I have served on the staff of four multi-site churches in Akron, Ohio; Las Vegas, Nevada; and Pittsburgh, PA in the last 14 years. These are my top 11 Obstacles to going multi-site. I love the energy; focus on mission and new opportunities that a multi-site strategy brings to the local church. If you are thinking about becoming a Multi-site church there are a few hurdles you will have to overcome.
11 Obstacles of a Multi-site Church
1. Unhealthy Culture: Going multi-site will not fix anything. In fact it will only multiply the strengths and weaknesses of a local church if your culture is marked by insecurity, micro-management, and politics fix this before going multi-site.
2. Inflexibility: Going multisite will change everything. All staff will have to adjust to this new reality. If you do not have buy in from your staff wait. The most challenging part of going multi-site is reorganizing your staff to support multiple campuses.*
3. Resources: The average cost for launching a multi-site campus in a low risk, low cost facility is $250,000.*
4. Sermon Delivery: There are three primary ways to deliver messages at a multi-site church. Video, live via a campus pastor, or hybrid. Only 20 percent of existing multi-site churches utilize video, while half use life in-person and a third are a hybrid. All three have pluses and minuses. Decide this first and hire to your strategy.*
5. Not enough Leadership: This will take strong leadership. It will change the role of the senior pastor and will require strong leadership at the campus pastor level. Hire well. Make sure the skill set of you campus pastors fit your sermon delivery strategy.
6. Autonomy: Either too much or too little autonomy given to a campus staff can be unhealthy. The goal is to find the right comfort zone for the greater church and local campus. This is largely dependent on the gifts of the campus pastor, trust, and context of specific local campus.
7. Technological Issues: This is a pressure point for many multi-site churches. It will have to be staffed and trained well. The medium is vital to the message in a video campus.
8. Volunteer Base: It can be difficult to develop volunteers in a consumer driven church culture. Most people want to be part of changing the world. This may have to be awakened in the hearts of your people.
9. Too much, Too Fast: Pace is key. Just because one campus is working does not mean that all will work as well. It is important to build a launch team well. To be prepared and ready to start together. There are a lot of variables to success in ministry. Many of them are out of our control.
10. This must be Mission Driven: This is why we do it. Multi-site is not your mission. It is your method. The Mission is to reach more people with the message of Jesus Christ. It is to see Him make old things new. This is why people want to be apart of church. To make a difference not be a part of a grand plan or method.*
11. Mission Clarity: If your mission and vision are not clear multi-site will cause greater confusion. Clarity and simplicity are important in a multi-site church.
*Portions of this have been gathered from 125 Tips For Multi-Site Churches and Those Who Want to Be. By Jim Tomberlin and Ben Stroup. E-book.