Multi-sites:
Multiple New Ministries

As one of the fastest growing Nazarene congregations in the USA, Valparaiso (IN) began implementing the multi-site strategy some time ago. In his interview with GROW, Pastor Gene Tanner outlined some of the reasons the multi-site approach has appealed to their church. He also describes how multi-sites offer specific advantages to assist them in fulfilling their mission, including the regional campus concept and the teaching teams at Valparaiso Church of the Nazarene (VCN).

GROW: What is it about doing a multisite ministry that interested you?

Gene Tanner: I think part of it is the statistics out of Kansas City aren’t false. Brand new churches tend to bring brand new people. You can’t fight with the truth. But yet we want to take advantage of what we believe is probably true and so we created off-sites. But it was designed in such a way that it was not alone. It was tied to us. It was VNC. The time of their service is designed in such a way that those parents could bring their kids to our nursery and then go worship. Parents could drop their kids off and the off-site worship center is one mile and a half away from our church. And people will say “Well people are not going to drop their kids off at one church and go worship at another one.” Sure they will. It’s about the childcare.

GROW: How many are doing that?

Gene Tanner: It’s fairly young over there. It’s not gigantic. Maybe 20%. So what happens is the off-site campus becomes part of us. It also gave us a chance to target a different market. Their worship service is not like our service. We’re trying to attract a different group. Now what we’ve found is sometimes in that small environment, which is totally seekersensitive, they want something a little deeper. They will want to find their way more into discipleship and they find their way into here. So it begins to become kind of an unusual feeder. The guy who coordinates that church in “Common Grounds” is on our staff. When we have all church events, well, that’s part of us. What’s kind of fun is when there’s baptismal services, we’ll be baptizing people I don’t know because they started out at “Common Grounds.” Those people come over to our membership class because they’re joining VNC, they just happen to be in a satellite.

GROW: Isn’t that the best use of your resources?

Gene Tanner: Sure. There’s no need for Pastor Tracy to create a new membership class. And periodically Pastor Tracy comes and speaks over here at the Glendale campus. I go over there and speak at the Evans Road site. They need to know that I am the pastor. And Pastor Tracy will come over here and share with the people again about what Common Grounds is. We’re very careful about the language we use. We never call that the “little church” or this the “big church.” No labels like that. We call all of this church, this happens to be on Glendale Boulevard. It’s the VNC campus on Glendale. Common Grounds is the VNC campus on Evans Road. We never call the Glendale campus the “big church” or “main campus.”

GROW: And so, what’s the Java Spot?

Gene Tanner: Java Spot is the name of the building itself. A member of our church bought the building, but allows us to use it unlimited. Java Spot tends to be more focused on the youth ministry. We’ve redesigned the building. Part of it is games, computers, video games, pool tables, and a snack area. The other side is worship center with chairs, sound system, band, stage and big screens. So they’ve made it into two large rooms. Java Spot is the name of the building itself because we have other ministries meet there. We have different classes that are held there offsite. It becomes our off-site campus in a lot of ways. Common Grounds is just the name of the worship group that happens to worship there. The building we call Java Spot.

GROW: So, you’ll do youth ministry there and Common Grounds and Bible studies with your men’s group. There are multiple things going on at that site.

Gene Tanner: It’s sometimes an off-site place, because it’s a coffee house atmosphere. One thing I’ve discovered is part of our growth is because we’ve turned our men loose. Our guys go through it. I’ve put together a worksheet and we have a “Band of Brothers.” Once we finish it, I start with a whole other group of guys. Well, that building is a great place we have coffee, donuts, for a half hour of fellowship and then go in for the session. So a building like that can become a perfect place for these kinds of ministries.

GROW: What percentage would you say at Common Grounds, who are coming there to worship have no previous church background?

Gene Tanner: Of the entire body over there maybe 25%. It’s not a huge group yet.

GROW: How many would be attending over there?

Gene Tanner: I’d say about 125. Remember that ministry is only a couple of years old.

GROW: That’s not unusual in multi-sites to have different size groups scattered around. They’re not all large, but they’re all different.

Gene Tanner: We just wrapped up our fiscal year. We’re just a little over 1,200. We’re not a mega-church or gigantic. We’re large but we’re not huge. So they’re almost 10% of our church. The thing is we have some of our people that are there as part of the team; greeters, you know preparing the breakfast stuff. We have one guy who is a police man that sat at the round table with somebody that he arrested. He has been discipling a new believer that not too long ago he arrested. That’s when you realize it’s worth it.

GROW: Besides Common Ground, what other multi-sites does your church have?

Gene Tanner: The other multi-site is called The Stain, named after stained glass windows. We have been impacted by the book “The Emerging Church.” The up and coming collegiate age, they may not want some of the things that we’re doing here. Because you know VNC is, I don’t want to use the word slick, but it is production oriented. This is a generation that is saying “I don’t want that. I want experience where I have hands on, where I am doing something. I don’t care how slick it is I am basically going and sitting. What I would rather do is participate.”

And so, The Stain takes us back to our roots – it’s got pictures of stained glass windows. There’s a speaker at tables all around the room. They can get up at any time. There’s music first, then a speaker. It’s geared toward collegiates

They go to a table where they can write out on a piece of paper their sins and then put it in a shredder and then go to another table where there is communion prepared and they can serve themselves communion. There’s another table with lots of candles. They can light those candles and just make that a private time of prayer. We have a table where they can come and draw and paint their emotions.

When this was designed, I bought into it but I said I’ve got to tell you no one’s going to go over to that table and paint. Boy, I was wrong. These college kids are doing it like crazy. So it’s very experiential. You don’t go and sit. If you want to go and sit you can. At any time it’s not rude to get up and go to a table and do something. If you’re speaking at The Stain you have to be very focused because while you’re speaking shredders are going off. But you realize these people are shredding their sins and then going to take communion so it’s kind of powerful.

And so this service begins on Thursday nights at 9 o’clock at night. The time helps us designate that it’s not for grandma and grandpa. It’s really designed and goes from about 9 to about 10. They’re part of the culture that goes to Barnes and Noble and sits ’til midnight. Shawn Evans is overseeing that ministry. For him to get home at 11 o’clock or midnight is pretty good. After that they will go sit and have coffee and talk for a few hours. It’s a very free, very non-structured time.

Now the other worship services tend to be loud. Rock bands, here at VNC the main campus, are pretty loud. Common Grounds is louder. They’re seeker-sensitive – that is louder. Now, The Stain is the exact opposite. It’s not a live rock band. It is acoustic and bongos. It might be an acoustic bass. It is the exact opposite of volume. It reminds me of the former beatnicks, those little coffee houses two generations ago. You know, they didn’t clap – they snapped their fingers. It kind of has that quieter, slower, participatory thing. And remember, we’re in a college town. And so, we wanted to find ways to touch the university campus.

GROW: So how many would you say are active in this?

Gene Tanner: They’re all over the map depending on the school year. Right now not very many. During the school year you could have 40-50.

GROW: How have these multi-sites helped bring new progress for the church?

Gene Tanner: You can’t have something like this, especially for collegiates, because that’s a tough age. It’s not like you could open a door and say we’re going to have this cool service and people are going to come. But we have had in-roads in the university and our college kids here at our own church. Reading the book Emerging Church has really made a lot of sense. We’ve put all of that together and our team designed that worship opportunity because we have the building and Thursday nights free. Now we have a leader in Shawn Evans, who has a burden and says “I’ll lead it.”

GROW: Your recent church newsletter used a word-picture of your church being “prodigal huggers.” Do you think that atmosphere of grace has to permeate all of this to have a ministry that will really connect with people?

Gene Tanner: Of course. If you have been here I’m sure you looked around and noticed people came in flip flops and shorts. Now equally true you probably noticed there were no suits on stage. We had to be permission givers. And so we’ve pressed that story to Sunday School classes. It’s not a matter of not respecting Jesus, it’s a matter of giving permission. If you feel like you need to worship wearing a suit –wear a suit. But if you can be comfortable in a shirt and pants, then you have permission.

And so it’s not by accident. It’s really by design. You know I look at seeker-sensitive churches that have a great big pulpit and a guy in a suit and I’m thinking “Forget your message. You’re sending a message by your appearance.” You’re telling outsiders they don’t fit. We’ve really thought this thing through in terms of the way we dress, the way we act, the way we greet people at the door, it is all built around the person who does not know Christ.

GROW: So this atmosphere of grace is more than just being friendly. Give us some other examples that you’ve done intentionally to help people become more connected.

Gene Tanner: Let me just put a caveat in. I’m not trying to make the statement that, you know, thank God for me. But one thing that I think is extremely important: it’s got to begin with the senior pastor. Sunday afternoon we invite them to fill out a card. Now we always word it carefully, if you choose to be anonymous, you can but we want you to know that’s not our first choice. We would prefer to get to know you. If you fill out a card, we’ll be in touch.

OK, let’s say you filled out that card. Those cards go to my office and after lunch on Sunday, I’m calling every person. Nothing more than I’d call you and say:

“Mr. Smith, this is Pastor Tanner. You’ve visited our church and I just wanted to phone you right away. I got your card. Thank you for filling out a card. You know you’ve honored us today by coming to worship with us. I hope you felt comfortable and you enjoyed the worship.”

Now I also have an address and the second half of the week I go calling to every visitor. Sending a staff guy doesn’t work, they didn’t see that staff guy in the platform. To them, he’s a total stranger. But they saw me, so I stop by and I always say:

“Thank you. I don’t want to sign you up for anything. I don’t want to badger you to come back. I just hope you felt comfortable in our worship service.” But I always ask, “I’m curious why people walk into a church? Were you driving down Glendale and you saw the church? Did somebody invite you?”

GROW: And what are most of the people saying when they come there for the first time?

Gene Tanner: They were invited by somebody else that was brand new. Most of the people who have been at our church for 30 years, all their friends are now in the church. I think we’re not unusual. Every church that’s growing is growing because of new people. New people know people who don’t go to church. And so number one – follow up is gigantic.

One thing I’ve discovered is I can walk in your living room, thanking you for visiting and without you knowing, I can walk out and have a hunch who I have to call. You know if you take me in the back and show me this fish you’ve mounted on the wall, we’ve got a small group called “Anglers.” I’m calling the leader of that team. If I walk in and there’s a bowling trophy, or there’s knitting the wife has done over a chair, I know who to call.

People tend to exhibit what they’re proud of. So doing better when I finish calling about coming back and calling somebody I think would have an interest in them. And then they’ll do their very best to make some connection.

GROW: In closing, how are the new building plans coming along?

Gene Tanner: We recently spent a whole Saturday with the children’s department, Sunday School department, music department, youth department, all the different departments came in for 45 minutes and had a chance to dream with us. We asked, “What would help their ministry in a new facility?” That was fascinating. So we’re going through the process.

The plan they’re looking at right now has 2,200 theatre seats. Pretty hi-tech. The seats will be in such a way that they’ll be able to put laptops on them and put things on the laptops through the house to follow the sermon. If you walk in as a visitor and you want to find out where you are and where you’re going you can walk in, push a button that say’s “Here you are and here’s where you have got to go.”

GROW: And you were redesigning the sanctuary for a children’s center?

Gene Tanner: Exactly. That’s looking like its going to ball park out at a half a million dollars to re-do for what we’re going to want in the children’s ministry area.

Interesting . . . as we’re talking, I just pulled up an email. This is a guy that visited our church yesterday. He visited and so I left a message on his voice mail. His email reply says: “Greetings Pastor Tanner, I wanted to thank you for calling me the other day, it was such a wonderful surprise that just blessed our hearts. The service was absolutely wonderful. It was a blessing to attend yesterday. It was a gift from God. Thanks once again for the phone call. God Bless.” I have no clue who this guy is but I’m thinking we’ve just landed another new family.