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Why a Multisite Model with Multiple Preachers

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What’s best for you may not be best for others. That could be true of the following philosophy from Brentwood Baptist Church. However, I wanted to share with you why when Brentwood Baptist chose a multi-site model, we chose not to have video venues, but instead to have live preaching at each campus. Perhaps something from our thinking will resonate as you consider your church’s future.

The multi-site strategy for us took two years of R & D and then time for implementation. A team studied, traveled, and prayed about what God would have for us (this hard work was done before I began serving here). For us, multi-site meant establishing both regional and ministry campuses. At this point, our five campuses are all within middle Tennessee. Each of the four regional sites is within 20 miles of our central campus (Brentwood campus), as is our one ministry campus. And for each of those sites, we have a campus and teaching pastor.

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Wins and Mistakes in Planning Sabbaticals

If you’re lucky enough to earn a sabbatical, you want to make sure you take advantage of it. I’ve taken a sabbatical, but most of my opinions about them have been formed by talking to other ministers who came back from theirs and realized it wasn’t maximized, or was used the wrong way.

As a free resource, you can view Brentwood Baptist’s documents related to sabbaticals, including these forms: Educational Assistance and Sabbatical Overview, Sabbatical Request, Sabbatical Proposal, and Sabbatical Report on my resources page.

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Why You Should Waste Church Resources

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It’s hard to walk away from something that’s taken a significant investment of time and resources. But I’m learning in my position as executive pastor (and it’s likely applicable for other ministry leadership positions), the investment of time into things that never see the light of day is actually me doing my job effectively.

I assume all leaders are frustrated by sunk costs. But, as ministry leaders, should we not embrace them? Or at least embrace the process which often leads to them?

Last year, I was significantly involved in two minister searches for our church. Each process took more than four months. It included countless calls, flying to their homes, and flying them to our church. I’d count up the hours I spent in this process, but it might make me nauseous. When we got down to the last stage of selection, it was determined the match wasn’t best. All the work invested tempted me to pull the trigger anyway… “I can’t walk away from this, I have too much invested.” But we knew something wasn’t right. We didn’t feel this was what God had for us, or for the candidate. It was hard for all involved, but I’m confident the time and resources of the selection process helped us avoid the wrong hire.

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