RECAP: Why is Grace launching a second campus

I just completed a 6 part blog series about why we at Grace Church have decided to launch another location in Harbor Creek on Easter Sunday, 2011.  I just wanted to get some links all in one place for those who may want to peruse the posts. God is at work and we're excited to see what He has in store for us as our journey continues as a community of faith!


Part 1: What motivated us to start a new campus?
Part 2: What are the advantages of starting new campuses?
Part 3: Why did we choose Harbor Creek?
Part 4: What unacceptable realities fuel this effort?
Part 5: What guidelines are we using to help us launch a church from scratch?
Part 6: Why are we using sermons on video?


We're 6 days away from launch and I couldn't be more excited.  The team is ready, the word is out, big prayers have been prayed, now we're just waiting for God to show up in power when this new expression of Grace Church convenes for the first time.  




  

Why is Grace Launching a Second Campus? Part 6

Why video preaching??  I have been posting some thoughts on why Grace is launching a second campus in Harborcreek this Easter.  This is the 6th and final post in the series. Today's post has to do with one of the more progressive decisions that we made about this new campus.  We will do the majority of our preaching through the use of video.  Everything else in the service will be live - we have a full band that will lead in musical worship each week, and service hosts who will welcome people, and a designated campus pastor who will provide leadership, counseling, and supplemental teaching to that congregation.  It will be a live (and lively) worship gathering - and when it comes time for the sermon it will be via video on a large screen.  So I want to answer a series of questions today that flow from the larger question:

Why Use Sermons on Video?  

Isn't video impersonal?
Attending church at one of our campuses will be a very personal experience.  Ushers and greeters will greet personally, our campus pastor (Pastor Mike Watson) and worship leaders will personalize every aspect of the service, and the video sermon will just be another resource that they will use to bring the gospel to every person who walks through the doors. But it's true that video can feel impersonal.  We've tried to counteract that by the way we do video.  I think it allows for the most personalized of all video approaches.  We pre-record the sermon video earlier in the week specifically for our campuses.  I much prefer this method over just recording one of our other services where there are people in the room, because it allows us to personalize the message to the people who are watching via video and to look right at the camera the whole time.  The people watching the video don't feel like they're just overhearing us as I talk to somebody else, but we're talking directly to them.   

Why come watch a screen when I could watch church on TV from my couch?

This question is based on a grossly underdeveloped view of what church is supposed to be.  If someone thinks that the sum total, the sole purpose, of going to church is listening to a 30 minute sermon then Grace is probably not the church for them... we set the bar much higher than that.  The truth is, you can't live in deep community with others on your couch, you can't utilize your God-given spiritual gifts on your couch, you can't participate in life-giving worship on your couch, you can't serve the community with other believers on your couch.  Church is so much more than a sermon!  When we invite people to church we are inviting them into Biblical community and to be part of the great cause of Christ in our generation. The sermon is just one very small component of that experience. If you come to Grace you won't stay a spectator for long - the stakes are too high!

How can you possibly address specific needs of a congregation via video?

This will be an ongoing responsibility of our campus pastor.  He will still be a prophetic voice in his congregation. If there are specific needs that must be addressed in his congregation, he will have the freedom to address them in a variety of ways.  

• There will be mini-teaching moments in each service in which he can address particular topics.  
• He will have freedom to stand up after each video sermon and help the congregation to process through the application of each message.  
• Each campus pastor will be part of our preaching planning team and so the needs of each location will be taken into account as we plan series. 
• He will have regular opportunities to preach live at his location at which time he can craft and nuance the message to the specific needs of his congregation.  

However, all that being said, truth is truth.  The Word of God is the Word of God.  There is a little nuancing that needs to happen based on congregations - but if I write a sermon based on the Bible I could generally take that message and deliver it in Erie, Warren, Pittsburgh, Los Angeles, Haiti, etc. And the Word of God remains constant and true. It reminds me of a passage in 1 Corinthians 10:13 that says, "no temptation has seized you except what is common to man."  There is a commonality to our experience in this life that the word of God addresses with amazing accuracy.

Aren't you just jumping on the bandwagon and trying every new fangled idea?

We definitely want to utilize all available technology for the advancement of the gospel.  Throughout history, the church has leveraged available technology for this purpose.  The invention of the printing press dramatically affected the Reformation by getting the Bible into the hands of individuals.  The Apostle Paul utilized the latest available technology, letter writing, messengers, and circular letters to advance the gospel.  These circular letters were teachings and admonitions that were intended for multiple different churches (similar to our video teaching).  One church would read the letter and then it would be sent on to the next church in the region. I'm convinced that if Paul had access to video technology he would have used it to the hilt!  If the early church had said, “we’re not going to listen to Paul through his letters, he has to be here in person,” the church would be in a whole different place. 

Isn't this just about Grace or about Derek trying to build an empire?  

This gets a little chuckle out of me because I shudder to think of how pathetic and insignificant a 'Grace Church empire' or a 'Derek Sanford empire' would be compared to the actual Kingdom of God being advanced!  This one is a simple 'no.'  Our goal with this initiative is to reach more people with the gospel - and we believe to the bottom of our souls that this is the best way to do it.  It's important to note that we will still be using a team preaching approach.  So some weeks I will be on screen but other weeks it will be Brian, Mike, Al and others. This isn't about building an empire around one personality, but simply using the technology available to us to reach more people. 

Some benefits of video preaching:

• Unity –it’s important to us that there be a unified preaching voice at Grace.  Nothing will hold us together like the unified proclamation of the word of God. We will be in the same sermon series most of the time, studying the same scriptures and having conversations around the same truths from God's word. This is one of the ways that our church in multiple locations can stay connected with one another. 
• Wisest use of the Campus Pastor's time and energies - video preaching allows the campus Pastor to focus more time and energy on pastoring and leading his new congregation. We want to utilize our Pastors to their full ministry capacity.  The average sermon takes 15-20 hours to study, write, and deliver. So, to have 2 different pastors duplicating efforts each week in sermon preparation isn't the best use of our resources.  There is too much ministry to be done for us to be duplicating efforts.
• Supporting resources - Having all campuses receiving the same sermon content allows us to write excellent materials (small group studies and individual studies) based on that sermon that can then be utilized at all campuses. You can check out some samples of these supporting materials here.  If we had different sermons going on at all of our locations it would be too difficult to keep up with quality support resources.
• Clarity - We currently use video preaching in our Commons Service at our Grace McKean campus and one of the positive responses we have gotten is the ability to see facial expressions and emotion on the screen that you can't see when it's live and in a larger room.  Studies show that over 63% of communication is non-verbal (hands, eyebrows, facial expressions).  So the larger image allows the person watching to pick up on some of those communication cues that they would miss in the larger room.   

We are excited about this initiative. We believe with our whole hearts that this is what God is calling us to do.  On Easter Sunday 2011 - the adventure begins.

Why is Grace Launching a Second Campus? Part 5

I have been posting some thoughts on why Grace is launching a second campus in Harborcreek this spring.  Today's post is for you ministry strategy geeks.  It's an inside look at some of the structural grids we have used to think through how our two campuses will operate and how they will remain unified despite their differences.


1. IPOD's
This was a concept that we borrowed from a book that our team read together called A Multi Site Church Road Trip.  It is a grid that helped us to think through what programming we would offer at our Harbor Creek Campus and in what order of priority. The acronym stands for:

• I - Initial (programs that we will offer in full at launch)
• P - Priority (programs that we will offer within the first 12 months)
• O - Optional (programs that we will offer as we are able)
• D - Discouraged (programs that we never intend to offer)

Then we listed out all of our ministry areas and passed them through this grid.  So, we looked at  Worship, Tech, Staff, Guests, Groups, Kids, Students, College/Young Adults, Community/Missions, Facility, Budget, Preaching, Communications, Volunteers, Adult Education, etc. and decided what we needed at launch, what we needed within the first year, what we would offer as we were able and what we would never do.  This construct was very helpful in thinking through the scope of our programming.


2. Alignment vs. Contextualization
This is a grid that we learned from my buddy Dan Nold at Calvary Baptist Church in State College.  It's basically an acknowledgement that when you launch a new multi site campus some energy comes from alignment with the launching church and some energy comes from the freedom in contextualizing ministry for the particular community that you're in.  Some multi site approaches like LifeChurch and Newspring tend to lean toward alignment while others lean toward contextualization (almost to the point of a church plant). We want to walk this balance.  To seek alignment where it makes sense so our campuses don't have to re-invent the wheel in different areas.  But also, to seek contextualization where it makes sense - so that they can use strategies to reach the Harbor Creek area that are different than the strategies we are using to reach McKean/Millcreek.

Alignment and contextualization are two wheels on the same axel.  If you only have one you’ll be going around in circles. Some things that bring alignment are vision, mission, values, whole-church events, and words/names that are used to describe programs and ministries. Some things that bring contextualization are methodologies, community-specific events, worship service elements, etc.

3. The 5 C's of Clarity

This final construct speaks to how decisions are made between campuses. We are very clear that for the ministry staff at Grace Harbor Creek authority flows vertically through the Campus Pastor (Mike Watson), and influence flows horizontally through ministry counterparts at Grace McKean.  But how do ministry decisions get made on a day to day, week to week basis?  We've come up with the 5 C's of Clarity.

• COLLABORATION - the first stop is just to collaborate with ministry counterparts at Grace McKean.  Most decisions will be made at this level.  Children's team leaders from Grace Harbor Creek will meet regularly with Children's team leaders at Grace McKean and most of the week to week decision making will happen at this level.
• CONSTANTS - if there is not clarity on a particular decision from simple collaboration - teams will consult our campus constants.  Each ministry has a list of 3-5 constants which are ministry values that will carry through to all campuses. This constants contain the basic ministry philosophy for each department and should clear up most decisions.
• CHURCHES - we are developing a list of mentoring churches - one for each ministry area - who are also doing multi site church.  If there is still cloudiness about a decision that needs to be made in, say, our guest services ministry department, they will have a mentoring church contact that they can email and ask what that church does in this particular instance.  There is no reason for us to re-invent the wheel when so many other churches are doing multi site ministry successfully.
• CAMPUS PASTOR - there are some decisions that will need to come to the Campus Pastor to make a call on.  He will have a finger on the pulse of both the church and the community and should be able to be a final tie-breaker in any decision that is having trouble coming to resolution.
• CENTRAL STAFF - finally some of our staff will be acting in a central role. That is - they will not have duties associated to only one specific campus but will have responsibilities to all campuses equally.  This small team will serve as a leadership team over the whole multi site movement at Grace. The Campus Pastor will be able to come to this team at any time for counsel or advice on specific ministry decisions that will affect the whole church. There will be times when this team has to weigh in on decisions because they will have church-wide implications.

Feel free to post any thoughts or questions and I'll be happy to interact with you.  And if you're a church leader who is considering going multi site let me know.  We've learned a lot through this process and have gathered tons of information and are very willing to share!


On Easter Sunday 2011, Grace Church will launch a second campus in Harborcreek, PA.  We will meet at the Harborcreek High School at 11:00 AM each Sunday.

  

Why is Grace Launching a Second Campus? Part 4

I will be posting some thoughts throughout the next week on why Grace is launching a second campus in Harborcreek this spring.  Today I want to very simply put forward a few statistics that as a Pastor in America - I'm having a hard time swallowing without doing something about it.  These stats come from a class that I took last summer at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School in Chicago called "Church Planting Boot camp."  

3 UNACCEPTABLE STATISTICS

1. During the past 30 years on average 4,000 churches close their doors each year while only 1,500 new churches start.  This is called 'losing ground'
2. The 3rd Largest Mission Field in the world is the U.S. (next to India and China) with 200,000,000 un-churched people.
3. If we continue to follow current trends, by 2050 there will be half the number of professing Christians in the United States as there are right now.

Not on our watch...

On Easter Sunday 2011, Grace Church will launch a second campus in Harborcreek, PA.  We will meet at the Harborcreek High School at 11:00 AM each Sunday.

Why is Grace Launching a Second Campus? Part 3

I will be posting some thoughts throughout the next week on why Grace is launching a second campus in Harborcreek this spring.  Today I answer the question, "Why did we choose Harborcreek?"  

WHY HARBORCREEK?

1. We believe God is calling us there

Again, not to over-spiritualize, but from the first moment that we began to discuss a second campus, it was as if God was burdening our heart for the Harborcreek area.  So we started the ball rolling.  But any exploration of demographics, community studies, etc. came after we had already decided to go there.  The decision to launch in Harborcreek has been confirmed every step of the way - most recently in meeting with a number of pastors from the Harborcreek area.  The reception from them has been great and the possibility of partnering with some of those churches is strong.  There are a number of good and healthy churches already in Harborcreek, but still loads of people to reach (see #3 below).

2. There are lots of current Grace families who come from there.

Our best estimate is that we have 162 families from the Harborcreek area who call Grace their church home. Currently these families are driving 15-20 miles each way to come to church. Instead we're going to bring church to them!  We're not assuming that all of those people will attend Grace Harborcreek, however many of them will. And it's much easier to fully enter in to the life of a church if you don't have to drive across town to get there!  These families give us a good starting place - and they're also an indicator of the kind of people we might reach out to in Harborcreek.

3. There are too many people in Harborcreek without a church home.

Our studies indicate that there are approximately 25,000 people within a 10 mile radius from the center of town in Harborcreek who don't have a church home.  We're hoping to put a dent in that number...


On Easter Sunday 2011, Grace Church will launch a second campus in Harborcreek, PA.  We will meet at the Harborcreek High School at 11:00 AM each Sunday. 

Why is Grace Launching a Second Campus? Part 2

I will be posting some thoughts throughout the next week on why Grace is launching a second campus in Harborcreek this spring.  Today I answer the question, "Why would we launch a new campus instead of, say, starting an additional worship service or even planting a church?"  

WHAT ARE THE ADVANTAGES OF STARTING NEW CAMPUSES?

1. A multi-site approach to starting new campuses leverages our strength. 

We can build on the strengths of an existing healthy church at Grace McKean.  So we will utilize central leadership (Elders), centralized budgeting, centralized preaching and teaching, centralized communications (website, printing, etc.), centralized systems and processes, centralized administrative support (phone, supplies, publications, etc.) while at the same time allowing for freedom in innovation to specifically reach the Harborcreek community. For the new campus, some energy comes from alignment and some energy comes from contextualization.  So where it makes sense, we'll align and where it makes sense we'll contextualize to specifically reach Harborcreek.  Multi-site campuses have a much more healthy success rate (nearly 90% survivability) than church plants. 

2. Starting new campuses is the most effective way to reach new people.  

There is a direct link between the age of the church and the effectiveness of reaching out to un-churched people.  

• 3:1 - In churches 3 years and younger it takes three people to reach one un-churched person on average.  
• 7:1 - In churches between 3-10 years old it takes seven people to reach one.
• 89:1 - In churches ten years or older it takes 89 people to reach one un-churched person.  

On average for established churches (older than 10 years) it takes $100,000, 100 people, and 1 year to reach 1 person for Jesus. They gain the vast majority of new members by transfer growth from other congregations.  By contrast, the average new campus (younger than 3 years) gains most of its new members (60-80%) from the ranks of people who are not attending any other church.  

3. Launching a new campus forces us to develop new leaders

One of the traps a church can fall into - even a growing and thriving church - is to keep asking the same people to do all the work.  The same names keep emerging on every list to lead ministries.  Starting Grace Harborcreek is forcing us to develop leaders.  New leaders will run ministries in Harborcreek and new leaders will need to replace the nearly 100 people who will be leaving Grace McKean in April.  We're throwing ourselves into this new initiative and new leaders must step up and we must equip them for ministry.  Every church labors to develop and disciple new leaders, but new congregations do it faster.  They have to. 




On Easter Sunday 2011, Grace Church will launch a second campus in Harborcreek, PA.  We will meet at the Harborcreek High School at 11:00 AM each Sunday.

Why is Grace Launching a Second Campus? Part 1

I will be posting some thoughts throughout the next week on why Grace is launching a second campus in Harborcreek this spring.  Today I answer the question, "Why?"  

WHAT MOTIVATED US TO START A NEW CAMPUS?

1.  God is leading us to do it.  

The leaders of Grace believe that this is what God is calling us to do at this time.  This may sound overly spiritualized - but it is absolutely the leading reason.  Our staff and Elders have been in a season of waiting prayer for over 2 years now - and we are in 100% agreement that the time is right to take this step.  This move is fully in line with our mission, 'to make and to be fully devoted followers of Christ.' We believe that at this point in time the best way to reach people who don’t yet know Christ is to start new campuses. God has confirmed this decision dozens of times and in amazing ways during the past 6 months.  The time is right. 

2. Grace is ready to do it.

Grace Church is ready – we are resourced to accomplish a new campus on many levels.  The giftings and the spirit of our people are evident.  We have risk takers, many potential new leaders, an abundance of talent, and a church at Grace McKean with solid staff leadership who can resource the ministry staff at a Grace Harborcreek.  Our church stepped up during a fundraising effort this December and raised $100,000 to get this new campus off the ground. Pastor Mike Watson - who will serve as the Campus Pastor at Grace Harborcreek - has been on our staff for nearly 15 years and is so ready to do this!  He will carry the Grace DNA and is ready to lead the charge.

3. We are rejecting the temptation to coast.

Grace moved in to our new facility just over 3 years ago.  It was such a monumental effort and was such a relief when we finally arrived. We took a big risk.  The tendency in churches is to not take another big risk for a while. Just relax, enjoy the fruits of your labors, soak it in for a while and coast. We refuse to coast.  Grace has a long history of playing offense and not defense and we want to carry on that tradition.  We want to keep pressing forward, keep taking risks, keep making sacrifices to reach more people.  The gospel is worth it. 

On Easter Sunday 2011, Grace Church will launch a second campus in Harborcreek, PA.  We will meet at the Harborcreek High School at 11:00 AM each Sunday.