Are you thinking about merging churches? Kristy Rutter has some tips and strategies for church mergers.
I have had the privilege of working with the Chapel, a multisite church in the Chicago land area for the last 4 years. I started with them in 2009 to spearhead this “experiment” to see if we could launch more campuses, help more churches, and reach more communities with a proactive merger strategy. Within 2 ½ years we launched 4 campuses, mostly through mergers.
I also discovered three merge options that we were able to connect with other churches that would be a better fit. Those Kingdom wins thrill me (and the Chapel) just as much. I’m in the midst of my fourth matchmaking in the Chicagoland area right now! Since then I have been able to coach churches in other parts of the country on this approach as well.
Setting the Strategy for a Church Merger
Before I started with the Chapel, two of their four campuses had come through what I call “reactive mergers”. A church approached us with the idea of becoming a part of the Chapel and we weren’t even multi site yet! We didn’t even know what a merger looked like at that point and we were just reacting to the opportunity before us. But after going through it twice, the Chapel loved the approach. So the idea was, “What if we had an intentional strategy that could create Kingdom win/win scenarios by partnering with other churches and being proactive about inviting churches into the conversation?”
I am passionate that every church should consider partnering with another church and creating a Kingdom win/win in a community before exploring other options. Let me give you an example of why. We were approached about merging by a church that had declined to 20 people but they still had a great homeless ministry and a beautiful, …
from The Exchange http://ift.tt/1pnQwN9
via IFTTT