Unlike many of the other ministries of the church, we quickly realized that we (in Student Ministry) were not going to be able to reproduce every element of our ministry at each location. We did not have the staffing, resources, or even critical mass of students to make this possible. At the same time we wanted to ensure that we were successful at whatever we decided to reproduce at every location. Currently, our student ministry is designed around three core experiences for students: Celebrate (our large groups worship experience), Connect (our small group relational experience), and Contribute (our service opportunities for students to make a difference in the church and in the world).
Though we desire every campus to have each of these core experiences for students, we needed to start with the most critical experience, reproducing small groups. The relational aspect of the student ministry is the growth engine for each location. So each time we looked to start a new location, we established small groups as missional communities to reach out to the students of the area. Through small group reproduction, we then looked to build a critical mass to launch a large group celebration experience.
[Click on the picture below to see CCC Student Model]
The model that we developed has endless possibilities for future growth. It has also enabled us to reproduce quickly and effectively. In just three years, we have reproduced from one location to six giving us the ability to reach almost four times the number of students that we were caring for centrally. But regardless of the model you choose for your multi-site student ministry, it will be very important to think both short term (What must be reproduced with each new location?) and long term (Where are we going in the future?). We have found that this model allows our ministry to be both scaleable and reproducible. No matter the size or stage of development of each location, we can create content and material to serve each location well.
