I went to Seacoast Church this morning and the message was powerful and inspired me write this today. It’s funny how we can draw inspiration from the varying experiences in our lives if we just look for the connections. I was inspired on one level from the biblical message, but what struck me was their celebration of 25 years since inception. They have been standing firm and growing their church in amazing ways and today they reflected back on the journey.
I am not a regular at Seacoast, however I will be attending much more frequently because of today’s experience. This type of growth can (and does) happen to many organizations, this one just happened to be a church. They began in 1988 with 65 people as what they called a “traveling band” and have since grown to (from what I can tell) 11 campuses, Mount Pleasant being the hub. They have also planted hundreds of churches across the world and continue to do so. And although it is what most would call a ‘mega-church’ it still feels like a small community. We attended a satellite church that showed the main message through a live video feed while the worship was help directly in front of us. Did I mention we went to this service at a rented out movie theater? The entire experience was awesome and the people were warm to newbies, a very welcoming environment that we will undoubtedly be back for.
But how can they replicate this experience so well? And what can be applied to our businesses from this? Lots of companies grow fast but cannot sustain that growth and it eventually shrivels back. It’s the organizations that grow steadily and carefully that are the most successful long-term, not the ones that get ‘there’ first. In my brief experience I could see two things that allowed them to grow like this and still make their growth effective.
A.) Solid Culture
B.) Having a central platform
Great people don’t just waltz into organizations, they have to be molded, mentored, challenged, and most importantly retained. When this is repeatedly performed, a great culture emerges and remains present. When the culture is strong in the lead office/church/location it can then be branched out. If the that lead office, church, or location doesn’t know what it stands for and satellites are being planted everywhere, the company culture becomes weak and doesn’t have the same effect in the satellite. Seacoast knows who it is, what it stands for, and what it wants to do. In turn, the same culture is present at each of the campuses. Just as we would find the same setup in a franchise like Subway, we find the same attitudes and smiles in each Seacoast location.
They have been standing firm in their place for 25 years while the world whirls like a figurative (as well as literal it turns out) hurricane around them. The physical representation of this is their live video feed that allows each of the 11 locations to view the same message from Pastor Greg simultaneously at each of the different services. This is genius for many reasons such as keeping costs low and a larger outreach that in turn generates a larger influence. The more heady representation of this is their beliefs: “We exist to help people become fully devoted followers of Christ.” Plain and simple, but most importantly non-wavering.
What do our organizations stand for? Can we boil it down to a simple sentence like Seacoast has done? When we know what we stand for and we are firm in our beliefs we attract people to us like that solid structure during a hurricane. We all need something to hold on to and stand firm in.
Seacoast knows what it stands for and they have been doing so for 25 years. Their growth is amazing, but with such strong beliefs it’s not a surprise.
