September 4, 2009

But, is it practical?

Posted by Jeff

But, is it Practical?

OK. We can build a biblical community using this method. But, will it work??? Will people really come and listen to a video sermon? And if the teaching is pre-recorded somewhere else, what happens when a need arises in the multi-site community that the pastor really should speak to? Pretty hard to do that with a pre-recorded video (unless they really do come up with an interactive hologram like we saw in the moives iRobot and Superman…)

Let’s do the easy part first, if a need comes up in the multi-site community, the multi-site can simply go “live” and have the campus leader speak to the specific need that has come up—that’s the beauty of team leadership and having a minister specifically dedicated to that community.

But, will it work? As I looked into this, I heard my share of people say, “I wouldn’t go to a church that used video sermons.” And I believe that is true for many people. However, apparently, it is not true for a majority of people. The truth is, this is not an unproven method. Thousands of churches across the U.S. are successfully reaching lots people—if their growth is any indication!

Still being somewhat skeptical (my family roots are from Missouri—the “show me” state), I had to go see for myself.

Back in February, I visited Lifechurch.TV in Oklahoma City. They seemed to be one of the leading churches using multi-site—so I went to see what I could learn. What I learned still surprises me today.

On Saturday night, I visited the campus where the pastor taught “live”. The building had a large worship auditorium that would be largely full twice on Saturday and 3 more times on Sunday. No big surprises here. Awesome band. Great people. Solid teaching from a “live” pastor. Growing church. God does that all the time. What I saw the next day is what still sticks with me.

On Sunday, I visited three of their multi-sites that used video. (They have 14 campuses in all.) In each case I encountered a vibrant worship service that was filled with people worshipping and learing about God. People laughed at the the jokes. They listened intently to the Word and the illustrations. On that day, the “video pastor” even offered a chance to respond to the Gospel and become a Christian. I learned later that people in every campus responded and came to Christ! As cool as all of that is, this is what stuck with me most…

After driving all over the city, we came to the last campus which was very close to the live campus. In fact, it was only 7 miles away. As I talked to the leaders of that campus they informed me that this was their largest and fastest growing campus in the entire church. I assumed they meant fastest growing “multi-site” campus. They corrected me. They told me that, in fact, it was growing faster and was already larger than the “live” campus, just 7 miles up the road.

Whatever doubts I had about the practicality of it all slipped away. As I flew back home, my excitement and anticipation only grew for what God might do here at Summit…

September 1, 2009

Is It Biblical?

Posted by Jeff

When I was asked to oversee and lead the multi-site strategy of Summit, I had to wrestle with a question of my own. What do I think of church using a video sermon? As I thought about it, I realized I had to explore the question two ways. My first explorations were philosophical and theological. Could we be the church God wanted us to be using video messages?

The biggest objection to multi-site at a philosophical level seemed to be that the pastor doing the teaching wasn’t live, and therefore would be unavailable to the congregation for relationship.

Here is what I came up with. First, in the New Testament church, the model was never built on the idea of one pastor who would care for everyone personally for every church. Instead, their leadership featured a plurality of leadership—often times with a variety of gifts being exercised among that leadership team (see. Ephesians 4:11, Acts 15:6). Take the example of the church in Jerusalem. Acts 2 tells us they had over 3,000 believers come to Christ in one day! It’s obvious, due to the sheer volume of people, that the pastoral care did not come from a single pastor. Rather, it came from the body itself—a body being led by multiple leaders who worked as a team.

I also reflected on the public worship of the early church. Acts 5:42 tells us that the leaders taught in the Temple Courts (large group worship) and from house to house (small group worship.) I believe those gifted for teaching/ communicating did the majority of the public teaching. (For example Paul was the “chief speaker” between he and Barnabas [Acts 14:12]. Peter often took the lead in public communication among the 12; [Acts 1,2,3,4]). In other words, they maximized the gifting of the leaders. Gifted teachers taught the Word. Gifted pastors cared for the flock. Gifted leaders governed and led in strategic ways.

As I prayed about all of this, I realized that the multi-site strategy actually fit many of my deepest convictions about church. It offers a way to maximize the different gifts among the church leaders. It allows for maximizing the great teaching gift he has given us at Summit. It also allows for a gifted pastor/ leader at the multi-site to use the fullness of their gifts, without the demand of 20-25 hours per week of sermon prep.

Confident that we could build an enduring Biblical community with this strategy, I moved to the other part of my question, which I will address in my next blog entry.

August 19, 2009

I love it when a plan comes together

Posted by Jeff

“I love it when a plan comes together.”—Colonel John “Hannibal” Smith from the TV Series “The A-Team”

What a way to start my multi-site blogging—with a quote from a “B” TV series from the ’80’s. But, putting aside the silliness of the source, the quote is still really true for me.

Multi-site is a big part of why God led me to be a part of Summit’s staff team in 2008. Over this past year, I/we have spent time praying, learning, praying, and planning for our upcoming multi-site launch. (Did I mention praying?) But, as the Fall months approach, we are quickly moving from planning to doing and are actually beginning to take the steps to help this dream become a reality. And as the plan moves from ideas to reality—I find my excitement, anticipation, and hope starting to kick in to a different level.

Practically, for me and my family, our excitement is more than accomplishing one of my major ministry objectives. In our case, we will also be participants in the new site which is planned for the community where we live: Waterford Lakes. We will experience the benefits of worshiping in a location much closer to our homes. And this just feels right.

We have lived in the Waterford area for eight years. Our kids (and therefore Jill and I) have been super-active in the schools, karate, football, cheerleading, art, drama, etc., etc. Consequently, we’ve come to know many people in our community. Just the other day, Jill and I were at 5 Guys (eating salads…um, NOT), and as frequently happens, we ran into one of the dads from the last team I coached. This seems to happen all the time. We see people we know at the Town Center, at Publix, and crossing paths at Lowes. It’s home. It’s the community we live in and have become part of.

For us—that is why multi-site is so cool. We are looking forward to worshiping in the place we do life. But more importantly, we are excited to have a place to invite the people we have come to know and appreciate into a community of faith that has been so vital to us as a family. By being closer to where they live, we really sense it will be much easier to invite them to be a part.

It just feels right.