How do you align campuses?

I recently received an email asking about alignment in campuses. I thought I'd share the questions and my answers:

Dear Geoff

During one of the workshops you participated in at Exponential this past year you mentioned how key ministry leaders should meet on a semi-regular basis with those who lead a similar ministry area at another campus (worship leaders all meet, kids pastors meet . . . etc.)

You mentioned that this would help to maintain alignment across campuses but the final authority or decision would be made between that particular leader and the campus pastor. 

We are just now implementing that strategy "full tilt" here. As we have began these bi-weekly meeting a question has come up.

How exactly do we define what "bringing alignment" means? How do these meetings not become management meetinsg but rather stay focused on alignment?

What kind of questions should the LEAD worship leader be asking the other worship leaders, or the LEAD kid pastor be asking the other kids pastors?

How would you define alignment in the setting of these meetings. 

I deeply appreciate any insight. 

Thank you Geoff! 

Here's my response:

I think you are asking the right questions, but I can’t really answer them for you. As a church you need to define what the key alignment issues are. Is it style? Curriculum? Song selection? What really matters at your church? What makes you distinct? How would you answer that in each ministry? Once you have defined what the key issues are you then need to identify the markers for those issues. How do I know when I walk into a campus that it is hitting the mark in this area?

I think these questions are best answered in teams. (“People will support a world they help create”) One of the early missions of a ministry leader is to sit down with his peers at the other campuses and wrestle through the questions above. This needs to happen at every level, but if it is a top down process then meetings become compliance checking rather than ministry building. A more effective way is to build the markers from the bottom up and let the top leadership speak into the process at the beginning and the end. Delivering the commandments from on high was even dicey for Moses and he KNEW he had the right answers.

At Seacoast we eventually developed a set of operating guidelines around each ministry area defining key indicators that we were in alignment. It is brutally hard work, but essential if you want to grow beyond 2 or 3 locations. Hope this helps

So how about your church? How do you ensure alignment?

Comments

[Willymaxwell]

Geoff,

I love your answer & think it is spot on. Too many times when someone asks that type of question, they are given an "do this" kind of answer, and the reality is alignment will mean something different and look different at just about every multi-site church.

The staff needs to figure out what it's core values are, what makes them who they are (DNA), once that is established, it is easier for central staff & campus staff to evaluate if they are in alignment or not, without having to have directives from the top down.