Systems and operation may not be the most glamorous aspect of church life, but they are crucial to making multisite work well. In this webinar we lift the lid on what it takes to manage a church that exists across a number of sites. Whilst some of the application varies depending on the number of sites and complexity of the organisation, this will be a practical conversation that covers principles that are important in any stage and style of multisite church.

Special Guest: Phil Varley (senior associate pastor of Kings Church London)

One of the most noticeable differences between multisite churches can be in their approach to teaching in Sunday services. For some churches it is a priority that the teaching is the same at every site, and this is sometimes achieved through the same message being shown via video in all services or through the same preacher travelling round and delivering the same message in each location. In other churches there is a shared program of preaching topics but the actual teaching is delivered by different preachers who are based at each of the sites. In still other churches the teaching program is both decided and delivered locally. In this webinar we will talk about these different approaches and help you determine which approach is right for your church.

Special Guest: Liam Thatcher (teaching pastor of Christ Church London)

One of the key challenges faced in any multisite church is how leadership will operate. What will be the responsibility of site leaders? How will this interact with the ‘centre’ of the church and the senior pastor? How do elders fit into this? What about staff? Trustees? There is no one size fits all solution to these questions, but for the church to thrive as it grows to multiple sites these are key issues to think through, and we discuss them in this webinar.

In the first iteration of a multisite church, there may be ready-made leaders who can head up the new site whilst others remain in leadership in the sending site. This division of labour can only take you so far however, and in order to keep multiplying sites you need to bring through new leaders. For a senior leader in a multisite church this presents unique challenges and unique opportunities as many of those potential leaders are in sites that you don’t have as much direct involvement in as others. In this conversation we explore some of these challenges and how multisite church offers new opportunities for bringing through new leaders.

For many of the challenges that multisite churches face, there are a variety of different approaches, and these flow from the philosophy of the church. Not all multisite churches are the same. Some are heavily centralised with each site acting like a ‘franchise’ with a common experience. Others are much more devolved, with leadership, vision, finance, teaching and other aspects of church life operating at a local level. Still others have a model somewhere between these extremes. One of the keys to navigating the different challenges of multisite church is gaining clarity on exactly what type of multisite you are building. In this webinar we are joined by special guest Brad House as we talk through the different models of multisite and looks at what the implications of each model are for how you build.