What started as an odd little movement has now exploded into an all out church growth strategy. I’m talking about Multi-site ministry. If you’re not familiar with multi-site go to this wikipedia link to get up to speed. Multi-site churches use video or satellite feeds from their original campus to send the weekend message to other locations, enabling churches to expand their reach far beyond what was previously possible.
According to Todd Rhoades of Monday Morning Insight, an October 2005 US multi-site church conference released statistics regarding growth in the number of churches in the United States operating as multi-site:
- In 1990, there were 10 multi-site churches.
- In 1998, that number had expanded to about 100.
- In late 2005, there were more than 1,500 multi-site churches in the United States.
- In mid-2008, there are an estimated 2,000 multi-site churches across the US. Multi-site church pioneer Jim Tomberlin of Third Quarter Consulting predicts that every major city and large community in America will have many multi-campus churches by 2010.
With the expansion of multi-site there is a growing need for leadership development. Many of these multi-site churches are growing so quickly that it makes developing leaders a challenge. I was talking with another multi-site church recently and said, “You know what we need? We need a fraternity for Campus Pastors and Multi-site leaders where they can learn from one another and share best practices, a leadership development site for Multi-site leaders” And with that an idea was born. Today I want to introduce you to Leading Multisite social Networking Community.
If you are a Senior Pastor, a Campus Pastor or a staff person that supports the multi-site work of your church then this site is for you. Our intent is to create a network where multi-site leaders can build friendships, ask questions, find answers, develop leaders, and identify best practices. So stop by and check it out. If you’re not a staff person or a multi-site leader no worries you don’t have to be a member to see the content. However, we do respectfully ask you not to join.
Leading Multi-site also has a twitter so you can follow us at http://twitter.com/leadingmultisit
You guys are leading the way in so many areas. Thanks for paving paths for the rest of us!