*This is part 3 of a several part series in which I'll try to walk through some of our thinking about the multi-campus movement and why we have chosen to adopt it. You can find part 2 here.
The multi-campus church does not preclude or even compete with church planting.
The multi-campus strategy does not preclude church planting, it fosters it! There are a few reasons for this.
First, it should be understood that most studies show that church planting will not alleviate space needs at any one campus. If you can convince 200 of your people to go and start a new church (and that is usually a tough sell), you end up making up that growth within a few months. Even if you plant 10 churches out of your church, chances are that you will still be dealing with space problems. Church planting will not provide a solution for space issues. So, by all means, plant churches, but in order to steward the people God is bringing to the original campus, you’ll need a different solution!
The question then becomes whether you should send people away, build a bigger facility, multiply services or plant a new campus. Sending people away is not on option. Building a bigger facility can be expensive, and many people will drive far to get there. Multiplying services is great, but you quickly reach a limit of how many you can do. Multiplying campuses is the cheapest and easiest way to keep growing beyond that. As John Piper said, “The question is no longer whether we’ll be a megachurch, but what kind of megachurch we will be.”
Second, those leaders that can plant churches should be sent out to plant churches. But, as noted above, not every church leader is equipped to be a senior teaching pastor. Many of these men would make ideal campus leaders. So while you train up and send out your church planters, you will find some who will be better suited for campus leadership. This is what the Jerusalem church in Acts 2 did.
Finally, it has been our experience that multiple campuses provide a leadership pipeline for developing church planters. It provides a place to hone the skills necessary for teaching and leadership. The multi-campus strategy is integral to our church planting strategy.
The problem of developing a cult of personality is not exclusive to the multi-campus church.
I’ve often heard, “The multi-site movement fosters a cult of personality by tying everyone to one mega-teacher.” Leader-worship is certainly a danger in large churches, and unfortunately many large church leaders seem all too willing to foster it. However, the cult of personality can exist as much in a small, single-campus church. In fact, sometimes moreso! When I pastored a small church, my congregation seemed to think that my presence was necessary for everything of spiritual significance. I had to marry and bury everyone, and my people wanted me to resolve all problems and answer all questions. I tried to teach them otherwise, but their natural tendency was to be much more dependent on me than they are now that we are a multi-campus church! The people in our church know that I am nothing special, I’m only a man with a teaching gift! There are many other pastors in our church with the Spirit of God to whom they can look for leadership and ministry.
*Part 4 to follow shortly. During this series, please feel free to offer your comments.
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