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Outline of visiontalk given in January 09
TibbertChristmas news. Personal: each Christmas and summer holiday I do apersonal/family review – cover marriage, spiritual disciplines, how the kidsare doing, physical health, emotional state, finances. For this last point – Ihave a 25 year plan. I have one life and I want to ‘max it’ for God.
OnVision Sunday I do a similar review for the church – possible to set the bartoo high so that such a review and analysis demotivates. Also possible to setthe bar too low and underachieve.
Lk.5:1-7 Jesus’ miracle leads to the call – ‘Partners – come and help!’ 
SinceJan 07 we have experienced a Big Catch! Jan 08 I put before you the five challengesthat could have sunk our boat-     Diversity – not remaining a monoculturechurch-     Growth – caring for people in small groupsand providing enough leaders-     Facilities – looking at relocation - quotefor £12 million was beyond us. Need for further office space.-     Finance – growth requires large financialdemands-     Apostolic – recovering from church plantinto Beacon (40 people sent), 10 people to Greenwich, a further 10 to Beacon.My role in Newfrontiers expanding, Mick Taylor’s involvement in Newfrontiers’training – a huge gift that benefits us and the wider movement.
Responseto the challenges: Gracism series, move to a third meeting. Review how we havemet our goals from 2007. Growth in our numbers could be described as ‘a massivecatch’ – be encouraged! Recognise parts of our set-up are overstretched, thoughwe have massive momentum. I don’t want us to sink –going to need partners tocome and help us! Elders to discuss launch of a 4th meeting –possibly on another site – please pray for us. 
:7= key. Signalled to partners to help – or they wouldsink. Went to those nearest – if you are here we don’t want you to just be herefor the (boat) ride – come and help on this battleship, not a pleasure cruiser.
5ways to help – step up in-leadership – come and carry some weight-membership – come and join - sign of commitment-serving – come and serve - don’t assume that everyone else will do the necessary tasks-praying – come and pray - especially collective prayer meetings-giving – come and give - aware of current economic situation but prime way to show where yourheart is – by tithes and offerings
Conclusion:‘Partners! Come and help!’

Outline of visiontalk given in Sept 09
Highlightsof summer holiday and study leave in context of new building project. Nehemiah’s building project! Neh. 1 and 2. Video clip: tallest wave surfed! Todo that needed preparation and courage – events move at speed. There’s apotential cost – Nehemiah’s life was on the line in the royal court setting –he began his request with a great prayer – he was God-focused - reminded God ofHis promises. (For us 10 years ago – a prophecy that we would gather 2000.)
Reviewof last year: grown faster than ever. Attending- 780 in 2008, 1000+ in 2009 - on the same Sunday. Welcomedesk – 122 LTKM forms given in Jan – Aug 2008, 230 Jan – Aug 2009.
Crunchmoment – collision of needs between team/buildings/finance! Show artist’simpression of new refurbished facility at Lee. Visited USA to see examples ofmulti-site – an urban church phenomenon arising from a situation where thelimiting factor is facilities. Multi-site gives the chance for growth. Remainone church, one leadership, one identity. We need to strengthen the team –through year team members, internships, taking on Robert Kwami to join thePastoral team as well as Malcolm & Cathy Kyte (Malcolm will oversee thePastoral team) - all coming to help us build a church of 2000.
Letterscoming from me to each of you re our giving. We need to give £750K for the next3 years and £375K for the following six months – above our current givinglevels. Ask some to consider a double title – 20% before tax – something I amalready doing. Pledge Days coming up in October. Please give – and please pray!Currently amazing momentum – behind all the figures, the figure of God at work,reaching out to the lost – for His Glory!

Outline of visiontalk given in January 2010
Toursof new Lee building – one response, ‘You have seriously undersold the building,Steve!’ Primary purpose today – giving thanks to God for what he has done.Lookback – look forward. 20/20 vision – definition: perfect understanding orappreciation of what has already been seen.
1Thess. 1:7 – ‘...you became a model toall the believers and the message went out.’ Chance to impact a city andmodel something to other churches in the UK – we are watched by them. If we cango from 200 to 1000 it will give them added faith for their own situation. Theimportant thing is that the message goes out!
Résuméof church journey over last 15 years given. In last 10 years 500 have joinedus. Mark event by getting congregation to light 500 tea-lights on tables aroundthe auditorium – each one representing a transformed life.
Interview:Shirley J – joined in Jan 95 – gives her highlights of the decade (newauditorium in 2000, ‘gracism’ series and the changes brought by that, expansionof youth ministry) and her hopes for the future (becoming a huge church;multiple meetings at Lee; growth in maturity and unity as well as size;healings, signs and wonders).
Experienceof asking the banks for loans – wanted to know our history. ‘When looking atthe future, the best indicator of future trend is past performance.’ For us thepast is counted in tens, the future in hundreds and thousands. Want an increasein diversity (culture, class and age), growth in our mercy ministry, sendingout more leaders to plant/resource other churches, creativity – books, albumsand teaching material.
Weneed your prayers, your pledges for finances and we need you - to step up andvolunteer to be an active participant in the great task before us, for theglory of God.

Outline of visiontalk given in Sept 2010
Personalinfo: sabbatical, writing the book
Church:completion of purchase of new building happened in sabbatical. Lookback – give thanks to God. Look forward – Joshua’s amazing encounter with Godbefore the battle for Jericho (Bible reading). Story of King’s rooted in suchan encounter – 4 weeks into my ministry here visit of Vineyard prophetic team.Discovered in the history of the church – founded by a protégée of C H Spurgeonwith a vision for a church of 1000 members. We advance like Joshua and thepeople of God – a mixture of fear, uncertainty and excitement.
Newdevelopments: Catford, Downham and Lee sites. Explained new future leadershipstructure to cover sites. Asked for volunteers to go and help support theseleaders in their work. Initially helping to set up and prepare.
Wallsthat we face: people challenge – volunteers needed to serve, financialchallenge – core of established givers, newer arrivals slower to sign up forregular giving. Please step up.
Joinus in commitment to meeting with God as we step forward, to see the churchadvance and many others won for Christ.

This is the firstof a series of outlines of Vision talks I have preached – this one from January2011
Acts1:1-8. Jesus tells the disciples to await the promised Holy Spirit. As weprepare to launch into multi-site, elders decided to have 40 Days of prayer andfasting – going deeper into God before making a major reach.
Overviewof preaching series in Acts 1 to 13 taking place over next 7 weeks to back up ‘40Days’. Encourage fasting on Wednesdays to coincide with prayer celebrations inevening. (Explain different levels/types of fasting). Distribute home-producedbut extremely professional 40 Days booklets – includes Bible study notes andprayer topics as well as FAQs re multi-site.
Outlineneed for 100 further volunteers to cover multi-site arrangements at end of 40Days. Need to maintain revenue giving and rise to challenge of giving to multi-siteas an extra. Everyone to receive a letter from me with all the details of whatwe will need and asking them to prayerfully review their giving.
Talkabout the arrival of Lawrence and Mary, the first black African family in thechurch 14 years ago. Interview: Lawrence – ‘I want to be behind the new thingGod is doing. We live only once!’ Mary – ‘I want to look back in 10 or 20 yearsand say – I was involved in starting that. We are building for futuregenerations, too.’Explainthat to maintain the diversity balance we need 20 from the black community togo to the new Lee site with Phil Varley and Robert Kwami. Ask them to step up.

'The impetus to become a multi-site church was initially driven bya lack of space to contain the growth we were seeing - not primarily as astrategy to stimulate further growth. Ideally, as with the move tomultiple meetings, multi-site initiatives should rise from the need to managecurrent growth rather than as a means to start growth from a staticposition.'
For further information on our 'Move to Multi-site' see the latestpaper on Multi-site 

These are some of the key principles which go through my mind as I prepare a vision talk.

• Root the talk in scripture, a biblical value, or narrative. 
• Connect our story with God’s story 
• Reflect back, tell stories, declare victories, face facts, and explain any delay or failure 
• Celebrate God’s faithfulness 
• Present the next step of the journey with faith. If you have achieved any momentum this helps. Remember that past performance is the best indicator for future performance. Outline in detail plans for next stage or year. 
• Invite everyone to join in the next step - please increase your giving, please move to another site, please step up and serve, please join a small group, please come to the prayer meeting... etc. 
• Make a special appeal to new people to join, sign up, to help us fulfil our God-given task and vision. 

I hope the vision talk outlines that follow will inspire you, so that you can inspire the people of God!

I am often asked about what we do on our Vision Sundays, and I thought it might be helpful to do a series of postings on the subject. I will first outline the thinking/ content that I believe makes a good vision talk, and then in later posts give a number of examples from the last 5 years of such talks at King’s; I hope this might give you some ideas for your own future Vision talks.


We always have a Vision Sunday at the beginning of Sept (but this could be October if you are a student church) and again early in January. These fit well into the natural flow of church life - post summer, new term, and of course in the New Year, people are already readjusting their lives post summer holidays or after Christmas. It is an important occasion to re-engage them with the church’s vision.


I normally start a vision talk with a personal story from my holiday break – usually something humorous! I think it is important for people to connect with the visionary as well as the vision - people tend to ‘buy into’ a person first and a vision second. I remind the church why we have a Vision Sunday twice a year,

• firstly and primarily, to give thanks to God for His faithfulness over the last few months and years,
• secondly, to keep us focussed on what God has called us to do, and
• thirdly, to inform those who are new, helping them to understand our journey to this point.

Beyond hearing our story we hope it will help them to join us or to step in further. Don’t forget that the best vision talk looks back and celebrates what has been achieved as much as it looks forward to all that lies ahead.

I am about to start a series of blogs on VisionSundays and decided to launch the sequence by featuring the short video weproduced, casting vision to encourage the members of King’s Church to attendour coming Vision Sunday!

It has been a great privilege to serve and provide a lead to the Newfrontiers churches in London over the last decade. Many an hour has been spent travelling around this great city, meeting up with friends and grappling with the challenges and opportunities this city provides for the gospel. God loves London, its rich diversity and great people. At a time of transition such as this, one reflects on what we have achieved together, and I am delighted to say we have achieved much!
Following a period where we saw little church planting in the capital, the 13 churches we have planted together are a great joy - many of you have followed the prompting of God and, sometimes at huge personal cost, have moved, pioneered and established a church. What heroes!
While our church planting has increased, we have also been able to see our existing churches flourish. A decade ago the largest church in London had about 300 people attending - now we have a number of churches in the high hundreds and my own church has broken through the thousand barrier. Many have believed (and some are still believing) God for finance on huge building projects, and I trust you will agree that our local churches have been strengthened through our partnership in the last decade.
The establishment of a London training base under Mick Taylor’s leadership has been another step forward, and it has been great to see some of our excellent younger men emerge into ever-increasing maturity and fruitfulness. On that basis too the future looks good! Mercy ministry and the challenges of diversity have been common themes we have embraced, both of which I believe are right at the heart of God.
While sensing it was time to hand over, I am still totally committed to reaching this great city, and hope to continue, in a small role, encouraging growth in our London churches.
Following this season, it is with great delight that we shared yesterday with the lead elders of our churches that Dave Holden is picking up the reins again in overseeing the London churches. I am confident that Dave, with his rich leadership experience, will take us forward into an expanding future.
I was also delighted to announce that Pete and Nicky Cornford are to launch a new church plant in the borough of Ealing – this is in the early stages but they have already begun gathering a number of people.
My thanks to you all in the London churches and beyond - for your support, prayers and hard work in partnering together to reach our city.
Lastly, my thanks to the King’s team and to our church at Kings - we have embraced a big vision of serving London, and at times at real cost to our own home scene. But for what a prize!

One of the areas in King’s where we need to ‘up our pace’ is that of media and technology. We are working at this area and running to catch up! Here is our Christmas webpage and our video ad to profile our highest Sunday of the year. Hope you enjoy it!

Click here for Arms Wide Open web page

Nigel Mumford on when Downham joined King's
Downham Way Family Church, part of Newfrontiers, had been my spiritual home for about 30 years when in early 2009 I found myself leading the church and considering what God had for us in the future.
King’s Church was close by – we saw what God was doing there and I wondered if there was a way for us to share in it. I met with Steve Tibbert in a Brockley café to discuss how things were going and over a cup of tea he told me that King’s was considering going multi-site. I was amazed - I had been praying about a future where Downham could become a part of King’s! I took this as a God-given opportunity and soon found myself in earnest discussion with Steve.
Nothing was definite – over the following months there was much to think about and to pray through. However, from October 09, with both leadership teams supporting such a move, the possibility was discussed with both churches and the conviction grew that this was the way to go. We proceeded slowly and carefully into the future we now believed wholeheartedly God was calling us to. Then, in Jan 2010, Martin and Ruth Alley moved over to Downham to work with us on the move to our multi-site future. Their contribution was invaluable as they helped us to get to know King’s Church and they got to know us!
By December 2010 we had progressed to the point where we formally closed Downham Way Family Church. This was another essential step in the process. While recognising God’s faithfulness to our church over decades and with our long history within Newfrontiers, we needed to ‘die’ to enter into our new existence as the Downham site of King’s Church. There was a recognition that this brought sadness for some but for many of us there was excitement, not to mention a bit of trepidation!
For three months we moved en masse to the Catford site for Sunday worship and midweek events – a valuable time that gave us all the chance to see more of what God was doing at King’s and a glimpse of what could be our experience too. Meanwhile the Downham building underwent extensive refurbishment - £100,000 worth – to prepare the site for all that was to come as part of King’s, reaching out to the communities around us.
We now look forward to a new future. I am now privileged to serve as part of the wider King’s team while Ben Welchman is Downham site leader and there are already encouraging signs of growth – a recent baptism saw over 200 people in the meeting. I know that God is leading us to even greater things, whatever the future brings and I am so glad that we followed His prompting and direction!

Phil Varley, Site Leader on being a multi-site church
What surprised you most about going multi-site?
It dawned on me how different it was setting up a new work at Lee – we were not known in the area and had no history on the new patch, unlike the Catford and Downham sites. Also we were ‘hidden’ in a side road with no visible presence on main thoroughfares like the other two sites and there are some really good churches within easy walking distance of our building.  I was really pleased how many good people wanted to come from the Catford site and be involved in this new venture! The pioneer spirit was there and we saw gifted people rising to the challenge - there was a huge amount of energy!
What challenged you most?

• Setting everything up from scratch. There was a real volunteer challenge – to find the right people for the tasks and ensure we were providing essential ministries and had appropriate skills available, establishing new work patterns, getting equipment and furniture. While there was initial energy and ownership to serve, I foresee a future challenge in maintaining that when we are through the honeymoon period. 
• The time-scale in which it all had to be done. The period from December to March was fairly manic! We had surveyed the King’s people in November to find out who was interested in coming to the Lee site and from then on the amount of work required and the speed at which important decisions had to be made and preparatory work done was ‘full on’. Looking back, I feel it was too small a time-window and needed a longer lead-in time.
• Of course the challenges don’t end with set-up. The challenge for the next season is to push on and see something lasting established in the community. That will be more like success!

What is it like dealing with what is more a ‘planting’ situation and opening a completely new location?
This is so much easier than being a single church plant. We have all the benefits of a large church in terms of financial support and people resources – and we start with our own building! That’s a big plus when you see churches operating in facilities that have to be cleared at the end of the meeting. Nor do we have just six people in a small group – or 25 in a school hall. We began with 150 people who knew what we were about. We are already seeing visitors, week by week, too. However, because we are a smaller context than the Catford Hill site, I believe we can develop a greater relational feel and while retaining the strengths of the wider King’s ethos and culture, we can bring colour and depth to our community.
Whatever happens I don’t want us to be doing the same things this time next year. I want those of us at Lee to use our gifts to change a community and to broaden and deepen what we are currently doing. I want us to be authentic, making a difference, and in reaching the people of our area I want to see space for creativity and the arts, reaching those in the area who have not yet heard of us – or the love of God. Our fantastic building lends itself to such things! This is part of setting the unique culture of the Lee site – for the glory of God and to reach people for Jesus. 

Ben Welchman, Site Leader on being a multi-site church
What surprised you most about going multi-site? How well the launch went! And people were so gracious in accepting a younger leader.
What challenged you most? Taking on the leadership of a group of people with whom I had no previous relationship or history! Not knowing their stories, the quality of their character or their gifts, while still needing to run a Sunday meeting requiring children's workers, youth leaders, welcome team, worship team etc - and also aiming for diversity in every team.
What is it like dealing with a merger situation? The church at Downham was already part of Newfrontiers - there was a huge amount of common ground in shared values and common history within Newfrontiers and strong relational links between leaders over some years. All this helped!
Changing the philosophy of ministry?This was the biggest area of difference between Downham Way Family Church, as was, and King's Church. While the vision and values of two churches may be identical, the way these are worked out can be very different. Steve (Tibbert) has talked about this a lot which was really helpful.
Changing the culture is a slow process that requires patience, taking people on a journey as they may have only known one way of 'doing church'. People need to understand why we are doing things differently, grasp how they can make a contribution and, most importantly, see that the new way works. These are all important in building trust in leadership and preparing everyone for the next step… and the next!
It also requires resolve to avoid the temptation to give in and settle for old ways of working just to keep people happy. Occasionally we have to tread on some toes - some people like the way they used to do things! This increases the emotional demands on you with every task.
I’m constantly thinking about the pace of change - too much too quickly can mean people are more likely to disengage, lose a sense of ownership and feel that the new approach is being imposed on them. Move too slowly and we can miss the opportunity and the fresh momentum provided by launching as a site.
Benefits of resources from the ‘mother-ship’? As a site leader in a multi-site church you simply don't have the same kind of pressures as a church planter or a one-site church leader. If I was leading a church of 160 people rather than a site of 160, I would have to grapple with raising money for buildings and handling budgets, as well as employment and legal issues. Whilst I have picked up more administration and facilities issues than I expected, there is someone else on the King's team who has overall responsibility for the premises at Downham. Consequently I can focus on running Sundays, developing leaders and teams and strengthening ministries like midweek groups. That’s a real privilege!

Malcolm Kyte - Site Leader on being a multi-site church
What surprised you most about going multi-site?

• Nothing too surprising - due to lots of church planting experience!
• Knew it would take a time for things to settle – gaps will eventually get filled. I am quite relaxed about the fact that details are not pinned down and confident they will be gradually resolved.
• Numbers of people filling the empty chairs on Sundays so that it didn’t feel very different overall – but then that has always been my experience in planting churches – the seats fill up again fairly soon but it takes longer to fill the serving gaps and get new people giving regularly.
• How many people suddenly came to the church almost overnight.
• How well it went!

 What challenged you most?

• The amount of hard work it took to get to launch day – Christmas to March 2011 was intense with numerous meetings to plan and prepare. The combination of leafleting / advertising campaign / outreach week / 40 days of prayer / t-shirts / new website / refurbishing two buildings / launch etc was pretty exhausting!
• Working out how to address the volunteer challenge.
• Working out my new role as Catford site leader.
• Working out how we work as a Catford site team – who needs to be in which meetings.
• Readjustment of all our roles.
• To what extent the ministry staff team leaders were responsible for just Catford or all three venues e.g. youth / children / pastoral care / safeguarding team.
• Working out how to integrate large numbers of new people into small groups – which will take several more months.
• The ‘staff stretch’ on Sundays and the need to develop more lay leaders to take on key roles – which will take several more months.
• Working out the meeting pastor role. (Still working it out!)

 What are the issues for the ‘sending’ church site?

• Losing key staff and volunteers all in one go.
• Working out who had actually gone to the other two sites.
• Integrating large numbers of new people.
• Getting to know new people.
• Not having a separate Catford site budget.
• The whole sense that at Catford it was ‘business as usual’ rather than a major shift in the way we do church. For those staying it didn’t feel very different on the surface and the danger is that you don’t readjust your thinking at all.
• Missing those who used to be there on a Sunday.
• Communicating the change to those staying – importance of FAQs booklet on multisite / everyone feeling a degree of ownership / ‘selling’ the concept to those who are staying put.

On our multi-site journey Jim Tomberlin from Scottsdale, Arizona has been extremely helpful. He is a recognised expert in this area having seen Willow Creek Community Church successfully through its own multi-site strategy. Look at the enclosed link – there’s even a free e-book!


http://multisitesolutions.com/125-tips-for-multisite

FAST FACTS ABOUT MULTISITE – from Jim Tomberlin

• Multi-site churches outnumber megachurches.

• Two-thirds of multi-site churches are denominational.

• Multi-sites reach more people and mobilize more volunteers.

• One in three multi-sites added a campus through a merger.

• One in four multi-sites has a campus in another language.

• One in five multi-sites birthed a "grandchild" campus.

• One in 10 has an Internet campus.

• In-person teaching is utilized more than video.

• Average size of a church going multisite: 850.

• Eighty-five percent of multi-site churches have three or fewer geographic locations.

• Average attendance of a multi-site church: 1,300.

• Multi-site campuses have a 90 percent success rate.