Pastor John Atkinson

Multi Site Finances

One of the questions I've been getting a lot lately, is how do we manage the financial side of our multi sites. I've had the opportunity to get to know some great leaders in the MS world, and many have told me that what we are doing here is a little unique, so I'll share it.

In the beginning we just blended our first campus into the overall budget. What we began to see was how much extra work it was putting on an already overworked administrative team. Then in 08 we added two more campuses and we could see it just wasn't possible for that team to take on all the extra work those sites would create. Instead of adding extra admin staff to cover the campuses, we decided to set up individual campuses with their own bank accounts, and let the Campus Pastors, or someone they have trained and trust, oversee the day to day financials of that campus.

While each campus manages their own finances, they are still a part of the over all budget. Copies of all receipts are sent to the home campus and are plugged into that budget so it doesn't look like campuses don't have expenditures. 

Here's how it works: 

1. At each campus offerings are collected, packaged, and sealed, always by at least two people who sign the sealed packages, and then taken to the home office.

2. Those offerings are counted by the home office admin team, and then deposited in the individual campus accounts. All the MS guys are cringing at my use of the term "home campus" but there's no other way to explain this so for this explanation I'm using it.

3. While the church in general is not on Quick Books, the campuses do use it to manage their own finances. This allows us to track expenditures and hold campuses accountable. We will probably look at merging the systems in the future.

4. Each campus has debit/credit cards on their accounts, but they do not have the password necessary to use them as a debit card because that would allow someone access to cash. You might ask why not just have credit cards then? We did it this way because a debit card can be used exactly like a credit card, but the money comes directly out of the account as it is spent, unlike a credit card which requires the monthly payment of a bill. We did it this way to keep a campus from ever running up a big credit card debt because they're not paying their bill each month. I don't for a second believe one of our CP's would do this, but it's just another level of protection we've put in place as we grow the ministry.

5. Each campus is responsible for the payment of the following out of their weekly offerings: Building leases & insurance, electricity, water, phones, Internet, printing, advertising, maintenance, sound and lighting, cleaning expenses, weekly hospitality items, office equipment, part time salaries, and pretty much everything else. For now, they are not responsible for the campus pastors full time salary and benefits because we don't have the system to manage that yet. Many MS systems build that first year campus salary into the start up costs that are raised prior starting a new campus, as of now we have not done that. It's important to remember when reading this that there are no large towns anywhere close to Corpus Christi, so all of our campuses to this point are in small towns and average 250-300 in weekly attendance. If we ever decide to start a campus in a large city designed to reach thousands of people like other churches have, this system of management will obviously need to be changed!

One of the questions that often comes up when discussing this system is, what do we do if a campus can't pay all their bills. Each week every campus tithes 10% into a separate account called the Multi Site Account. That fund is the discretionary funds we use to help out an existing campus if one was to get into financial trouble, as well as helping fund future campus start ups. All of the weekly offerings, except for the tithe, are deposited into the individual accounts of each campus. Campus Pastor openly discuss the fact that each campus is tithing towards future campuses.

For now this is the system we are using, but it's subject to change at any time because we know we'll find flaws in it as we continue adding campuses. In the beginning I was skeptical, but since then I have grown to like this system a lot because I've see how it has changed the campuses. It has raised the level of ownership at the campuses because they now have the option to set aside their own money for a project they want to do at their campus. It has raised the sense of empowerment at every level and the benefits from that have outweighed any struggles we've experienced.

Before you pick this apart like I did, think about it with an open mind, because this change has been a very positive move for us and has taken a huge financial and work burden off the admin team at the home campus. We do know it's important to have checks and balances though, and that's part of my job as the Multi Site Pastor. For checks and balance reasons I have access to all of the accounts so I can check to make sure things are all on track, I also have the authority to determine where and how funds are being spent at the campuses, and for my part, I'm accountable to our Senior and Executive Pastor for everything that goes on in the Multi Site Ministry. Because I have such an amazing group of campus pastors, I pretty much let them manage their own budgets as they see fit because they know what's expected, and they're on board with the vision and direction of the church. If I wasn't confident that they are thinking about that vision and direction when spending, they wouldn't be campus pastors. Day to day stuff they just do, but if they are wanting to do something that is going to cost a significant amount of money, we discuss it first, and they're all great at knowing when that discussion is needed. 

So that's the basic system we're using for now. It's not perfect, and it's certainly not the only one out there, but it's our system, at least for now! Hope this helps and if you have questions leave a comment and I'll get back to you.

John

Unpacking Multi Site Pitfall #6

Creating Great Worship in Multiple Venues is One Seriously Tough Gig!

This is the last of the 6 Multi Site Pitfalls that we are unpacking. This should be short because frankly I know nothing about music, but what I do know as someone who oversees multiple campuses that have worship, it's tough to reproduce great worship over and over because great musicians are hard to find!

I believe good worship is a very important part of a successful multi site strategy. I think everyone would agree that bad music is uncomfortable for anyone who has ever sat through it, and if it's bad enough it can actually keep people from worshiping, or even worse from coming back.

The temptation when adding sites, is to either use some of the main campus musicians at other sites at a different time, or use the original campus leadership to build and manage a new band. We did both when we started our first campus which was fine for a while, but over time it began to take its toll on both leaders and musicians, and had we stuck to that plan, it would ultimately have begun to affect the worship at the original campus. We were wearing out our leaders and musicians because we were asking them to add too much to their already hectic schedules.

Last year we moved one of our worship leaders (Joey Davila) over from main campus to be the Director of Multi Site Worship. That was huge for the Multi Site ministry because Joey added a major skill set that was missing from the ministry, and that move has taken worship at the sites, as Ed Young would say, to a whole nutha level! 

When looking at your long term vision for adding campuses, I would challenge you to think through this pitfall because reproducing great worship over and over is really tough. I know you probably can't add a Director of Multi Site Worship from day one, we didn't either, but part of the reason I've been writing these posts is to help others prepare for the things that caught us off guard, and this was one of those things. Thinking ahead about the person who might fill this role will really benefit the ministry especially if your vision is to start multiple sites. 

As I write this we are 24 hours away from our first core group meeting at what will be our fourth multi site campus, and with this site, we are going into a town where very few people already attend BAF. This will be probably our toughest attempt at creating great worship because we don't already know a single musician in this town. As the Multi Site Pastor, I can't imagine taking on this task without Joey on my team! I'm writing this in hopes it will challenge you to start thinking about this position before you need it, not after it begins to overwhelm you like it did us.

John

Unpacking Multi Site Pitfall #5

Multi Site Pitfall #5: Adding sites will stretch your churches finances.

As I do with each pitfall, let me say again that we don't have all the Multi Site answers. As we unpack each of these pitfalls please understand that these posts comes from our own experiences starting the BAF Multi Site Ministry. Many churches are doing it bigger and better, and we learn from them all the time, this series of posts is just us sharing our journey with you in hopes it will help you get started on your Multi Site journey.

Multi Site pitfall #5 is a no brainer. Anyone who is thinking about going multi site obviously is thinking out the financial burden associated with it. But here's the kicker, we thought it out too, and it still overwhelmed us in ways we could never have imagined.

I have been a part of starting three and soon to be four campuses. Three of the four as the Multi Site Pastor, and one in a support role as a management staff pastor, and I have under estimated the cost of each campus, each time. You'd think I would learn wouldn't you. The problem is, and take notes here, you can't predict everything that will happen when you start a church. For example; we did a fairly good job of staying within a budget I had set for our 5 Points Campus last summer. However, we had never had a full house before because we hadn't had any services yet. That was until we had our first service and filled the room completely up and realized we were about 5000 tons AC short of what we needed. We're not all that smart, but even a couple of rocket scientists like us know that a couple of hundred people in a room that is 91 degrees is not a good thing. The mistake was made when someone we mistakenly assumed knew said, "you've got plenty of AC," and we believed them. So we had to add and AC which most of you know isn't cheap. But that's not the end of it, when we went to the AC guy he told us we didn't have enough electricity available to add another AC, so we had to add another electrical box outside to boot. The owner of the building agreed to split the cost, something he didn't have to do, and it still cost us another $5000, that we of course had not budgeted for. Talk about your swing and a miss! So going into a multi site start up just remember this, your start up will cost more, and take longer than your best estimate. 

Past start up is where the real fun begins. In most cases, there are some exceptions even in our system, a campus will take probably six months to as long as a year to become financially healthy. It takes time to build a core group of people who are sold out to the vision and are ready to step up and start supporting it financially. Sure we all know a tithe is for God and should be given from day one, but sadly that's not reality. In the meantime the supporting church must be willing to float the campus until it gets healthy. Our first campus took a long time to get completely healthy, and other ministry leaders paid a price as they heard no a lot. I can't tell you how many tough discussions we had about our first campuses finances. There's a lesson in our mistakes, prepare your staff ahead of time so the impending financial struggles don't catch them off guard.

Adding sites will not only drain your finances, it will also drain your financial people. Adding sites will add a lot of work to your financial team. When you add sites you add budgets, bills, insurances, repairs, and staff, and someone has to manage all of it. In our case not only was our team trying to manage all the extra work created by adding a site, they were also trying to keep afloat a campus that was sucking the financial life out of every ministry in the church. I'm thankful they hung in there with us at that campus, because now it's completely self sufficient and close to 300 people a weekend now call it their church home. Just preparing our staff ahead of time for these struggles would have made a huge difference.

I'm not trying to talk anyone out of going multi site, in fact I hope every church in America does it, I'm just trying to help you be better prepared for what it takes to do it. If your financial team knows ahead of time that these kinds of things may happen, they will be better prepared when they do. I don't know about your financial people, but ours hate surprises!

John

Multi Site Staff Retreat

My amazing staff and I are headed to Lake Corpus Christi to spend a day and a night talking about the future of the BAF Multi Site ministry. One of the many things I love about serving under Bil Cornelius is he is an amazing man of faith who truly believes God is bigger than any circumstance we might face.Bil believes that the current economic problems this country is facing, did not catch God off guard. He believes God does not want us to hunker down and wait this thing out, He wants us to push forward with confidence not in things of this world, but in HIM! The Multi Site ministry will play a big part in that plan so were getting ready. 

In staff last week Bil led with a big vision to keep moving forward for Jesus no matter what is going on around us, and he had some big ideas about each of our ministries. He then told each of us, the Management Staff, to go out and think exponentially bigger. I did what he told me to do, and God really blew me away with a ridiculous vision for Multi Site that I know came from Him because it scares the crap out of me. Sorry if crap offends you, but it fits.

My staff and I will spend all day tomorrow and Saturday morning looking at this crazy vision and trying to figure out what it will take to pull it off. This retreat will be a time of vision, planning, scheduling, systems, and much more, but mostly it will be a time of prayer, because we definitely need God to pull this off. It's no coincidence that Pastor Bil spoke on prayer last week at the C3 Conference at Fellowship Church. As he spoke on prayer all I could think about was this huge, scary, crazy, and very exciting vision that overwhelmed me and ended up all over my white board. I could feel God speaking to me through Bil, as he spoke on prayer. 

On top of a great time to dream and plan for the future, it's going to be a great time to build relationships with the team. For us to pull of this crazy vision, we must work as a team. I have a great team, and were all having a blast together, but this vision is huge, and there can be no division amongst us or it could kill the vision. This retreat is about preparing us for something bigger than any of us could have imagined. We will leave the Lake as a team ready to go where God leads us. God has been hammering me to write a book that has been in my heart for some time now called Relational Leadership, tomorrow we will practice that very thing. I would ask you to pray for Pastor Bil as we need God to clarify the vision for the BAF Multi Site ministry through him. Thanks ahead of time for those prayers.

John

Unpacking Multi Site Pitfall #4

MS Pitfall #4 Someone On Your Staff Will Need to Champion the Multi Site Ministry

I always want to start these off the same way in case someone is reading this post not having read the others. We do not have the Multi Site equation down. We are not the end all experts in the Multi Site movement, many have gone before us, and many are way ahead of us, the Multi Site Pitfalls are simply us sharing our own Multi Site journey. I'm writing this in hopes that something from our journey might somehow help with yours.

As with any ministry someone needs to champion it. When vision is being cast, and plans are being made, someone needs to be there to make sure Multi Site is part of the discussion. Here's why this is important.

1. When decisions are being made that affect Children's Ministry, Children's Ministry at the campuses is affected too.

2. When decisions are being made that affect Student Ministry, Student Ministry is affected at the campuses too.

3. Financial decisions affect all campuses.

4. Decisions about preaching series affect all campuses.

5. Creative decisions affect all campuses.

I could go on and on, but hopefully you get the point. The reason you need a Multi Site champion is so there is always someone in those meetings to ask this question, "how will this affect the campuses." Even with a MS champion in leadership, things still fall through the cracks because the bigger you get, and the more campuses you add, the tougher communication becomes. So even with a MS champion no system is perfect, but at least with a MS champion you'll know there is someone in a leadership position carrying the torch for off site campuses.

When picking this person make sure they have passion for Multi Site. Just adding this to someone's plate because they're the closest warm body, is not the right answer. I believe if God is calling you to go Multi Site, He is also doing something in the heart of the person who will champion it. I say that because that's exactly how it happened here.

John

Unpacking Multi Site Pitfall #3

Multi Site Pitfall #3: Picking the Right Leader is Critical to a Campuses Success

Moving on with the Multi Site Pitfalls let's talk about about why it's critical to pick the right person to be your campus pastor. When you read this please understand that I don't for a second think I have figured out the Multi Site puzzle, I'm just sharing with you my personal experiences in leading the BAF Multi Site Ministry.

Why is the Campus Pastor choice critical?

1. Your campus pastor is the carrier of your churches DNA! If your campus pastor does not have your DNA, neither will your campus.

2. Your campus pastor represents your church to the community where it's located. 

3. You are in trusting the future spiritual growth of a group of God's people to this person.

4. Your campus will not outgrow this persons leadership. John Maxwell calls this the "Law of the Lid."

What to look for in a Campus Pastor.

1. A great campus pastor is a great leader. The main role of the campus pastor is leadership development, and it takes a leader to develop other leaders. 

2. A Campus Pastor must have character. That is one thing that cannot be taught!

3. A Campus Pastor must but be good with people. If the Campus Pastor has no personality, neither will the campus.

4. A great Campus Pastor is fiercely loyal to the vision and direction of the church. 

5. A great Campus Pastor is teachable. Great leaders are also great followers.

6. Great Campus Pastors think for themselves and don't need to be told what to do all the time.

7. Great Campus Pastors are problem solvers. If I have to solve all the problems at a campus, then I have the wrong person leading it.

I wish I had a silver bullet I could share with you that would tell you exactly how to find the person I'm talking about, but its not that easy. But if God has called you to go Multi Site in your church, He will also provide the leaders you'll need. Start putting potential leaders in leadership positions in your church and see which of them rise to the top, but ultimately each time you put a leader in a high position and give them authority, there is risk involved. Not all your choices will pan out, but those that do, will raise up your next Campus Pastors.

John

Unpacking Multi Site Pitfall #2

Multi Site Pitfall #2. Going Multi Site will stress your church to its core!

When we started our first site we had no idea the stress it was going to put on our church and staff. Here are some of the areas where Multi Site hit us hard.

1.To start a new campus we felt like we needed to put the project in the hands of a proven leader so we gave it to one of our Management Staff Pastors. He found out quickly this wasn't something he was adding to his plate, this became his plate. With him focused completely on the new site, which he had to be, things in the other ministries he oversaw paid the price. I firmly believe you need a proven and faithful leader to lead a project like this because that leader is the carrier of your churches DNA.

2. Two of our sites required build outs, and all of it was done with volunteers to keep costs down. A two to four month build out with volunteers will stress your staff and volunteers to their very cores. We just finished a 3 1/2 month build out at our 5 Points Campus that almost killed all of us, and I had a bad to the bone leader in Jason Curlee. I could not have pulled this off without him, because even with him, it still stretched me and my family to their limits.

3. As we began having church it quickly became clear that our already understaffed and over worked administrative team was going to be overwhelmed with the extra responsibilities. Adding a site, a full church folks, requires creating a whole new budget that someone has to manage. Then on top of the budget, that same overworked team, now had a whole new set of bills and expenses they had to take care of. Someone had to handle leases, phones, Internet, water, gas, maintenance, AC, Electric, Cleaning, Insurance, payroll, cleaning supplies and on and on. Those things just didn't just take care of themselves, someone had to add them to their already stretched responsibilities. And then there was the financial white elephant in the room that we all wish we could have ignored, getting that site up and running was causing money to pour out of the main campus like water through the Hoover Dam. There is a financial cost to going multi site.

4. As any church leader knows, Children's Ministry is not something you can throw up and just hope for the best. There was no way we were going to intrust the safety and future spiritual growth of all these new children into the hands of untrained people. So the main campus Children's Ministry had to step up in a huge way. I don't personally know any churches who have tons of extra staff just standing around waiting for a job to do, so we had to send over trained staff and volunteers from the main campus every weekend for a very long time. Our Management Staff Children's Pastor was overwhelmed by the added responsibilities, and her volunteer base base at the main campus was stretched big time as well. Because this campus was 45 miles away from our main campus, there were no trained Children's workers available, so it took a long time, and lot's of volunteers to get the BA Kidz DNA in place.

5. About six months in we started a Student Ministry, and of course everything we just talked about in Children's Ministry happened to the Student Pastor and his team.

I was asked to take over the leadership of that campus a little over a year into it, and it was not doing well. The stress it had caused to every ministry in our church was overwhelming. We weren't really ready to go Multi Site when we did, and we paid a price for it. It was by God's grace alone that the campus survived, because it was really struggling financially when I took over. I remember a meeting that Pastor Bil and I had shortly after I took over where he calmly but firmly let me know that something needed to be done to solve the problems, and soon.

We were able to turn it around over the next year and it became our model for how not to go Multi Site, and thankfully we did a much better job when we started the next two campuses. Had we known then how much adding a site was going to stress our church to it's core, we certainly would have done some things differently. In our defense, we had never added a site, and didn't really know anyone who had, so we just stepped out on faith and moved anyway.

As with all these posts, I am not in any way trying to talk you out of going Multi Site, I love it, I live it, and I believe in it, I simply hope that reading this might help you to be better prepared for the stresses your church will face when adding sites. But if God is calling you, and you have a plan, then go for it, and God will bless your ministry like He has ours. Even when we made mistakes, and we made plenty, He blessed us anyway because He had called us to do this, and He will do the same if He has called you.

Next week we'll talk about Multi Site Pitfall #3 which is the importance of finding the right leader for a new site.

John

Breaking Down Multi Site Pitfall #1

Recently I wrote a post titled Multi Site Pitfalls where I talked about 6 specific pitfalls you may face when going Milt site. In the next couple of weeks I plan on unpacking each one and talking more in depth about what they mean.  Scroll down on my blog and you will be able to read the original post so this will make sense.

Pitfall #1 Make Sure God is Calling you to Multi Site.

Because so many churches are having great success with multi site, it has the potential to be the thing churches feel like they're supposed to do because everyone else is doing it. I do hope tons of churches go multi site because I believe it's an amazing way to further the Kingdom of God and offset the growing numbers of churches that are closing their doors, but I also don't think multi site is for every church. What I'm trying to do is challenge you to seek God and ask Him if this is the direction you should go. Multi Site is hard, and it will stress your church to it's very core, and not all churches are in a place to survive the stress brought on by adding sites.

In upcoming posts I'll talk specifically what I mean when I say multi site will stress your church to it's core, but in this post my challenge to church leaders is to simply seek God before moving to a multi site strategy. Don't start a site because others around you are, or because it seems like a cool thing to do, I really challenge you to move to multi site only, if God is calling you to do it.

This is so important because if you haven't really prayed your way through the decision to go multi site, you'll either quit when it gets tough, and trust me it will get tough, or you'll continue in spite of the fact that it's failing miserably because pride will keep you from admitting you made a mistake. Neither of those options are good for a church that was probably already doing God's work well.

Listen carefully, please don't in any way be discouraged from going multi site by this post, just pray like crazy and make sure you know God is calling you to this. One of the ways you'll know God is calling you to Multi Site is, no matter how hard you try, you won't be able to shake off, pray off, or wish off, His leading. That's exactly what happened to my pastor, Bil Cornelius. He tried to move past the leading to go multi site many times, but no matter how hard he tried he couldn't shake it, so we moved forward and God sustained us when times got tough, and man did they ever get tough.

Again, I'll write in depth in the next couple of weeks what I mean specifically when I say tough, but for this post my hope is this will lead you to pray and fast, and pray and fast some more, so if you move forward on your vision to go multi site you'll know you did it because God told you to.

John

Multi Site Media

Recently I've been writing a series of posts about the multi site journey at Bay Area Fellowship. It began with a post called "Multi Site Pitfalls" where I listed six separate issues you may face when going multi site at your church. Down the road I was going to address some of the media issues we faced in starting our three and soon to be fourth campuses. A lot of people apparently read the post and one guy had a great comment that I wanted to use as a post instead of just as a comment. The commenter was a guy named Tom Doyle who obviously has a lot of experience in this area so I asked him if I could just use his comment as a post.

Here's what Tom had to add.

"Well said and I agree with 99% of your post. I might add two things. In our almost 100 multi-site deployments that we have in theaters nationwide we've discovered two other areas. If your using video in any way shape or form (Announcements, Teaching, or Worship). You must consider two things. 1. Technology - Make sure you have the right technology at the main church to support the campus. This might be as simple as the proper editing software or perhaps as expensive as additional HD camera's. 2. Technique - In conjunction with technology, invest in and understand techniques which will make your content compelling. A great pastor captured in HD, shot poorly and edited badly doesn't make for great church."

• Commenter name: Tom Doyle
• Commenter email: [email protected]
• Commenter URL: http://www.nationalcinemedia.com/cms/templates/meetings_types.aspx?articleid=12&zoneid=5&menuCode=sub28
• IP address: 208.178.13.2
• Authentication: None

I would add one more thing to Tom's insightful comments, don't scrimp and put a low quality projector at the multi site campus and waste the work you put into the capture. We did at our first site we started three years ago, and I believe many of the people who left early on did so because the video wasn't the quality it needed to be. If you're going to ask people to give up having live preaching for a video, it better at least be good video. We did not make that same video mistakes in the two sites that followed. Thanks again Tom for sharing your expertise with us.

John

Breaking Down the Multi Site Pitfalls

Earlier this week I wrote a post talking about six pitfalls we have experienced along our journey to going multi site at our church. In the coming weeks I'm going to write about each of the six pitfalls and what they meant to us specifically.

When we started our first site three years ago we really didn't know anything about Multi Site, so we made a lot of mistakes. I think we have done a much better job with the second two, but if we would have had someone to learn from back then that had already done some sites, it might have saved us a lot of unnecessary pain. In the coming weeks I want to share with you our journey in hopes others can learn from our mistakes instead of having to make them again. Please feel free to comment and ask questions and we will try to answer them as best we can based on our experiences. We will also continue to do some Multi Site Tokbox's as well. In fact were going to do one the week after next on Multi Site worship with our Director of Multi Site Worship Joey Davila. We'll post it on twitter when we have a more firm date.

Please here my heart, I'm not here to tell you the right way to do multi site, because there's a bunch of models out there that are very different from ours, and being done with amazing success in churches like Seacoast, Lifechurch.tv, and Healing place Church just to name a few. I am getting to know leaders from all three of those churches and they are mentoring me more than they know. I just want to share with you our journey here at BAF and what we have learned over the last three years having started three sites and working on the fourth. My hopes in writing this is that we can help some other churches by sharing our story.

I'm off to Innovation3 on Monday and I don't know how much time I'll have to write while I'm there, so look for the first of the series on Multi Site Pitfalls in a week or so. I hope something in this blesses your church along the way.

John

When My DNA is Transfered!

This is a consequence of my DNA being passed on to the world. I apologize ahead of time :)

Multi Site Pitfalls

Let me just say first that I love Multi Site. I go to bed thinking about starting new sites and growing our existing sites, and I wake up thinking about the same thing. I believe in it, I'm living it, I'm leading it, and I know it's going to expand the Kingdom all over this country. But what I've also learned along the way is it's not easy, so I want to share some of the pitfalls we faced along our journey in hopes it will help you be better informed when making the decision to move forward at your church.

1. Make sure God is calling you to add sites. Multi Site is the big thing right now, but that doesn't mean everyone should do it. Multi Site is difficult, so make sure God is calling you to do it, or you'll be tempted to quit when it gets hard, and it will get hard. I believe going Multi Site is a decision that should be made prayerfully, not because it seems like a good idea, or because everyone else is doing it. If you don't pray your way through this on the front end you may regret it on the back end.

2. Multi Site will stress your church at its seams. Adding sites will stress your Admin team, your Children's Ministry, your Student Ministry, and your Creative and Production teams. No ministry is exempt from the stress of Multi Site, but in our experience, these were hit the hardest. I don't know many churches that have all the staff they need, and most of us somehow pull off church every weekend with less people than we wish we had, which is stressful, so I challenge you to think ahead about the coconsequences of adding more to that same already overworked team.

3. Finding the right leader is critical to the success of a new site, and those kinds of leaders are not easy to come by. The campus pastor is the carrier of your churches DNA, so making the wrong choice here could seriously effect the future of the new campus or even the reputation of the church. We picked each one of our campus pastors at BAF because they were already proven leaders long before they were given the job of oversight of a campus. Pick this person carefully so you can avoid some major problems down the road.  

4. Someone on your staff will need to champion the Multi Site Ministry, which is what I do as the Multi Site Pastor at BAF. That leader needs to have a passion for it if the ministry is going to thrive. Adding it to someone's plate who either doesn't want it, doesn't have time for it, or doesn't have the giftedness to lead it, is a death sentence to the ministry.

5. Adding sites will stretch your churches finances. A campus may pay for itself right away, but it could just as easily take six months to a year to get financially healthy. We've experienced both scenarios and when the financial stress starts effecting other ministries it gets tough.

6. Creating great worship in multiple venues is one seriously tough gig. Someone will have to oversee this part of the ministry if you want great worship, and I don't believe you'll ever grow a great campus if the worship is bad. Just adding it to your existing Worship Pastor will eventually begin to affect the quality of worship at the first campus. I don't know what I would do without my Director of Multi Site Worship because what he does not just anyone can do. Leading a group of musicians and creating great worship is a very unique skill set. 

These are just a few issues you might face when adding sites. There are solutions to all these issues especially if you put the right leaders in place, so don't let any of these possible pitfalls keep you from stepping out on faith and starting a Multi Site ministry if God is calling you to do it. I write this in hopes that sharing some of the things we have faced in starting new sites will simply help you step out better informed and prepared. Yes, there have been struggles, but the lives that have been changed have far outweighed any problems we have faced.

We don't by any means have all the answers, but the Multi Site staff at BAF will gladly share with you the good the bad and the ugly of our journey. Trust me, we learned a lot more from the bad and ugly than we have from the good.

John

Technology and Relationships

If you know me you know I am about as far from being a computer geek as humanly possible. I've tried my best to avoid technology mostly because I don't understand it very well. When I started college at Sul Ross State University in 1977, we had a main frame computer with about ten stations for 3500 students. Sounds like kind of bad percentages until you realize there was only about ten students who had a clue how to work it. To take you back, only one student in our entire dorm had a Pong game, and needless to say he was very popular.

Over the years I have come to realize the power of media in building relationships. Email has connected people in ways none of us could have imagined and it was only the tip of the iceberg. I began blogging about two years ago which was a huge move for me, but I'm glad I stepped out because it's also has been a huge blessing. I've had the opportunity to connect with pastors around the country I would never have known otherwise. A great example is my buddy Gary Lamb, because we met through our blogs and built a friendship long before we ever met face to face. Facebook and Linkedin are connecting people in ways none of us could have imagined only a few years ago.

Twitter is my newest step into technology, and I have to admit I went into it kicking and screaming. Pastors I know from around the country kept hammering me to start twittering. From the outside looking in Twitter seemed like a waste of time. The question I kept asking was, why in the world would anyone care about what I'm doing during the day? Funny thing is, people do care, and other leaders really care. Twitter is a relationship building machine, and I can't count the blessings I've found through it. I am building relationships with leaders I could never even imagined meeting, much less knowing. Because of Twitter I had an amazing phone conversation about Multi Site with Geoff Surratt with Seacoast Church on Tuesday, and Dan Olerking with Healing Place Church yesterday. I am following, and in some cases talking with, leaders like Dave Ferguson, Larry Osborne, Matt Fry, Todd Rhoades, Dinno Rizzo, Scott Hodge, DJ Chaung, Ed Stetzer, Mark Howell, and many others. Through Twitter I am able to see first hand how these guys think and lead. And on top of that I'm now connecting with Multi Site pastors and leaders all over the country. Not to mention keeping in great contact with all my buddies around the country leading in their churches.

So I'm here today to repent of my technology fear and open myself up to new things in the future. Just this morning Todd Roades did a staff meeting thing with leaders from all over the country via Internet video, and I actually found myself wishing I had a camera on my laptop. Now that's a crazy thought for a guy like me. As of Monday Jason Curlee came on my staff full time, and he is a tech geek, so Jason, I am your student.

John

Repentance

Yesterday Bil laid a big time challenge on the Management Staff. He challenged us to a "season of repentance." You can see his post about it on his blog. Bil wasn't talking about us going home tonight and asking God to forgive us for the general sins of pride, self righteousness, lust etc. He asked us to open our hearts to God and ask Him to reveal the specific sin in our lives that we may not have dealt with. The thought of taking that kind of challenge should scare pretty much everybody.

Why is it so hard for us to open up the darkest parts of our hearts and let the sin get out in the open where it can be dealt with once and for all? Here's some reasons that probably run through our heads.

1. Because it's  painful to deal with, so why not just leave it buried.

2. If I reveal it, it will hurt someone I care about.

3. If I reveal it, I may get fired.

4. If I reveal it, the world will know I'm not really who I've portrayed myself to be.

5. And the most harmful one, I don't think there's really anything to pull out.

So why should we take the sin out and deal with it in spite of the things above?

1. Because the pain that you had to endure to pull the sin out, pales in comparison to the lifelong pain caused by unresolved sin.

2. Because your lies may actually be hurting someone you love more than the truth would.

3. Because living a life of integrity in God's eyes is more important than a job.

4. Because you'll waste your life working on the image you want the world to have, of you, and miss God's purpose, for you.

5. Because we all have sin buried whether we want to admit it or not, and that unresolved sin will ultimately destroy everything in our lives. I can speak to this one personally because I lived it out for 37 years before this exact thing happened to my life.

Unresolved sin is like a computer virus, it's hidden deep down inside, and it's slowly destroying the hard drive of your life. Yes it will be painful to take out, but not as painful as it will be if you don't.

Check out Larry's blog where we've been doing a Q&A on Relational Leadership this week. Today I answered this question; how important is Relational Leadership in Coaching?

John

Relational Leadership Question Pt 2

We are continuing with the discussion on Relational Leadership on my pastor bud Larry's blog. Check out how I answered this question.

What would you say are the keys to Relational Leadership building amongst a team?

Hope you're enjoying this exercise. Join the discussion on Larry's blog. It would be great to hear from some BAF folks.

John

Relational Leadership Questions Pt 1

Last week I told you I had answered 5 questions on Relational Leadership for a pastor bud of mine. Today on his blog he has the first question and my answer.

What is Relational Leadership?

You can find my answer on his blog.

Andy, Rick, Bill, Craig, TD, Ed, and Joel, were busy so Larry asked me. If you're in ministry you'll know who these people are and therefore get the joke.

John

Relational Leadership

If you know me you know that I am a big fan of leading relationally. I believe if you want to get volunteers to join you in pursuing God's purpose with all their hearts, they need to know you love them first. I try to always lead with my heart when it comes to the teams of great people God has blessed me with. I've actually begun outlining a book that will be done in the next ten years or so probably, called Relational Leadership: Leading God's People God's Way, Leading Like Jesus, Leading with Love, or who knows what, and for sure who knows when.

I've been talking Relational Leadership for a long time with one of my buds is a guy named Larry Boatright. Larry serves on staff at the Orchard which is just outside of Chicago. The Orchard is led by Scott Hodge. Larry has been hammering me to write or talk more on this subject, so he sent me 5 questions and asked me to answer them. Here are the five questions and the link to his blog where he will post my answers every day next week.

1. What is Relational Leadership?

2. What would you say are the keys to relationship building amongst a team?

3. How important is Relational Leadership in coaching?

4. What about people who aren't naturally relational in nature, can they still lead in a relational way?

5. Give some examples of practical ways a leader can invest relationally in their team leaders? 

Check out Larry's blog today and next week and you'll see how I answered these questions.

John

BAF 5 Points Campus Video

This was a video done just before the Grand Opening at our 5 Points Campus. We're several months into the launch and the campus is doing great. Each week we take on a new project to get the campus looking even better. I asked the campus pastor Jason Curlee to make a new video of the campus and I'll post that when he gets it to me.

Over the next few weeks I want to have a video for each of the three campuses posted here so everyone can see what is going on in the BAF Multi Site mministry. My buddy Larry Boatright who works at the Orchard Church outside of Chicago, has been hammering me to get something on line for people to see. So today I had Jason Curlee show me how to get this one up. Hope you enjoy it.

John

The Most Important Leadership Quality

There are many things a leader must have to be successful, but nothing in my opinion, is as important as Integrity. None of the other leadership gifts have any value what so ever, if the leader does not have integrity.

The lack of integrity however, will define our leadership and our lives!

1. We must have integrity in our faith, or we'll change the Word of God to fit us, instead of changing us to fit the Word of God.

2.Without integrity, we'll be able to see pride in others, while missing it in ourselves.

3. Without integrity, we'll challenge others to live lives of purity, while in the privacy of our own homes we'll fail at it.

4. Without integrity, we'll pursue our own desires, instead of pursing God's desires for us.

5. Without integrity, we'll bend the truth so it will fit in the world as we want it to be, instead of living and leading in a world defined by GODS standard of truth.

6 Without integrity in our marriages, everything we love and hold close, we'll still love, but it won't be close for us to hold any more.

7. Without integrity in our leadership, everything we love and hold close, we'll still love, but it won't be ours to hold close any more.

Bottom line folks, without integrity, we have nothing.

John

Are You Really Walking with God?

This ones will tick some people off, but I've never run from a fight in my life so I'll just stand on God's truth on this one too.

It seems to me that far too many Christians lives are full of excuses as to why they're not doing what God's Word says to do. American Christianity is far to easy, especially compared to most places in the world where Christians put their lives on the line ever day simply because they believe in Jesus. I'm not saying I wish we had to put our lives on the line every day, even though it would probably make us appreciate Jesus more, what I'm saying is why aren't we willing to at least make some significant sacrifices for His Kingdom? I've heard all the excuses, no time, family, work, health, finances...blah blah blah. What if Jesus would have said to the world, "I would love to die on the cross for your sins, but between work and family, I really just don't have time."

So what am I talking about?

1) Why does the 80/20 rule seem to cross all denominational Christian barriers? If you don't know what that is,it means that 20% of the people in churches do 80% of the work. Why aren't Christian's in larger numbers even willing to do the basic requirement of service in Christ's church? You don't think this is a problem, call any church in America and ask them if they have all the servants they need!

2) In Malachi 3 God says we are to give the first 10% of what God has blessed us with back to His Church. Why do recent studies show that only 2% of those who claim to be Christians, tithe the full 10% the God commands us to give? How bad is this problem, almost every church leader I know is struggling to make ends meet, and most have very little money left for evangelism and outreach. Why is that, because 20% of the people at most churches are paying the way for the rest of the people who just attend. Is that an absolute in every single church in this country, I don't know for sure, but what I do know is, it's a huge problem in way to many.

3) God tells us we are to love the widows and orphans, and take care of those less fortunate than us. Why then is it so hard to get anyone to show up when there's an opportunity to serve those folks? Why are so few people willing to give to a cause larger than themselves. How many church leaders are left standing alone in a parking lot waiting for enough people to show up to something they said they would show up for?

4) God tells us we are not to go it alone, then why doesn't every church in American have 90% of their people in a small group sharing life together? Knowing that God wants everyone to have people in their lives, why is it like pulling teeth to get someone in a small group to leave and start of new group for all those who don't have one? Selfishness maybe? You tell me.

5) Why do most people who call themselves Christians have very little idea what the Bible says about what Jesus says we are to do?

The answer to #5 is the answer to the other questions. Either the majority of Christians have no clue what Jesus said before He gave His life for a bunch of sinners who did nothing to deserve that sacrifice, or they just don't care. Here's a question, are you a part of the problem, or the solution? Here's how you will know. This will only bother those who are not serving, giving, and sacrificing for the Kingdom of God.

In America we have taken the word Christian, and turned it into a noun, when it was always meant to be a verb. Jesus didn't tell us to go and talk about, or go and forward on our computers, or go and think about, He told us to "Go and do." Every time someone lam blasts me for not forwarding some Christian email they sent me, I just want to ask them, when was the last time you got out from behind your computer and went and did something for God's people that required more sacrifice than pushing a button on your computer?

God is not asking us to talk and act like "Christians" folks, he asking us to become fully devoted followers of His Son Jesus Christ, and thankfully He left us a guide to tell us how to do it. To be a devoted follower of Christ, we have to read what Jesus said the requirements are, and then "go and do" them. Wearing a cross on your neck or on your belongings, praying at meals or at bedtime, going to church, and talking about God, are all great, but they will not by themselves grow you into a devoted follower of Jesus Christ. Sacrificing your time, your money, your safety, your comforts, or your selfish desires, for the cause of Jesus, is what makes you His devoted follower.

What are you "doing," that shows the world you are a fully devoted follower of Jesus Christ?

John

Is Multi Site the Future of the Church?

I hear that question being thrown around a lot these days, so what's the answer. For me the answer is yes, multi site is a huge part of the future of the Church, but it's certainly not the only future of the church. The  House Church movement seems to be growing, coffee shop and theater churches are springing up everywhere, cell churches, on line churches, and churches that none of us have heard of yet, will all be a part of the future. So multi site is just one of many movements out there, but because I'm in the middle of it, it's filling my every thought. What strikes me most about the multi site movement, is how broad of a word multi site actually is.

I spent five days in South Carolina at Seacoast and I came away from that experience really pumped about the Multi Site Ministry here at BAF. But I also came away really excited because I realized that the term Multi Site was much broader than I had ever imagined. Just within Seacoast itself I saw different forms of the multi site vision. The campus in in Mt Pleasant couldn't be any different from the North Charleston Campus, yet they're both Seacoast, and they both feel like Seacoast. Greg and Geoff Surratt really have something special going on in SC and we learned a lot from them.

Then I got to hear the multi site vision of Healing Place Church in Louisiana, and their vision is both different from Seacoast's, and different even within their own ministry. They've started a Dream Center in Donaldson LA, while at the same time planting two Healing Place Churches in Africa. Multi Site means something completely different at Healing Place Church than it does at Seacoast, yet they're both multi site churches. Pastor Dino Rizzo is a man on mission to take Jesus Christ to the world any way they can and I learned a lot from him.

Then I got to hear about National Community Church from Mark Batterson, who by the way is one of the nicest guys I have ever met, and their multi site vision is unique in itself. They now meet, and plan to keep meeting, in theaters around the DC area. Different leaders, different styles of churches, different multi site plans, but with the same goals, to reach the lost for Jesus and expand His Kingdom.

Tell me about your churches vision for multi site. Taking over the BAF Multi Site Ministry has been a huge blessing to me. I think about this stuff constantly and I can't wait to start the next site. This is a new direction and I see how it's going to be a catalyst for life change all over South Texas and beyond.

I want to learn from you so shoot me an email or comment and let me know what the multi site vision looks like at your church. Next week I'll talk about the many blessing from starting two new sites this summer and going from two to four sites total, as well as the struggles and how multi site growth will change things.

John 

Life Lessons from the Tube

So here's the deal, and this is not easy for me to admit, but I'm seriously claustrophobic. You see I have this tough guy image I try to maintain and admitting to fear is a huge blow to my ego, because I don't really allow fear to be a driving force in my life. If you read my post yesterday you know I was going to have an MRI. To a guy who is claustrophobic, being crammed into a tiny tube for forty minutes for an MRI, is maybe one of the worst places on earth to be. I'm a big guy too, so it's tight in that tube made for tiny people.

I've had four MRI's now and every one of them has been horrible, and frankly I have been dreading the MRI more than the upcoming surgery. So I decided to pray my way through this event and trust God to carry me through. So I get there and of course they stuffed me in the tube, and I do mean stuffed, so I closed my eyes and began praising God and praying for anyone and everyone. For the first 25 minutes I was fine because I was really talking to God. There was literally zero fear for the first 25 minutes. 

Then for some reason my attention went away from God, and on to me, and the minute that happened, I felt a rush of fear pour over my body that made me want out of that tube more than anything I have ever wanted in my life. My heart rate went off the charts and I had chills all over my body, and every part of me wanted to scream at the tech to get me out of that tube. But instead I just took some deep breaths and started focusing back on God and asking him to help me past this, and over the next few minutes my heart rate went down and the fear left, and I was able to finish.

I have never had an event in my life that gave me a clearer understanding of what it means to lose my focus on God. I walked away from that MRI understanding better than I ever have what it means to keep God first in every thought and action in my life, and what the consequences are when that focus slips.

Isn't it funny how God uses situations like this to teach you something you really already know, but He wants you to understand at a deeper level. How much could my life and ministry change if I would just learn to keep focused on Jesus. With so much going on around us in the world, it's so easy to lose that focus, but when your trapped, it always becomes so much clearer how much we need Jesus.

Are you trapped, are you living in fear, do you feel like you're stuck in life's MRI tube, maybe the answer is as simple as just focusing on Jesus again. It worked for me!

John

You Think I Would Learn

Is it just me, or do some of you find yourselves still asking God to forgive you for things you should already have learned a long time ago? I may just be a seriously big bonehead and you all may have it down, but man I get frustrated with myself when I see God having to reteach me the same thing over and over.

So here's the deal; about three months ago I traded off my old Suburban because it was pushing 150,000 miles and was nickel and dimeing me to death. I got a 2004 Suburban with low mileage to replace the old one because I was tired of spending so much money on it. So I have this thing a few months with no problems, but two days ago I walk out to go to work and it won't start. Lately it's felt like the Enemy has been pretty focused on messing with me, and this event ended up being the crowning blow it took to set me off, which means his focus worked, something that just flat ticks me off because I hate it when he gets even the smallest victories. So I'm sitting there in my new truck that won't start, because the fuel pump is out, and in GM's infinite wisdom they put the pump inside the gas tank, that's covered with half a Suburban, and costs a small fortune to change, sorry I digress, so I'm sitting there being frustrated with God because He should know how tight things are, being infuriated at the stupid truck, and my choice to buy it, and basically feeling pretty darn sorry for myself. So how does "Pastor John" react to this situation, he has a hissy fit that ends with him throwing a handful of mail across the kitchen. Now bear in mind folks that I'm a man with a calling on my life to serve the Lord in full time professional ministry, a ministry mind you, that includes counseling people on issues, well, very much like this one. 

So I call Pastor Dave for a ride to church, and as soon as I get to church I pull out my Bible and journal, because I obviously needed to pray. So what doe's God do while I'm praying about my meltdown, He reminds me of my visit to see Pastor Brian the day before who is in the hospital suffering from ALS and has breathing and feeding tubes in him. Picture all the blood in your body rushing out of you all at once, that's exactly what it felt like. Talk about a lesson in humility.

Dave and I were joking the other day about whether there was going to be a time in our lives when God might be able to start teaching us some things in a little less painful manner. I guess for me at least, it seems like maybe God will start treating me like and grown up Christian, when I start acting like one.

Some would say were sinners living in a broken world, and because of that things like this are just bound to happen, and while that may be true on some level, trusting God no matter what the situation, is a lesson God has proven himself faithful in my life way too many times for me to have reacted this way. See I don't think God wants my excuses, I believe He just wants me to man up and get this down once and for all. 

So here's a tough question for you; what is it in your life that God wants you to get down once and for all?

John

Taking Things for Granted

If you read this blog you know that our Pastoral Care Pastor, Brian Crown, is suffering from the effects of Lou Gehrig's disease. A year ago he was perfectly healthy, and today he's barely holding on. Going through this with the Crown family has made me wonder if there are things in my life that I take for granted. 

As I thought through the question of whether I take things for granted, it actually prompted another question; do I also feel entitled to certain things. It's funny how hardship kicks in your humility meter isn't it. 

Here's some things I never want to take for granted:

1. Being born in the United States.

2. The amazing mother and father that raised me.

3. My beautiful and wonderful wife, and our family.

4. My twin 16 year old sons living their lives for Christ in a world where most of the students around them are not.

5. Our home.

6. My calling from God.

7. Electricity, food, clothing, transportation, sewage.

8. The freedom to worship as I please.

9. My health, and the best system of health care in the world to support it.

10. The many freedoms this country offers.

11. My job here at BAF.

So which of those am I actually entitled to?

I'm not entitled to being born in the US, the family that raised me, my wife and family, my home, my job here at the church, my health, my freedoms, electricity, food, clothing, transportation, sewage, or anything else. Brian's struggle has reminded that every single thing I have, I have because God has chosen to bless me with it, and the moment I begin to feel entitled to these things, or take them for granted, they can be taken away as fast as they were given. 

John

Devouring Our Own

About a year ago there was an article written in the Corpus Christi Caller Times about our church. It was actually a great article that did a good job of describing the heart of Bay Area Fellowship. The next day that same article ran on the on-line version of the Caller Times, but this one had a place for comments. I was not surprised, but still saddened, by how many "Christians" decided to not only publicly criticize our church and it's leadership, but to attack other churches, some by name, who weren't even mentioned in the article. 

I got past getting my feelings hurt by "Christian" critics who attack our church a long time ago, but I don't think I will ever get over how it makes me feel when I see Christians using all kinds of public media to criticize other Christians. With the direction the world is headed today, seems like we would be too busy fighting the battle the Enemy is waging to have time devour each other, apparently that's not the case. If you don't believe me, watch me get devoured for this post.

Why do so many Christians feel the need, or feel like they have the authority, to publicly attack other churches and leaders who don't do things the same way they do? And what does God think about Christians who appoint themselves as judge and jury over His churches?

Here's what the Bible says about this in Acts 5:38-39

"So my advice is, leave these men alone. If they are teaching and doing these things merely on their own, it will soon be overthrown. But if it is of God, you will not be able to stop them. You may even find yourselves fighting against God."

I don't know about you, but this scripture tells me, if a church or leader is off course, GOD will deal with them! 

I would hope we might ask ourselves this question next time before we publicly criticize another Christian or Church;

If I was 100% sure, that a lost person was going to use one of my nasty public comments attacking another Christian or church as their justification for not choosing to follow Jesus Christ, would I still write that comment? 

The lost are watching us, and their hypocrisy meters are scanning our lives, and when we devour our own, we give them a reason to stay lost! 

I'm not sure who wrote this comment but it's one that will stick in my heart forever.

"The person you love the least, is how you love Jesus."

Wow, that one hits home!

John