Okay, I’ll bite.

This is an honest question, not an attempt to snipe at ol’ Ed.  Is it really healthy to be “pastor” to people who live in a different time zone?

Leaving aside feelings about multisites in general for a moment, is there a point where we should start to worry not about multisiting (I either just coined that word or misspelled it terribly) a local church, but franchising it nationwide?  What will it look like when Fellowship Church and Northpoint and LifeChurch and Second Baptist and Seacoast all have satellite churches in the same “market”?  Should they sign a “no compete” agreement and agree not to move in to each other’s home territory?

Hey Jim & Peter,

I apologize, but I’m having trouble understanding your issues in this case.  From my understanding, and I could be WAY off, but Ed isn’t a “pastor” at FC now, is he?  I mean with a congregation that size, I thought he’d primarily be a teacher, and other staff members would “pastor” the congregation.  If that is the case, than what’s the difference between doing that in Texas and doing it in Florida?

It’s one thing to have a recorded teaching.  Why does it have to be a Fellowship Church?  Can’t they just have Ed’s teaching every week and use it how the local leaders see fit?  I doubt that would fly because Fellowship is instilling a philosophy of ministry along with Ed’s teaching.  And that is a place of some concern for me.  There are people making decisions about ministry in Miami who have never lived there.  They may visit there on occassion, but I’ll bet most board members are in Texas.  Will the staff on the ground in Miami and the leaders there be able to trump the leaders in Texas?

This seems different to me than another campus across town instead of adding and building on one campus as a church grows.

As a member of the original FC, I’d have to say that they will do it right in Miami.  As far as I know, they haven’t really hired any new people to go down to Miami, so I’m assuming they are keeping much of the original staff from FBC Miami.  Which means, they will have input from people who know the town and the congregation.  Plus, you have to know that FC staff researches everything they do and wouldn’t just go down there blindly.  As far as “pastoring”, Ed is our teaching pastor.  But many of the staff members do the shepherding and the same will go for the Miami campus.  Each of our satellite campuses has a campus pastor who actually lives in the area and knows the people there.

As far as your comments Matt, why would a church use a teaching pastor’s messages and ignore his vision?  That makes no sense.  If the church doesn’t fall in line with the pastor’s vision, then his messages will be of no consequence to them.

In reference to the question about competing campuses in the same market...as a pastor of one of the LC campuses I can confidently speak for all LC campus pastors and say that what we get is just the opposite of competition. We have 3 campuses in the Oklahoma City market. What we get is a synergy and sharing that is off the charts. The campuses without question share and challenge each other in what is the most healthy setting I have ever seen. Our team and people benefit in a big way from the relationship we have with all of our campuses. We are a team who share the same vision and we’re giving everything we have to leading people to commit their lives to Christ. However, there is a friendly game of dodgeball everynow and then. And believe me, when the dodgeballs come out, it’s all about competition then

That will be a tough job to evangelized people who are far away from God. But since it is a Divine mission, I would say , may the power of the Holy Spirit be with you and help you with your mission.

Regards,Jim, Florida Gulf Coast

I too agree that it is really admirable, that such person can give up career just to spread the gospel of God to people. Well, I guess that is his calling. Good luck.  <A HREF=http://www.resorts360team.com>Resorts 360</A>

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