Will Mancini

My friend Jim Tomberlin is a multisite guru, leveraging his experience at Willow Creek Community Church to help many churches think through their multisite strategy.

This week Jim published a useful little tool called 125 Tips for Multisite Churches.

As a clarity evangelist what strikes me most in the book is the problem of going multisite WITHOUT CLARITY FIRST.  Yes, photocopied vision still lives large in the North American church. So use your interest in, or existing execution of, multisite as an opportunity to evaluate all of the aspects of your church life from vision and culture, to focus and simplicity, to systems and structure. At Auxano we have a mantra: Clarify before you multiply; You can’t export what you can’t express!

Is your church ready to go multisite?  Consider these 14 observations from Jim Tomberlin’s 125 “tips.”  Then take some time to consider the real question that logically flows from each each observation:

#1 Multisite is not the vision of your church, but it can be a vehicle for your church’s vision. (Have you inappropriately used multisite as your vision?)

#2 Every multisite is different and has a unique “church-print”—there is no one size fits all formula. (Do you know your church-print?)

#3 Going multisite will surface redundancies in your church, forcing you to simplify. (Have you simplified yet?)

#4 The most successful multisites are clear on their mission, vision, values and execution. (Are you really clear yet or are you just deluding yourself?)

#5 The easiest part is launching a new campus. The challenging part is managing the relationships between campuses and reorganizing staff to support multiple campuses.   (How is excitement to get started overshadowing preparation for effectiveness?)

#6 Going multisite requires moving from intuitive to intentional leadership and organizational change. (How are you relying on intuition?)

#7 If something about your church needs to change, fix it before you go multisite. (What changes do you need to make?)

#8 The biggest challenge of the campus pastor is to stay connected to the the vision and heart of the senior pastor. (What is that vision?)

#9 Campus pastors need to have freedom to develop the vision of their campus within previously established parameters. (Have you established those parameters?)

#10 Be intentional but don’t rush—it took seven years for Sam Walton to open his second store and took Starbuck’s 13 years to grow to 5 stores. (Who is holding the gun to your head?)

#11 You can stumble into two sites, but you have to plan, think and restructure to get three or more sites – Lyle Schaller. (Have you planned and thought carefully?)

#12 Great vision without great people is irrelevant – Jim Collins (Do you have great people?)

#13 Not only does multisite bring about new challenges, but it really exposes and multiplies existing weaknesses. (What weakness need to be addressed?)

#14  Multisite is more culture than program – Roy Gruber (Can you define the culture you want to reproduce?)

Troy Gramling is the creative visionary of Potential Church, formally known as Flamingo Road Baptist Church. I met Troy shortly after Church Unique was released when his leadership team attended a Church Unique Workshop. In the years following, Troy continues to lean into their uniqueness and pushes the envelope with bold creativity and shock-and-awe vision.

Here are four  ways that that Potential Church models the principles of Church Unique:

#1 Potential Church let’s their Kingdom Concept shine through their mission. The big idea is unmistakable as it is repeated clearly and boldly everywhere the church speaks.  The church’s mission is to partner with people so they can reach their God potential. In addition, on 10-10-10 the church made the single word of their Kingdom Concept the church’s name—Potential.  If you had to fill this sentence in with one word for your church, what would it be: “Our church exists to glorify God and make disciples by _______________.”

#2 Potential Church communicates vision visually. The pink seed is their defining symbol. The seed is a picture of potential as the video story (below) of their name change  and vision communicates. The pink pulls from the “Flamingo” of their heritage as Flamingo Road Baptist Church, and sets the tone for creativity and the unexpected in worship. A few highly creative and uber relevant sermons series that Troy has done include: The Bed, RationaLies, and a very edgy series called Spin The Bottle. How many churches have dealt with questions like, “Is it okay to watch porn with my wife?”

#3 Potential Church keeps their strategy simple. Actually for a gigachurch (over 10,000 in attendance) it is one of the simplest you will find. In addition to worship at one of six campuses, you will find only “three doorways” for further involvement.. The most important is Connect Groups. In addition to groups, they have a monthly event called Next Step and Volunteering. Check out their guest brochure here.

#4 When you cast vision, stretch minds with audacious faith. The mind-stretch is one of the six elements of a simple and dynamic tool called the Vision Casting Spider Diagram. Potential Church has raised the bar here. Just when you thought a gigachurch was big, how about going terachurch!  They are looking to a day when 100,000 people attend worship. Specifically its the 50-100-150 vision; 50 campuses with 100,000 people with a 150 million dollar budget.

Don’t get distracted with the size. Go back to the one word. What’s your potential? What’s your one word?

This post continues a series where I am using the “lens of clarity” to look at 11 talks from the The NINES online conference by Leadership Network.

In this post, Jonathon Falwell pastor of Thomas Road Baptist Church, discusses how clarity can release your personal calling.

Problem: You will never fulfill you vision if you are copying someone else.

Here are some of my highlights:

• I was studying hundreds of perspectives and models
• I was getting confused about the direction I should take
• I was trying to adapt other models
• I thought that to be successful I had to take all of the best practices of other churches and put them in place here
• The most important lesson I learned as a new senior pastor: God created me and called me to be me
• Realize that if God placed you where you are than no one can do a better job in that place
• When I quite trying to be like someone else I was free to focus like never before

Is it time to close a program in your church? Many leaders will tell you, “When the horse is dead, dismount.” But this classic advice rolls of the tongue  much easier than it plays in real life.

As a leader in ministry you have no doubt faced ministries that just ought to go. Like sour milk, they live past their shelf-life. But for various reasons, you just can’t do it. Maybe there is still a group of precious saints being served by the program. Or maybe the decision-making culture of the church just requires more time to process.

The question becomes, “What are the strategic alternatives, to cutting a ministry altogether?” There are three I recommend regularly.

#1 Combine the ministry with something that is working well

Combining ministries is like creating an internal merger. Look for the similarities to something that is working. Talk to the leaders about leveraging the momentum of one with the other. Seek the win-win with diligence and you might be surprised. If the merge works, then you have cut the duplicate work of promotion, communication and  leadership training for two initiatives into one.

#2 “Contributize” the ministry

Before you make fun of my poetic license with the word “contributize” listen up! Think of a ministry that is only trickling with effectiveness as an opportunity to redirect that trickle into a more effective stream. In other words, turn the program into a contributory for a more strategy ministry. For example, what do you do with that monthly men’s prayer breakfast that’s been dwindling in attendance for the last 3 years. Rather than shutting it down, ask the leader to integrate a promotion for immediate and urgent opportunities for service in the last 10 minutes of the morning.

#3 Cage the ministry

Caging is close to just cutting the ministry, but with one big difference. You essentially make the ministry “dead to the world” with regard to promotions, communication, staff-time allocation and new funding, while allowing the ministry to exist. Think of it as a strategic way to allow a ministry to die with grace. Sure you may have some hard discussions or even some battles to fight. But its easier to fight for not publicly promoting a ministry  than it is to shut it down.

In the end, the predicament of change-resistance is not a programming issue or a people issue, it’s a vision issue. Use these three strategies to solve the clarity problems of yesterday. But walk into the future with a clear vision that will keep people emotionally connected to your direction and values, not your programs.

Sometimes conversations that mix marketing and ministry don’t go well. In this post, I will not being dealing with a biblical basis of branding or marketing, but I will discuss the biblical integration with one branding tactic- the development of an effective tagline.

TAGLINE BASICS

What is a tagline?

It is short, compelling phrase that makes a promise about your ministry to people both inside and outside of your ministry. Other words people might associate with a tagline are a motto, slogan, jingle or catchphrase. Historic examples range from Wendy’s “Where’s the beef?” to Nike’s “Just Do It.”  Recent examples from the 2011 Superbowl ads include Coca Cola’s “Open Happiness” and Chrysler’s “Imported from Detroit.”

What a tagline is not.

A tagline is not your mission or vision. In almost every vision session or marketing consultation I conduct, people are confused about the difference and appreciate constant reminders with clear definitions. Mission and vision language are for your internal ministry audience only. A tagline is for both your external and internal audience, with a special emphasis on the external- people who don’t know about your ministry.

What does a tagline do?

A tagline positions your ministry based on a promise. When marketers use the word “position” they are referring to both the “position” in someone’s mind (How do people file your ministry in their brain?) and the position relative to other ministry offerings. (How does our ministry compare with others?)

Do I have to have a tagline?

No, but generally it is an opportunity that can be missed if you don’t.

How long does a tagline last?

Depending on what industry it represents, taglines can change every 1-2 years or may last generations. BWM’s tagline, “The Ultimate Driving Machine” has endured for over 40 years. I think a church should be consistent enough to stick with a good tagline for 2-5 years. The key is to stay consistently consistent while remaining fervently relevant.

HOW TO DEVELOP A TAGLINE

Here are the steps required to develop an effective tagline. Each step has a page with further information and tools.

Step #1: Revisit your vision. You will want to first clarify the identity and direction of your church. Use this tool to assess your clarity.

Step #2: Decide on a gospel-centered promise. Use another tool, developed by Auxano Design,  to decide on what gospel promise your ministry best fulfills.

Step #3: Brainstorm many possible taglines based on your promise. The key is more. Follow these steps to make your list big enough.

Step #4: Review taglines from other ministries and competitors. Make sure your voice and message are unique.

Step #5: Reduce your list to the top five taglines. Don’t make the decision to quick. Follow some simple steps over two weeks.

Step #6 : Test your tagline with people outside of your ministry. Here is a quick way to test your external audience for free.

Step #7: Make a final decision. Take the ultimate test for your decision.