Multisite Briefing
I'm at a multisite briefing this week with 10 churches that represent 46,000 people, 62 services, and 22 locations. The vision of these churches just continues what God started in my heart at Catalyst. I'm dreaming near-fetched dreams. I think dreams are always morphing, but I think the dangling carrot for me is Acts 2:41. I'm believing that we'll see 3,000 saved in one place at one time. I'm not sure how it will happen or when it will happen, but I believe God has given me that as a prayer goal. It may be twenty-five years down the line, but I believe it will happen. One observation. In the last week I've seen absolutely amazing church building. I can't imagine building a building or retro-fitting a building until we have at least 5 locations and 5,000 people, but churches like Northpoint, Buckhead, and LakePointe in Dallas are reasons to build a church. I love their children's ministry areas. They are like cityscapes. And their staging is on par with a broadway play. LakePointe has a slide going down the middle of the stairs from the first to second floor and a play zone. It's almost like churches are benchmarking and learning from each other. I can only imagine what church facilities will be like in ten or twenty years! This briefing is raising issues that every multisite church is dealing with. There aren't too many longitudinal studies because multisite is so new, but there are challenges that every multisite faces. Here are some of the major issues we need to keep wrestling with. Different ExperiencesShould we offer one experience or different experiences? I like the idea of multiple experiential options, but when we tried it before they weren't distinctive enough. What we really need is a second worship band at Union Station, but we're struggling to field one complete team. When I zoom out, however, it's tough to imagine not offering multiple experiences that are distinctive. One interesting scenario was live worship in two venues. Different members of the band would be in different theaters--split between two. But there would be one sound.
Should we go back to different experiences in different theaters in January? Organizational ChartAll multisite churches deal with organizational charts that define lines of communication and accountability. Most churches are similar to the way we're moving. We've got a verticle line of accountability to the Lead Pastor, but a horizontal line of accountability to the Point Pastor. VideoAre we committed to video? If we're committed to video then we need the technology to do image magnification so we've got the quality necessary to reproduce it. The coffeehouse will afford us the opportunity to capture video on Saturday and reproduce it in multiple locations on Sunday. SuccessOne of the best questions that we're grappling with is: what is success on 10.11.06? I don't want to define success in numbers, but that is part of planning. I think success in two years is four locations--three theaters and one coffeehouse. I think success at Union Station is 1,000 + in attendance. I think success at Ballston is 400+ in attendance. The coffeehouse gives us the flexibility of one or two Saturday night services as well as Sunday night services.
We'll survey the congregation in November in preparation for service schedule in September '05. I think another critical criteria of success is a discipleship map. We need to play off the metro map and come up with our own unique map to spiritual maturity. That map needs to be the centerpiece of this year's annual ministry report. MetaphorsOne of the helpful things about this briefing are the different metaphors. One church thinks of locations as siblings. They are each unique, but part of the same family. They are different yet equal. In that sense, some measure of sibling rivalry is normal. I love the cloud metaphor. We're the difference between the Temple (stationary) and Tabernacle (mobile). I'm praying for cloudbursts over dry places--let the dessert rejoice and blossom like a rose! I like thinking of new locations as "new stops" in keeping with our metro motif. Hive MindWe talked about a book chapter titled Hive Mind. The way we figure out the hive's mind is via surveying. It's the "wisdom of crowds." ReconaissanceI'm always on the lookout for churches to do reconaissance at. Here are a couple of them:Northland in OrldandoLife Church in OklahomaTimeline01.05 We'll launch a third service @ Union Station. 09.05 Launch coffeehouse services10.06 Launch third theater location IdeasOne church uses canvass instead of ropes to "rope off" and create spaces. I think we'll need to get creative so we can avoid the discomfort of a half-empty auditorium. Part of pastoring is environmental engineering. Any way you slice it, 100 people in a 500 seat auditorium seems like failure. 100 people in a 75 seat venue seems like success.
Perception is reality! ThoughtsI wish everybody was as excited about NCC as I am all the time, but that isn't realistic. No matter how healthy, no matter how large, there will always be pioneers, early adopters, late adopters, and resisters.
I think one reason vision is so important is that it keeps us missional. And if we're "on mission" we don't have time for petty problems. Most problems would disappear if we were missional all the time.
One of the questions every church needs to ask and answer is this: do we exist for the people who are already "in" or do we exist for the people who are still "out"? The ID series doens't just apply to individuals. I think it holds true for the corporate identity of a church. There never has been and never will be any church like NCC. We're not who we were. We're not who we will be. We're a work in progress. Part of knowing who we are is knowing who we're not. We have nothing to prove! And we become what we worship. Or maybe in the church context we become what we measure! What you win people with is what you'll keep them with. If you win with them with events you'll keep them with events. If you win them with relationships you'll keep them with relationships. I'm not sure what the exact population of the metro DC area is, but I'm guessing it's in the neighborhood of 4 million people. That means we have 4,000,000 reasons to exist. We need a report card to measure the key barometers of spiritual health. Here are a few of them:1) % involvement in small groups2) % involvement in ministries3) $ given to missions4) # of baptisms5) % of NCCers inviting unchurch friends.
Should we go back to different experiences in different theaters in January? Organizational ChartAll multisite churches deal with organizational charts that define lines of communication and accountability. Most churches are similar to the way we're moving. We've got a verticle line of accountability to the Lead Pastor, but a horizontal line of accountability to the Point Pastor. VideoAre we committed to video? If we're committed to video then we need the technology to do image magnification so we've got the quality necessary to reproduce it. The coffeehouse will afford us the opportunity to capture video on Saturday and reproduce it in multiple locations on Sunday. SuccessOne of the best questions that we're grappling with is: what is success on 10.11.06? I don't want to define success in numbers, but that is part of planning. I think success in two years is four locations--three theaters and one coffeehouse. I think success at Union Station is 1,000 + in attendance. I think success at Ballston is 400+ in attendance. The coffeehouse gives us the flexibility of one or two Saturday night services as well as Sunday night services.
We'll survey the congregation in November in preparation for service schedule in September '05. I think another critical criteria of success is a discipleship map. We need to play off the metro map and come up with our own unique map to spiritual maturity. That map needs to be the centerpiece of this year's annual ministry report. MetaphorsOne of the helpful things about this briefing are the different metaphors. One church thinks of locations as siblings. They are each unique, but part of the same family. They are different yet equal. In that sense, some measure of sibling rivalry is normal. I love the cloud metaphor. We're the difference between the Temple (stationary) and Tabernacle (mobile). I'm praying for cloudbursts over dry places--let the dessert rejoice and blossom like a rose! I like thinking of new locations as "new stops" in keeping with our metro motif. Hive MindWe talked about a book chapter titled Hive Mind. The way we figure out the hive's mind is via surveying. It's the "wisdom of crowds." ReconaissanceI'm always on the lookout for churches to do reconaissance at. Here are a couple of them:Northland in OrldandoLife Church in OklahomaTimeline01.05 We'll launch a third service @ Union Station. 09.05 Launch coffeehouse services10.06 Launch third theater location IdeasOne church uses canvass instead of ropes to "rope off" and create spaces. I think we'll need to get creative so we can avoid the discomfort of a half-empty auditorium. Part of pastoring is environmental engineering. Any way you slice it, 100 people in a 500 seat auditorium seems like failure. 100 people in a 75 seat venue seems like success.
Perception is reality! ThoughtsI wish everybody was as excited about NCC as I am all the time, but that isn't realistic. No matter how healthy, no matter how large, there will always be pioneers, early adopters, late adopters, and resisters.
I think one reason vision is so important is that it keeps us missional. And if we're "on mission" we don't have time for petty problems. Most problems would disappear if we were missional all the time.
One of the questions every church needs to ask and answer is this: do we exist for the people who are already "in" or do we exist for the people who are still "out"? The ID series doens't just apply to individuals. I think it holds true for the corporate identity of a church. There never has been and never will be any church like NCC. We're not who we were. We're not who we will be. We're a work in progress. Part of knowing who we are is knowing who we're not. We have nothing to prove! And we become what we worship. Or maybe in the church context we become what we measure! What you win people with is what you'll keep them with. If you win with them with events you'll keep them with events. If you win them with relationships you'll keep them with relationships. I'm not sure what the exact population of the metro DC area is, but I'm guessing it's in the neighborhood of 4 million people. That means we have 4,000,000 reasons to exist. We need a report card to measure the key barometers of spiritual health. Here are a few of them:1) % involvement in small groups2) % involvement in ministries3) $ given to missions4) # of baptisms5) % of NCCers inviting unchurch friends.
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