Books @ Leadership Network

Year in Review

In 2006, Leadership Network released five book titles:

• Confessions of a Reformission Rev: Hard Lessons From an Emerging Missional Church by Mark Driscoll

• The Multi-Site Church Revolution: Being One Church in Many Locations by Geoff Surratt, Greg Ligon, and Warren Bird

• Practicing Greatness: 7 Disciplines of Extraordinary Spiritual Leaders by Reggie McNeal

• The Missional Leader: Equipping Your Church to Reach a Changing World by Alan Roxburgh and Fred Romanuk

• Off-Road Disciplines: Spiritual Adventures of Missional Leaders by Earl Creps
  

Leadership Network books are published through alliances with Zondervan and Jossey-Bass. Why do we do this? Leadership Network’s book publishing initiatives are an important part of its overall strategy to capture and distribute knowledge to church leaders so that they will multiply their Kingdom impact.

Our Zondervan-Leadership Network Innovation Series was launched in 2006 with two inaugural books: Confessions of a Reformission Rev and The Multi-Site Church Revolution. The Leadership Network Innovation Series (Zondervan) provides pastors and other church leaders with success stories, analyses and practical “how-to” resources for putting truly innovative ideas into practice.

The Leadership Network Publications Imprint Series (Jossey-Bass) delivers thoroughly researched and innovative concepts from preeminent thinkers, practitioners and pioneering churches. The Jossey-Bass Leadership Network Imprint Series released Practicing Greatness, The Missional Leader, and Off-Road Disciplines in 2006.

We are constantly learning new things about churches making Kingdom impact and we love to share them with you! In the next post, we'll give you a preview into 2007.

Upcoming Multi-Site Conference

The Coast-to-Coast Multi-Site Conference is coming to sunny San Diego in February 5-6, 2007! This is the 3rd time Leadership Network is hosting this conference along with several other sponsors, in part because the first 2 conferences have been sold-out!

Register before December 31st, and receive a $70 discount off the regular $299 price for you and your team. Plus, get a complimentary pre-release copy of a new book, The Big Idea: Focus the Message--Multiply the Impact by Dave Ferguson. Watch this video to hear from the book's author and one of the conference presenters:

Also, there's more about the Multi-Site Church Revolution book -- listen to this 12-minute interview (mp3) with Greg Ligon (of course, you can meet the book's authors at the Multi-Site Conference too)

Get on the Multi-Site Map!

According to page 9 of the Multi-Site Church Revolution, "well over 1,500 churches are already multi-site." You might be wondering, where are all of those multi-site churches? I've found a nice map of about a hundred multi-site churches in the United States and Canada, but there's definitely more of them out there.

Are you multi-site? Get on the map!

Multi-Site Church Critique and Misperceptions

Of course we're excited about the thousands of multi-site churches around the United States and Canada. And we're not unaware of the blog buzz that is surfacing with thoughtful critique about multi-sites: Out of Ur's post, Burned by Branding has sparked other posts like Niche vs Starbucks - Local Church vs The Church™ Brand and mult-site corporations [ht: Scott Reavely] and this: Multi-Site Churches: Good Economy or Big Ego?

Earlier, a future church planter was quoted as being against multi-site churches:

... I agree with everything you said, but have a slightly stronger stance against multi-site. It seems to be sweeping the country these days, and as someone who would like to plant a church (a real church) someday, I find the idea of being a non-preaching “campus” pastor who supports a one-size-fits-all model extremely distasteful. What is incarnational about a video feed? [update: read the full context at conversations with a future church planter to better understand his thought process in wrestling with differing ideas and strategies]

To which Shawn Wood retorted with Multi-site misperceptions part 1:

Every multi-site church that I know loves, respects and helps church planters anyway that we can. We put a great deal of resources, give away anything we create (Seacoastallaccess.org and lifechurch's open site) and want to help churches plant anyway we can.

and Multi-site misperceptions part 2:

We are not starbucks. If any of the people who have misperceptions about multi-site would ever actually visit one they would be able to speak intelligently. We have regional flavor, different personalities in our campus pastors and overall each campus cares deeply about their communities and seeks to reach them.

From all the stories I've heard about multi-site churches and talking with multi-site church pastors, it's all about helping people meet Jesus and not about the branding. And not all churches have to be multi-site; we're just noticing that a growing number of churches are doing this. It's okay if your church decides that multi-site isn't for you, and your church adds another service time or starts a new church plant. Jeff Leake gives a great overview of 3 different ways to serve more people: multi-service, multi-site, or multi-church.

This recent article also helps to clear the air: 5 Things Every Pastor Should Know About the Multi-Site Church (published in Outreach Magazine, mirrored at daveferguson and Run with God)

1. Multi-site is about quality, not quantity.


2. Any size church can consider going multi-site.


3. The multi-site approach demonstrates good stewardship of our resources.


4. Multi-site is today’s most powerful method of church expansion.


5. In the next 10 years, the multi-site church will gain more influence than the large church.

The Multi-Site Church Revolution is the only book we know of that describes this trend/ movement/ revolution. These related links give an inside look:

• Listen to this 4-minute interview (mp3) with Greg Ligon
  
• Download a sample chapter (free)
  
• The Coming Multi-Site Church Revolution (article in Outreach Magazine Sept/Oct '05 issue)
  
• Buy the book from amazon.com, christianbook.com (CBD), or Zondervan
  

Let's keep the conversation open so we can learn what works (and doesn't) for the community you're serving and reaching. Add your comment here, and we can even invite the book's author(s) to stop by for a chat.

The Multi-Site Church Revolution

The biggest impacting book of 2006 may well be The Multi-Site Church Revolution by Geoff Surratt, Greg Ligon, and Warren Bird. The accompanying book blog at www.multisitechurchrevolution.com was launched when the book was first published, and also links to a great toolkit of resources, like: should your church go multi-site, quick facts about DNA transfer, staffing & structure, funding the vision, and more!

Here's what others are saying about the book:

• Tony Morgan :: It was a very practical look how how a church can expand its ministry beyond services in one building to a situation where it's offering services in more than one location. ... Multi-site niche churches are not just about touching new people but also about growing a church's ministry capacity--deploying more volunteers. ... many multi-site churches have found that their off-site locations are often self-sustaining within a few months.
• Bob Franquiz :: I really enjoyed it. I think what I enjoyed the most was that the book fired me up to go multi-site. In a city like Miami, the idea of buying a huge piece of property and building a big building isn't really reality. ... I loved how the book emphasized what type of staff and leadership is needed to get another site going. ... This is not a cookie cutter approach at all. Instead, it's more of a variety pack showing the many ways to expand a growing ministry that desires to reach more people for Jesus.
• Bethany Church Plant blog :: The multi-site church revolution is a GREAT book!! ... It's original. I have not found another book that discusses this model of reproduction. It is full of relevant information. ... There are assessments, checklists, charts, and graphs to help you wherever you are at in the process. ... It is written for all kinds of churches. Churches of any size and any age.
• ChurchRelevance.com :: If you are a pastor and plan on growing your church past 150 people, put The Multi-Site Church Revolution on your list of books to read. ... It highlights five models for multi-site churches and gives valuable guidance for churches wanting to transition to more than one site. ... one-third of American churches could be successful multi-site churches. Your church may be one of them.
• And, the book was mentioned in the Dallas Morning News (9/16/06; ht: purechurch; mirrored at MondayMorningInsight) ::

  Most multisites are not megachurches, said the Rev. Geoff Surratt, co-author of The Multi-Site Church Revolution. But recent interest from large congregations seeking to go multi has been dramatic. ... Multisiting works better than any of those methods, said Mr. Surratt, the multisite expert who is also a pastor at Seacoast Church, which has six sites in South Carolina and one in Georgia. "Multisite locations grow faster, reach a place of health and are self-sustaining much faster than traditional church plants," he said.

Your turn. How did the book help your church to do something different?

If you're undecided about buying the book, what question(s) do you want answered to help you decide?

If you're attending a multi-site church, what do like about it? What do you dislike?