Clarify multisite campus autonomy now. If you wait until a crisis forces you, the stakes will be higher and the damage will be greater.
One of the elusive challenges of multisite church ministry is the amount of independence that campuses are allowed to have. When it comes to autonomy, how much is too much? There are as many answers to that as there are multisite churches. In other words, it depends.
It helps to just ask the question to begin with. Many churches were in a rush to jump on the multisite bandwagon and didn't slow down enough to develop a coherent strategy for how, when and (most importantly) why to launch campuses. Multisite churches who didn't clarify campus autonomy in advance often end up paying the price later. If you have to do it amidst a leadership crisis, the stakes are much higher and the potential damage is much greater. That's why you should do it now.
The best time to have the conversation about campus autonomy is right now. If you're shying away from an awkward conversation on this topic, chances are that your campus pastors know it. They feel the tension and lack of clarity everyday as they serve on the front lines of campus ministry and it's starting to get clunky. And even if your multisite strategy is already up and running, it never hurts to revisit the issue as a way to ensure you still have it right to allow for effective ministry at the campus level. Your campus pastors will thank you for it. Don't put it off.
There's always a chance that challenges around campus autonomy are less about systems and structure and more about staff. You may have a solid multisite strategy with clear boundaries for that campus but you hired the wrong person to lead it. The student pastor who got tired of throwing t-shirts off a stage at summer camp may or may not the right fit for a campus pastor. Your campus pastor should embody the mission, vision and values of the church at large. He should be both called and content to submit to leadership rather than create his own following. He should be able to translate vision and contextualize at the campus level without inserting his own agenda. The emerging trend in multisite towards live preaching makes the selection of a campus pastor even more critical.
In the midst of a crisis is a very difficult time to have this conversation. It could be a crisis of strategy. Your plan for how to do multisite ministry is beginning to crumble. Campuses are pushing against their boundaries of what is allowed and it's becoming unsustainable. Or it could be a crisis of staffing. Your campus pastor in over his head and struggling to keep all the plates spinning and meet the expectations in the complexity of your multisite system. Or worse, he's gone rogue and trying to take the campus and congregation with him. Addressing the topic of campus autonomy under these conditions is like trying to open the lid of a pressure cooker. Things are liable to explode in your face and someone may get hurt. That's why it's best to have the conversation now, not later.
Embracing the awkwardness and having the conversation now with campus pastors about multisite campus autonomy will foster collaboration, increase trust and support a healthy leadership culture. Every multisite church needs a plan that correctly balances centralized versus decentralized decision making.
How have you and your team navigated the conversation about multisite campus autonomy? I would love to hear what you're learning. Send a quick note to me at mv@michaelvolbeda.com.
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