CFTROU 0150: Multisite Mulligans

In this episode, we are joined by Robert Harry, representing a recovery group that meets at Family Church and Jarrett Stephens from Champion Forest. They weigh in on the struggles and wins of building multisite churches and strategic partnerships, tell us why recovery programs are so important. They share lessons learned with regards to leadership. You’ll hear about planting a new campus and the story of a senior pastor who stepped up to the plate when he was called to lead a church for Champion Forest. Robert shares some of the impact that Family Church has had on his life and the lives of others. Jarrett emphasizes the importance of building a strong foundation, and considering your reasons before launching a new campus. 

Key Points:

How we define being an innovator: being courageous about creating, and embracing change, keeping the future in view!

An introduction to today’s guests, Robert Harry and Jarrett Stephens.

We touch on Robert’s story of recovery, which initially motivated him to leave Pennsylvania.

Jarrett shares some of the struggles he is having at multi-site church, Champion Forest.

Robert’s involvement in Family Church Recovery and why there is a huge need for it.

Some lessons they have learned at Family Church with regards to leadership.

Jarrett weighs in on the good that has come from establishing a new campus.

The story of a senior pastor who stepped up to lead a church plant for Champion Forest.

Why it is so important to consider all elements of why you are doing a merger.

The importance of building a strong foundation before launching a new campus.

Why it is so significant to choose a good leader, and to make sure your church is planted for mission and not convenience.

Some hurdles they have faced at Family Church and why they only share the highlights.

An invitation to join us at Family Church on 10 February for the Church for the Rest of Us Conference.

That’s been one of the pleasant surprises is the guy that we thought: is he going to make it as a campus pastor? He has stepped up now that safety net is gone.
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Links Mentioned in Today’s Episode:

North American Mission Board

Florida Baptist Convention

Church for the Rest of Us Conference

Jarrett Stephens on Twitter

Jimmy on Twitter

Leslee on Twitter

Family Church Network

Family Church on Facebook

Family Church on Instagram

Church for the Rest of Us on Twitter

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CFTROU 0149: A Church for Every Neighborhood

In this episode, our guests are Todd Gaston and Jim Tomberlin, two pioneers of the multisite church movement. Pastor Todd is the Campus Pastor of Family Church North Stuart. Jim has written a book, Better Together, and tells the amazing story of how he began working with multisite churches. You’ll also hear about some of the trends in the multi-church pre-COVID and today. Todd and Jim share some of the benefits of multisite, including sustainability, cost effectiveness, and community. You’ll learn why strong, stuck, and struggling churches are all great candidates for the multi-church model, and what it means to adopt a hybrid system. You’ll hear what churches need to focus on to best adopt a multi-site mission, and why people are so attracted to community and neighborhood church.

Key Points:

An introduction to today’s two guests, Todd Gaston and Jim Tomberlin.

The most recent version of their book, Better Together, that has recently been published.

The merger that Todd is in the middle of, launching on February 13.

Jim tells the story of how he started pioneering multi-site churches before it was cool.

Trends each of them are seeing in the multi-site church.

Why multisite is more sustainable and more cost effective than the mega-church model.

How multisite facilitates community in a way that larger churches are unable to do.

Why strong, stuck and struggling churches are all great candidates for the multi-church.

What the hybrid model means, including on-site and online.

How pastors react to the idea that small is the new big.

Why the multisite model is so well suited to small to medium size churches.

Why what every church needs to do is to reproduce who they are.

What the attraction to community and neighborhood churches is all about.

Why more people are getting into live teaching.

CFTROU 0149: A Church for Every Neighborhood
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Links Mentioned in Today’s Episode:

Church Answers

Liberty University

Church for the Rest of Us Conference

Jim Tomberlin on Twitter

Jim on Email

Better Together on Amazon

Jimmy on Twitter

Leslee on Twitter

Family Church Network

Family Church on Facebook

Family Church on Instagram

Church for the Rest of Us on Twitter

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This will help us place the podcast in front of more pastors and ministry leaders. It also lets us learn from you. Thank you for taking the time to get the word out about Church for the Rest of Us.

CFTROU 0148: Forming Strategic Partnerships

In today’s episode talking more about multi-site acquisitions and mergers, we are joined today by experts Dr. Ray Underwood of Family Church, and Dr. Willy Rice from Calvary Church in Clearwater. After a warm introduction, we dive right into the lived journey and vision that creates impact, and Dr. Ray and Dr. Willy each share their top insights into how to make these sorts of partnerships work so that we can spread the impact of Jesus’s love. We touch on when and why churches can (and should) lean on each other’s brotherly leadership, and we get some advice from our guests for some good reasons, not to partner. Finally, we get some fantastic parting advice from each of our guests on missional alignment, keeping the mission of Jesus at the forefront. From the importance of authenticity and good communication to how we’re all better when we work together, this episode is full of encouragement.

Key Points:

Introducing Ray and a little bit about his role in encouragement.

Willy talks us through some of the journey and vision of their multi-campus impact.

Ray shares his secret sauce of strategic partnership!

Hear thoughts on why and how churches are open to mergers and partnerships.

Some good reasons not to partner, and keeping your vision aligned.

We talk through some benefits and recurring challenges in this kind of ministry path.

The importance of good communication and clear expectations.

Managing your expectations, and how we’re better when we work together.

Parting advice from our experts!

The secret sauce in building strategic partnerships, is authentic relationship building.
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Links Mentioned in Today’s Episode:

North American Mission Board

Florida Baptist Convention

Church for the Rest of Us Conference

Jimmy on Twitter

Leslee on Twitter

Family Church Network

Family Church on Facebook

Family Church on Instagram

Church for the Rest of Us on Twitter

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This will help us place the podcast in front of more pastors and ministry leaders. It also lets us learn from you. Thank you for taking the time to get the word out about Church for the Rest of Us.

CFTROU 0147: Finding Your Leadership Voice in 90 Days: Kadi Cole

In this bonus episode, we welcome our guest, Kadi Cole. She is talking to us about her new book, Finding Your Leadership Voice in 90 Days. Kadi has a passion for serving the community by working with leaders to increase their effectiveness in whatever role of influence they have been given. We explore issues surrounding women in leadership roles, specifically in the world of ministry. Kadi talks about the resources she offers in her new book and how they are geared toward kickstarting a mindset shift in the women who read it, so that they feel empowered in whatever role or responsibilities they have. In today’s conversation, Kadi also shares tips for pastors who want to help create an environment in their churches that build women up.

Key Points From This Episode:

Key Points:

How Kadi discovered challenges women in leadership positions were facing.

What led Kadi to write her first book: Developing Female Leaders.

Tips for women in leadership positions who are feeling like imposters.

The questions that Kadi was being asked by women and how she responded.

Stereotypes about women that Kadi held and how she noticed them.

How important it is to confront biases and get women leaders involved in the church.

The way the church trains women to act and how this jeopardizes their leadership skills.

Women’s struggles that led Kadi to write Find Your Leadership Voice in 90 Days.

The messages around overcoming insecurity and mental breakthroughs in the book.

Steps that pastors can take to make their church more supportive and celebrating of women.

Most Christians who have great leadership want to be used in big ways by their church but very few women are.
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Links Mentioned in Today’s Episode:

Jimmy on Twitter

Leslee on Twitter

Kadi on Twitter

Church for the Rest of Us Conference

Family Church on Facebook

Family Church on Instagram

Church for the Rest of Us on Twitter

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This will help us place the podcast in front of more pastors and ministry leaders. It also lets us learn from you. Thank you for taking the time to get the word out about Church for the Rest of Us.

CFTROU 0146: Be Excellent

You can be excellent no matter where you are, no matter what kind of business you are in, and no matter what kind of church you are leading. In this episode, we discuss another Family Church Leadership Principle, to be excellent. Our guests are Dr. Mark Warnock, who oversees our Residency Program, and Tyler Core, Pastor to Students and Families for our network. Mark also leads worship at North Stuart Baptist Church, while Tyler oversees the 6-12th grade and college ministries across all of our neighborhood churches. They share what excellence means, what it looks like, and how doing whatever we do with excellence is a part of our worship of and to the Lord (as seen in the book of Colossians). Join us as we talk about excellence in leadership, how it should be embraced comprehensively as a lifestyle, and practical guidelines to follow when establishing a culture of excellence.

Key Points:

How we define being an innovator: being courageous about creating, and embracing change, keeping the future in view!

How being excellent relates to leadership: passion, attitude, and effort are free.

How you can think about excellence differently; not everything is equally resourced.

Making excellence comprehensive; it is a lifestyle we have to embrace.

Leading with excellence cultivates a culture of excellence.

We discuss some practical guidelines.

The importance of creating and communicating appropriate exceptions; up-line and down-line.

Doing our work in a way that makes Jesus proud!

Be decisive and take action; be an innovation broker.

We discuss why church metrics/data are important and how we can use it to work towards excellence.

Call the play and run the play: make the decision and then execute it!

Commit to continuous improvement!

It helps creates a passion within us if we remind ourselves that everything we do is for the Lord.
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Links Mentioned in Today’s Episode:

Jimmy on Twitter

Leslee on Twitter

Church for the Rest of Us Conference

Family Church on Facebook

Family Church on Instagram

Church for the Rest of Us on Twitter

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Hopefully, this episode has given you principles, strategies, and ideas that you can implement right now with the resources you have. If so, can you let others know?

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This will help us place the podcast in front of more pastors and ministry leaders. It also lets us learn from you. Thank you for taking the time to get the word out about Church for the Rest of Us.

CFTROU 0145: Be a Collaborator

On this episode, Pastor Jimmy Scroggins elaborates on the Family Church Leadership Principles and how our team has stayed flexible, agile, and adaptable in this season. Pastor Christian Ramos and Minister to Families, Erica Brooks, lead in different ministry areas, but share how they live out the Family Church Leadership Principles in their day-to-day activities. Hear how Christian uses the “umbrella of mercy” to air silly ideas, and why Erica feels saying less achieves greater impact. From tips on how you can make meetings more entertaining, to why the legend of King Arthur’s round table is Jimmy’s inspiration, you don’t want to miss out on this super informative episode!

Key Points:

How we define being an innovator: being courageous about creating, and embracing change, keeping the future in view!

What it means to be a collaborator: going from I to WE.

How the legend of King Arthur and the round table inspired Jimmy.

Why listening needs to be intentionally collaborative.

Hear the scripture that describes the importance of collaboration.

The practical ways to becoming a collaborator: from creating a time and space to building cross-functional teams.

Why face-to-face (or mask-to-mask) interaction is so crucial.

The tradeoff between the time taken to make a decision when multiple people are involved, versus the benefits of different viewpoints.

What should be communicated via email and text, compared to what meetings should cover.

Collaboration can mean laziness: why it’s important to practice strong preparation and full engagement.

Collaboration without accountability is just brainstorming.
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The less you say, the more people tend to listen.
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Links Mentioned in Today’s Episode:

Jimmy on Twitter

Leslee on Twitter

Family Church Network

Family Church on Facebook

Family Church on Instagram

Church for the Rest of Us on Twitter

Get podcast updates delivered to your inbox.

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Hopefully, this episode has given you principles, strategies, and ideas that you can implement right now with the resources you have. If so, can you let others know?

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This will help us place the podcast in front of more pastors and ministry leaders. It also lets us learn from you. Thank you for taking the time to get the word out about Church for the Rest of Us.

CFTROU 0144: Be an Innovator

We continue to unpack our Family Church Leadership Principles. In this episode, Pastor Todd Thomas and Pastor Seth Carter join the conversation. We talk about the kind of people we want to be as we love, serve, and shepherd people in our church or in any other place where we have influence. Today is a big one, in terms of our leadership principles, and one of Pastor Jimmy’s favorites. We discuss being innovators! Join us today as we dive into this principle and learn more about how we can establish a great church culture and organization!

Key Points:

How we define being an innovator: being courageous about creating, and embracing change, keeping the future in view!

The scripture we based this principle on: Mark 2:22.

What being an innovator means to Todd; innovation is key in moving forward.

How innovation influences Pastor Sean’s team in the creative world.

How change has an impacting factor in church; but without change, we are committed to certain death.

Why it’s important to distinguish between doctrinal change and cultural change in the church.

A great question churches should ask themselves: What would you change if you could start with a blank slate?

We like to say that a failure to innovate is a commitment to die.
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Links Mentioned in Today’s Episode:

Jimmy on Twitter

Leslee on Twitter

Family Church Network

Family Church on Facebook

Family Church on Instagram

Church for the Rest of Us on Twitter

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Hopefully, this episode has given you principles, strategies, and ideas that you can implement right now with the resources you have. If so, can you let others know?

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This will help us place the podcast in front of more pastors and ministry leaders. It also lets us learn from you. Thank you for taking the time to get the word out about Church for the Rest of Us.

CFTROU 0143B9: Navigating Grief

The COVID-19 pandemic has been traumatic for everyone, and many of us are grieving. Joining us today to talk about dealing with grief, is Church For The Rest of Us’s very own Kevin Mahoney. As our resident grief counselor, Kevin takes us through his personal experience of losing loved ones, and how through this, he found God. He discusses his own search for a Jesus-centered grief counseling program, and how the GriefShare program works. From people dealing with grief, to pastors and church leaders searching for a program to help their community, GriefShare can help you. Not only does Kevin provide us with the tools to support each other, but he also teaches us how to talk to those who are grieving, and what you need to do to get from one day to the next. Tune in to this episode to equip yourself to give people the hope that they need.

Key Points:

An introduction to Kevin Mahoney: pastor, pilot, financial account manager, husband, father, grandfather, and grief counselor.

Kevin’s personal experience with grief.

What to say to those who are grieving.

How the loss of Kevin’s first-born son led him to God.

Finding a Jesus-centered grief program: GriefShare.

A breakdown of the GriefShare program.

How GriefShare brings people together, and to God.

Some advice for pastors and church leaders on how to counsel those who are grieving. 

Through grief, there's really two choices: the first is you can become bitter. Or the second is you can become better because God does work all things together for good.
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”Early
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Often just being present in their life at the initial time of loss is very helpful.
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God might give you more than you can handle, but God will never give you more than He can handle.
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Links Mentioned in Today’s Episode:

Jimmy on Twitter

Leslee on Twitter

GriefShare

Family Church Network

Family Church on Facebook

Family Church on Instagram

Church for the Rest of Us on Twitter

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Hopefully, this episode has given you principles, strategies, and ideas that you can implement right now with the resources you have. If so, can you let others know?

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This will help us place the podcast in front of more pastors and ministry leaders. It also lets us learn from you. Thank you for taking the time to get the word out about Church for the Rest of Us.

CFTROU 0142: Be a Motivator

In this episode, Pastor Aaron Filippone of Family Church Gardens and Pastor Robby Christmas of Family Church in The Farms join Pastor Jimmy Scroggins and Leslee Bennett. We cover another one of our leadership principles: be a motivator. You will learn how to inspire your team to do greater things by consistently casting vision, relying on the power of God to advance your mission, and clearly communicating the why, as well as having fun together, celebrating the small wins, and so much more! There are a myriad of different ways that you can apply these Family Church Leadership Principles as you lead your church or organization.

Key Points:

Part of our role as spiritual leaders in organizations is to make people feel what your motivators made you guys feel, but we need to make them feel it for Christ and for the mission that we’re on in our churches and in our…
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If you are not motivated from the gut, you probably are going to give up. People want to understand the why, and we have to show them the why and help them connect those dots as leaders.
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Links Mentioned in Today’s Episode:

Jimmy on Twitter

Leslee on Twitter

Aaron on Twitter

Church for the Rest of Us Conference 

Church for the Rest of Us on Twitter

Family Church on Facebook

Family Church on Instagram

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Hopefully, this episode has given you principles, strategies, and ideas that you can implement right now with the resources you have. If so, can you let others know?

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This will help us place the podcast in front of more pastors and ministry leaders. It also lets us learn from you. Thank you for taking the time to get the word out about Church for the Rest of Us.