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The Multi-Site Church
Some of the strengths of this new life form.
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The multi-site church is a phenomenon that you will no doubt be hearing about in the future. An estimated 100 to 200 churches nationwide are experimenting with this concept: one church (meaning one staff, one board, one budget) meeting in multiple locations, usually with the various sites developing unique personalities yet sharing the same "brand identity" and DNA. One leading example: Community Christian Church, which was planted in Naperville, Illinois, in 1989. Its vision: "Helping people find their way back to God." In 1998, it launched a "south campus" twenty minutes away in a community center of a new housing development. A third site is in Carillon, a nearby "active adult lifestyle community" for those 55+. Then in 2001, a struggling church in the town of Montgomery offered its building and five acres in hopes that by making it a fourth campus of CCC that new life would emerge. After six months of building rehab and enrolling about 100 new leaders and artists as "spiritual entrepreneurs," more than 600 people attended the inaugural celebration service there. Combined attendance now averages over 3,000, and more sites are being considered. Dave Ferguson, lead pastor of CCC, explains why he's convinced the multi-site strategy is here to stay. Lyle Schaller describes, in his book Discontinuity and Hope: Radical Change and the Path to the Future, what a long-time resident might say while showing a guest around town. Yesterday. "That's the First National Bank at the corner of Main and Washington, and directly across from it is First Church, where we have been members since we moved here thirty years ago. The college is up on the hill, our hospital is about a half mile to the west, and our doctor has his office in that building over there." Today. "That's the First National Bank, but I haven't been there for years. We do all our banking at a branch supermarket where we buy groceries. We're members of First Church, but we go to their east-side campus, which is near our house. We have one congregation but three meeting places—a small one on the north side, the big one out where we live, and the old building downtown here. The old college on the hill is now a university. This is their main campus, but they also offer classes at three other locations. We're members of an HMO that has doctors in five locations, but my primary-care physician is in a branch about a mile from where we live. I've never been in the main hospital except to visit a couple of friends." This illustrates the direction our world is going—our institutions are growing larger and smaller simultaneously, blending the strength that size offers with the comfort and convenience of smaller, closer venues. This is one example of what Jim Collins in Built to Last called "the genius of the AND," the paradoxical view that allows you to pursue both A and B simultaneously. |             |
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