Who doesn’t love Mother’s Day? It is the one designated day when we get to pamper our moms andtry to thank them for just being so awesome! And it is almost that time of year again!

Did you know that Mother’s Day is the third most likely day– after Easter and Christmas – that people will attend church?

So, pastor, are you ready to celebrate all the wonderful mothers who will be attending your church services on Mother’s Day weekend? This year, why not go a step beyond a special prayer and time of blessing for mothers? We’ve put together five meaningful Mother’s Day ideas to help you bless their socks off:

Mother’s Day Greetings That Honor all Moms

Mother’s Day can mean different things to different people. For many it represents the celebration of life and great joy. For others it could be a reminder of a struggle or a mark of grief. Take care to ensure that you don’t honor some moms, while alienating others.Inan open letter to pastors {A non-mom speaks about Mother’s Day}, Amy Young paid a moving tribute to all moms. You could also consider sharing similar thoughts in your Mother Day’s greetings. Here is a glimpse of Amy’s poem that went viral:

“To those who gave birth this year to their first child – we celebrate with you

To those who lost a child this year – we mourn with you

To those who have warm and close relationships with your children – we celebrate with you

To those who have disappointment, heartache, and distance with your children – we sit with you

This Mother’s Day, we walk with you.”

What other ways can you honor all mothers through your welcome speech?

Let’s Hear it From the Moms

Pick three or four mothers from your congregation and ask them to share their experiences of motherhood. It will be inspiring, encouraging and powerful to hear the real, honest struggles and joys of these mothers.These stories will be reassuring to other moms who might be facing similar struggles. And more importantly, they are bound to stir up new admiration and respect for the thankless job that moms do!

Get the Kids on Video

In the week leading up to Mother’s Day, take video clips of a few children thanking their moms and telling them what they love most about them. This will be especially great if your church is meeting online only.Surprise the moms by playing the video on Mother’s Day. Could a mom want anything more than knowing that her child loves her? This is going to be a tear-jerker. Get the tissues ready!

Teach Kids About Honoring Their Parents

Teach the kids what it really means to honor their mother and father and why it is important. Practice scripture memorization such as Colossians 3:20 “Children obey your parents in everything, for this pleases the Lord” and Ephesians 6:1 “Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right.”

The moms are definitely going to appreciate that! Wrap up by getting the kids to make Mother’s Day cards or crafts they can give to their mothers to have as a keepsake.

What other practical examples can you use to teach kids to obey and honor their parents?

Get a Space for Kids That Will Make Moms Happy

What could mothers want more than a safe and fun environment for their kids? At Portable Church, we take the children’s area very seriously. We have helped many mobile churches set upsecure and comfortable children’s spacesin different venues, including a school gymnasium and a movie theater!

Mothers want to know that their children are safe, happy and entertained. When we helped achurch in New York move into a movie theater,it turned out to be the ideal venue for their kids’ ministry. We converted the theater into a kid-friendly church by transforming three theater areas into fun and safe environments for different age-groups. The moms loved it!

Are your children’s areas fun, spacious and secure?

Do you have any other Mother’s Day ideas for churches? We hope that you can really bless all the moms that attend your church this year.

Pastor, are you looking to host your church services in a unique, portable venue? We have been helping churches successfully launch in all kinds of venues for the last few decades. Give us a call today at 800.939.7722 and we’ll help you find the perfect venue for your weekend services!

In the meantime, Download our FREE E-book today for all the tips you need to choose the right facility for your church! Find the Right Venue For My Portable Church

Reproducibility! This is a big deal and likely the most important principle to know…

There may be many reasons you are going to be a portable church. You might be a new church plant, a new campus, selling your building because you outgrew it or maybe due to COVID-19 you’re in-between buildings. Or maybe you’ve read that portability is one of the most affordable ways to launch or how it provides effective environments for growth and outreach. Regardless of your reasons for portability, it is still wise to make decisions about your system that make it easy to reproduce in the future. If you are a multiplication/movement minded leader (if you are planting or campusing this is likely you) it especially makes sense to have systems that can be easily re-done week after week, and also understood and passed on as you plant more churches and campuses. We encourage systems that people will want to do again (and again, and again, and….)!

For the purpose of this blog, let’s say you are a church that has outgrown its building and you are going portable so as to get more space. In the best case scenario, your church continues growth spurts while you are portable. In fact, you have so many people that, even when you move into your new building, you’ll want to keep a portion of your congregation portable (Multi Site, per se). If you make decisions now that take the first three principals into account (weight, cubic volume, and ease of use), you are well on your way to a sustainable, reproducible model of church.

Let’s delve into this concept a little bit more. At Portable Church® Industries, we once worked with a client that placed a very high value on the aesthetics of children’s environments. They had found these children’s tables that were “amazing”. The only problem was, in order to fit these tables inside of their trailer, they had to take the legs off every week. One of our Project Managers gently encouraged them to get one table and then practice, for six weeks in a row, taking the legs on & off and to time their progression. Only two weeks in they found that (a) they rarely had the right tools available for the project (b) the screws used on the legs stripped after the first week (c) it took almost ½ hour to both put the legs on & take the legs off. After only two weeks, the church, said “Thank goodness, we only bought one of these – we definitely don’t want them!” When they put the tables into rotation, they realized that the tables were no longer amazing, that they didn’t make sense for their environment and that it wouldn’t have been a decision they would have reproduced in the future or have been happy about in the future.

If you harness your efficiency properly, you will reduce venue rental costs, increase volunteer happiness, reduce equipment damage, reduce storage space costs, reduce set up & tear down times and reduce number of volunteers needed. All of these benefits tie in directly to reproducibility, and you won’t find yourself like the pastors in our last post saying “we won’t do that again”. When you are able to see a return on investment of time and money, you can anticipate a growth plan that includes future campuses or an aggressive churches-planting churches mission without feeling the dread that may come along with inefficiency. That’s what we LOVE about portability!

A Portable Church system does exactly all these things. The entire system is designed around incredible environments that people enjoy setting up week after week. And once you decide to launch another plant or campus, people are excited to be sent and join the launch! Our systems are designed to allow highly engaging environments that are reproducible, and with fewer volunteers, long into the future.

If this series is striking a cord with you, give us a shout! Engage one of our launch coaches and talk through your plans! We are here to guide you in the right direction.

*This summary is taken from our e-book 6 Principles of Portability. Download the e-book here for more detail and the other 5 principles.

If you are starting a church, there are so many things to consider you may not even know where to start…

When purchasing equipment for your portable church, with all the financial pressures a church planter faces, it is easy to focus only on economics. In truth, your equipment purchases must not only reflect the creativity, vision, and personality of your new plant or campus, but the equipment must also be safe, efficient, professional and easy to use.

We have found the equipment purchases for new churches to be simultaneously the most exciting and stressful times in the church launch experience. As such, we hope to ease some of that stress by explaining the different aspects of making sure that your equipment is as portable as possible. Including the importance of cubic volume and ease of setting up and tear down.

If your new church (or new campus) is going to be in a rented facility like a school, movie theatre, art museum, community center, etc – it will be imperative to make sure that your equipment will pack up & move out easily, is light enough to install easily and can handle the consistent packing and unpacking, road noise and travel.

The Cubic Volume Conundrum – a ratio of space to cost

Chairs

Let’s say you are purchasing chairs for your new church. You have found one that is relatively comfortable (comfortable enough, at least, to get you through a forty-five-minute sermon), it’s padded, it stacks and it’s even lightweight – making it perfect for your volunteers. The cost of this chair? Only $20 per chair. You want to purchase 225, and the price tag of $4500 fits the budget quite nicely.

The other chair you’re considering is considerably more expensive at $42 per chair. While the chair seems more sturdy and durable, you’ve not noticed anything considerably better about this chair than the other one. It has all the features of the other one – it’s lightweight, it’s stackable and it’s comfortable, but at a substantial additional $4950 more than the other chair, it doesn’t seem worth it. Is that additional cost really worth the durability?

Surprisingly, you may find consultants like us encouraging you towards the $42 chair. Economically, the choice is clear, so why would we encourage you towards the more expensive chair?

For an average church of 225 people, the cost per cubic foot of storage space is about $10 per cubic foot*

225 of the $20 chair takes up 600 cubic feet vs 225 of the $42 chair takes up 300 cubic feet

Trailers

In our experience, we have found that the average church trailer is between 725 – 1010 cubic feet. A decision to purchase the inexpensive chair will use between 40% – 85% of your total storage space allotted for your all of your equipment purchases. In contrast, a decision to purchase the more expensive chair will use only 30% – 42% of the total storage space allotted.
If you can fit the rest of your church into 15% of your storage space – your choice is simple! Go with the least expensive option! If, however, you find yourself having to move into another trailer or another Konix container, or pay another monthly fee to store an additional trailer somewhere, in order to make space for your other equipment, the numbers could add up to over & above the initial +$4950 for the more expensive chair. That is the reason we might persuade you towards a more expensive chair, because in the long term, your more expensive chair could pay off in a variety of different ways, such as staying in your allotted storage space and keeping your storage space costs within budget.

More storage space leaves more room for additional equipment, helping you “flex” with people growth. One might argue that you can find a lightweight, comfortable chair for less than $42, but in our experience – durability is every bit as important as cubic volume considerations.

Storage costs can vary dramatically depending on your situation. Many churches purchase a trailer and park it somewhere for free. Others rent a trailer parking space. Some churches have access to onsite storage at the facility they rent. Whatever the case, make sure you understand the upfront and ongoing costs of storage so that you can evaluate the cubic volume impact of your equipment choices.

Other Portability Resources

Principle #1 – Consider the Weight

While we are on the topic of things to know when planning for portability, download our resource 6 Effective Principles for Portability for even more helpful information.

*This is based on Portable Church’s experience with churches across the nation, and is based on the average church trailer and / or storage space

By Portable Church Industries:

Finding the right location to launch is crucial for any church plant. After all, the church location and venue play a key role in how effectively your church plant reaches and engages the community.

Are you looking for the ideal place to launch your church? Well, look no further! Here are seven tips to help you zero down on that perfect location:

1. Ask God to give you a burden for a specific place

Jesus is building His Kingdom! If God has called you to plant churches, He will also reveal where He wants you to start.

Ask God to give you a burden for a particular area. Pray without ceasing! After all, solid prayer and passion are the foundations of any successful church plant.

Has God placed a burden on your heart for a specific town, area or community?

2 Look for areas devoid of churches

Did you know that only 50% of Americans are church members? There are many pockets across the country with a high concentration of people, but little or no church activity. The Northeast corridor, for example, has nearly 20% of America’s population, but very few churches to match.

Zero down on the areas where there are fewer churches. Are you ready to go where the need is the greatest?

3. Talk to other pastors ministering in the area

This is the time for Kingdom collaboration!Irrespective of their denominational differences, church planters and pastors are increasingly coming together to reach out to their cities.

Let your church plant be a result of such a collaboration!

Consult with other pastors who are already serving in the city/town that you feel called to. Ask them where the greatest need in their city is, and identify the challenges of the specific communities in the area. Most importantly, ask them to support you in prayer as you seek to obey the Lord’s calling on your life.

Are you ready to collaborate?

4. Consider the layout and facilities

Finalizing the area that you will call home is just half the battle won! The next step is to find that perfect venue. And, there’s so much to consider!

It is a good idea to look at the venue from a visitor’s perspective: Is it easily accessible? Does it feel cramped and dingy? Does it have adequate parking spots and clean rest rooms? Is there ample meeting space for both adults and kids?

In addition, you will also have to think about facilities such as a kitchen space, lighting and stage setup.

Are you looking at potential church venues from the eyes of a visitor?

5. Think about the costs

It’s no surprise that the potential cost of setting up a church can be a deal-breaker. You might find the perfect facility with the accessibility and welcoming atmosphere you were looking for. But, if the numbers just don’t add up – you’ll be heading back to square one!

It is important to factor in all the costs involved in moving into a new facility. Will you be paying monthly or quarterly rent? Will there be additional equipment that you might need, in order to set up in a particular facility? Don’t forget to include any ongoing expenses, like electricity or cleaning services, while doing the math!

Have you made a list of all the costs involved in launching your church?

6. Consider equipment requirements

Setting up your church in a community center would require you to arrange for different gear than launching in a restaurant would. For example, aschoolmight allow you to use their projector for your weekend services. Amovie theater,on the other hand, would save you the trouble of bringing in chairs and an additional screen. Think about the specific equipment requirements for each potential church venue.

It’s also important to ask about on-site storage facilities. If you are launching a portable church, it will be helpful to be able to store your gear at the venue. If such a facility is not available, you could considercustomized, portable cases like the ones Portable Church offers.These enable mobile churches to roll their equipment in and out every weekend with ease!

Are there any specific equipment requirements for your potential church venues?

7. Make sure that the venue matches the vision of your church

It is important that your church venue compliments the character, vision and mission of your church.

If your church has the heart to engage the unchurched, the warm and casual atmosphere at abowling alley or a pizza parlormight be a good choice. If children’s ministry is a priority, then consider a facility which will let you create multiple safe and fun environments to cater to different ages.

Will the people whom you want to minister to, feel welcome at your church venue?

At Portable Church, we know that the needs of no two churches are the same. Over the last few decades, we have helped many church planters find and move into the perfect venue to suit their needs.

Give us a call today at 800.939.7722 and we’ll help you find the right church location to call home!

In fact, here’s a FREE e-book with all the tips you need to choose the right facility for your church. Get your copy andFind the Right Venue For My Portable Churchtoday!

Know the differences between Portability vs Permanent vs Touring Gear vs DIY

By Portable Church Industries: In a new church ministry (aka church plant), the audio/visual/lighting needs will likely be your largest expense. Determining what gear you need can only come after clarifying the purpose for having AVL in your ministry, and the context in which your ministry will take place. 

When considering the competing points of tension in making AVL decisions, the two primary elements that will dictate what a supporting AVL system can look like are budget and venue. Knowing where to look to get the right AVL System will help with both, (regardless if your budget is small or large).

All AVL gear for a church (regardless of size) needs to be integrated into a design that fits both of the above; your budget and context. These will fall into one of three types:

Portable System Design, Touring System Design, and Permanent System Design.  After describing each of these design types, we will also dive into the Do-It-Yourself method

PORTABILITY DESIGN

• The Portable Context – the venue is a rented facility (school, YMCA, theater, community center, event center, etc.) and is the same each week you meet. However, you can only occupy he venue for a brief period (6-8 hours) in which you need to load-in, do church as many times as necessary, and then load-out.
• Things to Consider – Budget and convenience usually drive the use of this design. Rented venues are usually well known by the greater community in which you want to launch and inherently provide ample parking, access, function and flow, and dedicated space. You are going to ‘pay’ for portability somewhere, either on the right system or in human resources. A good Portable AVL design is quick and easy to load in and out, highly systematic, presents a very professional image, and allows a volunteer team to thrive in the process.
• The Pros of Portability (using a PCI SYSTEM)

• • Volunteer friendly
  • A complex system created to be intuitive for volunteers to set up
  • Load in and set up in facility in 30-50 minutes (on average)
  • Load out of facility in less than 20-40 minutes (time is $$ here)
  • No special access needed
    • No loading docks
    • No wide doors
    • No extraneous ramps
    • Parking lots, or whatever, work great
  • Integrated plug and play AVL design
  • EVERYTHING fits through standard doorways
  • Cases designed to protect expensive gear
  • Excellent efficiency, effectiveness, and impression
  • Comprehensive to include worship, children’s ministry, first impressions, trailers, and storage
  • Cases and trailers balanced for weight distribution
  • Launching as a portable church is the least expensive way to launch a new presence into a new community

• The Cons of portability (all portability systems) 
  • Set up and tear down each week
  • Higher need for volunteers
  • A bad design causes significant burnout
  • To do it right, some pieces will cost more

TOURING DESIGN

• The Touring Context – Because touring groups are in a new venue for each performance, the touring design in response to the need to be ready for any new situation or environment that might come up from week to week.
• Things to Consider – Will you be in the same facility from week to week, or encounter a new facility and environment each week? What will the access be at each new facility? Will there always be a dock to load in and out of?

• The Pros of a Touring System
  • Expensive gear is protected really well
  • Load in/out processes can be similar to portable
  • Usually have a gear-solution on hand for every situation

• The Cons of a touring System (in the context of a church meeting portability) 
  • Gear storage is usually overkill in rented situations
  • Cost of gear storage is prohibitive
  • Often designed around the use of a hi-lo
  • Usually requires extra gear for unforeseen circumstances ($$)
  • Gear is stored/transported in individual cases – need for flexibility decreases efficiencies
  • Usually assumes loading docks, or box trucks with lift gates (slower and inefficient, also unsafe for non-professionals)
  • Size of gear storage sometimes at odds with size of doorways available(they assume large doorways)
  • Usually designed for sophisticated users and crew (paid professionals)
  • Load in and load out times are longer (touring assumes multiple hours or overnight set-ups)

PERMANENT INSTALL DESIGN

• The Permanent Context – Facility under your control 24/7. Typically, spaces can be dedicated to specific use(s).

• Things to Consider – Facility spaces as well as AVL uses are typically designed for known ministry patterns. As often as ministry patterns change over a period of decades, can the AVL design respond appropriately to change?

• The Pros of a permanent Install System
  • Opportunity to set and forget lighting, video gear, controls
  • Usually, infrastructure constructed to support AVL structures
  • Can accommodate a large range of sophistication
  • Most gear can be adjusted by individual technicians
  • No set up and take down process

• The Cons of a permanent Install System (for a portable church)
  • Cabling is buried inside conduit and left alone, durability is less a consideration
  • Ease of handling isn’t needed – Handles, durability, weight is not a primary consideration
  • Speed of set-up and take down isn’t a consideration in the design of the system
  • Once a permanent system is installed it is ‘set and forget’ – These designs are not inherently volunteer friendly
  • Complacency over time
  • Lots of cost outlay
  • Less flexibility

DO IT YOURSELF SYSTEM DESIGN

The last design method to consider is the DIY system. We understand the allure to doing it yourself. It’s a real option that some simply have to consider. Pastor, we LOVE what you are doing and our main drive at PCI is to help you focus on building kingdom in your cities and peoples lives. However, we also want to help you consider all the costs to take into consideration.

The popular thought is “if I do it myself it will be cheaper.” There is no doubt that a cheaper system can be purchased. But low up front cost obviously doesn’t mean it will be the least expensive. Initially, you only know what you know, and you absolutely don’t know what you don’t know.  With an extreme amount of AVL knowledge, AVL Integration/Production Experience, and access to well-priced and diverse gear selection for audio, visual, lighting, acoustics treatment, and staging, a good system can be designed and built. But the skillset for designing an excellent portable system is rare to find. This typically leads to a design that is not built for maximum portability. The costs of this is extreme volunteer fatigue and burnout, incorrect gear choices, longer set-up time, higher facility rental costs, frequent damage to gear, and an unsustainable system among other things.

We have found that when churches buy the right system up front, the initial higher investment is frequently paid back many times over and both the user and church visitor experience is better week after week.

Ultimately, we want you to be a success.

Whatever you are considering we encourage you to connect with one of our portable experts to help you process your thoughts to get you ready to launch strong and thrive for years to come!

Know the differences between Portability vs Permanent vs Touring Gear vs DIY

By Portable Church Industries: In a new church ministry (aka church plant), the audio/visual/lighting needs will likely be your largest expense. Determining what gear you need can only come after clarifying the purpose for having AVL in your ministry, and the context in which your ministry will take place. 

When considering the competing points of tension in making AVL decisions, the two primary elements that will dictate what a supporting AVL system can look like are budget and venue. Knowing where to look to get the right AVL System will help with both, (regardless if your budget is small or large).

All AVL gear for a church (regardless of size) needs to be integrated into a design that fits both of the above; your budget and context. These will fall into one of three types:

Portable System Design, Touring System Design, and Permanent System Design.  After describing each of these design types, we will also dive into the Do-It-Yourself method

PORTABILITY DESIGN

• The Portable Context – the venue is a rented facility (school, YMCA, theater, community center, event center, etc.) and is the same each week you meet. However, you can only occupy he venue for a brief period (6-8 hours) in which you need to load-in, do church as many times as necessary, and then load-out.
• Things to Consider – Budget and convenience usually drive the use of this design. Rented venues are usually well known by the greater community in which you want to launch and inherently provide ample parking, access, function and flow, and dedicated space. You are going to ‘pay’ for portability somewhere, either on the right system or in human resources. A good Portable AVL design is quick and easy to load in and out, highly systematic, presents a very professional image, and allows a volunteer team to thrive in the process.
• The Pros of Portability (using a PCI SYSTEM)

• • Volunteer friendly
  • A complex system created to be intuitive for volunteers to set up
  • Load in and set up in facility in 30-50 minutes (on average)
  • Load out of facility in less than 20-40 minutes (time is $$ here)
  • No special access needed
    • No loading docks
    • No wide doors
    • No extraneous ramps
    • Parking lots, or whatever, work great
  • Integrated plug and play AVL design
  • EVERYTHING fits through standard doorways
  • Cases designed to protect expensive gear
  • Excellent efficiency, effectiveness, and impression
  • Comprehensive to include worship, children’s ministry, first impressions, trailers, and storage
  • Cases and trailers balanced for weight distribution
  • Launching as a portable church is the least expensive way to launch a new presence into a new community

• The Cons of portability (all portability systems) 
  • Set up and tear down each week
  • Higher need for volunteers
  • A bad design causes significant burnout
  • To do it right, some pieces will cost more

TOURING DESIGN

• The Touring Context – Because touring groups are in a new venue for each performance, the touring design in response to the need to be ready for any new situation or environment that might come up from week to week.
• Things to Consider – Will you be in the same facility from week to week, or encounter a new facility and environment each week? What will the access be at each new facility? Will there always be a dock to load in and out of?

• The Pros of a Touring System
  • Expensive gear is protected really well
  • Load in/out processes can be similar to portable
  • Usually have a gear-solution on hand for every situation

• The Cons of a touring System (in the context of a church meeting portability) 
  • Gear storage is usually overkill in rented situations
  • Cost of gear storage is prohibitive
  • Often designed around the use of a hi-lo
  • Usually requires extra gear for unforeseen circumstances ($$)
  • Gear is stored/transported in individual cases – need for flexibility decreases efficiencies
  • Usually assumes loading docks, or box trucks with lift gates (slower and inefficient, also unsafe for non-professionals)
  • Size of gear storage sometimes at odds with size of doorways available(they assume large doorways)
  • Usually designed for sophisticated users and crew (paid professionals)
  • Load in and load out times are longer (touring assumes multiple hours or overnight set-ups)

PERMANENT INSTALL DESIGN

• The Permanent Context – Facility under your control 24/7. Typically, spaces can be dedicated to specific use(s).

• Things to Consider – Facility spaces as well as AVL uses are typically designed for known ministry patterns. As often as ministry patterns change over a period of decades, can the AVL design respond appropriately to change?

• The Pros of a permanent Install System
  • Opportunity to set and forget lighting, video gear, controls
  • Usually, infrastructure constructed to support AVL structures
  • Can accommodate a large range of sophistication
  • Most gear can be adjusted by individual technicians
  • No set up and take down process

• The Cons of a permanent Install System (for a portable church)
  • Cabling is buried inside conduit and left alone, durability is less a consideration
  • Ease of handling isn’t needed – Handles, durability, weight is not a primary consideration
  • Speed of set-up and take down isn’t a consideration in the design of the system
  • Once a permanent system is installed it is ‘set and forget’ – These designs are not inherently volunteer friendly
  • Complacency over time
  • Lots of cost outlay
  • Less flexibility

DO IT YOURSELF SYSTEM DESIGN

The last design method to consider is the DIY system. We understand the allure to doing it yourself. It’s a real option that some simply have to consider. Pastor, we LOVE what you are doing and our main drive at PCI is to help you focus on building kingdom in your cities and peoples lives. However, we also want to help you consider all the costs to take into consideration.

The popular thought is “if I do it myself it will be cheaper.” There is no doubt that a cheaper system can be purchased. But low up front cost obviously doesn’t mean it will be the least expensive. Initially, you only know what you know, and you absolutely don’t know what you don’t know.  With an extreme amount of AVL knowledge, AVL Integration/Production Experience, and access to well-priced and diverse gear selection for audio, visual, lighting, acoustics treatment, and staging, a good system can be designed and built. But the skillset for designing an excellent portable system is rare to find. This typically leads to a design that is not built for maximum portability. The costs of this is extreme volunteer fatigue and burnout, incorrect gear choices, longer set-up time, higher facility rental costs, frequent damage to gear, and an unsustainable system among other things.

We have found that when churches buy the right system up front, the initial higher investment is frequently paid back many times over and both the user and church visitor experience is better week after week.

Ultimately, we want you to be a success.

Whatever you are considering we encourage you to connect with one of our portable experts to help you process your thoughts to get you ready to launch strong and thrive for years to come!

Superman’s only real threat, as it turns out, was Kryptonite!

by Portable Church Industries: When a growing church has a clear and relentless vision of reaching a given community or region with a multisite strategy, it will face challenges, or kryptonite, if you will.

“How do we keep adding new campuses in new communities?” Somehow, church leaders “miraculously” discover/create ways to beat the barriers and to thrive even more! Typical place and space challenges faced by multisite churches are illustrated here through the experience of LibertyLive.Church in Hampton, Virginia. The extraordinary expense and timing issues associated with providing facilities for multisite campuses can easily threaten momentum.

A real threat to derail multistie momentum

A growing number of churches are fully executing multisite as a part of their multiplication strategy for reaching new people in new communities. After nearly four decades, there appears to be no right or wrong models for multisiting – but there ARE ways to do it well and ways to do it poorly.

Sustaining momentum of launching additional campuses, especially after the initial 2-3 sites, proves to be significantly more difficult because of growing complexities.  The necessity for new facilities in new communities presents new issues that could be crippling to essential momentum. The speed of raising resources, developing sites, perceived inefficiencies, and perceived ineffectiveness becomes a threat to the rhythm of growth established since initially embracing a multisite strategy.

Threats to LibertyLive.Church’s vision became real – A case study

LibertyLive.Church has been significantly blessed. In 2008, it expanded seating capacity by delivering the sermon via video to members seated in the church gym. This experience taught LibertyLive that what could be done across the hall, could also be done in communities throughout Hampton Roads.

A year later, the 100+ year multigenerational and multiethnic church, led by a new visionary pastor, began exploring what it would look like “to reach the entirety of Hampton Roads.” Soon LibertyLive began to grow with this vision in mind.

LibertyLive expanded capacity again with the construction of a 3,000-seat worship center. In the middle of all this activity, the leadership team became students of multisiting—a growing method of reaching more people in a region. They were keenly aware not everyone in Hampton Roads would drive to the Hampton Campus location. LibertyLive desired to launch campuses in communities where its members and guests live in order to welcome even more neighbors. Practically speaking, this meant LibertyLive’s vision was ten campuses by 2026.

LibertyLive.Church leased commercial property in the Harborview/Suffolk area and outfitted it to accommodate 550 seats for the gospel. After sending 250-300 members/attenders, the campus quickly grew to a regular weekend attendance of 700-750 at the new location.

LibertyLive.Church was compelled to lease a new flex space and built it out to include 825 seats. Having commissioned and sent another 172 members/attenders to worship at the new space, it grew to an average of 600-700 people after its first year. Regular attendance is now 1100+ each weekend.

LibertyLive.Church was blessed with an opportunity to merge with another church in the York River area. A building was gifted to them as part of the two congregations coming together. An investment was made to renovate, and the subsequent build-out provided an additional 300 seats. The new location launched with 230+ people between the existing members from the seed congregation and those from Liberty. Less than two years later, the York River Campus proudly welcomes 525+ each week.

Even with four campuses comprising almost 4,700 seats and average weekend attendance of 6,400+, more needed to be done to open new seats to the Hampton Roads region for hearers of The Gospel.

Growing comfortable with a culture of organizational adjustments, the Liberty leadership team came face-to-face with the challenges of their vision. Three new threats (two real and one perceived) to LibertyLive’s well-established rhythms and processes became factors that increasingly hindered growth.

The first two speedbumps were finances and time. Knowing what it took to establish four permanent 24/7 campuses, forecasting six more was easy. Considering the outcome LibertyLive wanted and the current pace at which it was expanding, there wasn’t going to be enough of either resource to reach the goal of ten campuses by 2026.

Unfortunately, the church’s method of buying and maintaining facilities was cost-prohibitive. Raising funds, developing a new venue and launching a campus was a slow process.

Additionally, LibertyLive had an expectation of doing all things with excellence, thus creating the third speedbump. As insufficient resources threatened the vision, would the church have to accept a hit to its high standards?

The conclusion: The LibertyLive way of launching campuses would have to slow down significantly, or change.

As it turned out, the kryptonite was not enough to deter LibertyLive from such a clear and compelling vision. However, the situation forced the church to innovate and trust God to provide a new solution so it could continue building physical capacity for the gospel, forever impacting the Hampton Roads region.

The church has a history of innovating

Churches adopt a multisite strategy for a variety of reasons. Oftentimes, multisites are established to serve as a space or reach solution. A methodology replacing the large regional church and the burdensome expenses associated with it is adding seats in surrounding neighborhoods.

Churches that end up as a multisite typically start with one prime time service becoming overcrowded. The next step in the progression to multisiting is adding services in order to experiment with new times, or even different days. Next, churches typically create additional venues on its main site, typically taking advantage of fellowship halls, gymnasiums and other common areas within the facility.

Once a church runs out of usable space and effective alternative service times, leadership must decide to go forward using one of the following options:

1. consider doing nothing new, essentially capping growth
2. expand current facility; incur the expense of remodeling maintenance and increased resources going forward
3. sell the current facility, buy and start over (this time bigger) rinse and repeat
4. start a program of planting new, independent churches; send a significant number of members “on mission” to nearby communities
5. multisite! Become one church in multiple locations

The rest of the story…

The Kryptonite of Multisite Momentum is a new FREE RESOURCE designed for church leaders blessed with a white-hot vision for kingdom growth.  Check out the rest of Liberty.Live’s story and how they continue to thrive today.

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by Portable Church Industries: Our new resource – The Ultimate List of Portable Church Venues – talks about all the different potential spaces you could use for your next campus launch or your church plant.

We developed this resource in response to the question we get all the time – where should our church launch?! So – if you find yourself wondering that very thing, this was created with you in mind.

Outlined in the resource are 63 potential spaces you could set up a portable church in. The bolded venues are the ones that are commonly used for portable churches and all the other venue options may not be used all the time but they are all locations that we have helped churches launch in. Something to note is that not every location on this list is going to connect with you as personally, but they are locations that will get your mind thinking about all of the types of facilities that you have available to you in your community.

Not only does this resource provide you with a list of options but it also has pictures that show how well it can actually look once you set up your church in one of these locations.

To talk more in-depth about a particular type of facility or to see more pictures don’t hesitate to give us a call at 800.939.7722.