Product Description

This book captures the story of a widespread movement of churches that are expanding their ministries to include multiple formats, venues, and locations, using dozens of in-the-trenches examples, identifying the primary reasons churches succeed as well as how they overcome common snags on the route to “one church—many congregations."

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #24576 in Books
• Published on: 2006-06-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 224 pages

From the Back Cover
Fueled by a desire to reach people for Christ, a revolution is underway. Churches are growing beyond the limitations of a single service in one building. Expanding the traditional model, they are embracing the concept of one church with more than one site: multiple congregations sharing a common vision, budget, leadership, and board. Drawing from the examples of churches nationwide, The Multi-Site Church Revolution shows what healthy multi-site churches look like and what motivates congregations to make the change. Discover how your church can:
• cast a vision for change
• ensure a successful DNA transfer (vision and core values) to its new site
• develop new leaders
• fund new sites
• adapt to structure and staffing change
• use technology to support your worship services

you’ll identify the reasons churches succeed and how they overcome common snags. The Multi-Site Church Revolution offers guidance, insights, and specific action steps as well as appendixes with practical leadership resources and self-diagnostic tools.

“I wholeheartedly recommend this book for any pastor or church leader who needs to know the pertinent issues, tested solutions, and real examples of multi-site strategies that are currently being deployed around the world.” —Ed Young, senior pastor, Fellowship Church “The authors have done their homework. They have firsthand knowledge of the successes and failures of this movement, having been networking with and facilitating dialogue among churches across the country for years.”

—Max Lucado, senior minister, Oak Hills Church “Look no further than this book to propel your ministry to Ephesians 3:20 proportions: exceeding abundantly above all that you could ever ask or think!”

—Randy and Paula White, senior pastors, Without Walls International Church This book is part of the Leadership Network Innovation Series.

About the Author
Geoff Surratt is executive pastor of Seacoast Church, a multisite congregation based in Charleston, South Carolina. Geoff helped oversee Seacoast's expansion from one site to twelve locations across three states and is one of the teaching pastors at the church. In addition to his work at Seacoast, Geoff has over twenty-five years of ministry experience in a variety of roles in local churches, and he is coauthor of The Multi-Site Church Revolution. He has also helped train leaders in Europe, Asia, and Africa. Geoff is married, has two children (and one ugly dog), and lives in Charleston, South Carolina.

Greg Ligon has been with Leadership Network since 1997. He currently serves as Vice President of Church Innovations and Publisher. In this role, he oversees several Leadership Community Directors and also oversees the organization’s publishing partnerships. He has also directed the Multi-Site Churches Leadership Community, directed the Leadership Training Network, and spearheaded strategic services for the organization. Greg is also one of the authors of Multi-site Church Revolution. For seven years prior to joining Leadership Network, Greg was responsible for creating and directing the United Methodist Campus Ministry at Southern Methodist University in Dallas. He also served as associate pastor at First United Methodist Church in Waco, Texas. Greg and his wife, Susan, have two full-throttle boys, Daniel and Andrew.

Warren Bird (PhD, Fordham University) has collaboratively authored nineteen books (including two 100,000 bestsellers, one Gold Medallion winner, and one runner up for the Gold Medallion), served as associate pastor for eleven years and senior pastor for four years, taught as regularly contributing faculty at Alliance Theological Seminary for twelve years, and served on the senior leadership team of three organizations that provide training to pastors - Charles E. Fuller Institute, Canadian Centre for Leadership Development, and the Beeson Institute for Advanced Church Leadership. He is currently research director at Leadership Network, overseeing the creation of a wide range of knowledge products designed to resource church leaders. Warren and his wife Michelle live in metro New York City and have two grown children.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
The Multi-Site Church Revolution
Copyright © 2006 by Geoff Surratt, Greg Ligon, and Warren Bird
Requests for information should be addressed to:
Zondervan, Grand Rapids, Michigan 49530
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Surratt, Geoff, 1962 –
The multi-site church revolution : being one church in many locations / Geoff Surratt, Greg
Ligon, and Warren Bird.
p. cm. — (The leadership network innovation series)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN-13: 978-0-310-27015-7
ISBN-10: 0-310-27015-4
1. Church facilities — Planning. 2. Church management. I. Ligon, Greg, 1962 – II. Bird,
Warren. III. Title. IV. Series.
BV604.S87 2006
254 — dc22
2005034544
CIP
All Scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are taken from the Holy Bible: New International
Version®. NIV®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society. Used by permission of
Zondervan. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations marked CEV are taken from the Contemporary English Version. Copyright © 1991,
1992, 1995 by American Bible Society. Used by permission.
Scripture quotations marked ESV are taken from The Holy Bible: English Standard Version, copyright
© 2000, 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights
reserved.
Scripture quotations marked KJV are taken from the King James Version of the Bible.
Scripture quotations marked MESSAGE are taken from THE MESSAGE. Copyright © by Eugene Peterson
1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 2000, 2001, 2002. Used by permission of NavPress Publishing Group.
Scripture quotations marked NKJV in this publication are from the New King James Version. Copyright
© 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations marked NLT are taken from the Holy Bible: New Living Translation, copyright ©
1996. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Wheaton, IL 60189. All rights reserved.
The website addresses recommended throughout this book are offered as a resource to you. These websites
are not intended in any way to be or imply an endorsement on the part of Zondervan, nor do we
vouch for their content for the life of this book.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or
transmitted in any form or by any means — electronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording, or any other
— except for brief quotations in printed reviews, without the prior permission of the publisher.
Individuals may make photocopies or transparencies of the workouts at the end of chapters 3, 4, 5, 6,
7, and 8. These may be used for classroom or church use only.
Interior design by Nancy Wilson
Printed in the United States of America
06 07 08 09 10 11 12 • 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
You Say
You Want
a Revolution?
Meet several highly successful
multi-site churches
These men who have turned the world upside down have
come here also. — ACTS 17:6 ESV
It is coming . . . a movement of God. Some even call it a revolution.
On Sunday morning at Seacoast Church, where I (Geoff) serve on
staff in Charleston, South Carolina, a band launches into a hard-driving
worship chorus as lyrics and background images are projected on
screens and television monitors throughout the auditorium. Everyone
begins to sing along with the worship team.
This describes the experience at many contemporary churches,
except that this scene happens eighteen times each weekend in nine
locations around the state, all of which are known as Seacoast Church.
Using many different bands and worship leaders, Seacoast’s eighteen
nearly identical weekend ser vices represent the look of a church that
chose not to fight city hall in order to construct a bigger building.
We instead continued to reach new people by developing additional
campuses.
At another church across the country, a congregation just north of
San Diego sings “How Great Thou Art” in Traditions, one of six venues
on the same church campus. North Coast Church in Vista, California,
developed six different worship atmospheres, all within a few feet
of each other. Traditions is more intimate and nostalgic, while other
venues range from country gospel to a coffeehouse feel to vibrating,
big subwoofer attitude.
The elements unifying these six on-site venues are the message (one
venue features in-person preaching, and the others use videocasts)
and the weekly adult small groups, whose discussion questions center
on the sermon that everyone heard, no matter which venue they
attended. North Coast has now developed multiple venues on additional
campuses, so that on a typical weekend in early 2006, worshipers
chose between more than twenty different ser vices spread across five
campuses.
Over in Texas, Ed Young Jr., senior pastor of Fellowship Church
in Grapevine, preaches every Sunday morning on four campuses
— Grapevine, Uptown Dallas, Plano, and Alliance — all at the same
time. Ed delivers his Saturday night message in person in the main
sanctuary on the Grapevine campus. It is videotaped and viewed the
following morning by congregations at the other venues via LCD
projectors and giant projection screens, framed by live music and a
campus pastor. “We decided we could reach more people and save a
huge amount of money by going to where the people are and doing
smaller venues instead of building a larger worship center in Grapevine,”
Ed says.
In downtown Chicago at New Life Bridgeport, a small church meets
in a century-old former United Church of Christ facility. The pastor,
Luke Dudenhoffer, preaches a sermon that he’s worked on with up to
ten other pastors across the city. Each pastor leads a satellite congregation
of New Life Community Church, which is known as one church
in many locations.
At Community Chris tian Church in Chicagoland, eight different
drama teams perform the same sketch at eight different locations.
Then up to three different teachers deliver a message they’ve developed
collaboratively. Most ser vices have an in-person preacher, though
some sermons are videocasts.
These churches, and more than 1,500 churches like them across the
country, are discovering a new model for doing church. Going beyond
additional ser vice times and larger buildings, churches are expanding
into multiple venues and locations, and many of
them are seeing increased evangelism and even
exponential growth as a result. The approach
of taking one church to multiple sites seems
to be the beginning of a revolution in how
church is done in North America and
around the world.
When four university computers were
linked together for the first time on something
called ARPANET in the fall of 1969,
there was very little press coverage of the event.
Aside from the scientists working on the project, no one considered
this event revolutionary; it was just an adaptation of concepts that had
existed for many years. In spite of such simple beginnings, ARPANET,
known today as the Internet, has revolutionized almost every aspect
of our lives in the twenty-first century —

Customer Reviews

The Multi-Site Church Revolution is the Complete Package
The Multi-Site Church Revolution is the complete package! At just over 200 pages, it's packed with some really good back-story from churches where the idea is working. Equally helpful are examples of missteps in many of the model churches. Through the stories the authors effectively demonstrate that this is a strategy that is working in many different locations and in a variety of ways (Part One explores five different models).

The section that I found most helpful was on Building Better Leaders. Along with a list of 10 very practical ideas for leadership development, you'll find a list of 8 questions that will help you spot new leaders. No matter where you are on the multi-site journey, figuring out how to identify and then build more and better leaders is an ongoing challenge.

Another very helpful section is on the Secrets of Ongoing Replication. Organized around 7 thought-provoking questions, this chapter can serve as the basis for a very productive off-site for your team.

If there is a weakness, it might be in the chapter on defining your church's DNA. Hitting the Sweet Spot contains some helpful nuggets but you'll need to turn to other resources as you seek clarity on "what is foundational and what stands at the periphery."

All things considered this is a great new resource that will help advance the multi-site movement. If you're open to investigating a different solution, it could also open your eyes to new ways to advance the Kingdom. I highly recommend it.

A pleasant suprise!
Honestly I was very skeptical going into this book. I picked it up because a pastors group that I am a part of were going to be discussing it together. Going into the book I had a particular picture of what a multi-site church looked like and was pleasantly suprised and even found myself enthusiastic about the concept after just the first few chapters. It is great to see the many varieties of multi-site out there and how God is working in incredible ways. A definite must read for anyone considering multi-site ministry or for anyone who wants to get a different perspective on it. Good, easy, quick read.

A Master's degree in Multi-site
If you are a church leader even thinking about multi-site, are multi-site or want to know what multi-site is - you need this book. Geoff Surratt, Greg Ligon and Warren Bird have put togther a Master's Degree in multi-site in a readable and enjoyable book.