Books @ Leadership Network

Multi-site Church Road Trip – Craig Groeschel and Shared Communication

This is the first of a series of posts containing conversations that we recently had with some of the senior pastors featured in our new book – A Multi-site Church Road Trip.  In each post you will gain additional insights by getting updates about the featured church and hearing the heart of the leader. 

First up – Craig Groeschel, LifeChurch.tv.

Q: Craig, you and the team at LifeChurch.tv have really pioneered the most effective model of using what we call a shared communicator in the Multi-site Church Road Trip.  Beyond your excellent communication skills, what are some of the primary reasons it works for you to be the primary teaching pastor and directional leader for a campus that is literally a couple of time zones away?
A: Greg, first of all, I’m actually doing less teaching now than in the past. We are working hard to develop more speakers on our team and effectively using guest speakers. Even with this shift, we still generally have one communicator broadcast to all the campuses. Having only one person preparing a message, frees the other pastors to spend more time shepherding people and leading their teams. Rather than being the directional leaders for the extended campus, we’re also allowing our campuses more autonomy to make decisions in their community.

Q: You have developed a model for connection with LifeChurch.tv that has three tiers - Open, Network and United. Why "qualifies" a church to become a part of the tightest affiliation - United?
A: Far more churches are becoming a Network Church rather than a United Church. As of today, we have 74 Network Churches. These are totally separate 501c-3s that use our weekly teaching. (Many also use our kids curriculum and worship all at no charge.) Churches who are part of the LifeChurch.tv Network are reporting great responses and stories of changed lives from their members and attendees. In order for a United partnership to occur, we’re looking for a unique set of circumstances where we can do more together than apart. Only in rare situations is it worth uniting since merging churches can be painful, and there are so many effective ways to partner.

Q: It is not news that you, and other pastors of large multi-site churches, are sometimes accused of building your own kingdom ... of limiting the leadership potential of others because of your "celebrity status".  When you get these calls and emails, how do you respond?
A: People may say that, but I rarely hear it. Truthfully, we believe that we are building great leaders and don’t pay a lot of attention to uninformed criticisms.

Q: What is new about the multi-site ministry at LifeChurch.tv since we last talked?
A: We continue to become more passionate about serving the broader body of Christ. Rather than simply focusing on building more campuses, we are focusing on building the Church at large. On our personal learning curve, we have learned that our multi site strategy works better in medium sized and larger campuses. We haven’t learned to do multi-site at small campuses well. We’re trying to learn from others who do church in small venues effectively.

Q:What have I not asked that I should have?
A: You didn’t ask me what I’m pumped about! I’m pumped to see generosity and Kingdom mindedness in churches across the world. So many anointed Christian leaders are working together. I honestly believe that together we can make a significant difference in the world! I'm also very excited about what God is doing through church online. This is a fantastic tool to take the message of Christ to people who might not experience it otherwise. I’m excited about all the different ministries God is blessing.

Stay tuned for tomorrow’s conversation with Dave Browning, author of Deliberate Simplicity and lead pastor at Christ the King Community Church.  You will get the behind-the-scenes scoop on International Campuses – the multi-site church gone global!

We would love to have us help spread the word about Multi-site Church Road Trip.  We have developed a free online resource – Multi-site Church Toolkit: Launch Analysis that we will send to anyone who completes one of the following. 

• Buys a copy of the book
• Posts this tweet – Get a copy of Multi-site Church Road Trip Now at http://bit.ly/2KZlzO
• Posts a comment on this blog or creates a post on your own blog.
• Posts a review on Amazon.com

Once you have completed one of the items above send an email to multisiteroadtrip@zondervan.com indicating where you purchased the book or made your post and we will send you the free resource.

To get the latest updates be sure to sign up for the RSS feed at www.multisitechurchroadtrip.com

To see all posts for the tour, select tour stop from the category sidebar.

Twitter - @gregligon @geoffsurratt @warren bird #mscr  #leadnet

Multi-Site Church Road Trip En Route to a Store Near You!

We are thrilled to announce the release of our latest book on the multi-site church movement – A Multi-site Church Road Trip.  According to the great team at Zondervan, copies began shipping from their warehouse today, Friday, September 4.  So pick up yours at a local Christian bookstore or place an order today.

The book is packed with the stories of leaders and churches who are taking the multi-site model to innovative new places – from lower income neighborhoods to the internet and literally around the world through locations in India and many countries across the continent of Africa.  Warren, Geoff and I take you behind the scenes to our road trip conversations with 15 plus senior pastors who are leading the new models.

In addition to new locations, you will discover what is new in terms of technology, structure, mergers and leadership development.  And be sure to check out what is certain to be a hot topic chapter, “Are You Sure This Isn’t A Sin?”

We would love to have us help spread the word.  We have developed a free online resource – Multi-site Church Toolkit: Launch Analysis that we will send to anyone who completes one of the following. 

• Buys a copy of the book
• Posts this tweet – “Get a copy of Multi-site Church Road Trip Now at http://bit.ly/2KZlzO”
• Posts a comment on this blog or creates a post on your own blog.
• Posts a review on Amazon.com

Once you have completed one of the items above send an email to multisiteroadtrip@zondervan.com indicating where you purchased the book or made your post and we will send you the free resource.

Hope that you have as much fun “exploring the new normal” on this road trip as we have!

To see all posts for the tour, select tour stop from the category sidebar.

Twitter - @gregligon @geoffsurratt @warren bird #mscr  #leadnet

Flickering Pixels: Is Online Community Real?

I'm in the process of reading the new book by Shane Hipps called "Flickering Pixels: How Technology Shapes Your Faith. It is a great read and very challenging. I've often said that I enjoy reading articles and books that stretch my thinking and broaden my horizons a little. This book does. Shane is a former advertising executive. It was his job to, as he puts it, "hijack our imagination, brand our brain with his logo, and feed us opinions that we thought were our own". Shane presents an interesting case that you can't really separate the medium from it's message. If that's true, it has significant ramifications for today's church.

One part of the book that interested me was Shane's take on social media and the internet. Shane writes, "I find it troubling that so many communities of faith are in hot pursuit of these new technologies. The internet is seen as the Holy Grail of "building community". However, churches will find the unintended consequences of this medium coming back to bite them..."

Shane continues:

“The internet is a lot of things, but it is emphatically NOT a neutral aid.  Digital social networking inoculates people in real social networks—networks like a church or a meal at someone’s home.  Being together becomes nice but nonessential.

Our addiction to virtual community is understandable.  The convenience factor is just too high.  We love the efficiency of our interactions; they allow us to be in touch more often.  However, there is a big difference between being “in touch” and truly connecting with others...”

I agree and disagree.  Obviously, twittering back and forth with someone is not the same as meeting with them over coffee.  And blogging a post or leaving a comment is not the same as having a discussion.

But those of us who have seen significant in-person relationships result out of first meeting on-line would seem to push back a little.  I have met well over a hundred people in-person that I first connected with on-line.  Some are mere acquaintances; some have turned into good friendships.

To those thousands who have met their spouse on-line, I would imagine that they would also say that real, meaningful relationships are possible over the internet.

That said, there is a tendency to use social networking as a crutch.  It is easier and quicker than the face-to-face conversation.  However, I find that most of my on-line connections are with people who share my interests and passions, but are not in my local community.  So, in that regard, it does not either encourage or discourage personal, face-to-face interaction.

I do use social networking, to a much lesser extent, in my local relationships… with friends and people at church mostly.  I can say that for me personally, social networking (blogging, twitter, and facebook in my situation) has not at all cut down on any face-to-face time I would have with these people.  Rather, it has enhanced the relationship by sharing short things through the week; and has many times strengthened the relationship because we’re able to share day-to-day details of our lives with each other.

Regardless of what you feel about social networking… pick up a copy of Shane’s new book here.  I think you’ll find it challenging and enjoyable.

Todd Rhoades
Leadership Network

Reaching People Under 40 While Keeping People Over 60

In a certain sense the essence of this book is described in its title and subtitle—Reaching People Under 40 While Keeping People Over 60: Being Church for All Generations. Congregation who seek to be a church for all generations will certainly have fewer challenges around conflicts and differing visions between various generations.

It is obviously a book targeting primarily existing congregations who are at least twenty years old and have begun to experience a generational divide. It speaks ably to the conflict that arises when congregations feel the need to start a new type of worship service to keep younger generations from leaving and to attract families/households with children.

Authors Eddie Hammett and Randy Pierce themselves represent some of this generational divide. Eddie is a 50-something, long-term churchperson, and Randy is a 30-something long-term seeker who has now embraced a Christ-centered faith journey. They ably speak from churched and non-churched, modern and postmodern perspectives on how congregations can embrace all generations.

The book offers win-win solutions. Hope. Realistic tactics for existing churches. Virtually every church that is more than 20 years old will confront this issue, and will either put in place a process to address it, or will divide over the generational issue and lose a significant portion of this vitality and vibrancy.

Implied in this look is an important message for churches less than 20 years old. These congregations may believe they are immune to a generational divide. If so, they lie to themselves about other things also. Look in the mirror. This could be you in a few years.

George Bullard, The Columbia Partnership, GBullard@TheColumbiaPartnership.org

I Was Not Swayed

After reading The Starfish and the Spider a couple of years ago I was interested in reading Sway: The Irresistible Pull of Irrational Behavior by Ori Brafman [one of the authors of Starfish/Spider] and his brother Rom. It is not that The Starfish and the Spider is the best book I have ever read. But, it was good. It was a laudable attempt to deal with the issue of seeing organizational movements not as centralized or decentralized, but as distributive or networked. It just did not go far enough.

Sway appears to be a book where an author says, "my first book sold so well, let me see if I can produce another winner. Hey, brother, you want to write this one with me?" It had a big roll out by its publisher. The book itself, however, misses the mark.

I was not swayed!

[I was also not convinced by Malcolm Gladwell's second book, Blink; while at the same time loving his first book, The Tipping Point. BTW, Sway is in many ways a counterpoint to Blink. I'm not sure the core premise of both books can be true.]

Sway is like a one point sermon where the singular point is told over and over again to convince the congregation it is true, significant, and something about which they ought to shout "Hallelujah!"

Sway does have some great illustrations that may almost convince you it is possible to be certain of the truth or the right thing in a given situation while at the same time being totally wrong. However, I do not believe anything can be proven by a string of examples. So for me the idea of page 7 that this book will "explore several of the psychological forces that derail rational thinking" is legitimate, but I was not convinced nor swayed by the book that the authors had really found something of great value.

This book would make a great read by a sophomore study group in a college. It may have value in teaching people to be cautious about their assessment or diagnosis of strategic opportunities. But ultimately truth cannot be swayed. Buy and read this book at your own risk.

George Bullard, The Columbia Partnership, GBullard@TheColumbiaPartnership.org

Make Mine E-Ink

This is a blog about books and a review of a piece of technology may be stretching the boundaries a bit.  Nonetheless, the Amazon Kindle is such a terrific resource for avid readers, I feel like it is worth reviewing in this context.  First the bad news; the Kindle is expensive. Really expensive. In fact, it was only a combination of a gift certificate and a money back offer which moved me to go ahead and make the purchase.

Now the good news; the cost may well be worth it.  First, the most expensive book is only $9.99.  In fact, many books are much less. Classics are there for purchase for $2.99 or even less and delivery is wireless and free.  Magazines and newspapers are available either by the individual copy or as a subscription at very low rates.  This includes a number of international newspapers, all delivered wirelessly. You may even choose from a number of blogs which will be delivered free to your Kindle. There is a built in dictionary and free access to Wikipedia.

As someone who travels a lot, I have already grown to appreciate my Kindle.  On a recent trip, I eschewed my normal stack of books and Bible for my Kindle (which weighs a grand total of 10.3 ounces). In doing so, I was able to take along a copy of a German newspaper ($.75 for that day’s copy), a couple of blogs, a Bible (the Net Bible - $.99), a sample of Joe Myer’s Organic Community to check out before ordering and Ken Follett’s new novel, World Without End ($9.99).  Furthermore, the e-ink technology used in the Kindle is truly amazing.  There is no backlighting, making it as easy on your eyes as a normal book (really).  Plus you can put in bookmarks, annotations, etc… making the entire experience both enjoyable and useful.

Forgive my foray into the world of technology, but all of my future reviews will be of books read on my Kindle.

Nick Howard

bsmsouth@earthlink.net

Branding Faith

Phil Cooke has done ministry leaders a great favor by compiling helpful insights and exploring the relevance of branding from a church perspective. The subtitle of this book released early this year is “Why Some Churches and Nonprofits Impact Culture and Others Don’t.” The leading question of the book is “What do people think of when they think of your ministry?” Phil’s emphasis in the brand discussion is helpfully flavored by a ministry-friendly definition: “At it's core, branding is simply the art of surrounding a product, organization or person with a powerful and compelling story.” There are not many books in this category as few books dare to fuse faith and marketing. One thing I particularly appreciated is that Phil brings some needed insights in favor of branding the church while acknowledging the downsides of “chasing relevance” to an extreme.

The strength of the book is twofold: first is Phil’s authentic passion for the kingdom forged with a solid track record of brand-building for ministries. Second, is Phil’s distillation of principles, practices and proverbs from the business world filtered through ministry values.

The limitation of the book, albeit minor, is double-barreled. The first thing is that Phil is not weaving a coherent argument through the book, but rather, provides a patchwork of observations and insights. The second limitation is that Phil’s experience with ministry dominated by strong personalities of charismatic flavor. This tends to skew insights on branding more toward the individual and not the organization. Nevertheless, these minor points do not eclipse this solid contribution and valuable resource for a rarely treated topic.

I highly recommend this book for any church leader, and it is a must-have resource for any church communications professional. The thousands of designers working every-day to keep our churches communication savvy will appreciate one of my favorite quotes from the book: Better design isn’t just decoration; its connection. See some selected quotes.

Will Mancini, founder of Auxano, author of Church Unique

Launching the Church Out Into Deep Water is . . .

. . . the only prophetic way for The Church of the Perfect Storm to effectively address one of the greatest Culturestorms in history. At least that is according to Leonard Sweet and the voices of multiple writers in a new book he edited and Abingdon Press released two months ago.

This book provides a dramatic image of the conflict and challenge facing Christianity if it is to successfully navigate the waters of post-Christendom. The reward is not in the harbor. The reward is in the midst of the storm. The reward is in the deep water. The reward may follow the storm as God displays a special rainbow.

The church cannot stay in the harbor just as the early church could not stay in Jerusalem. But once again it might take persecution to get the church to leave the harbor and to see the opportunities of God in the midst of the perfect storm.

It has been 500 years since the last perfect storm for Christianity. We called it the Reformation. The forces of the Counter-Reformation sought to undermine it, but it could not. The Church of the Perfect Storm paints a clear picture of the challenges that most be faced in the current post-Christendom storm.

At a time such as this some of the Israelites wanted to return to Egypt rather than cross the Red Sea. In the same way many modern Christians are afraid to face the perfect storm present in the midst of post-modernity. They prefer the harbor or, as Stephen Joubert says on page 50, the religious aquarium which some know as churches.

As I shared when I formally endorsed this book for Len and Abingdon Press: "Just as during a hurricane the safest place for ships is not the harbor, but the deep water, so Christianity in a post-modern era must launch out into deep water and face head-on the perfect storm created by the convergence of post-modernity, religious pluralism, institutionalized Christianity, and militant atheism."

Go forth and become storm chasers. Join The Church of the Perfect Storm as shown to us in this book by writers Len Sweet, Greg Glatz, Stephan Joubert, Alan Jamieson, Dries Lombaard, Younglae Kim, Earl Pierce, Bill Easum, Michael Blewett, Mark Batterson, Tom Bandy, and Peter Walker.

--provided by George Bullard at www.BullardJournal.org

Faith in the Halls of Power

If I hadn’t known Michael Lindsay, I probably wouldn’t have picked up Faith in the Halls of Power: How Evangelicals Joined the American Elite. But I’m glad that I did.

Michael takes the readers behind the scenes and the headlines, drawing on interviews with 360 different evangelical leaders in politics, business, media and academia. When I think of the people who are shaping (or attempting to shape) the national landscape from a Christian perspective, I think of the handful who are frequently in the public spotlight. I don’t always agree with what they say or with how they say it, but they often appear to be the powerbrokers in Christian America. Much of their “power” is derived from their broad, grass roots support, which gives them a substantial platform.

But that’s not the focus of Michael’s research. Instead, he identifies many other evangelicals who are not in the spotlight but whose Kingdom impact is huge. Michael refers to them as “cosmopolitan evangelicals.” Through formal and informal networks, financial contributions, and a variety of other means, these “evangelical elite” are affecting the way that businesses are run, that legislation is enacted and implemented, that research is conducted, and more. They are not organized as a formal body, and they do not have a stated agenda, but it’s clear that their influence is much broader than the handful of front page issues that are typically associated with conservative Christianity.

The book also offers some great insights for church leaders, but that will have to be the subject of a future blog. For now, anyone interested in gaining a fresh perspective on how committed Christians can impact our society will enjoy reading Faith in the Halls of Power.

Mike Bonem

www.SecondChairLeaders.com