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Church Planting Tutorial: 20. Multisite

Every week over 5 million people attend one of the 5,000+ multisite churches across North America. For many churches multisite is the answer to the need for expanding the Kingdom, especially in concentrated areas of population. There are many great resources for you at Exponential.org, but let’s look at a few definitions before jumping off in that direction.

Multi-site and Multi-Venue Definitions

  • Venue – A gathering of “like-minded” people with similar worship style preferences.  A venue can have any number of people.  The general thumb rule used by North Coast Church is that the room should be limited in size such that anyone can find someone they are looking for in less than 2 minutes.
  • Video Venue – A venue that incorporates the use of video for sermons.  A live sermon is taped in one venue (or simulcast from) and then played in another venue.  Typically, the sermon (message) is the same in all venues while the worship and use of multimedia is tailored to the style preferred by people at the venue.
  • Multi-site or Campus – One church offering services in more than one location (e.g. two different cities).  Each site is considered a separate venue (e.g. two campuses are considered two different venues).  Programming at the different sites may or may not be the same.
  • Multiple Venues – Offering people several different service venues to choose from for their weekend worship experience.  Typically, venues target different worship style preferences.  It is also possible to offer several of the same venues based on space issues.  Multiple venues are similar to a multiplex movie theatre offering numerous different choices to the attendee.  Venues can be live, simulcast, videotaped, or a combination of the above (i.e. the message may or may not be the same in each of the venues).  Also, venues do not have to be collocated in one place (i.e. several campuses are multiple venues).
  • Additional Resources and Information