Campus Strategy Shift Info
After almost two months or prayer, deliberations, and discussions the elders are seeing a confirmation of the need for a shift in our campus model. What we discovered over these two months is that the vast majority of the church is in accord with making a change but that many of us have questions as to how and when that would take place. Discovering the answers to those questions and creating a plan thus becomes the next step. To give the elders ability under the bylaws to begin working in this direction we are proposing an amendment to the bylaws which you will find below. We will be voting on this amendment on March 20th. If you have any questions or concerns regarding this amendment please contact any of our elders or our pastoral staff. And thanks for walking with us as we seek the Lord in this process!
Campus Independence: This amendment charges the elder board to fully investigate the possibility of separating our current campuses into independent congregations. This includes:
1. The development of a specific plan by the elders addressing governance, structure, timing, etc. that will be presented to the congregation upon completion. Regular reports should be given to the congregation during this process.
2. The creation of campus specific sub-committees, as needed, under the elder board that will forecast future ministerial, staff, and congregational needs of independent campuses. These committees will not have voting power and will report to the elder board.
3. The creation of a cross-campus financial team to investigate the feasibility of the campuses existing independently, including responsibility of debt and methods of cross campus support to ensure financial health.
Members of these teams and committees will be determined by the elders. This amendment also temporarily suspends any other section of the bylaws that would hinder such an investigation.
Frequently Asked Questions
Recently the elders invited the church on both campuses to join us in praying about a shift in our campus strategy from how we currently operate to something new. As we’ve been praying together some questions have naturally arisen about such a change. Below is more information on how we got here and answers to come of those questions. If you have additional questions we invite you to contact any of the elders so that we can address those questions as well. Let’s all continue to pray as we contemplate making this shift.
How did we get here?
One of the core values of our church is community. It’s a strength of who we are and how we live out the gospel in this area. Being able to know one another, love one another, and serve one another is crucial. It’s how we express the love of Jesus for others and how we receive it in turn. When we began a second campus what we wanted was to open up more space for the Lord to continue what He was doing. And that’s exactly what we did!
In the early days (2018) close to 200 people from Mt Laurel left to begin the Chelsea campus. At that point almost everyone at Chelsea knew the people at ML and vice versa. Also, because there was no physical building for the Chelsea campus, we routinely did things together like Double Oak University and VBS. So there was a lot of interaction between the people of the campuses. This was manageable because of the smaller size of the Chelsea campus at that time (roughly 200-300 people.)
But things have changed over time. Almost 4.5 years from our first planning meetings and 3.5 years from launch we are in a very different spot. (Let that sink in…..4.5 years from our first planning meetings!) What’s changed?
· New members: There are hundreds of people on both campuses that have never had any experience of the other campus because they’ve come during the past few years. Their experience is overwhelmingly campus specific. (By the end of last year the Mt Laurel campus was averaging between 500-600 people each week and the Chelsea campus was averaging in the high 400s.) So a significant part of our church is not vitally connected to the other campus anymore. If community is a core value for us, this is becoming harder and harder to maintain vitally across campuses.
· Covid: Covid also accelerated this process. We were not only isolated from one another, but also from most of the people at the opposite campus. During this season a lot of people left the church and joined the church, leaving each campus in a new place. But each campus doesn’t really get to see that at the other campus. This put even more distance in the relationship between the campuses.
· New Building: Chelsea is no longer in a school and can hold their own DOU classes, events, ministries, and the like. The need to all meet at one campus or the other has lessened. Furthermore, people will naturally attend more the place where they are worshipping instead of driving to another campus if that’s an option. After a full year of being in a new building it’s no surprise that the people of the Chelsea campus prefer to utilize it!
· Staff: The increase in size of the Chelsea campus has prompted the hiring of more staff to handle needs that are specific to Chelsea. In the beginning we had one staff under one roof all talking about the same things. Four years later we now have two full staffs that meet in two different places and are much less aware and engaged with the other campus. Furthermore, as these needs have multiplied, the complexity of running one staff across two campuses has grown. Staff that are campus specific have less and less reason to be fully aware of the other campus’ activities because they are fully engaged with their own campus’ ministry. In the early days this was easier to manage. But as the years have progressed this is becoming more burdensome. This trend will only continue with more growth in the future.
· Unique needs: One of the assumptions we had at the beginning was that there just wasn’t a lot of difference between the people who would attend each campus. And while there are obviously a lot of similarities, we have discovered differences as well. And as we seek to be a church that meets the needs of the community we live in that has led to slightly different priorities in how to minister to each community best. Furthermore, the needs of a 16-year-old campus like Mt Laurel are very different from a startup campus like Chelsea. From the sermon series to community group structure to the ministries that each community needs, we have found that each campus needed more tailored ministry rather than cross campus ministry.
· Pastors: Our original plan was to share preaching pastors across the campuses, which we did for a time. But even in the beginning we knew we wanted the people of each campus to know their own pastor. In the beginning Adam knew most of the people at the Chelsea campus, but that is no longer the case. On the other side almost everyone at Mt Laurel knew Michael, but now that is not the case either. And so people naturally gravitate to the pastor they hear from and see. But with this being the case we no longer have one (functional) senior pastor for both campuses. We have two! We’ve evolved into a new structure that is different from where we started.
The ultimate result of a lot of this growing complexity in governing the campuses is that an inordinate amount of time and energy is going into management rather than ministry. Our goal was not to create a larger organization but to better minster to a wider array of people. Hence our desire to maximize ministry in multiple places. We want ministry to guide our decisions and not building a more complex organization if that actually limits ministry.
From here there are two general options. First, if we want to go back to where we started then we need to centralize. We can try to unify the campuses more directly by making everything the same. Same sermon series, same ministries, and single ministers who are responsible for everything in their area across all campuses (one senior pastor, one executive pastor, one discipleship pastor, etc. who would be in charge of all ministry in their area regardless of campus.) Or second, we can allow independence. We allow each campus to flesh out our core values in a completely contextualized way. This would include how we structure staff, deacons, and elders, what staff positions to hire, what ministries and mission efforts to prioritize, what sermon series to preach, and more. While these differences would not be antithetical to the other campus, trying to maintain a unified church with such differences would be increasingly difficult from a governance perspective as the peoples of the campuses would be operating under two different sets of expectations.
And so after a year of wrestling with these complexities the elders have sensed the Lord moving us towards independence. This is not in hostility, anger, or a desire to leave. There have been tensions to be sure. But we recognize that the tensions we are feeling now will only grow unless we change our model. And moving towards independence opens up the most avenues for ministry by the campuses.
It may be helpful to know that we are not alone in these tensions. Almost all churches that move to multisite end up changing their model over time. Two high profile examples of this are The Village Church, pastored by Matt Chandler and Redeemer Presbyterian Church, which was pastored by Tim Keller. Both churches expanded to multiple campuses but made the decision voluntarily to split all campuses off as independent congregations. There are a LOT of different ways to do multisite ministry and each church is unique. As we have prayed through our specific situation, this is where we see the Lord moving.
Is this a foregone conclusion?
No. We have not made any formal proposal, and none has been prepared that is waiting to be revealed. We are asking the church to pray together as we consider this change. Even if we decided to move forward there are still many questions to be answered that would guide exactly how we moved forward and exactly what we would do. It is true though that the elders are united in sensing a move of the Lord in this direction. Knowing this we now want the church as a whole to begin praying with us about this.
What happens from here?
Right now we are asking the church to pray about this. If we all sense this common direction from the Lord then the elders would bring a motion to make this change to the congregations. That could happen within the next few weeks or months. If approved, then we would propose an amendment to our bylaws that will allow us to establish a transitional structure while we prepare for this change. This would BEGIN the process towards independence. Only when all details have been addressed and both campuses feel comfortable would we then make this change. That could take months or years. The actual act of separation would only start when the Chelsea campus feels confident in its ability to stand on its own and vote to make this change. That would then be voted on at Mt Laurel to agree to the change. The timetable to accomplish this is open ended and we are in no rush to make this happen. Making sure both campuses are on strong footing is the top priority before we change anything.
Is this financially feasible?
Yes. Last year the Chelsea campus saw giving of almost $1.2 million. This is more than enough to cover the mortgage and the basics of ministry. Furthermore, we’ve seen a steady rise in giving over the life of the campus. We will continue to monitor this but at current levels the Chelsea campus can be self-sufficient.
Is this financially wise?
That answer depends on what you prioritize. We will not act unless we are sure that both campuses are on secure financial footing. The last thing we want to do is to jeopardize the success we’ve seen so far or to hamstring a new campus under a financial burden. We believe that answer is yes. While it is true that creating independence will incur some additional annual costs for the campuses that we would otherwise share, it’s also important that the Chelsea campus grow to be able to stand on its own without financial help. A predictable process with clear expectations allows the campuses to achieve this. If financial aid is needed in decreasing amounts over the next few years (or some other arrangement to provide a safety net) that can and will be arranged. Also to be considered is the fact that if we choose to centralize instead we will need to hire additional staff to organize and coordinate all campuses, thus negating current cost savings.
Will we still do things together?
Yes! Our two congregations will always share a common bond and it will be natural to continue collaborating in multiple ways. Whether it be youth retreats, men’s and women’s retreats, mission trips, and more it will be natural to continue to offer those to both campuses. The difference is that we will not force these to be cross campus events and instead exist as ways to partner with our brothers and sisters in the area.
Will the name change?
Most likely. If the campus becomes its own entity with a leadership structure that is functionally independent of the other campus then it would make sense that the name change. But that is still a long ways off.
What happens to cross campus staff?
Over the last 4 years our ministries have had to adapt as they’ve grown. For example, our youth ministry used to be led by a team of three that covered both campuses. But today we have a dedicated youth minister on each campus. The same trend is occurring in other areas as well. We used to have a single Executive pastor but now we have two, one at each campus. The current cross campus staff (Kelly Stephenson, Clay Adkisson, Bryan Cornelius, and Courtney Szollosy) would need to land at one campus or the other. If that leaves a hole at one campus a replacement would need to be hired (if desired.) We are asking these staff to pray through this as we go through this process to discern where they would best fit moving forward in this new model.
As we all continue to pray about this shift in strategy please be praying for our leadership and the people of both campuses. Our hope is to see unity across the broad majority of our people as we move forward. If you have other questions not addressed above please contact any of the elders to discuss them further. We’d be happy to pray with you as we all process this potential shift. Our goal in all things is to honor and glorify Jesus and to expand His Kingdom. Let’s pray that the Lord guides us in how we need to move forward to continue achieving those goals!