A “Multistuck” church is not necessarily stuck from an attendance perspective.
Usually, these are growing churches that are reaching new people for Christ, that usually have a thriving kid’s ministry, and have people taking next steps in their faith.
Their stuckness often sounds like this:
1. “We’re spending way too much on staffing.”
And they are. Typically, these churches are overstaffed and are underutilizing their volunteers to do the work of the church. Their staff is filled with a lot of doers—and not enough leaders who can develop more leaders.
2. “We don’t know who is responsible for what anymore.”
What used to be so clear is now fuzzy and undefined. Does the Campus Pastor get to make that call? Does the Kids Pastor get to decide on that? What is each person ultimately responsible for?
3. “It’s the tyranny of the urgent.”
Many of these staff teams feel overworked and can’t get beyond the whirlwind of week-to-week ministry. Sunday is always coming, and they don’t have the space to zoom out and look at the bigger picture.
4. “The leaders are making decisions that affect my ministry, and they’re not even including me in the discussions.”
Just as the decision-making process gets fuzzy, so do the communication channels within these churches. People who used to be “in the know” now feel surprised by decisions and left out of key conversations. They feel like they no longer have a voice at the table.
If these issues sound familiar, your staffing structure may be ready for some change.
In our work with multisite churches across the country, there are 3 key shifts we recommend that are helping churches get unstuck in multisite staffing:
1. Redefining the Senior Leadership Team
In a multisite structure, the Senior Leadership Team (SLT) will typically include the Senior Pastor, Executive Pastor, Family Ministry Pastor, Connections Pastor, and a Worship & Creative Arts Pastor (weekend leadership). A Campus Pastor, or leader over all of the campus pastors, would also be included.
This team is the high-level decision making team for the church and is responsible to define, lead, and implement the strategies that will move the church forward. Their primary responsibility on this team is the overall health of the church and determining the strategies that will help the church live out its mission and accomplish its vision.
2. Putting Leaders in Leadership Positions
Key leadership positions are often occupied by legacy staff members whose primary gifting is “doing” the ministry. As the ministry grows, you need a leader magnet that draws key staff and high-level volunteers into the ministry to teach, lead, schedule and implement the programming. You need leaders of leaders, who can help equip the doers.
As Paul wrote in Ephesians 4:11, “So Christ himself gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors and teachers to equip his people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up.”
When you have the right leaders in place, they will build their respective ministry areas with the right staff, with the right span of care, and with many more volunteers than staffers.
3. Defining Decision Rights
Clarity is king in a multisite church. It is the leader’s responsibility to bring clarity to who is responsible for what, what the “win” is for every role, and who gets to make what decisions. Without these definitions in place, churches end up talking about a lot, but not doing a lot.
When team members are clear about who owns decision rights, everyone knows their role. Either:
- They have no role in it so they don’t have to expend any energy on it
- They have a voice in the decision where they can speak honestly and openly about their opinion
- Or they have a deciding vote.
If these challenges feel familiar, you don’t have to solve them alone.
Our Multisite Unstuck Consulting Process helps churches clarify the right leadership structure, align roles and decision rights, and build a staffing plan that fits their current reality and next season.
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