Stepping Into Multisite Ministry

Recently, my family and I moved from a practical family home with a small, neat garden, including the standard issue ‘pandemic-purchased trampoline,’ to a more rural cottage with a large attached back wilderness area. (The word ‘garden’ implies rule, order, and planning, hence the term ‘area.’)

Initially, the grassland was fun to explore, stumbling over lost gardening equipment, broken swing sets, and questionable decorations. But as the house became our home, we looked at our little no-man’s land and decided it was time to bring it to order. In our house, when it comes to DIY and physical labour, the term ‘we’ is singular and refers solely to me… apparently.

So ‘we’ got to it: cutting grass, digging up old furniture (because why recycle when you can bury?), washing stone paths, and discovering another wooden shed. Slowly, order, space, safety, and most importantly beauty began to appear.

I can certainly lay claim to the order, the space, and the safety (we are now on a first-name basis with our local recycling centre), but the beauty? That is something we have been gifted, blessed with, and now steward.

As the weight of the weeds was lifted, poppies appeared, lilies planted long ago grew from cleared planters, and my kids no longer required PPE to play tag on the lawn.

We are now beginning to enjoy the journey of maintaining this space, but stepping back from the mower last Saturday, God really spoke to me.

Over the last seven years, I have explored, stumbled around, and dug in multisite ministry. Yes, we have removed clutter by streamlining processes, dug up buried hurt and sought healing, and at times fixed questionable decoration in kids' zones. But when it has come to beauty, it has been a gift from God.

Prior to this, I spent 10 years working for a parachurch organisation, eventually felt called into kids' pastoral ministry, and after a few years volunteering within a single-site church as their Kids Ministry leader, I ended up in my current role here in CFC Belfast as the Children’s Pastor. Six sites of varying size, background, demographic, class, and ethnicity, but all with a children's ministry that needed direction, leadership, and vision.

I felt very quickly that for our sites and their teams to understand and embrace the vision I was trying to communicate, I needed to be vulnerable and show my heart for them, our kids, and the sites themselves.

As a leader, being vulnerable and revealing your heart can often be seen as risky, especially when sharing with your teams and volunteers. We might think that to lead, we need to remain slightly aloof from our teams and kids. But in my experience, I have found entirely the opposite. It is after I share my heart, become vulnerable, and draw close to the teams that the vision lands, culture shifts, and we build momentum.

A little while back, I was asked what leadership model I was using for CFC Kids Ministry. To their surprise, I replied that I use the same leadership model that I used to teach my son to ride his bike.

The sites were equipped with physical resources (I bought my son an old bike off Marketplace); the teams were trained in our content and key skills (I showed my son how to pedal and balance); I walked with them through the start-up weeks (held the back of the seat while shouting ‘Daddy’s here’); they were released into their calling within their sites (letting go slowly of that bike seat); and then, at that point I have the fun part, both with the sites and the boy on the bike: I have to run wildly to try to keep up while cheering them on.

That’s right, I said fun! Multisite kids’ ministry is lots of things: it is complex, bumpy, chaotic, and challenging, but it also gives you the most unique opportunities. Not just seeing God move in different locations and within different people, but as a leader, creator, and kids' pastor, it stretches you and forces you to look beyond a single site full of kids. Maybe I’m crazy, but I think that’s fun!

With multisite, everything needs consideration

From the smaller decisions on crafts (for example, yes, that craft option might work in ‘Site 1,’ but ‘Site 2’ has a high ratio of complex SEN (special education needs) kids, so it’s not going to be accessible), to the big buys such as curriculum and VBS plans.

Within multisite, there is no ‘one-size-fits-all’ option with programs, crafts or even training. In my garden shed I have lots of very different looking tools, a mower, scarifier, weed whacker, and the must have stiff, rusty hedge shears. They all work towards the same goal - beauty and order within the garden - but they go about it in different ways.

With multisite it’s similar, addressing identical issues across multiple sites often requires different approaches. Throughout our sites we try to allow the kids' ministry to embrace and develop its own feel and identity while still having that thread of our vision and culture woven through it.

Often families will ask, ‘You must have a lot of plates spinning, full sites, lots of kids and families, programs and teams, does it not get tiring?’ and honestly, the answer is yes. It is tiring. You are always watching a plate, ensuring momentum is kept, being watchful of an early wobble, and only stepping in to influence when entirely necessary. But the blessing and joy (I do keep saying that word) you get from serving your sites, their kids, and ultimately our wonderful, loving Father God reinvigorates and rejuvenates you daily.

Sabbath and healthy rhythms of rest

This is beyond important, not only for yourself but with your family. But often I find when I am at my spiritual, physical, and mental weariest, an email will drop into my mailbox, or a Post-It note will be stuck to my desk, with a story, or verse, or word, something that just brings me back to fullness. God is good, all the time. He provides, and you and I get the privilege of serving His kids.

So if you are someone who is beginning to look into the seemingly untamable wild garden that is multisite ministry and wondering, can I? Or maybe you are at that stage where you are running behind that little site, deciding whether or not it’s the right time to let go of ‘that seat,’ know that God is for you, and He will be with you.

For the rest of us, let’s just keep spinning those plates. Let’s ask God to help us find those little moments of joy in the biggest moments of stretch, and remember to keep an eye out for those emails and Post-It notes.

With over 20 years in kids’ ministry, David leads children's programs across six church sites in Ireland. When not inspiring young hearts, he's at cars & coffee with his son, sharing their love for cars. David has created and edited kids' Christian comics, is actively procrastinating his first kids' book, and has spent years hidden behind puppet theatres. He and his wife, Karen, enjoy life in the countryside. David cherishes working with kids and has a deep love for Jesus.