Multisite Student Ministry Vision

Be relevant in this generation to connect students to Christ, teach them to imitate Christ and influence the world. Church @ The Springs is committed to provide a students ministry at each campus regardless of geographic location, facility limitations, or number of attenders.

We are one student ministry, multiple locations. We want to see students begin a relationship with Jesus in order to imitate Christ and influence the world. The cultural landscape of students is always changing. We want to see a generation become lifelong Christ-followers. The millennial generation is one of the largest in history. They constitute 34% of the American population. 77% of people who come to know Jesus usually make that decision by the time they are 18 years old.

4 Words that shape my multisite student ministry:

1) Centrally Supported 

The Student Ministry model should be sustainable, scaleable and reproducible that impacts each community we plant a campus. The most effective way to build a sustainable student ministry model at Church @ The Springs is centrally led and centrally supported.

Centrally led helps ensure quality teaching, consistency and excellence at each location. Central support helps free up the campus leaders to invest in people. We have a central team that provides the direction, training, and resources for all the campus. Central provides – the vision and direction of the ministry (including content), training for leaders, and resources they need to do ministry (messages, small group questions, graphics, videos, blurbs, etc...). We ask our campus leaders to do the following – Invest in leaders, love on students, and minister to the community. 

- Training events are centralized to bring leaders together. We do this in order to encourage each other, build unity and vision. 
- Yearly Leader Retreat provides a time to get away as a team and encourage one another. 

2) Sustainable

Can we be effective with our staff and volunteers for long-term? Instead of multiple leaders writing messages, we have 1. It is easier to create a structure this way that can translate to other campuses. The key to success is to have team players who are unified. The student ministry is volunteer driven. Without leaders to help, we wouldn't be able to make multisite student ministry happen.

Contextualize:
With different sizes of the campuses it leads to trying to figure out how to contextualize it. At our Ocala campus, we have a main worship environment with 150-200 students. At our two other campuses, they weekend attendance fluctuates from 200-400 total people. The students at these campuses are considerably smaller. So we are moving students into homes on Wednesdays at the newer, smaller campuses. This way, we can funnel in our teaching video through vimeo. We will be learning the same teaching together at the same time. The exciting part is the "United" nights will bring all the students together for worship from all campuses each month! 

3) Reproducible 

We want to reproduce our core strategy of leading students to imitate Christ and influence the world. Here are the reasons we have student ministry mid-week on Wednesday nights.  
 - It helps students have time to serve fully on the weekends in all areas.
 - It helps build a family night atmosphere on Wednesday nights.
-  If it doesn't make sense for three campuses, then simplify to be reproducible. 
- It helps build momentum to have a singular focus each week on student ministry. 

4) Unified 

Can we provide an effective student ministry across campuses how we are currently leading it? How do we encourage students across campuses to know that we are one church, many locations?  

"Source United" Nights every 4-5 weeks. 
- Build energy with all of the 6-12th grade students together from 3 campuses! 
- Build excitement in the students from all campuses. 
- Students from newer campuses will receive the DNA and passion of the original campus.
- Big push for students to invest and invite their friends to church.
- Create the greatest “after-parties” to help students build relationships. 

What are your thoughts on multisite?
If you are possibly becoming multisite in the future or you are currently, please share in the comments below! 

Traffic Lights and Multisite Student Ministry

I have been collaborating a lot with other youth pastors that are doing multisite longer than me. I came across this info from Kurt from Saddleback on the "red light, yellow light and green light" decision making process. 

I adapted it to how we will make decisions across campuses for student ministry. 

“Red” Light: Stop: do not proceed on your own...

Red light items are the non-negotiable parts of our ministry that need to be uniform from campus to campus. Red light items might have some room for contextualization, but not much. 
-Church @ The Springs vision and strategy which is the model for our whole church.
-Our teaching/curriculum: We use the same series across campuses to unify what is being taught to students. This ensures quality, consistency and unity on what our students learn.
-Our Application, interview, background check process for leaders/volunteers.
-Our Purpose Statement and Values
-Our Ministry Names and Logos 
- Flyers, promotional materials, etc. As long as they use our logos when applicable, there is freedom in the design.
-Big Events such as Abandon, Decrease, Camps, Mission Trips.

“Yellow” Light: Proceed with caution...

YELLOW LIGHT ITEMS are the aspects of our ministry, that need to be similar to Church @ The Springs Baseline campus, but do have room for customization. While our programs should feel the same, the way they are executed has flexibility.

Some examples of YELLOW LIGHT items are:

-Our curriculum. While the style, “feel” and content is a red light issue, you have freedom to contextualize it to your setting.
-While we offer curriculum you might supplement your own curriculum with our approval.

GREEN LIGHT: Go for it! Do it however you want...

Green light decisions are what each campus leader has complete control over. The truth is, you have complete control over a whole bunch of stuff! Of course, “complete control” also assumes that nothing you do would conflict with or undermine a RED or YELLOW light area.

Some examples of GREEN LIGHT items are:

-Campus specific events (movie days, special events, service projects, etc.)
-How you show leader appreciation (Encourage your leaders! Love them! Minister to them!)

*NOTE: The Red, Yellow, Green light items will morph from time to time. We will work together to make sure there is clarity. A good rule of thumb is: “When in doubt, ask”! 

I hope this helps others that are learning to lead multisite ministries! 

Share your ideas below in the comments! 

OverHype and Student Ministry

Overhype is defined as, "make exaggerated claims about (a product, idea, or event); publicize or promote excessively."

I love the hype of a competitive game or fun event. I enjoy life and I'm sure you do as well. But what happens when we think that everything that happens in student ministry needs to live up to hype. Isn't that what students want today anyways? 

One truth that I have come back to over 10 years of learning about ministry is that if it is built solely upon emotions and without a foundation in God's Word, it will diminish. 

Here are some examples of "overhype." 
 - Social media is a continual "Hype Fest!" Do you and I really always feel like everything is amazing? I know there are days I am exhausted and other days I feel excited. Be real and don't feel the pressure to make everything just like a Disney world attraction. 

 - You celebrate numbers over stories. Now, I understand that every number is a person (who has a story, etc) but I believe that if we shared more stories of life change instead of only numerical data, we miss out on the heart of why we do ministry.

 - Packed calendar of events. The feeling to "keep the students busy" and to appease parents to be their children's social planner can be overwhelming. Say no to more events. Say no to the feeling that if we always do more and "hype" it up and beg people to come that we will see more life change. Less is more. Spend energy on the vision and strategy of your ministry at your church. Cut out the hype of busyness. 

Hype is fun. I enjoy how exciting it is to see God change lives and have a lot of fun at the same time! But, God uses the quiet, still moments to teach us about Himself, not just the loudness and busyness that our culture believes is important. 

My question for myself and to you is, "Am I just as excited about God and His mission in the mundane, quiet times during the day as much as when I'm a part of the next event?" 

What if our social media was more honest and real. 
What if we celebrated the names and stories of students instead of only how many butts are in the seats? 
What if we stopped looking for only physical results (hands raised during music, etc) and prayed for the Holy Spirit to produce fruit that remains years down the road? 

What if we led by example to live by faith and not only by the hype of emotions. 

The honest truth is...this is what our students and their parents need as well. 

Let's stop overhyping. Please. Student ministry will be better for it.