At Mosaic, we started our first campus off-site from our main building in East Los Angeles in 1998 when we began meeting in a nightclub downtown. Now in 7 different locations across California, we have enjoyed the beauty of partnership at the highest level, and we have also experienced the challenges with this strategy. The authors of A Multi-Site Church Road Trip asked me to pose a couple of questions to them during their blog tour. Here is the second one.
My Question:
What are some of the skills you feel the most effective campus pastors display?
Their Reply:
The top five campus pastor qualities tend to be:
1. A leader who completely buys into the church’s vision and is loyal to its senior leadership.
2. A team player with strong relational skills.
3. A team builder who can reproduce vision in others.
4. A pastor, someone with a desire and heart to shepherd groups and individuals.
5. A flexible entrepreneur.
Mac Lake from Seacoast Church has launched a very helpful online community called Leading Multi-site. On that site you can find a growing set of conversations and training videos for campus pastors and other multi-site leaders.
Also, for further dialog, see more Q&A at the authors’ blog www.multisiteroadtrip.com or contact them via Twitter: @geoffsurratt, @gregligon or @warrenbird. Click to order Multi-Site Church Roadtrip and to order Multi-Site Church Revolution.
Eric, thanks for mentioning the Leading Multisite Learning community, we have been so pleased with the response and would invite others who are multisiters or even considering multisite to join the conversation and continue to add content. Working together we can share best practices and share the best resources for free all on one site. Thanks again.
Mac
Curious — at what point does loyalty to the overall vision conflict with (real or perceived) problems with the vision? I’m thinking of the recent schisms between local Episcopal churches and the larger denomination. While the ability to be an adaptable entrepreneur is obviously vital, there seems to need to be a balance at both ends — a model of vision-casting that is both top-down and bottom-up…
Nathan,
Great question, but am not sure that it relates exclusively to multi-site. Any time a leader(s) isolates themselves from the input and feedback of others, there is potential to become committed to a vision more than the God who gives the vision.
Your thoughts?
Greg
Eric,
Thanks for joining the tour.
Merry Christmas.
Greg Ligon
Absolutely true, Greg. I’m not sure if Ted Haggard was multi-campus or not (I’m guessing not), so loyalty to leadership vs. loyalty to vision is always a tricky balancing act, no matter the geography. I can imagine however that going multi-site, with a team of vision-casters who may be working remotely from the community that’s been formed, can only augment challenges that are already there.