I was in Dallas recently assisting with one of Leadership Network’s Innovation Labs.  Innovation Labs are designed to help you overcome the common obstacles to innovative thinking and problem solving in developing a ministry area.  

Is your church looking for the chance to explore new ideas and discover a new path? Do you sometimes feel caught between ideas and action? You’re not alone. That’s why Leadership Network has developed The Innovation Lab, a unique environment designed to help you overcome the common obstacles to innovative thinking and problem solving in developing a ministry area.

JumpStart Innovation Labs are designed to give you a quick start in a ministry area, based on the proven results of others.  Leadership Network is launching the two new multi-site jumpstart labs in 2010.   If you are interested or know of someone that might be, email Greg Ligon at greg.ligon@leadnet.org.  In the video below Greg shares the vision of these labs.

A while back I asked my friend DJ Chuang, Director of Leadership Community and Digital Initiatives at Leadership Network, to shoot a video for our Leading Multisite Social Network Community and talk about the recent movement of Internet Campuses.   In this video DJ explains what an internet campuses is and some of the benefits of this new approach to ministry.  While many still question the method it’s undeniable that it’s a growing trend and reaching people in this age of social media.   Multi-site expert Jim Tomberlin speaking of the future of Internet Campus says, “It’s no longer just a megachurch phenomenon. Any tech-savvy, outreach-oriented church, regardless of size, can and will reach into cyberspace. 2010 will bring an explosion of Internet campuses”  Scroll below the video for resources on Internet Campus ministry.

If you’re interested in learning more about Internet Campus Ministry here are a few resources you may find helpful:

• Chapter 6 of The Multisite Road Trip titled Internet Campuses – Virtual or Real or Reality.  You can read this chapter free by CLICKING HERE.  Also if you would like to win a free digital copy of this book post a comment on this post and we will put you in a drawing and I will announce the winner on Friday under this post.
• A Leadership Network webinar titled “A Closer Look at Internet Campuses” features presentations from Brandon Donaldson (LifeChurch.tv) and Brian Vasil (Flamingo Road Church). Watch the webinar video at http://vimeo.com/8020661 and refer to show notes at http://bit.ly/icwns
• Another webinar titled “Multi-Site Goes Digital: What’s happening with internet campuses” featured 4 churches: LifeChurch, McLean Bible, Northland, and Seacost. Watch the webinar video at http://vimeo.com/2457526
• Tony Morgan’s Blog Post Titled If It’s an Internet Campus is it Still Church?  CLICK HERE
• Here is an interview with Troy Gramling, Lead Pastor at Flamingo Road Church in Flordia discussing their Internet Campus CLICK HERE.
• The Visual Studio – This organization can help you with every aspect of establishing an internet church campus, whether you’re looking for a turnkey solution or you simply need consulting to guide you through the myriad of choices and services available.
• Want to give an Internet Campus a try click on any of the following links to check out these churches Seacoast Church, McClean Bible Church, Flamingo Road Church, Lifechurch.tv , Saddleback Church, Faith Promise Church,  Barefoot Church, Richmond Community Church, The Church at South Las Vegas, Liquid Church, Journey Church, Gateway Church, Pineridge Church, Abundant Life Church, and The Church at Chapel Hill to name a few.

What churches are you aware of that have an Internet Campus?  Have you ever attended an Internet Campus service?

I had the chance recently to spend some time with Matt Fry, lead pastor at C3 Church in Clayton, NC.  Matt is a dynamic leader who God has used to lead C3 to some amazing growth over the past 11 years.  In this video Matt shares about C3’s recent decision to go Multi-site and what he’s learned on this journey.  Scroll down below the video for My Takeaways from the video.  You can follow Matt on Twitter at @mattfry, check out C3’s website at www.c3church.com and make sure you stop by his blog at www.mattfry.com.

My Takeaways

• One of the major factors that can keep a church from growing is the size of the facility.  If the box is not big enough you can only hold so many people and limit your growth.
• Multi-site is a strategic way to help your church grow and reach your community when you’re limited by facilities or finances.
• There’s no one way of doing multi-site.  Learn all you can from those doing it and then go with what God gives you.  If you need some support, ideas and answers make sure you check out our Multi-site Social Networking Community www.leadingmultisite.ning.com where you can connect with and learn from over 600 multi-site leaders.
• When you decide to go multi-site make sure you count the cost.  While there are many long term gains, there are some short term pains.  Some of your core people leave to go help start the new campus.  It takes time to back fill, but the void opens up opportunities for those who have been on the sidelines to get into the game.
• Multi-site takes dollars, resources and leadership.
• I loved it when Matt said, “People are getting saved watching me on video at our multi-site campus!”  Multi-site is another strategic approach to evangelism.  Over 2000 Churches today have multiple campuses.

If you enjoyed Matt’s story make sure you tweet him a word of encouragement @mattfry.

My friend Sebastiaan Van Wessem came for a visit to Seacoast recently to learn more about multi-site ministry.  Sebastiaan is the lead pastor of Thousand Hills International Church in Hilversum, Netherlands.  This young pastor is one of the most teachable and hungry leaders I’ve ever meet, and God is using him to reach the lost in a very difficult territory.  Sebastiaan was one of the earliest members of our Leading Multisite Social Networking Community; when he heard about Seacoast mentor based approach to leadership development he implemented it right away; at a recent conference I watched as he hardly made it to sessions because he was so busy networking and learning from anyone he could talk to.  He  exemplifies the truth- when a leader remains teachable, he remains usable.  In this video interview Sebastiaan shares about Thousand Hills decision to go multi-site and what he’s learning along his multi-site journey. 

I had the chance to sit down recently with Pastor Jeff Leake from Allison Park Church near the Pittsburg area.  Jeff has a huge heart for leadership development and church planting.  In this video he shares some great insights about helping transfer values in the leadership development process.  Scroll down below the video to see my takeaways.

My Takeaways

• Values are more caught than taught
• Leadership development is the key  to transfering values
• Leaders have to be a part of a culture for a signficant time in order to really catch the values of an organization
• We must have intentional conversations with those we are developing about our DNA and values
• It’s not until a potential leader gets out on his own that his values are really tested
• We have to allow people to learn through failure
• It is essential that we keep an ongoing relationship of influence with those we have developed, coaching, encouraging and resourcing them.

Recently I had the opportunity to sit down and talk with Warren Bird. Warren who has a great heart for working with innovative pastors and church leaders, is Director of Research for Leadership Network. He oversees many of Leadership Network’s research initiatives, intellectual capital development, and internal publications.

Warren has authored many publications for Leadership Network. He has also collaboratively authored a number of books—a total of 19 at present—which includes his latest book The Multi-Site Road Trip, which is collaboratively authored with Geoff Surratt and Greg Ligon. You can find More titles are listed at www.warrenbird.com.

There are some interesting and exciting things in the works for the Leading Multisite Social Network Community. Find out more in this latest video. If you are a multisite leader and are interested in being a part of this Leadership Development project send me an email at maclake@seacoast.org

Many people may not realize this but while I work for Seacoast Church, I actually do not work for any one of the Seacoast campuses.  I serve in what we call Central Support. Central Support serves all our campuses by providing support, resources and training.  One of the questions we get on occasion is: How do you guys know what’s going on at all 13 of your campuses?  Well there are many ways we do this but probably the most interesting is the Seacoast Skybox.  In this video Shawn Wood, our Experiences Pastor, gives a glimpse of his very helpful high tech tool.

Seacoast Church Skybox from Maclake on Vimeo.

Two weeks ago I announced a new social networking community for multi-site leaders called Leading Multi-site.  Well after only two weeks the site now has over 300 members from 140 different churches.  The response has been overwhelming.

Here are three things that have surprised me:

1. The level of conversation taking place.  The members have started over 30 discussion forums with over 130 comments in less than two weeks.
2. There are churches from six different countries who have joined LM: USA, Canada, Netherlands, Portugal, United Kingdom and Australia. (So spread the word to your international multi-site friends)
3. More than just campus pastors and Multisite executives have joined the site.  Worship leaders, children’s pastors, youth pastors, technical directors and more have joined and started groups or conversations for their specific areas. 

Here are three desires for the site:

1. Multi-site is still a very young movement, so our desire is to see multi-site leaders sharing their learnings and discovering best practices.
2. We want to see multi-site leaders getting to know other multi-site leaders and building a sense of community and camaraderie. 
3. We want to see LM become a place where current and future multi-site leaders can develop their leadership skills.

Here are three prayer requests I would ask you to pray:

1. This week we are hosting a phone call with over 30 different churches asking them to join us in an effort to develop Leadership Training content for the site. 
2. As I have researched Ning (the platform LM is hosted on) I’m beginning to see we have only scratched the surface of the power of this tool  Pray that God will send someone who has technical expertise in Ning to help us take it to the next level.
3. Pray that multi-site churches will catch the vision of this collaborative effort because as more churches catch this vision the more multi-site leaders will be helped and become more effective in their efforts to reach the lost.

Here are four quotes from those who are using the site:

1. “Love this site, like a facebook for multisite peeps. Looking forward to connecting and learning from others here” – Mary
2. “We are just looking into the multi-site concept. We do have a video cafe on site and working out the video stuff for that, but haven’t ventured off site yet. I’m looking forward to learning a lot. Thanks tons for creating this community!” – Dave
3. “Thanks for starting this awesome group. I look forward to the growth in the church that this site is going to bring! It’s a fantastic tool.” – Nick
4. “This is exactly what I’ve been looking for since we launched. I have learned a lot but I know there’s so much still to learn.”  – Doug

What started as an odd little movement has now exploded into an all out church growth strategy.  I’m talking about Multi-site ministry.  If you’re not familiar with multi-site go to this wikipedia link to get up to speed.  Multi-site churches use video or satellite feeds from their original campus to send the weekend message to other locations, enabling churches to expand their reach far beyond what was previously possible. 

According to Todd Rhoades of Monday Morning Insight, an October 2005 US multi-site church conference released statistics regarding growth in the number of churches in the United States operating as multi-site:

• In 1990, there were 10 multi-site churches.
• In 1998, that number had expanded to about 100.
• In late 2005, there were more than 1,500 multi-site churches in the United States.
• In mid-2008, there are an estimated 2,000 multi-site churches across the US. Multi-site church pioneer Jim Tomberlin of Third Quarter Consulting predicts that every major city and large community in America will have many multi-campus churches by 2010.

With the expansion of multi-site there is a growing need for leadership development.  Many of these multi-site churches are growing so quickly that it makes developing leaders a challenge.  I was talking with another multi-site church recently and said, “You know what we need? We need a fraternity for Campus Pastors and Multi-site leaders where they can learn from one another and share best practices, a leadership development site for Multi-site leaders”  And with that an idea was born.  Today I want to introduce you to Leading Multisite social Networking Community.

If you are a Senior Pastor, a Campus Pastor or a staff person that supports the multi-site work of your church then this site is for you.  Our intent is to create a network where multi-site leaders can build friendships, ask questions, find answers, develop leaders, and identify best practices.  So stop by and check it out.   If you’re not a staff person or a multi-site leader no worries you don’t have to be a member to see the content.  However, we do respectfully ask you not to join. 

Leading Multi-site also has a twitter so you can follow us at http://twitter.com/leadingmultisit