Multisite Church Model: Jon Ferguson on Growth and Leadership
Jon Ferguson, cofounder of Community Christian Church near Chicago and director/cofounder of the NewThing Network, discusses why churches pursue multisite ministry and how the model works in practice. In this interview, he explains the role of shared mission, local customization, leadership oversight, and church planting.
- Multisite ministry can help churches reach more people while maintaining a shared mission and vision.
- Community Christian Church uses the BIG IDEA across campuses while allowing each location to customize ministry for its community.
- Ferguson says reproducing leaders and artists is essential before launching additional campuses.
by Darrel Rowland
Jon Ferguson, cofounder of Community Christian Church near Chicago (www.communitychristian.org) and director/cofounder of the NewThing Network (www.newthing.org) discusses the hows and whys of multisite.
Why Multisite in the First Place?
Why multisite in the first place, especially vs. expansion at the original location, and vs. planting an entirely new church at the new location?
At Community, we’re always asking, “Where is God at work?” or better yet, “Where may God be dreaming?” Our mission is helping people find their way back to God.
Multisite and church planting have been our responses to where God is at work in our surrounding communities and a way for us to fulfill our mission. For us, locally we have found that multisite gives us the chance for greater collaboration and better results.
However, unless you have a reproducing DNA—identifying and equipping leaders and artists at all levels—launching another campus isn’t a viable option. The most compelling reason to plant churches or launch new sites is to help more people find their way back to God.
How New Sites Function
Are the “new” sites designed to be duplicates of the mother ship, targeted toward other audiences, or something else? What are the main differences? How do they work?
We operate using the BIG IDEA (see The Big Idea, Zondervan, 2007), so each campus experiences the same message, whether in person or via telecast. The BIG IDEA is also used in kids ministry and student ministry in an age-appropriate way.
While they use the BIG IDEA, each campus is expected to customize its ministries to reach the people in its community. In addition, each campus has a campus pastor and worship team. Leaders at each campus determine the times of their celebration services—most typically begin with Sunday morning, then add Saturday night services to reach more people.
Churches That Influenced the Model
Any other church(es) that served as a pattern for the development of multisite?
Two churches that have influenced us most are Seacoast Community Church in Charleston, South Carolina, and Life Church, which started in Oklahoma and now has campuses throughout the United States.
There are different types of multisite churches, no one type is the best model. For example, Grace Community Church in Texas is an example of a partnership model—a multisite church where additional locations are started by collaborating with not-for-profit or for-profit organizations that have available facilities and needs can be met through church-related programming. North Point Community Church in Georgia is an example of a new venture model—a multisite church that uses a church planting approach to start additional locations that may be as large or larger than the original location.
Oversight and Independence
Does the leadership of the “home” church, including the elders, oversee the additional sites? Is everybody OK with this scripturally, or do some expect cardinals and bishops to appear next? Is the goal for the multisite locales to eventually become independent (stand-alone) congregations?
We have a leadership commission (elders who come from several sites) that oversees all campuses—we are one church with multiple locations. We have the same vision/mission, and the same BIG IDEA. Our dream is to have 200 locations reaching 100,000 people in the Chicago area. We don’t expect our campuses to become stand-alone churches. However, if, within that campus, there are leaders that have the dream of planting a church, and not another campus, we’d like to help make that dream a reality.
How Multisite Has Evolved
How has the concept of a multisite church evolved in your experience over recent years?
In 1990, there were 10 multisite churches. In 1998, there were 100 multisite churches. In 2004, there were 1,500 multisite churches. Today, one out of four megachurches is multisite. Additionally, 33 percent of all churches are considering multisite, seven of the 10 fastest-growing churches are multisite, and nine of the 10 largest churches are multisite.
NewThing, our growing movement of reproducing churches, birthed out of Community about six years ago with the start of our church plant, Jacob’s Well Community Church in Colorado. At that same time, Community began multiplying sites at an incredible rate—so we were able to reproduce both locally and nationally.
Results and Drawbacks
How well is it working out now? Any serious drawbacks?
It’s working quite well. Community has grown from one location to nine and 800 people to more than 5,000 people since we went multisite and continue to look for new locations to reach into more communities.
What Kind of Church Should Consider Multisite?
What kind of church should consider going multisite?
A church that is already growing could consider a multisite approach. Most multisite churches are suburban. Some churches are small (200 people) and some are large (7,000 people). Most churches that consider going multisite are going multisite to accomplish the Jesus mission of helping more people find their way back to God.
Darrel Rowland is public affairs editor of The Columbus Dispatch and an adult Bible fellowship teacher at Worthington (Ohio) Christian Church.
