Multi-Site Musings (Part 2)

{Continued from this post.}

Who are the "pastor" and "staff" in a multi-site church?  How are things structured & organized?  We must realize that in the New Testament, leadership & responsibilities were "shared" among people within the church.  A great mistake we have made in the church today is to ask the "Pastor" to do everything -- preach, teach, counsel, visit the sick, marry, provide vision & leadership, conduct weddings and funerals, leap tall buildings and move mountains.  This explains why most churches cannot grow past 150-200 people because that is the physical limitation of the "single" pastor.  {See Acts 6:1-7 for an example of how the first church spread ministry out and how certain people focused only on certain aspects of ministry. I am so thankful our elders have an Acts 6 view of ministry!} 

However, in the NT church we see in effect that these duties were never given to just one person but instead spread out among the church as people were gifted and equipped for ministry.  What Paul did in the NT was establish elders (plural) or elder-pastors to provide leadership, teaching, volunteer development, care, doctrinal purity & protection, and direction for the local church.   

Some elder-pastors (those who directed the affairs of the church and providing teaching for the church) are mentioned as worthy of double-honor (I Tim. 5:17) which refers to being paid by the church.  However, this "honor" was because of the specific work they performed and the time it took to perform it; this was not because they were superior or of higher rank than any other elder, pastor, or member.  One of the distinguishing marks of the NT church is that is lacked a special priestly or clerical group of people.  It is a family of brothers and sisters with whom the Spirit of God indwells to manifest Jesus' life to world.  We are all part of one body, united by one faith, in the one true God.  We each are equipped to do our part to build this body up to fullness in Christ!  This NT approach keeps the church from identifying with one particular person or personality who will eventually retire, die, or move; and hopefully, this model helps people identify more with JESUS than a single individual. 

So at Rock Bridge we believe in "campus-specific" staffing and empowered volunteers where roles are divided and leadership is shared.  For example, I am the primary "teaching" pastor for both campuses; however, in Calhoun, Carll is the primary pastor-shepherd-overseer on site, and he also teaches some.  The same applies for Children's Ministry where Amanda leads Children's Ministry in Dalton and works alongside Stephanie in Calhoun to provide direction over the children's programming but Stephanie is the Children's Minister in Calhoun, not Amanda.  This also works for students and worship ministries as well. 

This model contains some centralized administrative & strategic functions but it decentralizes ministry.  In the Book of Acts you see this same pattern of the apostles in Jerusalem providing direction, clarity, & vision while the church began to spread its message & ministry beyond the geography of Israel (see Acts 6, Acts 13, and Acts 15 for examples).