Leadership Network is doing a blog tour for the new book, A Multi-Site Church Road Trip, by Geoff Surratt, Greg Ligon, and Warren Bird. I have been asked to participate in the bloggers. I was asked to submit a question to which the three would respond.
Here is my question to Geoff, Greg, and Warren.
“What have you found to be the single most essential and common trait of multi-site pastors?”
Their response:
“Lead pastors of multi-site churches are best characterized by their entrepreneurial leadership and passion for leading people into relationship with Christ. Their innovative bent is strong on vision and accompanied by the willingness to surround themselves with a team that is given appropriate authority and responsibility to lead staff and the congregation toward execution of that vision. In some ways this profile is no different than that of the senior pastor of any healthy church. The uniqueness seems to be in an innate capacity to see potential for leveraging the strengths of the church they serve into other settings – a different geographic or demographic arena.”
I invite your comments and/or questions here on this blog. The authors will be monitoring my blog.
For further dialog, see more Q&A at the authors’ blog www.multisiteroadtrip.com or contact them via Twitter: @geoffsurratt, @gregligon or @warrenbird. To order Multi-Site Church Roadtrip, click here http://bit.ly/7pmFZQ, and to order Multi-Site Church Revolution, click here http://bit.ly/5q5AaD.
December 15th, 2009 on 2:24 pm
I pastor a church of 300 in NE rural Indiana. We have churches in local communities which are dying, as they refuse to change. Is it possible to get these churches to buy into our vision and begin multi site churches, or is their refusal to change a reason to run from them and look elsewhere?
Thanks and blessings,
Michael
December 15th, 2009 on 2:25 pm
Thanks for the post. I have been thinking about bringing this up as an idea for our church. Unfortunately, this is one idea they have never before considered and it can be difficult to get a church to begin thinking out of the box more.
How would you go about preparing a church to be receptive to launching another site if it has never done so before?
December 15th, 2009 on 2:34 pm
test
December 15th, 2009 on 2:42 pm
Scott, often the decision is a combination of a passionate desire to reach people and a lack of space to expand. In the vast majority of cases the church is growing and needs room to expand. However for some churhces it is part of their DNA from the beginning. If your church is growing, you have an open window to show them a much less costly approach to continue making disciples. if it isnt growing it shouldnt consider multi-site. If the church has a passion for reaching people with the Gospel, you have an open door, if not you dont. In that case I would begin talking and preaching about what the church is here for and begin to raise up a group of people who care more about the Kingdom than the church.
December 15th, 2009 on 2:44 pm
Michael, part of my response is in my response to Scott. If the church is dying you dont want them to go multi site because it will fail. what might work is for healthy churches to approach them with the idea of taking them under their wing and obsorbing them into the healthy growing church. We are seeing that work in lots of places.
December 15th, 2009 on 5:46 pm
Michael,
I believe that there is a possibility to employ a multi-site strategy to serve communities where churches are struggling to stay alive – in many cases as a result of economic challenges associated with staffing. I believe that a geographic model that builds upon the strengths of a regionally strong church could provide resources (leadership and $$) to sustain a collection of churches that would serve the area more completely.
The key to making this a possibility is to understand their vision and determine if it could fit within yours. If so – then you can talk vision and where there is a common vision, God begins to work.
As you have these conversations, I would encourage you to employ a principle that we live by at Leadership Network – work with those that are receptive.
Blessings!
Greg
December 15th, 2009 on 5:49 pm
Scott,
Take some of the leaders and key influencers on a “field trip” to experience what the multi-site experience looks and feels like. When I first was assigned the arena of multi-site church research, I was skeptical. But the more I was in multi-site churches, the more my questions faded and my enthusiasm grew.
Greg
December 18th, 2009 on 9:05 am
Bill,
Thanks for your involvement in the blogger’s tour. Hope you and your readers will continue in the conversation at http://www.multisitechurchroadtrip.com.
Merry Christmas!
Greg
December 24th, 2009 on 1:37 am
Michael
I agree with much of what is being said, however you need to really dig into the “why” they are failing. If churches are failing because the foundation isnt solid, then that church can be revived. I personally believe that failed churches are not often based on the lack of crops to be harvested (although there are ghost town scenarios). I think you have to see the root of why those churches are failing. Has there been a change in the covering, what is the history of the church, what local events may have contributed, does the vision of the church line up with the vision of your church. Whatever the reason, however, you have to be careful as to how you personally approach multi-site launching. There are many internal questions that you will have to have the answer to before you ever have the conversation about launching another location. That being said the desire to reach the lost is what this is about, and dont think of any of these things as road blocks, simply see them as obstacles with opportunities.
December 24th, 2009 on 1:39 am
And as Greg has mentioned so beautifully, work with those that are receptive.
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