Reflections

Multi-Site Exposed--The Leadership Pipeline

I caught Greg Surratt, Sr. Pastor of Seacoast Community Church, in the hallway in between sessions at last month's Multi-Site Exposed conference. I had to confirm something that I heard in a break-out session. "Greg, did I hear Chris correctly? I thought he said you have planted 68 churches and started 13 multi-sites in the last 6 years?" To which Greg replied, "Yep. That's correct!" He went on to say that they started ARC (Association of Related Churches) to oversee the church planting portion of what they are doing. Greg's vision, together with a number of churches and leaders who have joined the network is to start 2,000 new churches as their life's work.

68 church plants. 13 new multi-sites. 6 years. This has become way more than a dream. It is a vision. A picture of a preferable future that is attracting people to participate, sacrifice, and make a reality. There are many contributing factors to this success, but to me there is none greater than their ability to intentionally inspire and prepare leaders to move out courageously to make this vision a reality. 

At Seacoast they have developed "The Leadership Pipeline". They ended up moving all of their leadership training to on-line modules that leaders could go through at their own pace. The program is designed so that the "trainee" meets with his or her coach after completing a module. They discuss the topic and explore ways to apply what they have learned to their specific situation. The strength of this approach is obvious. The church enjoys a standard curriculum, that is easily accessible, that can be completed at the "trainee's" own pace, that is application oriented, and is done in conjunction with coaching!

In this case a "high tech" solution actually moves us closer to a Biblical model. As John Maxwell said Jesus had an "IDEA" for preparing leaders. "Instruction" in a life-related context. "Demonstration" in a life related context. "Experience" in a life related context. And "Accountability" in a life related context. Mark puts it this way, "And Jesus chose who he wanted to be with him, that he might send them out to preach." (Mark 3:14). Ministry was learned by being WITH him. With the Seacoast model, the instruction is something they can apply as leaders. And by being "with" a coach, leaders in training get the benefit of demonstration, experience, and accountability. Cool. A 21st Century approach, with 1st Century results!

KLR Best Practices--Helpful Quotes

"Building a world-class company calls for a world-class commitment to your own personal growth." From the E-Myth Mastery, by Gerber. So true. In fact this is also true...

"Building a world-class [         ] calls for a world-class commitment to your own personal growth." You fill in the blank! [Life, church, business, marriage, family...other ideas?]

Multi-Site Exposed

Monday and Tuesday my wife, Jill, and I attended the Multi-Site Exposed conference held at Seacoast Community Church in Charleston, SC. I really enjoyed learning from some of the pioneers of this strategy. I particularly was encouraged to hear that Seacoast has started 13 multi-site locations and has started 65 new churches in the last 6 years. Whoa.

I'll be posting some of the take-aways. Today, it's about leadership. This is a consistent message in everything I hear and read about multi-site: The single greatest correlating factor in a successful site comes back to the Campus Pastor. Here is what Seacoast staff have leaned about the characteristics of a successful Campus Pastor...

5 Behaviors of Successful Campus Pastor

• Enthusiastic visionary leadership, inspires others to own the ministry, and someone who can carry the church DNA
• Great team builder who spends time with people 
• Self-starter, resourceful, and has a managerial work ethic 
• Genuine care for people 
• Good communicator (shares about 5 times per year live). Must be able to sell the vision. 

5 Behaviors That Will Sink the Ship

• Unavailable to people or other staff
• Non-delegator 
• Inflexibility 
• Laziness 
• Lack of passion

Obviously, to have started 13 multi-site locations and 65 new churches in 6 years, Seacoast is doing something very intentional about developing these kinds of leaders. They shared what they do in the session they called "The Leadership Pipeline". That will be the next entry... 

And for those interested, the presenters suggested that the main difference between a Campus Pastor and a Church Planter came down to their gifting and desires in the area of teaching. While Campus Pastors need to be very good communicators, the church planter's need to be gifted (to lead an attractional style church.) 

I would suggest it also comes down to two other things. First, are they passionate about teaching weekly? (Which often comes hand in hand with gift.) A campus pastor may simply prefer to take the 20 hours of sermon prep time and pour that into people and ministry development. Another reason seems to me to be the leader's level of desire to either stick with the ministry style/ brand of the sending church or to branch out with a different ministry strategy, approaches, theological emphasis', etc. A new ministry model will likely mean a new church. Either way, more churches get started, and more people are being reached. 

 

KLR Best Practices--Who Moved My Cheese?

I was with a client Monday. We were discussing his business development strategy in this difficult market. He told me about the book: Who Moved My Cheese? It is a book about leadership, recognizing trends, and managing change. My client related to the simple but profound idea of this best selling book: leaders recognize if the cheese is running out and lead their organizations to go to where the cheese is! Good stuff.

In his case, he adjusted his plan to move his company's business development efforts to where the cheese is. At the core of finding the cheese is understanding who is our customer? And what does our customer value? And what need can we meet for them?

Another client had the leadership insight 7 years ago to begin the involved process of expanding his business internationally. He recognized something many of his peers failed to see--he saw where the cheese was moving in his particular industry. To his credit, he is among the first in the rooms full of glorious cheese!

Finally, an associate is looking at a prospective business to acquire. Realizing the economic uncertainty that will most certainly continue for the foreseeable future, he has selected a business that is more likely to weather a sluggish and sliding economy.

In each case...they are following the cheese. No question that today many rooms that used to be filled with cheese have run dry. But, there is still cheese out there. The leaders are finding the cheese and taking the needed steps to get their businesses into those rooms.

KLR Best Practices

This is the first of a new series "KLR Best Practices". KLR stands for Kern Leadership Resources--my consulting practice. From time to time I come across best practices that I will post under this category (see side banner KLR Best Practices)

I found this video today and thought it would be helpful to entrepreneurs. This is the "bootstrap" model for a new business launch. Some observations: The first stage in the model is the Awaken stage--the time when the "Bootstrapper Team" comes together. Notice the team comes together before the product is designed. This is consistent with the principle in Jim Collins' book Good to Great, "First Who, Then What." I have also found that "First Who, Then What" is not only a business decision to team up with strong talent, but it also is a quality of life decision. With so much time and energy invested in a business, do you have a good relationship and shared values with your fellow "bootstrapper(s)"? 

In my experience the product-customer stages are not sequential but occur in tandem and inform one another. In fact, I think it best to begin with answering some key questions about your potential customer before you go to demo. Ask yourself "Who is our customer?" "What do they consider value?" "What product or services will best meet their needs and wants?" With this in view, the product-demo can be developed to deliver what your potential customer wants. Then, as mentioned in the video, you go through various refinements of your product as you assess the customer's reaction to your product offering. All in all this looks like a helpful model.

 

Twittering...Buford & Drucker

Not to long ago, our Communications Director, Kristy-Lee Henry, encouraged our staff to start "twittering"--which is a new social networking, micro-blogging phenomenon which lets you follow along with people as they "twitter" through their daily experiences. I have chosen to follow a couple of pastors who are seaoned multi-site leaders, and catalysts. One that I am following is Dave Furgeson. He "twittered" a link to a recent post he made in his blog. I followed the link and really enjoyed his entry. He recapped a recent meeting with Bob Buford--entrepreneur, businessman, and innovative founder of the Leadership Network. Follow this link to the entry. If you'd prefer you can see the heart of the post in my summary below.

I guess what I am most drawn to is that Bob Buford is a protege of Peter Drucker, who is considered the granddaddy of management and organizational leadership. Like so many others, Drucker has profoundly shaped my thinking about leadership--both in the marketplace and in the church. Apparently, Drucker had a phrase he used often: "the future that has already happened." Following a recent meeting with some Christian leaders, Buford summarized ways in which he sees "the future that has already happened..."

• From focus on sin to focus on service.
• From hierarchies to networks.
• From institutional learning to learning from best practices.
• From old and shrinking to new and growing.
• From sin management (repression) to dreams.
• From good intentions to results and performance.
• From tell'em what to do to support them.

Thanks Dave for the post...
 

Keys to Successful Church Plants & (Multi-sites?)

I spent 17 years in a church planting movement and eventually served as its President for 9 years. I had the opportunity to recruit, train, mobilize, and coach (and learn from) church planters from all over the world. In addition to coaching others, I was personally involved in starting 4 new churches. Out of these experiences, I created a training program for church planters and taught it around the world. I believe there are Five BIG Areas that contribute to successful launches. Here's what I've learned:

1. LEADERSHIP. I like this quote from Erwin Raphael McManus in the book "The Multi-Site Revolution"; “The challenge, of course, is leadership. No matter what your strategy, leadership is always the primary issue.” It is imperative for the leader to be affirmed as someone who is gifted, trained, and ready for this challenging endeavor. I've also seen how coaching can play a big role in helping support the overall effort.

2. TEAM. While some, like Rick Warren, are able to show up in a new city "all by their lonesome", the likelihood of a successful launch increases dramatically by having a core team of proven and gifted individuals on board from the start. Let me qualify this by saying: A bigger core team is better ONLY IF the team members are at a point of spiritually stability and health. In the early days, everyone has to be very outward in their focus and will be called up to lead the various ministry functions. If they need some special TLC at this point in their lives, it's best to NOT be a part of the initial launch.

3. MINISTRY STRATEGY. This is all about how church is done. Does the ministry strategy flow from the Scriptures and does it really meet the need of the people in the community?

4. FACILITIES and LOCATION. It's important to be in a facility that "fits"...Not too big...Not too small...Has adequate children's ministry space...Is accessible...And is in a location that is growing and/ or has a need for a new church.

5. BUDGET. Too often new church starts are under-funded. This ends up resulting in all kinds of strains on the church planting effort, like not having enough equipment or children's ministry props. Or it limits the options for finding the right facility in the right location. Or even worse, it doesn't allow the pastor to be freed up time-wise to focus on the work of starting the church.

This is a pretty good summary of what I've learned from my church planting days. Now I have the challenge of leading the multi-site effort for Summit Church. While I don't have multi-site experience; I sense, based on all that I am reading, that there are many parallels to what we have learned from the church planters. I'm looking forward to this new challenge and application!

Leadership Factor

Leadership. It is often the difference maker.

I am beginning to get educated about a relatively new phenomenon for church expansion. It is called multi-site. Although new, multi-site church is rapidly moving beyond a "new phenomenon" and is quickly becoming a "revolution"--with over 2,000 churches currently doing some form of multi-site today.

I'll be posting thoughts, musings, and reflections as I work my way through various material in hopes of leading Summit Church toward its first multi-site.

Everything I have read so far is confirming an old axiom that has served me well in both church and marketplace endeavors: leadership is a major difference maker--and often the determining factor in success.

"The selection of the campus pastor is the single most important decision that will be made at each campus." --Jon Ferguson (Founding Pastor at Community Christian Church in Naperville, Ill.--Willow Magazine Spring 2008).

In this edition of the Willow Magazine they featured 8 case studies. Here is what some of the church leaders identified as essential characteristics of effective campus leaders:

- Spiritual maturity
- Leaders who already are influencing people
- Proven effectiveness in multiplying themselves into other leaders
- Committed to small groups and have multiplied small groups
- Entrepreneurial with strong leadership gift (outward focused, self starter and willing to take risks)
- Pastor's heart for people
- Team builder who can rally people to a cause and engender participation
- All the characteristics of a church planter (See Dr. Charles Riddley)
- Someone who understands and has caught the overall culture of the church and its DNA
- Able to communicate and inspire, but willing to NOT be the weekly teacher
- Loyal, teachable/ coachable