In Case You Missed It

Here's the letter we sent out last week about changes at the Hudson campus:

June 10, 2008

Dear Five Oaks Family (at our Hudson Campus):

I hope you are as excited as I am about the move to the Hudson 12 Theatre this weekend. This move reminds me of when I came to Five Oaks in 1997 and within seven months we changed our location and our name. I believe it’s going to be a catalyst to reach new people in the area, and it’s going to be a very effective location for holding services.

As I explained at our lunch meeting a few weeks ago at Faith Community, the move to the theater is a unique opportunity. As we enter this new season of ministry in a new location, we’re blanketing Hudson and every surrounding town with 27,000 impact cards announcing our move, promoting June 22 (giving us a week to work out some inevitable kinks). An exciting development is that all those homes will have already received a flyer from the theater itself. It’s a great one-two punch.

Because of this new opportunity, we need a leadership team in place for the summer, and Brian Burquest has agreed to serve as the interim Campus Pastor for Hudson. Brian and his family have been campus participants and leaders from day one, they are West Lakeland residents and Brian is on staff as Business Administrator. This will take effect June 15.

Pastor Bob will continue participating with the Hudson campus and he will be part of the transition team. The reason we are making this campus pastor change right now is because Bob needs his weekends free in his search for a full-time pastoral position, and we need a regular leadership presence on the weekends as new folks begin arriving over the summer. We’re planning a celebration of Bob’s leadership as Campus Pastor. Please be sure to personally thank Bob, Dottie and their family for all they’ve done to launch the campus and lead it. We really can’t say or do enough to thank them for their loving and caring leadership.

I also want to tell you about our interim Worship Leader for the campus. Steve Haines has been serving as the interim Worship Pastor at Church of the Open Door during the last year and a half. This church of more than 3000 people in average attendance has been one of the leading and most influential churches in the Twin Cities for years. We feel very fortunate to have him serve in this capacity for the summer months. We look forward to introducing him to you as he begins leading our Hudson services June 15.

I know these changes can cause some anxiety as we enter new territory. They are also tough because they include some good-byes. Please pray for our Hudson congregation, for Pastor Bob and his family and for the transition to the theater. I am praying for you and appreciate all you do to bring lives to Christ and Christ to everyday life in the Hudson area.

In Christ,

Pastor Henry Williams
Senior Pastor

Top 10 Observations from Hitchhiking

David Gafford and I spent a couple of days getting a behind the scenes look at Community Christian Church, a multi-site and church planting church with nine campuses and several affiliated plants. Their Hitchhiker's Guide to Multi-site event started with Leadership Community (this is one of the main reasons we went) and then we saw about five campuses between the two of us. We were there with about a dozen other churches (about 50 folks). CCC puts one of these on about four times per year.

Here are my top 10 observations:

1. Leadership is hard, but you can make it fun. CCC knows how to have fun and modeled it well for us.
2. No better way to train leaders than through apprenticeship. CCC drives home having apprentices at every level. CCC has leadership residencies where folks come to apprentice with a pastor for a year. The only cost to the church is the time of the leader. Some of thesse residents become campus pastors or church planters. If CCC had to pay for this, their reproduction would slow down to a crawl.
3. If you don't write things down and develop policies, it will come back to bite you. CCC is notorious for not having policies and procedures, and I think it's catching up to them. On the other hand, their apprenticeship model is second to none.
4. Policies can get in the way of kingdom work and a movement of God. That's the flip side of the last point. Part of the genius of CCC is that they don't have a bunch of policies and procedures. I believe policies are essential, but don't let them determine ministry. Flexible, adaptable, nimble, simple are all key words I will be using. 
5. Constantly innovate. Example: With their ninth campus they've found a way to save money on rental and provide a great environment by setting up those tents/fenses n the gym in the picture above. 
6. Every church that is on the go runs into some financial problems that result in a test and an opportunity. CCC had to do some layoffs this year for the first time ever. It tortured their senior pastor and embarrassed him (as he shared at Leadership Community). Yet it has provided an opportunity to analyze and improve. Over time the tendency is to get "fat." I'm absolutely convinced that "lean" is good for the kingdom. 
7. Some people's definition of excellence get in the way of kingdom work. CCC doesn't let that happen. I'll do a whole post on this one.
8. It's not about multi-site; it's about multiplication.
9. Big asks get big results. When CCC plants a church in another city, it's typical for several families in the church to pull up stakes, find new jobs and homes and move with church planter! This is typical. 
10. You can sometimes learn as much from people's mistakes as from their successes. The cool thing about this hitchhiking experience is that CCC isn't waiting until they get it all right to do it (they never will) and they're very open about what's going well and what's not. No pretension.
11. [Bonus Obersvation] Great leaders don't hold on to things too tightly. I see this in Dave Ferguson. I need to learn this big time. That's the theme that keeps running through my head on this vacation.