 Sorry, I still have multi-site on the brain. I was thinking about my last two posts all weekend and felt that I needed to emphasize the last few sentences of my most recent post. This was the thing that I found so beautiful and so powerful about multi-site kids ministry.
Anyone who pastors kids knows that it is a lot of work. Many hours go into it. Now tell me if you don’t think this is true, but I believe that whether you lead 50 kids or 500 kids, you’re doing the same amount of work. Okay, I did exaggerate a little. With 500 kids, you will have more work because there are more volunteers to oversee and more resources to purchase and organize. However, the core tasks remain the same no matter how many kids you have in your ministry. It’s going to take the same number of hours to prepare you lesson for elementary. Four kids, forty kids… who cares, you still have to write the lesson that is unbiased to attendance. Same goes for Preschool Same goes for summer camp, outreach events and the like. To be honest, it’s not really fair. Because I have 500-700 kids attend on a weekend, I have 3 full time staff, 1 intern and 3 part timers. However, the CP at the newest campus runs 170-225 and he’s all there is. In the end, he is preparing for the same exact stuff I am, even though it is less kids. The main difference is that I have more volunteers to contact. more snacks and more supplies.
 With this in mind, I’ve found that I can easily spend 50 hours a week sitting behind my computer planning, writing, organizing and communicating with volunteers. I’ve also found that some of the most rewarding and effective ministry I’ve done as a children’s pastor is eating lunch with kids at school, taking a group of kids on a short outing, or having lunch with a volunteer… you know, doing pastory things. Yes, I get too busy preparing for Sunday that I can’t effectively pastor my kids and volunteers. But how do you do it all?
Multi-site can be the solution to this. Perhaps a few sacrifices and compromises need to be made (the curriculum may not be your absolute favorite or the craft idea not have been your first choice), but 2 or 3 campuses can divide up what you used to spend 20-30 hours a week doing by dividing up tasks. Maybe there is even a central organization that provides a curriculum or event “in a box” for you. Now you have an extra 10, 15, or even 20 hours in your week. This is your chance to do what only you can do… pastor. This is the beauty of multi-site. Perhaps there is a small price to pay, but the payoff is huge!
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