Pathway · Multi-Location
One church, many rooms.
Central operations. Campus autonomy. Real federation.
A multi-location church is not a big single-site church with commuting problems. It is a federated institution — and it fails when leaders treat it as anything else. The pathway teaches the executive discipline of running a real multi-site: what central owns, what each campus is entrusted with, and how the two hold together.
The federation matrix
The single most important artifact for a multi-site church is a written table of decision rights. The residency's opening module ends with a draft version of this matrix, particular to your church.
| Domain | Central owns | Campus owns | Shared, decided together |
|---|---|---|---|
| Doctrine & teaching | Statement of faith; core preaching series | Local application & midweek teaching | Guest preachers; controversial series |
| Finance | Consolidated accounts, audit, banking | Local hospitality & ministry budget | Annual budget; capital projects |
| Hiring | Senior roles, executive pastor, campus pastor selection | Local team hires within a written brief | Kids' pastor; worship lead |
| Brand & comms | Wordmark, website, sermon publication, brand voice | Local social presence, event graphics on template | Campus launch marketing |
| Safeguarding | Policy, training records, incident reporting | Local execution, ratios, on-day compliance | Incident response |
| Facilities | Lease/ownership, insurance, capital works | Set-up, tear-down, weekly operations | Signage; permanent build-outs |
| Discipleship pathway | Framework: visitor → member → server → leader | Local groups, mentors, and gatherings | Membership class content |
What the residency teaches, month by month
Month 1
Federation architecture. Draft your central-and-campus matrix.
Month 2
Financial federation. Consolidated accounts; campus budgets; capex governance.
Month 3
People architecture. Central team; campus pastor role; safeguarding at scale.
Month 4
Preaching & teaching. Live-in-all, video, teaching team — and how to decide.
Month 5
Brand & communications. One voice; local warmth; the guest journey across sites.
Month 6
Data & systems. A shared ChMS; the five numbers per campus; monthly board dashboard.
Month 7
Launch and re-launch. Opening a new campus; closing one; merging in a partner church.
Month 8
Leadership pipeline. Producing the next campus pastor from within.
Month 9
Succession. The senior pastor's five- and ten-year plan.
“The residency ended with a decision-rights matrix I hand every new campus pastor on day one. It has saved us more meetings than I can count.”
Federation is a discipline. Learn it.
The Residency runs twice a year, cohort limited to 24 senior leaders.
Apply now