Multi-site churches are becoming the new “normal”, according to Geoff Surratt, Greg Ligon and Warren Bird in Multi-Site Church Road Trip: Exploring the New Normal, and they estimate that there are now more than 3,000 multi-site churches in the United States, whereas there were only about 300 ten years ago. To illustrate the benefits and variety of multi-site churches, the authors took a “road trip” and came up with a number of really interesting insights.
Seacoast Church has 13 different campuses, and some of these are quite big (5,000 attenders) whereas others are quite small (80 attenders). Teaching is mostly done by video. The smaller campuses get the benefits of being part of a larger church (access to high quality resources, specialist ministries, etc), while the larger campuses get the benefits of smaller churches (more opportunities for people to serve in meaningful ways, etc).
Christ the King Community Church International has 17 US and more than 100 international sites. Teaching is done in person at each site. Christ the King is a church of small groups, and it uses deliberately simple, low-tech, low-cost approaches to multiplying its ministry. Lifechurch.tv, on the other hand, is a leader in the use of technology in its 14 campuses, and it includes a fully online campus which can be attended by anyone in any country of the world.
The book includes many other examples from many other churches. Multi-site models have been used to kick-start the planting of new churches, and they have been effective in revitalising dying churches. Almost any church will find something of interest in the book; it certainly gave me a number of ideas about reaching unchurched people more rapidly and more cost-effectively. I recommend this book to all church leaders, including those who have never heard of or considered multi-site church strategies.
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