This summer has been full of many “firsts” for Vanessa and me. This past weekend was the first time Vanessa and I had ever been Charleston, SC. For a couple of people who love history, it was a great experience.
It was also the first time we’d ever attended 5 worship services in one weekend! Seacoast is known as one of the true pioneering churches in the multi-site arena. They do it in a couple of different ways. Their beautiful facilities contain 3 distinct worship rooms – the largest one is where the most services occur and where the message is always delivered “live”.
The next largest room is called the “warehouse” – it’s a square room with a high ceiling and an industrial feel to it. It hosts a “family worship” service where families with young children who want their children with them during worship attend. But, at a later time, the lights are lowered, smoke machine is cranked up, and concert lighting added for the “edgy” music crowd.
The third on-site venue is called the chapel and it is openly advertised as the place to come if you grew up in church and want to sing a mix of hymns and praise music. A keyboard, acoustic guitar, a jim-bay, but no bass or drum-set are used. One chapel service has a live preacher, but the others use a video-delivered message.
So, all that is taking place at one campus – multiple worship styles, the same message (either live or by way of video), and many options about what time you attend worship.
Meanwhile, all around the greater Charleston area, are other gatherings of Seacoast Church – one meets in a Senior Citizens Center (600 people in 2 services) and another meets in what used to be a grocery store – sounds familiar, doesn’t it? That site has 800 total attendance in 2 or 3 services. The idea has been implemented further out, as well – Columbia, SC, Greensboro, NC, and soon in Asheville, NC.
Just like at LifeChurch in OKC, Seacoast is one church, meeting in many places. There is a part of the budget that is unified and a part that is unique to that local site. Each site has a “Campus Pastor” who preaches locally a few times each year, but whose main job is to build small groups, lead people to faith, and equip believers to serve.
Once again, I found a large church that is really generous with its resources. They’ve given me a copy of their manual for how they set up an off-site location. They’re also considering allowing us to access their online video training for small-group leaders. Pray about this – it could really give us a huge push forward with our own small groups development.
By the way, they said repeatedly, “Life-transformation occurs, not in the worship services, but in small groups.” They added, “We don’t treat small groups like a “program”. We’re a church of small groups. Small groups are the church in action.”
This next weekend, we’ll be in Washington DC, for a Saturday night service in a coffee-shop setting (I hope they serve diet-coke). Sunday morning, we’ll drive out to Ruckersville, VA to visit a church that started additional sites when it was about the size of Crossroads. We may learn more that applicable to our situation at that church, than anywhere we go this summer.
The next time I write, I want to tell you about the most profound book I’ve read in a long time – SIMPLE CHURCH. It has my head spinning about how we often make our structure and discipleship process far too complex. I’ll tell you more, soon.
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