Sustaining Multisite Momentum When You Have a Big Vision
“Faster than a speeding bullet! More powerful than a locomotive! Able to leap tall buildings at a single bound!”
“Look! Up in the sky!”
“It’s a bird!”
“It’s a plane!”
“It’s Superman!”
This could be heard at the beginning of every adventure of our superhero. He was our courageous champion fighting for truth, justice, and The American way. Interesting too, that a tiny morsel of Kryptonite introduced by the enemy would render the hero weak and defenseless. And it seemed there was always Kryptonite threatening our hero!
What about those superheroes who fight every day for faith, grace, and the Kingdom way??? Do they face kryptonite? Unfortunately, champions of multisite strategy for growing the local church must face their own versions of the debilitating menace!
Multisite Superpower is a Clear Vision
LibertyLive.Church in Hampton, Virginia knew the power of God to transform lives. Emboldened, in 2009 God began to speak to the leadership in a new way – developing a new powerful vision. What would it look like for God to be doing what he’s doing here, over there, and there, and there, and… ? “What would it look like “to reach the entirety of Hampton Roads?”
In this case, the “superheroes” are not leaping a tall building with a single bound. They are simply tuned into God for a fresh white-hot vision that fuels their daily Kingdom work. For Liberty, their vision had power, was received, developed, and cast with such extraordinary clarity that it became a compelling force for the entire community. Specifically, the “tall building they were leaping” was 10 new campuses by 2026 that would transform the lives of thousands of families in the Hampton Roads Region. Their metropolis of the Kingdom.
From the time a compelling vision is captured and cast with clarity, to the time when people are functioning in a new reality that meets or exceeds that vision, is a chasm the church must bridge with laser-focused strategies that get people from here to there.
Great clarity of a vision brings anticipated traction! The power of Liberty’s future reality began to take shape in a way that was recognized by leadership as God’s fulfillment of the vision. Hundreds of new families were responding to the Gospel through the addition of 3 new campuses in the Hampton Roads Region.
But four campuses were not the 10 cast in the vision. There are still significant areas of Hampton Roads that need to be reached. And LibertyLive did not feel released from the vision. But unaware, the dreaded kryptonite was close.
Knowing your Multisite Kryptonite
Within a multisite strategy, the necessity for new facilities in new communities begins to present new issues that could be crippling to a wonderful Kingdom vision. The slow speed of raising resources and developing sites can be kryptonite threatening the rhythm of growth.
The church regularly flirts with debilitating kryptonite as it decides how to develop and allocate resources for real estate. The amount of resources needed, and the cost and time in raising those resources is costly in both financial and leadership capital.
Facing Multisite Kryptonite head on – and winning!
Over the course of four decades, the multisite strategy has been innovated extensively and become quite sophisticated. So how do churches see this kryptonite coming and overcome the cost of growth and still figure out how to “GO” faster and cheaper….and with excellence?
Leaders understand how doing church portably would be cheaper and faster. But can it be effective? Can it be sustained? Can portability play an incubator role in the strategy for permanence in a community?
What has happened at LibertyLive?
Find out how the multisite adventure at LibertyLive is progressing! PCI has assembled a white paper – The Kryptonite of Multisite Momentum – that addresses most of the variables involved in the real estate/facility side of multisiting – especially with 3+ campuses.