Live :: Learn :: Lead

Our Church has been engaged in the discussion around multi-site campuses this past year as we try and figure out how to continue to reach wider into the greater Boston area, as well as help existing people at Grace Chapel grow closer and deeper. Yesterday the staff had the privilege of a Q&A session with Jim Tomberlin from Third Quarter Consulting in Scottsdale, Arizona. Jim is considered one of the pioneers of the multi-site strategy, and is sought after by many churches around the country seeking his expertise on the topic. Here are a few things I learned from Jim:

• The multi-site strategy was birthed during a Willow Creek Leadership Summit in 1995. Jim’s church in CO was asked to be part of an experiment with Willow Creek to established five multi-site venues around the country to host the summit via live broadcast feed. As Jim watched people engage in the broadcast as if it was right in front of them, he began to explore if it was possible to do this at his Church to deal with the “full factor” at the Church.

• Multi-site is not just a band-aid for mega-churches, it is a strategy for healthy church growth. People already part of the Church will potentially have a deeper Church experience because campuses are smaller.

• Multi-site puts the local back into the local Church. The compelling reason for considering multi-site is location. Most people want their Church to be within fifteen driving minutes from their home.

• Every multi-site is unique because it is a transfer of the unique DNA of your Church. You are essentially transferring whatever it is you do at your main campus to the other campuses. The goal of multi-site then is not to copy what another Church is doing; it is to copy exactly what your Church is already doing.
  

• Churches need to decide if they want to be an elephant or a virus. An elephant is big and has a huge presence, but it can be taken out in one shot. A virus spreads and grows. With multi-site it is hard for a Church to die when it is in multiple locations. It just keeps spreading and popping up in new locations.