THE
STAFF MANAGEMENT (MULTI-SITE)
Grace Fellowship Church (Latham, NY)
A “Good Steward” Award recipient in the area of multi-site staff management, Latham, NY’s Grace Fellowship Church has launched three multi-site campuses in the past five years. This process has involved two capital campaigns, vision-casting, site identification, site development and leadership training. Here, Pastor of Business Administration Bill Minchin talks about these developments. To launch three multi-site campuses in five years seems like an exceptionally rigorous undertaking — is it? Minchin: That depends on who you ask. We studied and visited aggressively multi-site churches that are much more ambitious than we were / are. We feel like it’s a manageable endeavor, though. We launched our Half-Moon campus in December 2008. We bought the building. Three years later, in fall 2011, we decided to “press on with this model.” We had three years of viable data and experience to draw upon. We decided to launch two more locations — at Saratoga and Greenbush — and we called the campaign “2 in 2” — two campuses in two years. We’re renovating both. Really, launching two was the aggressive part. But, we feel good about it. What prompted the church to expand so aggressively in a relatively short period of time? Minchin: Data. The easiest data to track is attendance and giving. Over three years, both were consistently growing. In fact, we saw double-digit attendance growth at our Half Moon campus. Plus, there were the stories of the lives that campus had changed to go on. So, while it was a big financial commitment, God seems to be honoring this effort. For pastors called to embark on rapid expansion efforts in their own churches, can you offer advice in the following areas (based on your own experience)? Capital campaigns
58 | CHURCH EXECUTIVE | 11-12 / 2014
Grace Fellowship Church’s Half Moon, NY campus