Multi-Site Students

Reflections from Life Church

Today I had the opportunity to sit in on a session led by Terry Van Winkle, the Executive Director of Student Ministries at Life Church in Edmond, OK. Currently, Life Church is a church of 17000+ meeting at 8 locations. Though Life Church is a church of many locations, they are committed to be ONE Student Ministry. One ministry with the same mission, the same vision, the same core values, the same philosophy of ministry, and the same central support network.

Terry made a few key statements that really helped define and drive his multi-site approach that I found very helpful:

1) Life Church is committed to "provide a comprehensive youth ministry at every campus regardless of geographic location, facility limitations, or number of attenders."

2) A scaleable youth ministry model allows us to serve an infinite nnumber of campuses.

3) A scaleable youth ministry model should have a limited number of ministry focuses (Life Churches focuses are: Bring In, Build Up, Train, and Send Out).

4) The most effective [multi-site student ministry] model will be centrally led and centrally supported.

5) The central component of the student minsitry can (and should) ensure quality, consistency, and excellence at each location.

6) A centrally supported youth ministry frees the [campus] student pastors to invest their time in developing our most important resource--people.

Though Life Church's model of multisite ministry looks different than CCC, I found his philosophy and structure very insightful. How do these principles impact your student context?

Welcome to Multi-site Student Ministry

Has your church already ventured into the world of multi-site ministry? Are you left wondering how this might impact your junior high and high school students? We sure were. A few years after Community Christian Church had moved to its second site, we were still a centralized ministry at a multi-site church. Though the centralized strategy had its perks, we also realized that we could not remain centralized as our church continued to add more locations. Even if core students and their parents were willing to make the drive to the central location, we would never be able to effectively reach out to all the students currently outside our community. Though the multi-site journey has been difficult at times, it has paved the way for many students (and their families) to find their way back to God. We now live with the understanding that it is not only possible for student ministry to survive at a multi-site church, but it can really thrive through an intentional strategy of multiple locations.

Though I do not claim to be an expert on this subject, I desire to create a learning community that can help shape the future of Student Ministry in the expanding multi-site movement. My prayer is that this website will provide key principles and helpful dialog for those considering and those doing multi-site student ministry.