The Multisite Phenomenom: Here to Stay?

 

by Darrel Rowland

Terms to Know

Multisite“”Commonly described as “one church meeting in several locations,” a concept often attributed to church growth guru Elmer Towns from the late 1980s. Typically each remote site has its own live services except for the sermon, which is shown on large video screens. The message usually is recorded in advance, although some use simulcasts. Each location usually has its own “campus minister” or “campus pastor,” but all are governed by the home church leadership.

Multivenue“”A different style, setup, and/or music from a church”s main service. These can be held at remote locations or in different areas of the main church campus.

 

 

About 20 years ago, Dave Ferguson used a restaurant”s napkin to scribble his dream for one church meeting in multiple locations, starting in Chicago and reproducing everywhere.

A little more than a decade ago, North Coast Church launched its first satellite site near its San Diego facility. Across the country a couple of years later, Seacoast Church went multisite around Charleston, South Carolina.

Just over six years ago, a Leadership Journal article penned by Ferguson opened with a prediction: “The multisite church is a phenomenon that you will no doubt be hearing about in the future.”

Three years ago a seminal book entitled The Multi-Site Church Revolution (Zondervan, 2006) forecast that “50 years from now, we believe multi-venue and multi-site will be the norm.”

But by the spring of 2008, multisite already was being dubbed “the new normal” by Willow magazine (which serves congregations associated with Willow Creek Community Church in suburban Chicago).

Now Seacoast is gathering at 13 locations in three states with an average weekend attendance of 10,000, up from 3,000 when it met in one locale, and has been named one of the 15 most influential churches in the United States.

North Coast has about 7,000 coming to either four remote sites or a dozen venues at the main campus, nearly triple the amount from the days before multisite.

Since Community Christian went multisite in 1998, attendance zoomed from 800 to more than 5,000 spread over nine locations.

At this point, do you feel like there”s been a sea change in how to “do church” and you missed the boat? Or are you thinking this is merely the latest church fad, hot now but sure to fade in a few years?

 

A PROVEN APPROACH

One thing”s for sure: the trend line is impressive. Statistics compiled by Community Christian show the number of multisite churches has rocketed from 10 in 1990 to 100 in 1998 to 1,500 in 2004. Currently, one out of four megachurches has gone multisite, and a third of all churches are considering it. Seven of America”s 10 fastest-growing churches are multisite, and nine of the 10 largest churches are multisite.

The largest Restoration Movement church, Southeast Christian in Louisville, was not a multisite pioneer but now has jumped in with vigor. Its first remote location was launched this year just across the Ohio River in southern Indiana with Rusty Russell (son of longtime Southeast minister Bob Russell) serving as campus pastor. The new site (indiana.southeastchristian.org) opened on Easter weekend with 3,000 present and has settled in at 1,800 to 1,900. A second Southeast satellite is planned for next summer at a grocery store being renovated in a neighboring county.

Geoff Surratt, lead author of The Multi-Site Church Revolution and ministries pastor at Seacoast (www.seacoast.org), said Willow”s characterization of multisite churches as “the new normal” is a bit of hyperbole.

“The revolution, however, is gaining momentum,” he said. “There are very few towns of any size in America without at least one multisite church. Many smaller churches are exploring the idea of connecting with a larger church in a direct partnership. I think we are just beginning to see the potential of this form of church.”

Chris Mavity, who has conducted multisite seminars for leaders from more than 1,000 churches as executive director of the North Coast Training Network (a Multisite 2.0 conference is slated for Sept. 28 and 29 in St. Louis), said at first the sessions centered on whether the concept would work.

“That question”s already been answered now,” he said. “It”s really not a question of will it work, but whether this a direction we should take.”

North Coast (www.northcoastchurch.com) actually is more of a multivenue church than a multisite. Attendees at the Evangelical Free Church have a choice of four other campuses, but those going to the main facility at an old warehouse complex in Vista, California (being replaced by a new 40-acre campus next year), have their pick of at least a dozen styles of worship.

 

READY FOR VIDEO

Like many multisite churches, the new venture was born of desperation: North Coast was simply out of space.

“The idea was to create an overflow room,” Mavity said. But North Coast leaders also realized that overflow rooms often are “the dungeon of the church,” so they strived to make the new venue “an alternative worship experience.”

Thus was born the video café, led by Mavity, just off the church plaza where attendees heard live contemporary music, then watched the message on a large video screen as they sipped Starbucks coffee and sampled pastries.

“It was an immediate success,” Mavity said.

The new venue attracted 173 the first Sunday and averaged 493 after a year, 1,200 after two years, and 2,200 after three.

“It wasn”t because we”re great, it wasn”t because we”re more spiritual than other churches, it was because the opportunity was there. And what we didn”t know was that the culture was ready for the video experience.”

That was something the entertainment industry had discovered years before; unless people are in the first few rows of a live event, they often watch the game or the concert on the large video screens simply because they can see better. The same is true at most large churches where the speaker or worship leader is shown on video screens, Mavity said.

Now those attending North Coast have their choice of such venues as country/gospel (feel free to wear your cowboy hat and sit on the hay bales); Traditions, a softer ambience featuring a blend of traditional and contemporary hymns; the Message, with its coffeehouse atmosphere; Frontline, an acoustic worship catering to military personnel; and the Edge, with urban art and subwoofer-backed worship that is a wee bit louder than the others. These gatherings meet anytime from 5:40 pm Saturday to 6:30 pm Sunday. And all except three North Coast Live services get the sermon (usually from senior pastor Larry Osborne) via video screen.

“We found a way through these venues to actually get healthier as a church because we are providing worship styles that are preferred rather than put up with,” said Mavity, explaining the church”s growth to 7,000. “There”d be no way we”d have that many people with just one worship style.”

And he adds two statements likely to resonate with church leaders nationwide:

“It”s a lot cheaper to start a venue than build a building.”

“We just don”t have worship wars anymore.”

 

QUALITY AND A COMPELLING VISION 

Surratt says a church cannot pull off multisite without quality, especially in the video presentation. Three-fourths of those who attend Seacoast see the messages from his brother, senior pastor Greg Surratt, on a video screen.

“You don”t need Broadway, but you do need better than a junior high sock hop,” he said. “If Ruth”s Chris Steakhouse”s second location had opened with a menu of mystery meat and mac and cheese, there would never have been a third location.”

And he cautions that multisite won”t work on its own.

“When Seacoast started our first campus, everyone thought we were crazy. I seemed to have an endless line at my office door of staff saying this will never work, and other churches told us again and again that video teaching was a dumb idea.

“Seven years and 7,000 new attendees later it seems like everyone wants to open multiple campuses. Multisite is now the latest fad in church growth, but it is failed strategy if there is not a compelling vision behind it.”

That means getting the proper people to head the effort.

“The biggest challenge is finding the right leaders for campus pastors,” he said. “Churches who select strong, entrepreneurial leaders tend to see a great deal of growth at their offsite campuses; churches who simply choose managers or administrators tend to struggle. Multisite is not a shortcut to recruiting, mentoring, and releasing strong leaders.”

He bristles a bit when asked whether multisite simply caters to America”s consumerist, “it”s-all-about-me” society. “I think that is a valid criticism of most churches in America,” Surratt said. “We install electricity, air conditioning, and indoor plumbing simply to cater to the whims of society. While I am being somewhat facetious, it is easy to point at other churches for being consumer minded while ignoring how much in your church is really (the same).”

He also says the multisite church is as scriptural as other models. “I think in the Acts church(es) you can see elements of multisite churches, megachurches, and small parish churches. I do not see anything in Scripture that prevents multisite as a method, nor do I see anything that endorses multisite as “˜more biblical” than other models.”

 

WHAT”S NEXT?

He predicts the multisite movement will soon branch in several directions at once. In a new book coming this fall, A Multi-Site Church Roadtrip (Zondervan, 2009; like his previous book, written with Greg Ligon and Warren Bird), 15 innovations impacting multisite churches across the country are examined.

“We are seeing trends such as Internet campuses, international campuses, and campuses launching campuses as churches are finding more and more creative ways to reach people with the good news,” Surratt said.

Meanwhile, Ferguson now calls his vision scrawled onto that napkin nearly two decades ago a dream from God.

After opening its second site, Community Christian more than quadrupled in size, mostly with previously unchurched people. Another seven locations, including one Spanish-speaking service, have been added in the past eight years, with more to come.

Yet multisite is more about quality than quantity, Ferguson says.

“It”s about taking who you are, reproducing the ethos or quality experience of your church, and bringing it to more people,” he wrote in Outreach magazine a couple of years ago. “Once you have established that quality, why not reproduce it? Why start from scratch?”

Community Christian (www.communitychristian.org) has discovered that the retention rate is higher for the multisite locations; 58 to 65 percent of those who attended the first service came back, compared to its original church plant, where only 39 percent returned.

Such facts underscore the church”s philosophy that “when churches begin multiple locations, they dramatically increase their outreach.” Ferguson envisions multisite churches becoming more influential than megachurches in the near future, and leads a network of new and reproducing churches called NewThing (www.newthing.org).

Dramatic is the word for the church”s ultimate vision for the Chicago area: 200 sites attended by 100,000 people every week.

Now that”s a big napkin.

 

 

 

Darrel Rowland is public affairs editor of The Columbus Dispatch and an adult Bible fellowship teacher at Worthington (Ohio) Christian Church.