Grow, Relocate, Multi-Site or Church Planting?

Had a good time going out for dinner last night with Todd Hudson and Shawn Wells of Southeast Christian Church in Parker, Colorado.  Great guys!  And it sounds like they have a great thing going at Southeast:  they recently moved into a new 2,000 seat auditorium and have grown by about a 1,000 people in the last year.  Pretty cool, huh?

Since completing the auditorium they are trying to figure out what is next for them.  So, they flew to Chicago to hangout at CCC for the weekend to checkout what we do as a multi-site church.  One of the first questions that Todd asked me was, "We are trying figure out what is next for us: do we just keep growing at the current site; relocate to a new site; go multi-site; or start planting churches?"  My answer was "yes...do them all!"  Todd admitted, "that was one option I hadn't considered."

I'm becoming more and more convinced that a church built on an Acts 1:8 macro vision and a Timothy 2:2 micro strategy will be a reproducing church.  And a reproducing church will be reproducing at every level!  It will reproduce leaders.  It will reproduce artists.  It will reproduce groups and teams.  It will reproduce celebration services.  It will reproduce campuses or sites.  It will reproduce churches.  And as we are currently discussing - it will reproduce whole networks and ultimately movements. 

What is your answer to the question:  do we just keep growing at the current site; relocate to a new site; go multi-site; or start planting churches?"   Is my answer something that is unique only to CCC and our gifting or is that the vision that God has for every church?

Comments

[lorinda]

I think what is unique about CCC is the willingness to think outside the box. I'm not sure there's a "recipe" or formula that fits each and every church. Churches, like people, are individual and God has different plans for them. What seems most important for each church is a willingness to listen to the Spirit and His direction for them and their community.

[Glen]

Hi Dave,

Great questions. The "yes...do them all" answer is classic Dave! I love your heart and vision bro.

Seems like too easy an answer without more context...are any of the options better? Is there a timing / resource factor that helps prioritize? At CCC we wrestle with quality vs quantity questions all the time. How does that factor in to your thinking?

Secondly - in your description of the reproduction vision you don't mention reproducing teachers / evangelists. Those roles were absolutely crucial to the explosive Acts 1:8 / 2 Tim 2:2 "movement" described in the NT. I think those roles are underdeveloped in some areas of the church including at CCC. What do you think?

Thanks for your good leadership brother.

Glen

[Rich Kirkpatrick]

Doing it all? I love it. Playing it safe and small never gets a ministry very far. My church is going through these discussions right now. Very timely. I think the answer in our case is which of them comes first. I am not sure it all happens the same month or year...but I could be wrong on that, perhaps.

[Dave Ferguson]

Glen, as usual your questions are beter than my post!

First, I think it best happens in in expanding reproducing concentric circles. You start by reproducing small groups, then congregations, then eventually campuses, and finally churches and one day whole networks. It will not be that neat, but I if you think of reproducing in that order it will help you make some sense of the chaos. And you are absolutely right you need to know more about the context before you can make a decision like this.

As to your second point. I agree we still need to do a better job of reproducing teachers and evangelists. Maybe we should also be talking about reproducing apostles and prophets. I'm not sure why we haven't adopted the language (and perhaps the strategy) in Ephesians 4. What is your take?

Thanks for your thoughts.

Dave

[Glen Wagner]

Dave,

Well said. The concentric circles helps make sense of the pulses within the movement and define the context for decisions like new site vs. new venue etc.

At best I think you and I would agree with Jim Collins that it is not "either /or" but rather "both / and" when it comes to organic growth of a movement...I think that is the essence of permission giving and at the heart of your answer.

Somehow we have to keep wrestling with the quality / quantity dynamic - that might be contextual and ultimately answered differently by organizations depending on their values.

Simply put it means that CCC, Willow, Southeast et al, will answer the questions differently because of different expectations around excellence - resource allocation etc.

Regarding the Ephesians 4 vision - I agree completely that Apostles (I think you are one!)are certainly crucial - especially if you have a vision that goes to the waves of concentric circles or movement level. Identifying, releasing, supporting apostles will be central.

Prophets are in my view necessary as well...bigger topic though...depends on how folks think about what a prophet actually is /does!

Good stuff.

Glen