Jim Tomberlin a veteran and pioneer of developing the multi-site approach over the last several years wrote a great article answering the question: Should my church go multi-site?
In the article he developed nine questions for assessing your churches readiness to launch another site.
Here they are:
- Is my church growing at least 5% a year?
- Is my church full at 80% at optimal inviting hours?
- Is my church meeting resistance to campus expansion due to zoning rules, environmental concerns or traffic congestion?
- Is my community 50% or more unchurched?
- Does the church have a good reputation in the community?
- Does my church want to release more people into high impact, meaningful ministry?
- Does my church want to launch new congregations in my region that are healthy, sustainable and reproductive?
- Does my church want to be more accessible to more people in my region?
- Does my church want to reach and serve more people in the most efficient and cost effective way?
If you can answer "yes" to any of these questions then your church may be ready to go multi-site. Jim states that these questions need to be answered in the context of your churches vision. What is God calling us to be, and then do, in our community?
How would you as a leader in your church answer this question? How would your staff, volunteers, and members answer this question. In my opinion multi-site is not a cure all for plateaued churches but a viable option for churches who know what God has called them to, who are experiencing the blessing of growth, who are seeing multiplication happening at all levels of their ministry.
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