COVID-19 Brought 

Why did God start your church? 

What was the original vision behind why the church started? 

What is it that has animated your church for all these years? 

That mission is so much bigger than any troubles brought on by this current crisis. The missional drive to connect with people and to care for your community is bigger than the problems that your church is facing. 

If you and your leaders are not sure what step to take next because of the pressure that COVID has put on your church, then this is a perfect season to consider becoming a joining church. 

Now is the time for you and your leadership to ask the question, “What other churches have a similar heart as us and have a similar mission that we could potentially join with?”

This could be the time for your church to consider joining a lead church in order to pursue the mission that God has given you.

If it’s just financial resources and leadership that’s holding you back, then maybe the answer for you is to join with a lead church. Before you consider closing or any other drastic measures, consider joining with another church in this season.

Pastoring People Means Making Tough Calls

You know that you started leading in the local church to make a difference. Over the years, you’ve had to make a lot of tough calls. 

The pastoral leaders in joining churches are some of the bravest leaders I’ve ever seen. It takes a lot of internal drive and gumption to lead your church through the experience of dying in order to be reborn and rebirthed, to be a part of a resurrection of the church.

You’ve been caring for and loving these people. Now is the time to create the kind of structure that will ensure that the ministry will continue on, albeit in a different form, for years to come. This will be a tough call, but you’re used to caring for people in tough ways.

Others Have Gone Before You

If you’re considering becoming a joining church in this season, you should reach out to other leaders in churches that have been a part of a merge to learn about their experience.

(If you’re looking for some personal references, reach out to me. I’m happy to point you in the right direction.)

The reality is that church mergers are becoming increasingly normalized across the country as joining churches like yours consider how to continue the mission in a new form in their communities. We’ve seen time and again how these mergers, when done right with thoughtful, caring leaders like yourself, can ultimately produce more fruit and help churches reach even more people. 

You can be confident that if you walk through this in a measured and caring way with the right lead church, you will see an acceleration of your mission, not a deceleration.

4 Reasons Lead Churches Should Accelerate Merger Plans

The Big-C Church is Bigger than Your Church

Your church is a great outpost of the kingdom of God and maybe over the last few years, you’ve seen increased effectiveness. You’ve been reaching people and seeing them get connected to your church. You’ve found a way to communicate that seems to resonate within your culture. That’s great, but the Church is bigger than your individual local church. 

God is already at work in the communities around you and there are churches that could use your help. Although your church might have a lot to offer as a lead church, joining churches have much to bring to the table as well. They bring length of service in a community. They bring deep relationships. They bring the ability to localize the ministry in a way that you may not be able to if you just launched another campus in that location. 

The Church is bigger than yours.

God is Already at Work There 

The amazing thing that I’ve seen time and again in these merger scenarios is that God has been laying the foundation for them long before the lead churches get engaged.

Oftentimes we see joining churches who have tried multiple things over many years to reach their community. For whatever reason, those efforts are not bearing the fruit that the team in the joining church was finding satisfactory. Maybe God was leading them through that process so they would come to the decision to join your church. 

We know that many joining churches have been trying different things in an effort to reach out to people, but those things may not be working or resonating. Today would be an incredible time for you to begin connecting with churches that could potentially want to join you. But remember, God has already done an amazing thing in that community. He’s been at work there for a long time. 

The work of God doesn’t begin when you open a church. You get the opportunity to join with him and partner with what he’s already doing.

Don’t Let False Humility Slow Your Church Down

Can we be honest for a minute?

I think the best church leaders to lead these merger scenarios are the ones who have a real sense of humility. The ones that aren’t sure why another church would want to join them in the endeavor. However, that can sometimes bleed over into a false humility that ultimately limits your church’s ability to reach more people. 

If your church is growing and making a difference, I believe God may be calling you to be a lead church in this season. What you’re experiencing at your church is different than what is happening in other churches across the country. You have something different to offer to the body of Christ, and this could be your next step.

However, if you pull back and hesitate to lead out of a sense of false humility, you may actually limit the work that God wants to do through you. He could be calling you to be a part of what he’s doing to make a difference in this new community.

Let’s be honest, it’s God that’s at work in your church, not you. It’s his work. So why not try to see your role in the spread of his work into new communities?

Your Community and Their Community Need Thriving Churches

The good, hard work that will have to be done in your heart, leadership, systems and approaches in order to merge will honor the Lord and ultimately help grow his plans for your community and beyond! 

Taking time to actually love the joining church leadership and their community will have a profound impact on you as a lead church. Take time to think through what it would look like to translate your church into a different community and think through the systems that will be needed to move the mission forward.

We know that a minority of churches are in the same position as yours. Your community, and the community of the joining church, need more thriving churches.

2020 is a perfect year to think about merging. 

Do you want to dive deep and get more information on church mergers? 

Thousands of churches are perplexed by plateaued or declining attendance, while other congregations nearby thrive. Is there a way for them to combine forces and draw on each other’s strengths in ways that also increase their missional impact?

Join us for a free webinar designed to help your church: 

Wednesday, August 12th, 2020, 1:00 – 1:45pm (EDT)

We will be joined by two leading experts in church mergers: 

Warren Bird // Warren Bird, Ph.D., is Vice President of Research and Equipping at ECFA.org (Evangelical Council for Financial Accountability). Previously, he held the position of Research Director at Leadership Network. He is widely recognized as one of the nation’s leading researchers of megachurches, multisite churches, large church compensation and high-visibility pastoral succession.Jim Tomberlin // Over four decades of diverse ministry, Jim has pastored churches in New Mexico and Germany, grown a megachurch in Colorado and pioneered the multisite strategy for Willow Creek Community Church in Chicago. In addition to being a multisite and merger specialist at The Unstuck Group, Jim currently serves as the Chief of Staff at Christ Fellowship in Miami.

[Click here to learn more and register.]

Download PDF Article

Source: 7 Reasons Your Church Should Merge With Another Church in 2020

The post 7 Reasons Your Church Should Merge With Another Church in 2020 appeared first on Passion for Planting.

Source: Multisite Churches After COVID-19

The post Multisite Churches After COVID-19 appeared first on Passion for Planting.

by unSeminary: Thanks for listening in to another episode of the unSeminary podcast. Today we’re joined by Jason Held, the Executive Pastor of Administration at Journey Church, which has campuses in Wisconsin as well as a campus in Lithuania.

Jason is with us today to talk about how Journey Church overcame the technological challenges that are inevitable with growth and developing multisite video venues.

Determine your video needs. // Many multisite churches use some aspect of streaming video at their campuses. When Journey Church was approached by another church about a merger, it happened rather quickly. They needed to examine what sort of teaching structure would suit them best since this was their first foray into the world of multisite. Because they had amazing communicators and wanted a consistent teaching experience at all locations, Journey decided that streaming the video teaching would be best for them. In addition to being a cultural fit, it also allowed the campus pastor to focus on shepherding and community involvement at the new campus. If you’re planning to go multisite, or are approached about a merger, consider the format that would work best for your church and be ready to evaluate if you have the technology needed to move ahead.Examine your current technology. // After deciding on a video venue format, Journey Church realized that their existing systems and AV/tech equipment was nowhere near where it needed to be to support multiple campuses. Are your cameras and technology up to date so that you can get a strong signal to your campuses when streaming a message? What do you need to capture the sermon effectively so that your campuses have the same, excellent experience no matter the location? Work with experts in this field to learn what it’s going to take to get a successful multisite video venue off the ground and running well for the long term.Get advice from others. // Journey Church began by reaching out to other churches they respected who had gone through similar experiences and were connected with the company Risepointe. Journey and Risepointe met for several listening sessions so Risepointe could thoroughly understand Journey’s vision and needs for their campuses. Ultimately Risepointe provided multiple technology solutions in order to allow Journey to decide what route would be best for the vision they have for their church.Money well spent. // Jason found that working with strategic partners was critically important to the success of launching their first campus. The biggest barrier in finding the technology you need is thinking that you can get away with doing things on the cheap, or without outside help. But Jason advises that instead you should get the right people at the table early on to keep from prolonging the problem and making it more difficult to set up the system. Money well spent in the right areas will save you thousands of dollars when things are done right the first time.Find a long term partner. // When consulting experts, look for someone who has the experience and knowledge to train you and walk the path with you long term. Make sure they understand who you are as a church, what your core values are, and support your mission and vision rather than trying to push you into a solution that doesn’t fit your church. What it came down to for Journey Church was developing a relationship with Risepointe not just for a timeframe, but as a strategy for the long haul.

You can learn more about Journey Church at jrnychurch.com.

Thank You for Tuning In!

There are a lot of podcasts you could be tuning into today, but you chose unSeminary, and I’m grateful for that. If you enjoyed today’s show, please share it by using the social media buttons you see at the left hand side of this page. Also, kindly consider taking the 60-seconds it takes to leave an honest review and rating for the podcast on iTunes, they’re extremely helpful when it comes to the ranking of the show and you can bet that I read every single one of them personally!

Lastly, don’t forget to subscribe to the podcast on iTunes, to get automatic updates every time a new episode goes live!

Thank You to This Article’s Sponsor: Risepointe

What is the facility lid that is preventing your church from living out its Mission? Let the team over at Risepointe get to know what makes your church unique and craft a realistic plan to help you continue to grow!

Head over to Risepointe.com/360 for your free Facility 360 Evaluation.

Source: Behind the Scenes of Mergers, Multisite & Campus Upgrades with Jason Held

The post Behind the Scenes of Mergers, Multisite & Campus Upgrades with Jason Held appeared first on Passion for Planting.

Source: Outside the Box Multisite Church Launch

The post Outside the Box Multisite Church Launch appeared first on Passion for Planting.

by unSeminary: Welcome to the unSeminary podcast. I’m excited to have Steve Smith, Executive Pastor of High Point Church in Chicago, with us today.

As High Point Church grew and multiplied, it had to make some key shifts to the way it was structured. Listen in as Steve shares about some of the hurdles that came up as the church grew, as well as what the shifting to a multisite church has looked like.

Recognize hurdles. // As High Point Church has grown, one of the key lessons the staff has learned is that there are many different ways to do church and reach people in a community. Where is God leading your church? For High Point this looked like scaling up and preparing to go multisite, so one of the first things they needed to address was the staffing, staff structure and the leadership of the staff in order to scale. Looking back Steve notes that it’s easy to idealize what has happened and overlook the hurdles that have come. But the reality is that it took a lot of work to get repositioned and reorganized for future scaling. High Point started with multiplying groups, leaders and ministries, and then moved to multiplying campuses and churches.Four team structures. // Larry Osborne talks about four different staff team structures: the track star, golfing buddies, basketball team, and football team. The ‘track star’ mentality wants to just get out there and run as fast as you can to make wins for the kingdom. This structure works when a church is young and doesn’t really have a staff. As the church grows, you hire your first few staff which often are a group of friends, your ‘golfing buddies’. As time goes on there’s a shift to a ‘basketball team’ mentality where the staff grows but the team can interchangeably play each other’s positions a bit. You may be watching from the bench, but you still know what each team member is doing. When a staff grows even larger, it shifts to a ‘football team’ structure where there are a lot of different groups on and off the field and you aren’t seeing everything that’s going on in the church. None of these team structures are better or worse than another, but rather these are a picture of the shift from a generalist position to specialist position in a certain area. Identify where your church’s staff structure is and what you are called to move to. Not every staff member will feel they are right for certain team structures.Different multisite strategies. // As High Point scaled up staff structures to support multiplication, they were then faced with different strategies of going multisite. In one case this looked like starting from scratch, developing a core group and sending them out to launch a campus. But in other cases declining or stuck churches reached out to talk about merging. Whether you pursue an organic launch or a church revitalization, there are opportunities in both.Alignment in mission. // Receiving a phone call from another church interested in merging can sound like a great opportunity, but Steve recommends caution in moving forward. First check whether you are aligned in motive and mission. Some churches may have just have lost their vision, or lost some leadership and don’t know what their next step is. There is opportunity to come together and relaunch with them. Other churches may not really understand or want the sort of changes that a merger will bring. On the backend, once you commit you will all have to do life and ministry together. Be sure that you’re unified in mission and vision. Bringing in a neutral third party can be helpful during merger conversations. Third parties can help determine if each church understands what the other is saying.

You can learn more about High Point Church at highpoint.church.

Thank You for Tuning In!

There are a lot of podcasts you could be tuning into today, but you chose unSeminary, and I’m grateful for that. If you enjoyed today’s show, please share it by using the social media buttons you see at the left hand side of this page. Also, kindly consider taking the 60-seconds it takes to leave an honest review and rating for the podcast on iTunes, they’re extremely helpful when it comes to the ranking of the show and you can bet that I read every single one of them personally!

Lastly, don’t forget to subscribe to the podcast on iTunes, to get automatic updates every time a new episode goes live!

Thank You to This Episode’s Sponsor: House Right

From smart design, to impactful technology, House Right will help you engage with your audience more effectively.

Click here to learn more about audio, video and lighting systems that are tailored to your specific needs and budget.

Source: Insider View of the XP Role at a Fast Growing Church with Steve Smith

The post Insider View of the XP Role at a Fast Growing Church with Steve Smith appeared first on Passion for Planting.