Is There a Vision?
People need to experience purpose in their relationship with Christ and effective leaders must set goals that reflect their vision for the church in creating that purpose.
Articles for tag: Multisite Church
March 17, 2021
West Virginia Church Opens House for Recovering Addicts
Gateway Christian Church in Saint Albans, W.Va., is not turning a blind eye to the drug problem in its community. The church purchased a home near its campus and converted it into a recovery house for men emerging from substance abuse addictions.
September 22, 2020
5 Big Shifts: What Will the Church Look Like Post-COVID-19?
By Randy Frazee Before I share my perspective on what the church will look like after the coronavirus, let me offer a couple of disclaimers. First, I missed the “Pastoring through Pandemics” class in seminary. Who would have thought we would ever need that? Second, I do not claim to be a prophet. (As a matter of fact, I lead a non-“prophet” organization.) And besides, if I were a prophet, I would have bought more toilet paper! The coronavirus has created the single greatest disruptive inflection point for American society in our lifetime. It has called us to a critical
February 19, 2020
How to Develop an Online Church Campus
By Rusty George “Church online isn’t church.” Yep, that’s what I used to say. Of course, I also thought texting would never last and Facebook was a fad. But hey, what do I know? I guess you might call me a late adopter. Needless to say, starting an online campus wasn’t at the top of my list. But six years ago we decided to add an online option at our church, and I’ve changed my mind about its importance. The First Question: Why Mess with It? It sounds like a lot of work when a simple website with service times
January 29, 2020
The Thrift Store Ministry
This Church’s Outreach Approach Recycles Much More than Clothing and Furniture _ _ _ “I needed clothes and you clothed me.” By L. Mackenzie On December 15, 2008, leaders of The Crossing in Quincy, Illinois, were discussing possible changes to their benevolence strategy. Several of them had just visited a church in Post Falls, Idaho, where they sought out ideas for growth. Elder Bruce Freeman was among those who listened as an idea for a thrift store ministry was discussed. Freeman was head of benevolence, a man passionate about helping others. He also had 25 years of experience working in
January 22, 2020
The Dollar Club
“I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink.” _ _ _ By Steve Poe Remember when a dollar was worth something? I remember paying a little less than a dollar for a gallon of gas. Today gasoline commonly costs triple that amount. Some time ago, if you wanted hot coffee, you could buy one for yourself and one for a friend and still get change back from your dollar. Today a Starbucks coffee starts at $1.85. You just can’t do much with a dollar anymore. And yet, what
December 2, 2019
Growing Volunteers to Grow the Kingdom
How These Two Churches Recruit and Equip Servants to Live Out God’s Purposes By Melissa Wuske Crafting an effective volunteer program takes a mix of big-picture vision and nuts-and-bolts programs. Julie Liem, director of volunteers at Eastside Christian Church in Southern California, and Abby Ecker, next steps pastor at The Journey in Newark, Delaware, shared how their churches recruit and equip volunteers—and how they’ve seen the kingdom advance as a result. God’s Design For many churches, it starts with the critical shift from viewing volunteers as “a necessary inconvenience,” Liem said, to seeing them as “the lifeblood of the church.”
Training Leaders for the Future
How One Church Is Equipping Young Adults for Ministry Without the Financial Burdens of Pursuing a Four-Year Degree By Kim Harris In 2019, 45 million young adults in the United States held more than $1.5 trillion in student debt, or more than $33,000 per debt holder, Forbes.com reported. Students are graduating with four years of knowledge and many more years of debt. Seminary and Bible college students are no exception. In 2011, roughly 25 percent of individuals graduating with a master of divinity left school with more than $40,000 in student debt (according to BusinessInsider.com), but could expect to earn
November 2, 2019
Children’s Ministry Best Practices (Multisite Church): Community Christian Church, Chicagoland
The Team It Takes to Help Families and Kids Find Their Way Back to God By Kathy Ives The best thing about being part of a multisite kids’ ministry team is the built-in support and fellowship with multiple leaders. Most of our locations have their own kids’ directors, and together we make a fantastic and diverse team. Our directors are fully invested in kids and families, and they understand not only our church dynamics but the complicated nature of kids’ ministry. Together we discuss new creative ideas and solutions at regular meetings. On top of that, our newer directors
February 2, 2019
Eyes on the Community: Bayside Church
By Mel McGowan We serve a God of purpose and strategy, and we are called by him to be strategic with our resources and the stories we tell the world. The leadership of Bayside Church in Northern California found itself in a property predicament. The church owned three types of land: property that needed developing, property it was leasing, and property it didn’t make sense to sell. These properties all required strategic money management and planning to transform them into spaces that honored God and were inviting to the community. So pastor Ray Johnston created an ambitious master plan designed
August 12, 2018
StoneBridge Christian Church: Building Bridges to God and the Omaha Community
By Mel McGowan StoneBridge Christian Church in Omaha, Nebraska, strives to serve as a metaphorical bridge to God, one another, and the community. Omaha is a vibrant, thriving community situated between prairies and mountains. StoneBridge’s visionary leadership team wanted to capture Omaha’s uniqueness as part of their story and reflect that energy through their facilities. StoneBridge’s team is dedicated to social compassion, relevance, authenticity, friendliness, and approachability; they desired to bring their facilities into alignment with their philosophy. They wanted to create a space that was inviting, comfortable, and fun. My journey with StoneBridge began in 2009 while I was
August 11, 2018
Reaching Out to the Homeless and Hurting in Hollywood, Florida
God pulled a neighborhood kid with a rough upbringing out of that life into a new one at Hope Church of Christ By Jerry Harris “Jehovah-jireh means, ‘in the mountain it shall be seen.’ You have to climb the mountain first,” says Alvin Daniels, senior minister of Hope Church of Christ in Hollywood, Florida. “It will take power, effort, and strength to get to the top. But once you’re up there, God will provide the vision for which you had to go up there in the first place. You can’t see it from the foot of the mountain.” Daniels wasn’t
July 20, 2018
Whatever It Takes
By L. Mackenzie I gawked at the preacher, raised my eyebrows, and asked, “You want a what onstage for the sermon?” He calmly looked at me, fingers interlaced, and replied, “A scapegoat. Oh, and a Passover lamb before Easter. See what you can find.” What was I to do at T-minus-four weeks? What rancher would be willing to lend us valuable and tame animals for a live broadcast in front of 10,000 people? So many things could go terribly wrong: the goat could dive into the crowd, the lamb might pee on power cords; things could explode. Do we have
April 20, 2018
The State of Our Christian Churches Today
Where We’ve Come From, Where We Are, and Where We’re Going By Ken Idleman In her book Join the Club: How Peer Pressure Can Transform the World, Tina Rosenburg sought to determine how to get people to change for the better. She concluded people don’t change simply because they desire to change, or feel guilty, or learn it would be beneficial (such as by quitting smoking). Instead, Rosenburg argues, people grow and change best in community. She asserts that few things in life are more important in determining the kind of people we become than the group of people with
October 12, 2017
Innovation Is Born Out of Constraint
By Chuck Dennie Why does Twitter have a 140-character limit? An article titled “Best Practices” at Twitter.com states, “Creativity loves constraints and simplicity is at our core. Tweets are limited to 140 characters so they can be consumed easily anywhere, even via mobile text messages.” Twitter users most likely will tell you that being limited to 140Â characters has forced them to be more focused, creative, and clear about what they”re trying to communicate. The multisite church is a beautiful example of innovating in response to constraint and limitations. We can now reach more people in more areas in our communities
October 5, 2017
The Miracle in the Cornfield
By Darrel Land It has been referred to as the miracle in the cornfield. That is an apt description of Redemption Christian Church. A church of more than 1,800 people in a rural town of 15,000 certainly is rare. To understand the amazing things God has done, you need to know a little bit about Jasper, Indiana. Jasper is unique in many ways. Farming dominates Dubois County, where Jasper is the county seat. The church is literally surrounded by corn and soybean fields. It”s as rural as rural gets. The majority of jobs are blue-collar. Jasper has often been called
September 22, 2017
Rural Church Planting: A Conversation with Pastor Jerry Harris
By David Dummitt Last month I had the opportunity to speak with Eric Metcalf in Chicago about the unique opportunities and challenges of urban church planting. But across America, millions of people live outside of metropolitan areas, and so I wanted to explore similar questions from a rural perspective. As I considered who could speak candidly and with authority on the subject of rural church planting, Jerry Harris, senior pastor of The Crossing, a multisite church located in three states across the Midwest, immediately came to mind. Jerry, how do you measure the health and success of a rural
September 21, 2017
A Church for Forgotten Places
By Jerry Harris Forgottonia . . . would you believe it”s a real place? The place is real but the name was more of a publicity stunt. It was adopted by 14 counties in west-central Illinois that were intentionally neglected by the state and federal government with regard to interstates and rail service in the early 1970s. Without interstate highway access, the region was denied decent transportation for commerce as other towns and cities benefitted from them. Businesses and not-for-profit entities dried up or left the area and calls for fair treatment with tax dollars for infrastructure fell on deaf
September 9, 2017
Inner-City Catalyst: An Interview with Samson Dunn
By Rick Lowry Samson Dunn serves as lead pastor with Catalyst Church in Phoenix, Arizona, a culturally diverse church committed exclusively to reaching the inner city. Over the past 10 years, Catalyst has grown from a small urban work to two campuses that touch thousands of people weekly. Samson”s personal journey and the church”s journey have followed a nontraditional path. Their story will expand the vision of any church leader who takes the gospel of Christ seriously. QUESTION: Your upbringing didn”t prepare you for ministry in the traditional way. SAMSON DUNN: I”m from southern Kentucky, Monroe County. My parents
September 7, 2017
A Heart for Our City
By Aaron Brockett Six years ago, I wasn”t sure how I felt about multisite. I wanted to believe the best about all the hype I had heard about becoming one church meeting in multiple locations, but I didn”t want to throw my support behind it prematurely. I especially didn”t want to lead Traders Point Christian Church in this direction if we hadn”t clearly established the “why” behind it. I believe God calls every church to multiply (Acts 2), however I don”t think this means every church should become a multisite church. (The many reasons for this lie outside the focus of
