A multi-campus church is one church meeting in multiple locations.
A multi-campus church shares a common vision, budget, and leadership.
Campus: Any location where a complete church ministry (i.e.,
adult worship, nursery, children's programming) takes
place. A multi-campus church may have several
campuses.
The purpose of becoming a multi-campus church is to make
more and better disciples by bringing the church
closer to where people are. The motivation is to continue
loving people, including different types of
people, with an outcome of making significant advances
in obeying Jesus' Great Commandment (Matt. 22:37-40)
and Great Commission (Matt.
28:19-20). Churches report that conversion growth is
greater on their extension campuses
than at the original campus.
-
Assists in reaching friends and family unwilling to
travel a great distance to church
- Brings together the best aspects of larger churches
and smaller churches
- Overcomes geographic barriers when a church
facility is landlocked or tightly zoned
- Enables untapped talent to emerge each
time a new venue or site is opened
- Mobilizes volunteers through an added
variety of ministry opportunities
- Enables a church to extend itself
into smaller niches
- Models and trains people for church
planting elsewhere
- Provides a pipeline for the
development of emerging leaders
and future staff
Several churches have been multi-campus for up to
twenty years, and a handful for even
longer. Some churches use a multi-campus approach
as a transitional strategy during a
building program or a seasonal outreach. Other
churches intentionally choose to be multicampus
only temporarily as a church-planting strategy
to help new congregations start
out strong.
There are several churches that are multi-campus
but also do church planting. The key
seems to be clear from the start if a new
location is to be an on-going campus
or a church
plant. Each requires a different style of
leadership and varying levels of investment
from the original campus.
The
most important factor in maintaining unity as one church in
many locations involves the church having a crystal clear
understanding of their DNA - their vision, mission and
values. Continuity comes as this DNA is replicated from campus to
campus
and venue
to venue.
Those
churches that have been successful with the multi-campus approach chose
to open a second campus because
they saw no better option for fulfilling God's purpose
for their church. At some churches, the building was packed, they had
run out of viable service
times, and building a larger facility didn't seem to be
the answer. At other churches, there was
a sense of mission into the next city, into the next country,
or
across a cultural chasm they had been unable
to cross. At still other churches, the congregation had a
strong desire to take the ministry of their church into
the neighborhoods of the members. In each
case, though, multi-campus was not seen as merely another
program or strategy but rather
as a key component in fulfilling their God-inspired vision.
