This blog entry is part of a series of reflections on the multi-site model of church. After the whole series has been posted, you can do a search for multi-site within the blog to pull up the whole series.
Know why you’re doing multi-site. If you’re moving to multi-site in order to get additional seats on Sundays, you’d be better off either moving to a bigger building or starting an additional service. Both of those options are generally easier and less expensive.
However, if you’re doing it to build smaller, closer-knit communities, multi-site may be a viable option. Likewise, if you want to tailor church services and community outreach to specific neighborhoods, multi-site can more readily accomplish that goal. Often multi-site churches can create environments particularly well-suited to raising up additional leaders too.
Be clear on your goal, then make all of your other decisions through that filter. For example, if you want to reach people in the specific neighborhood, you’ll want to make decisions that discourage people from commuting in from other areas. Or if you want local ownership and strong leadership development, you’ll need to empower more leaders at the local level rather than importing them from the central campus. Make sure you have a clear reason for doing multi-site and that all of your decisions align with your goals.