Articles for tag: Multisite Church

July 23, 2017

Christian Standard

Leading Through Your Core Values

By L. E. Mackenzie You did it! As the lead pastor of your church, you established an amazing mission statement to keep everyone focused and on track. It looks so good on paper that you framed it and hung it on the wall behind your desk. You show the statement to others, you preach on it, and your people know it by heart. But something is not right . . . You have strong, practical ideas to grow and mature your church, but you feel resistance at different levels. In e-mails and quiet conversations people ask, “Why are we doing

April 17, 2017

Christian Standard

My Riskiest Move for God: I Still Remember His Faithfulness 20 Years Ago

Five Christian leaders tell what God did when they took a surprising step of faith. By Greg Lee My riskiest move ever? It was 20 years ago. God was faithful, and that step established a way of life and a way of leading that has stayed with me ever since. I was 21 years old, six months from getting married, and five months from graduation at Lincoln Christian College. I was from a small town and liked it. I wanted to preach (anything but youth ministry)! I wanted a full-time job to support my new family. Then I met John Wasem.

June 23, 2016

Christian Standard

Intentional Church Planting

By Mike Goldsworthy In 2007, I was sitting in a room filled with other pastors from Long Beach, California. We were a predominately Anglo audience listening to an expert describe the city”s rapidly changing demographics. According to the last two census reports, Long Beach is one of the most diverse large cities in the United States. This in a city that for many years had been fondly referred to as “Iowa by the Sea” because of the large number of residents who are migrants from Iowa. As I sat in that room, I was in the midst of a two-year

January 7, 2016

Christian Standard

New Service Date Has Been Gift

By Jennifer Johnson When Suncrest Christian Church (St. John, IN) began to max out its three Sunday services, the church considered a variety of ways to accommodate more people. “Lots of churches do Saturday night services, and some do Sunday night,” says Greg Lee, lead pastor at Suncrest. “I was intrigued by churches like White River Christian in Noblesville, Indiana, that created a Thursday night service. We are a multisite with some video teaching, so the idea of doing something on Thursday was a great gift””we can record the message and have two days to send it to the other

July 11, 2015

Christian Standard

Better Together

By Jennifer Johnson More than 4,000 churches close every year, many because their dwindling attendance can”t support a senior minister or the rising costs of aging buildings. While simply closing their doors may be the best option for some, Creswell Christian Church made a different decision, choosing instead to initiate a merger with Mountain Christian Church.  Today the majority of Creswell”s families are enthusiastic Mountain members, working together to honor the past and build for the future in new ways that neither could have accomplished alone. This article tells how that happened. Creswell Christian Church a 55-year-old congregation in Bel

June 6, 2015

Christian Standard

Voices from the Middle

By Ben Cachiaras Contemporary examples to demonstrate the value of “and.” “¢ Jim Collins coined the phrase “embrace the and” in his 1994 book Built to Last. He and coauthor Jerry Porras reported on extensive studies at Stanford University School of Business revealing best practices of exceptional companies. One such trait among enduringly great companies was their ability to embrace the “and.” The authors” point was that choosing between seemingly contradictory concepts””focusing on this or that””leads to missed opportunities. Is the product low cost or high quality? Do I focus on short-term opportunities or long-term strategy? Should the company be

May 5, 2013

Jerry Harris

A Church for People Who Don”t Go to Church

By Kent E. Fillinger The Crossing is a multisite megachurch. Its original campus is in Quincy, Illinois, a town of 40,000 people. Even though there are 85 churches in Quincy, 80 percent of the people there don”t attend any church, so Jerry Harris, senior pastor of The Crossing, decided to focus on being the church for people who don”t go to church. The Crossing was a small church of 230 people in 1998 when it decided to spend $2.5 million to buy a community college to serve as the church”s new home. As part of the deal, The Crossing shared

May 4, 2013

Christian Standard

Praying for One Transforms Church

By Kent E. Fillinger “Pray for One.” Bo Chancey sent an e-mail to everyone at Manchester (New Hampshire) Christian Church on the Thursday before he preached his first sermon there. He told them his inaugural message would be for each person to pray for one person to follow Christ. That Sunday, Chancey told the 1,200 who had gathered that if everyone would consistently pray for one person, the church would double in size in two years. Chancey continued to reinforce his “pray for one” message in his various communications. “Pray for one” is now part of the church”s cultural language. People regularly

December 10, 2012

Jerry Harris

Rediscovering the Sacred Stones

A church”s new multisite campus. A town steeped in history. The grave of a Restoration Movement pioneer”s wife. A reflection on what this frontier preacher stood for, and the message we still proclaim today.  By Jerry Harris There she was. Her stone lying on its back, broken and weathered among scores of neglected reminders of lives long since past. The inscription was hard to read because of a combination of age, moss, and dirt, but careful examination gave witness to the precious soul long forgotten to so many.   Celia W. Wife of Elder B.W. Stone Died Apr. 23, 1857

May 17, 2012

Christian Standard

How to Follow a Great Act

By Kent E. Fillinger Succeeding a well-known, well-loved, successful, retiring senior minister is a daunting task for virtually anyone. But Aaron Brockett also faced stepping into the ministry of a church with minimal growth for five years prior to a major relocation and building project. Granted, several factors contributed to the lengthy attendance stall at Traders Point Christian Church, Indianapolis, Indiana. “¢ A prolonged relocation process kept the church idling in an undersized facility. “¢ A daughter church grew out of Traders Point”s young adult ministry””a good development that nevertheless cleared the bench of younger, upcoming leaders for a time. “¢

May 16, 2012

Christian Standard

Canyon Creek: Reaching Thousands

By Kent E. Fillinger Not all megachurches are exactly alike. But after studying those on this year”s list, a church growth analyst will see several similarities. This description combines them into one hypothetical story. Managing a growing staff and an expanding ministry is an exciting and sometimes exhausting challenge for megachurch senior minister Brian Roberts. Some days, he”s not sure this is what he originally signed on to do when he came to Canyon Creek Christian Church in 1998. In the beginning, Canyon Creek was a small church with a limited vision. Several faithful families who had moved to a

April 25, 2011

Christian Standard

Restore Community Church

By Kent E. Fillinger It all began at the 2007 North American Christian Convention. Church planting was the theme of the gathering in Kansas City, Missouri, that year. And Dave Ferguson, convention vice president and lead pastor of Community Christian Church, Naperville, Illinois, had the idea of using the convention to help launch a new church in Kansas City. Restore Community Church is the result of that vision. Ferguson shared his vision with Troy McMahon, who had been serving with him as campus pastor for Community”s first multisite location, in Romeoville, Illinois, since 1998. Interestingly, McMahon had started as a

May 9, 2010

Christian Standard

Enrolling Our Kids in the Jesus Mission

By Janet McMahon A look of disappointment, frustration, and surprise came over his face. He cried. We had just told our 13-year-old son we were leaving the only town he had ever known to move to another city and begin a brand-new church. The days and weeks that followed were full of questions, not just from our 13-year-old, but all three of our children. “Why?” “When?” “How?” “Are you sure?” At the time our kids were 16, 13, and 7, and moving kids attending high school and middle school seemed less than ideal. No doubt my children are the No.

March 24, 2010

Christian Standard

Interview with Jerry Harris and Rodney Roberts

By Brad Dupray In his 11 years as senior pastor at The Crossing, a five-campus church with a home base in Quincy, Illinois, Jerry Harris has seen the church grow from 230 to more than 4,000. That growth did not come without challenges, but The Crossing is “clicking on all cylinders” and a year ago was listed as the fastest-growing megachurch in the United States among those in Christian Standard”s megachurch issue. A large part of The Crossing”s success can be attributed to the relationship Jerry has established with his elders. Jerry, along with Rodney Roberts, an elder at The

March 8, 2009

Christian Standard

WEB EXTRA: A Time of Cutbacks, But a Season of Opportunities

By Ben Cachiaras EDITOR’S NOTE: Contributing editor Ben Cachiaras wrote late in February to say Mountain Christian Church, where he ministers in Joppa, Maryland, was forced by the economy to initiate some cutbacks. “They were pervasive and widely felt,” he said. When he met with the church staff to explain the cuts, he challenged them by saying this crossroads was actually an exciting time for the church. “Matthew 28 does not say, “˜Go, and make disciples . . . as long as the Dow is up,”” he said. “While I would never wish economic disaster on anyone, I do know that

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