Top Posts of 2013 #8: “What is a Campus Pastor?”

Multisite Church Fast Facts

Tuesday, December 10, 2013

This past week Jim Tomberlin the founder of MultiSite Solutions stopped by my current Coaching Network to spend some time talking all things Multisite and Mergers. He shared about how the multisite movement that originally began as a “band-aid” solution for megachurches that were out of space has quickly turned into a growth strategy for all kinds and sizes of churches. Below are 15 incredible facts that Jim in partnership with Leadership Network have discovered about the multisite church movement:

There are 5,000 multisite churches vs 1,650 megachurches. In other words, “multi” doesn’t mean “mega.”
6+ million people attend a multisite church in North America (That means 1 in 10 people who attended a protestant church this past weekend attended a multisite church campus)
75 of the largest 100 churches in North America have multiple campuses.
2/3 of multisite churches are denominational churches.
The average size that a church goes multisite is 850.
The average size of a multisite campus is 361.
The average total attendance of a multisite church is 1,300.
One in three multisite churches added a campus through a merger.
One in four multisite churches have a campus in another language.
One in five multisite churches have birthed a “grandchild” campus. In other words a campus that the original campus started, started a campus. Make sense?
One in 10 multisite churches have an online internet campus.
Only half of all multisite churches utilize video to deliver the weekend teaching/preaching.
Only 15% of all multisite churches have 4 or more geographic locations.
The majority of multiste church campuses are within a 30 minute drive of the original campus.
Multisite campuses have a 90 percent survival/success rate.

Interested in being a part of my next Leadership Coaching Network and getting access to great leaders like Jim? Get all the information you need by following this link!

Posted in Leadership

0

What is a Campus Pastor?

Sunday, September 22, 2013

In August, 2012, Leadership Network released a report stating that over 5,000 churches are now multi-site churches (churches that meet in more than one location for worship). It’s a growing trend that first began with mega-churches, but has now expanded to churches of all sizes. With this new trend a new staff role has emerged, that of “Campus Pastor.” While a lot churches are still trying to figure out this new role, here are 6 things that great Campus Pastors do:

1. Reproduce Culture

In a multi-site setting you’re not building culture as so much as you are reproducing it. Somewhere along the line there was a decision made that the church had a culture worth replicating. That’s a big reason you’re multi-siting in the first place. Great Campus Pastors know how to reproduce culture in the context of the community of the new campus location.

2. Build Organizational Alignment

A Campus Pastor doesn’t have to come up with the mission, vision, values, spiritual maturity pathway, leadership distinctives, campus constants, and doctrinal statement. Again, those things probably already exist. But they do need to know how to build alignment around them and through them.

3. Big “I” Implementer

A great Campus Pastor makes things happen. They know how to see ideas through from concept to completion. They know how to set the staff up to succeed in the implementation of the goals, calendars and budgets of all ministries on their Campus in a manner that moves the campus towards the vision.

4. Cooperation

Great Campus Pastors know how to work with others. They know how to work with “Central Services” such as a centralized Business or Creative Arts Department to get the right things done.

5. Build a Leadership Culture

They know how to recruit, train, coach and mentor a Staff Team. They provide leadership and oversight to the Campus Staff and in so doing create a healthy staff team environment and leadership culture.

6. Shepherd the Congregation

At the end of the day great Campus Pastors love the local church. They have a shepherding gift and care about people becoming what God has dreamed up for them to look like. They know how to problem solve and shepherd through congregational matters.

Click here for a sample Campus Pastor job description brought to you by TonyMorganLive.

Posted in Leadership

0

A Leadership Conversation with Tony Morgan

Sunday, September 15, 2013

Recently Sun Valley, the church I serve at, brought in Tony Morgan the Founder and Chief Strategic Officer of The UnStuck Group, to do some Leadership Training with the team. He spent time with our Executive Team, our Board and then he spoke at our monthly Staff Training that we do with Staff from all three of our campuses. Here are some of the take aways from the conversations that have broader implications for pastors and church leaders:

It’s possible to be doing the work of God, but not doing the work that God has called us to do (see Acts & the food distribution v. preaching God’s Word and prayer etc.) – when they got focused on what they were supposed to be doing the Gospel took ground and the church had a bigger impact
Church Leaders have a tendency to hold on to too much for too long (i.e. Moses & Jethro)
Leaders need to help people think about outcomes rather than execution
Span of care issues: do I know what people on my team are celebrating in their lives, challenges in their lives,
You know you’re managing too many people: when you can get the tasks done but don’t have time to focus on the discipleship, development, and knowing the team
Young leaders don’t learn to lead by reading books and going to conferences. They learn to lead by leading.
Delegation is telling people what to do every step of the way and then having them report back after each step for the next step. For people who want to serve, delegation is a good approach.
People who are wired for leadership…if all you ever do is delegate tasks you’ll lose them because they need to be empowered to pick the route to the destination from point A to point B.
- You can empower when you have clear boundaries (mission, vision, values, strategies, expectations, etc.)
- The clearer you are on the boundaries and the outcomes the easier it is empower people
Leaders don’t respond to platform pleas to serve but a personal ask and a personal challenge connected to the overall vision
We aren’t equipping people to do our work, we’re equipping people to do God’s work
If you’re waiting for you boss to help you go to the next level you’re probably not a next level leader because leaders initiate their own growth
“I wasn’t there to be their boss. I was there to help the players get better.” Tony Dungy, former coach Indianapolis Colts
With larger churches the person leading the Creative Arts area is not creative, they’re a leader/manager keeping the process moving forward. They understand/can relate to the artists but aren’t an artist. They’re primary role is to equip and lead the team.
3 Areas that Growing Churches have the Potential to Derail:
- #1 The Health of the Leadership Team
- #2 The larger you get the more focused you have to get (strategy, programming, communications)
- #3 Money – generosity/stewardship, funding the ministry
As the church grows the role of the Board needs to shift to freeing the staff to lead and live out the vision
Boards get into trouble when they start getting into the strategy, decision making & execution side of things
How do you know you’re ready for the next site (multi-site)?
- #1 Intentional Leadership Development Strategy: who is the next campus pastor, children’s pastor, worship pastor, etc.
- #2 Reproducible Systems: Written down systems, core strategies, processes and best practices

Posted in Leadership

0

5 Articles to Help You Make Vision Real

Tuesday, September 10, 2013

Craziest thing just happened. You helped make the month of August the highest trafficked month on Helping Churches Make Vision Real! If I haven’t said it lately, thank you! It’s fun to see the comments and interaction through social media each month about the content and articles that are posted here! It’s always good to hear that the content is helpful! So thank you for connecting with me through the content on this blog! You made these the top 5 Posts from this last month. If you missed out on any of them, here they are all in one place for your convenience!

1. What the Church can Learn from Southwest Airlines about Volunteers

I was recently on a Southwest Airlines flight and witnessed one of the most amazing volunteer moments I’ve ever seen. When it came time for the midflight snack of pretzels and peanuts a woman on the flight stepped up and volunteered to pass out the snack. And here’s the amazing thing…they let her! No application, no waiver, and no complex training classes. They simply handed over the basket of snacks and said go for it! Watching this whole thing go down I couldn’t help but think about how difficult we make it for people in the church to volunteer. Here are a couple of observations from that moment that I think are worth the church considering.

2. A Large Multisite Church in Phoenix is Looking for a Campus Pastor

I’m pleased to announce a new Staff Search. Sun Valley Community Church, is beginning a search for a Campus Pastor to serve on our Tempe Campus. Sun Valley began as a church plant in 1990 in Chandler, Arizona. Over the years Sun Valley has grown into a large mult-site church in the Phoenix metro area. Currently there are three campuses located in Gilbert, Tempe and Casa Grande with a total weekend attendance of over 5,500 people. Sun Valley was recently named by Outreach Magazine as one of the top 10 fastest growing churches in America. The Tempe Campus is the result of a merger in October of 2011 with Bethany Community Church. In the merger Sun Valley acquired a 16-acre, 8 building campus with over 100,000 sq. ft. under roof. Since the merger the campus has doubled in attendance and at present attendance is over 1,000. When fully utilized the campus capacity will accommodate 7,000 people. Sun Valley was recently featured in a new book by Leadership Network about church mergers: Better Together: Making Church Mergers Work. To learn more about that story click here Part-1 and Part-2.

3. A Leadership Conversation with Larry Osborne

I mentioned a couple of weeks ago in a post entitled “Making Small Groups the Hub of Your Ministry” that I recently had the opportunity to spend some time at NorthCoast Church with Larry Osborne and his team to talk about Leadership and Small Groups. If you don’t know already, NorthCoast is an outlier when it comes to small groups and you need to get to know these guys. While the norm across the nation is hovering at about 50% of weekend worship attendance in groups, NorthCoast is shattering that norm and boasts just over 90% of their weekend worship attendance in groups. That was enough for us to get on a plane and spend some time learning from these guys. While that original post focused on Small Groups these are some of my take aways from the conversation that had broader implications for pastors and leaders.

4. Willow Creek Global Leadership Summit

If you missed the 2013 Global Leadership Summit, then you missed some great content, great speakers, and incredible ideas that have the potential to shift your thinking when it comes to leadership. This really was one of the best Leadership Summits I can remember. But no worries! Now you’ve got all the notes to every session right here at your fingertips for free! Hope you enjoy!

5. Leadership Lessons from a Family Vacation

Like many families this summer, we did a family vacation. Lisa and I had the opportunity to take the kids (all 4 of them now) for an incredible week in the mountains! Like any leader, it’s tough for me to just “turn it off.” So…upon reminiscing, here are five leadership lessons that parallel our time together we had as a family this summer.

Posted in Leadership