Campus Pastor Week

Would love to know what your week is like if you are a campus pastor at a multi-site church?

What are some of the things you do in a week? What are your daily responsibilities?

Feel free to elaborate as much as you want....I really want to know.

Multi-Site Church TokBox

John Atkinson, our Bay Area Fellowship Multi-Site Pastor, and I will be hosting a Multi-Site Ministry Tokbox for churches and campus pastors on Wednesday, January 7th. Time will be 11 a.m Central time. That's 9am Pacific, 10am Mountain, and 12pm Eastern.

At or around that time go to >>>>> TokBox Live <<<<<<

We are trying to limit this only to churches doing Multi-Site or are really interested in doing Multi-Site. This first one is kind of a meet and greet and ask questions. Future ones may become more exclusive and be content specific.

When participating please use headphones to minimize echo/feedback. And when not talking try and stay on mute.

BAF Multi-Site: What We Do 1

Every now and them I'm going to post some info on what we do or how we do multi-site at Bay Area Fellowship.

To start Bay Area Fellowship is just fixing to hit it's 11th year....we have four campuses...Our Corpus Campus which is the original, initial campus....Our Kingsville Campus which was our first multi-site campus....our Padre Island which launched in 2008....and our 5 Points which also launched in 2008.

Distance from the Corpus Campus:

Kingsville Campus - 37 miles
Padre Island Campus - 22 miles
5 Points Campus - 23 miles

Multi-Site Campus Pastors

I'm still compiling a list of websites of Multi-Site Church Campus Pastors....read [HERE]

I've had a few churches email me and let me know...this is what I'm looking for.

• Church Name
• Campus Pastor Name
• Campus Name
• Campus Pastor Blog Site and/or Twitter Site

Reason I'm doing this is that it can be a great resource to be able go to for Campus Pastors. They can follow and read what others are doing as well as connect with them.

So if you are a campus pastor or your church has various multi-sites email me at pastorjcurl{at}gmail{dot}com or even comment me here with the information.

You can see my current list [HERE] for examples of what kind of info I need.

Would They Care

I'm not sure who I first heard this quote from...but I did recently re-read it in the book, "IT" by Craig Groeschel.

The quote said, "If your church closed down would the community even know or care?"

That quote has kind of haunted me for several months now, especially as we have now been doing our campus for half the year.

Far too often churches get together and get in a rhythm of doing church on Sunday morning and think that just because they are open they are making a difference. Making a difference with your church requires intentionality. It requires a willingness to be a working solution to your community.

God has planted us in our community to partner with Him in bringing change. Often times when churches start they want people to come to them. They do outreaches geared to bring people in. God has called us to more than being an open door. God has called us to help be a solution to the social ills that permeate our country.

And to be honest...that will require just a little more than telling people about Jesus, although that part is extremely important.

It is my desire that our church campus is a solution. That it is a movement. That it is a force that brings change to our community. That we are the answer to what our community needs.

BAF Multi-Site Ministry

Recently Pastor Bil Cornelius took some time to blog about our Multi-Site Ministry and what he has learned from the Pastors of the various sites.

Here are the posts:

• The Truth Behind Multi-site Leadership
• Lessons I’ve Learned from Pastor Rudy
• Lessons I’ve learned from Pastor Jason Curlee

It is so awesome to have a leader that believes in this ministry and in us. I'm so fired up to be part of this team at Bay Area Fellowship and have a lot of stuff built up in me that is ready to be unleashed. Not just for my campus but for the whole Multi-Site Ministry.

We have some stuff already in the works for next year and I can't wait to be on full time. December 19th is my last official day as a principal and I'm back in the world of full-time ministry. Taking it to new levels.

Campus Pastor List

I'm now compiling a Campus Pastor Blog List from a question I posted up on twitter asking if anyone knows the blogs websites of any campus pastors. DJ Chung, who blogs at Digital @ Leadership Network, posted up my question with some campus pastors. Then this morning Dan Ohlerking emails me with a list of the campus pastors at Healing Place Church.

So I think I'm going to compose a list. Not sure exactly what I'm going to do with it just yet. But here is what I need.

If you are currently a campus pastor for a church (not sure what you would be a campus pastor for other than a church) email me at pastorjcurl{at}gmail{dot}com or leave a comment with what church you are with and a list of blogs of your campus pastors.

Remember this is a list of the personal blog sites of current Campus Pastors. Go to the link at the bottom to check out what I'm looking for.

This may turn out to be a big list...which will be cool. It will be a great resource to other churches and campus pastors.

The link for my list which will be a working document which I will be adding to as people contact me is Campus Pastor Blog Twitter List

*** UPDATE *** If your a campus pastor and only twitter we'll take those as well.

Marketing Our Campus

After 20 weeks in I'm looking at marketing our campus in our area.

On our first try at it, we sent out a mailer during the week of our grand opening. One problem though...Hurricane Ike was coming right at us when that went out. So in our opinion many of our mailers got lost in the frantic rush to possibly evacuate or board up. (It still has been our highest attendance to date though)

So now I'm looking at doing a few things:

1. A Billboard - this is to mainly get some campus recognition and position our name...we should have ours up by December 15th.
   
2. Bus Stop Bench Advertising - This is a cheap way to get our campus info into several places. I'm looking at about 3 to 5....we'll see.
   
3. Church Sign - One thing that has kept people from finding us is not having a sign. That is changing as we are fixing to have a 10 foot by 8 foot sign up front.

A couple of other ideas I'm thinking of are:

• T-Shirts - to all those that attend and asking them to wear them on the weekends when they are out. This will probably be simple shirt with logo and website address....thought about some cool graphic map to the campus but that might be overkill
• Door Hangers - Want to print up 10,000 and hit the beat with the campus.
• Another Mailer - This time it will be positioned not when there is a Hurricane coming.

What ideas might you have of getting our name out to our community?

5 Points Re-Wired

It's the day before Thanksgiving and even though I've been off for two days from school (my principal job) I've been highly absent from the blogging world. I thought I'd take a moment and let you know what I've been up too.

For two days, I've been working with my production director, Tom Grant, on some upgrades to our adult room. Now albeit, to some churches out there what we did would be nothing. But one of the things about our campuses at Bay Area Fellowship is that we have intentionally tried to start them with the least amount of finances that we can. That way as we launch more campuses, no matter what size town we go to it can work. This week, though we upgraded from our starting package. Our room was a little plain so we added a little WOW.

I put a real brief teaser in this short video:

Looking For Campus Pastors

If you are a campus pastor for any church I would love to connect with you. Email me at pastorjcurl{at}gmail{dot}com. I'm looking to start networking in the coming months and I would love to know what some of you are doing.

Bay Area Fellowship and Multi-Site

One of the "challenges" or "complaints" that is often heard from around the country when it comes to multi-site ministry goes something like this.

"You big mega-churches are just moving in to steal all the people out of the churches in this area and are going to put them out of business."

First and foremost, let me tell you that from our perspective at Bay Area Fellowship and from many other churches who also have campuses around the country this statement is so far from the truth that it is absurd.

Pastor Bil Cornelius wrote about this in a post called "No More Competition". Here's a little excerpt:

addressing a concern that someone has that Bay Area is going into new areas with video-venues and are going to “steal people from other churches.” The truth is, and I mean this in a good way….we don’t want them! Long term Christians who either grew up in church or have been a faithful part of another ministry typically give us problems, because they keep comparing where they came from with where they are now. They almost always complain about our worship style, insist our small groups function like the “Sunday school” they used to attend, and wonder when the pastor will get “deeper” for them. As they are complaining, someone (either a member or a pastor) will challenge them to serve, lead a group, and tithe (which they almost always do not do!) and then they leave in a huff, angry that we did not “meet their needs.”

Pastor John Atkinson who leads our churches multi-site strategy wrote a great post called "Taking New Ground". This explains a lot of the reason of our "why".

Tough thing is...we can't control how other churches handle it or how they criticize what we are doing. We can only manage our motives. I can tell you the motive for our campus is to reach out to the un-churched population that is already out here.

There are more than 50,000 people within about 15 miles of our church. In that number includes around 16,000 teens and children. There is no way that our church can do it by ourselves anyway. We are not coming out here to shut down any churches. That would be counterproductive anyway. Our purpose is to simply make a difference in this area.

Multi-Site Resource

Ever want to keep up with the day to day of a Multi-Site Campus?

You can check out a lot that goes on at Northpoint's Buckhead Campus. The blog is a place where you find them celebrating stories, sharing the latest news, and capturing what God is doing in their midst.

Multi Site Video

Are you a multi-site campus pastor or a church thinking of becoming multi-site?

Here is an interview by Tony Steward with Scott Hitzel and Randy Craft. These two guys actually implement the hands-on efforts at Saddleback Church's multi-site location in San Clemente.

In this spontaneous 16-minute interview, you'll hear the first-hand report of nuts & bolts involved at a remote campus. Enjoy!

Streaming Video by Ustream.TV

Building A Multi-Site Network 3

So you have decided you want to launch another campus. Another key factor other than leaders is deciding on your location.

As far as location goes you can launch your location based on one of three things.

1) An Existing Group - You have a group of people that live in a location and can increase your reach in their community by launching a site there.

2) A Leader - You may have a strong leader that may live in a community you want to expand into.

3) A Target Community - Maybe there is a community you want to expand into. This will be an area where you can reach more unchurched people.

Once a location is chosen for whichever reason, it is key to make sure that you begin putting the team of leaders in place.

Once you have chosen your location next is to choose your site. There are a variety of ways and places. You can go portable in a variety of locations or find an existing building you can renovate. Each has it's pro's and con's and different churches have seen success in every different way.

Building A Multi-Site Network 2

In a previous post I started to discuss some ideas in Building A Multi-Site Network. If you choose to take your site from one campus to two and beyond it is vital that you begin to focus on three areas...Leaders, Location, Launch Time.

Let's take some time and talk about leaders. Finding, training and sending out leaders is going to be the key to building each campus.

The Campus Pastor
Obviously this position is the most crucial to this whole venture. This leader is the person that will ensure that the DNA of the church organization is transferred to the site, they will recruit the core team, develop and deploy the team in ministry, and ensure that the work of the ministry will be carried on in the surrounding community.

The Children's Director
Due to the fact that the Sunday Morning meeting time is the prime entry point for visitors having a strong Children's Ministry is a factor of a campus success or failure. It is the Children's Director's role to replicate the environment of the initial campus.

Worship Director
This person is a primary overseer of the weekend experience along with the campus pastor. Their role is to create the authentic worship that permeates the atmosphere of the original campus.

Youth Director/Small Groups Director
This is not two positions in one. As you work through your first six months to a year you should look to expand your team in this direction.

Having a great team in place is and will be the greatest determinant of a your new sites success. Take away this team or even the quality and you will see that this campus may not succeed and reach its potential.

Building A Multi-Site Network 1

I'm going to share some multi-site thoughts that I'm processing. As I have begun feeding myself info and processing it I want to be able to focus in on what I feel are some of the key points that will make a multi-site campus successful.

The three initial vital areas for any multi-site are: leaders, location, launch time.

Leaders
In a future post I'll work to extrapolate more on specific leaders for the site but for this post I'll say that having the right leaders is a necessity for your campus. The three leaders that are crucial for your initial launch are the campus pastor, lead worshiper and children's leader.

Location
Next after leaders is choosing the right location. One thing we have discussed here at Bay Area is launching around leaders. Because of the fact that leaders are important launching in a location that has a strong leader who will oversee the campus is a plus.

When choosing a location find an area that has a core nucleus of people that have ties to the initial main campus. This could be an area that already has several core small groups. The location should also be one that has a need for the campus. Are there many strong churches in the area? Lastly is the area growing.

Launch Time
Now that you have your leaders and location in place, it will all come down to launch time. Several churches over the past few years have learned that key launch times are fall, when school begins. Other good times are the beginning of the year and Easter. No matter when the launch time is set work to build momentum up to your launch. We will focus on launching in a future post.