Welcome back to our new podcast all about multisite! I’m chatting with a group of multisite ninjas and answering your questions about the ins and outs of launching new campuses. Our group is as follows:

Natalie Frisk is our family ministry expert. She is a key leader from The Meeting House. This church has 19 (!) locations and is doing all kinds of great stuff, including a killer kids’ & youth curriculum that they give away for free. Natalie’s a lot of fun and will have so many great insights around leading in a thriving multisite church.

Greg Curtis is our guest connections and assimilation expert. He leads at Eastside Christian Church, one of the fastest growing churches in the country, and literally, is the “go to” source for getting people to stick and stay in the church. (Eastside has assimilated something like 1,500 people in the last 18 months!) His coaching practice around assimilation is amazing.

Ben Stapley is our communications and service programming expert. Ben is one of the most helpful leaders I know. His day job is at Liquid Church in NJ, but he does so much to help other leaders with the “big show” part of church world.

And I, Rich, have been involved with 14 different campus launches over the years and enjoy helping churches that are thinking about multisite.

We are here to answer your questions about running a multisite church and are excited to be here today with our fifth episode.

Opening Question: Who are some other multisite churches that you are learning from?

* Greg Curtis – There isn’t one or two specific ones I have personally invested in, but I would say in general Church of the Highlands and Central Christian in Mesa, Arizona.

* Natalie Frisk – To be honest with you and without even building into their egos at all, I have been learning a lot from Liquid Church and Eastside, both Greg and Ben. But not just those guys, different people on their teams. Aside from those two, I would also say Crossroads Church in Ohio has been an incredible church to tune into.

* Ben Stapley – I know one that I’ve given a lot of shout outs to in the past is LCBC Church in Pennsylvania. They’ve been super helpful with their time and have systemized things really well. In terms of following churches from afar, on my radar right now would be Christ Church of the Valley. They do a great job of sharing their resources.

Q1: What are some effective systems and practices churches are using for developing leaders in multisite churches?

Raising up leaders is critically important for both staff and volunteers. 87% of all campus pastors are found from within the existing church and 2/3 of volunteers in all locations are new to volunteering.

Within Eastside Church, when a new campus is started they invite people to come to interest meetings where they can meet the campus pastor and key leaders that have already been recruited for a few major areas. There is a short presentation to let everyone know where the church is in the launch process, and then the leaders are introduced by area. People are invited to sit at the various tables with area leaders based on where they are interested in serving. This process is the beginning of the pipeline, whether they are new to volunteering or experienced, and can lead to key leadership positions. Eastside has learned a lot from watching other organizations and works to adapt and implement what works for them. When they went to Auxano, they designed a three-year process for implementation that would go through the entire staff and department to develop leaders. They use a three-wing environment to develop leaders: Prep Modules, which are comprised of five competencies that help move someone from a team member up to the highest levels of leadership; Inspirational Events to encourage and offer new events for the team members; and Ongoing Equipping Huddles to invite staff...