Missional Multi-site churches: Skeptic turned believer (Pt 1)

I have to admit I was a skeptic with the multi-site church model at first.  My first thoughts were negative due in part to what I had seen as  a “celebrity model” demonstrated.  A celebrity model multi-site approach is more of a way to promote a central figure and multiply mega churches, rather than reproducing new leaders and break off the mega-church into more of a community based church.

My skepticism has passed since doing some thorough research.  Once I saw there were many models of multi-sites rather than just the celebrity model that I have sometimes seen, my perspective began to change.  Once I had studied healthier models that were Kingdom minded with a clear missional involvement, and less mega church and attractional, my defenses came down.   (Attractional is simply a program- driven- come- and-see- what- we- do- approach).  I began to see some real upside for God’s Kingdom work in some powerful ways.  The following are some bullet point observations that speak to the advantage of churches using a healthy multi-site approach to launching churches.

10 reasons I am a believer in “Missional” Multi-site Churches…

1. Multi-site churches are a way of putting “local” back in the church.  With the advent of mega churches, the local church has been lost and the regional mega-church born.  When churches do multi-site, they are taking the church back down to a grass roots movement in a community and move away from  larger massive institutions.
2. Multi-site churches create space and opportunity for new leaders to be born and to become. Take for example praise teams.  Once a church has its polished worship band and team, the tendency is to simply work the most talented and  only develop back one or two talent spots for each position.  This leaves a lot of emerging talent on the side.  Multi-site forces every pastor and ministry leader to become a developer of people for future campuses and church plants.  Sounds a lot like a form of disciple making to me.
3. Multi-site churches foster a “going” ethos.  ”Missional” is a term over used and under-defined today.  If you want to sell a book or sound trendy, use the term “missional.” I even hated using the word to describe our version of a multi-site, but there are so many hybrids of the new method.  Though there are many dialects of missional, one thing is unanimous with missional churches – they “go.”  The biggest event isn’t the coming to church, but the going of the church.  They go to the under-developed and under-resourced; they go to the growing populations segments in need of a spiritual community.    Multi-sites create a culture where “going is good.”
4. Multi-site churches take the church to the people, instead of expecting the unchurched to come to them.  It is most important to build bridges to the unchurched.  Caring enough to go to the people and be among the people is more meaningful than saying come to us. People typically will travel as far to church as they travel to work (15-20 min in NWA).  It is beyond reason to expect an unchurched person to travel further than this to attend church gatherings.  Unchurched people won’t go out of their way to go to church.   Neither are the unchurched turned on to Jesus by a church’s polished performance.  Instead, the church living in the community, affecting the community mind, body and soul opens doors to speak into the lives of people far from Christ.
5. Multi-site churches are more efficient with God’s resources and effective in church planting .  A 3-self church plant (self supporting, self governing, and self sustaining) is the traditional form of church planting should still be a priority.  However, some church starts require subsidies of $150,000 or more before they can become self sustaining churches.  Multi-sites can be self-sustaining faster and with less money because the start up cost, logistical organization, legal papers for 501c3 status, and marketing functions are all shared by the launching campus as they have already established systems, processes,  and a name to help the emerging congregation.   Instead of crawling as a baby church, they are able to start walking and running quickly as a multi-site.

There are some things about multi-site churches that I am repulsed by.  However, My definition of what a multi-site church can and should be has been broadened. I now see its potential value.   Next blog post I will give the other 5 reasons I have gone from a skeptic to a believer in multi-sites.