Check out this good-natured, lively conversational ten-minute debate on video about multisite church between three great pastors.
James MacDonald (Chicago area) and Mark Driscoll (Seattle) lead multisite churches that primarily utilize video to deliver the sermons. Mark Dever (Washington DC) preaches in one location with one service.
Their conversation touches on most of the typical concerns about multisite:
- Attractional vs incarnational?
- Pastor-centered vs mission-driven?
- In person vs video teaching?
- Hinders or helps develop preachers?
- Church-planting vs multisiting?
Join the discussion—what do you think?
Multiple Sites: Yea or Nay? Dever, Driscoll, and MacDonald Vote from Ben Peays on Vimeo.
4 Comments
Great video and good questions–should be longer. I am a D.Min. student and my project is on the multi-site movement. There are a number of questions churches should answer as they begin to explore launching a site. Would love to see more of these kinds of conversations.
Eugenia,
Yes, there are many questions about the multisite model to address.
Hopefully your D.Min project will be helpful to those considering multisite.
Let me know if I can be of any assistance in your research. I will be glad to share your conclusions when you complete the project.
MultiSiteGuy
This seems like more of an attack than a true debate with 2 multi-site proponents versus 1 mono-site proponent. Frankly, I agree with the mono-site guy in his perspective. Mult-sites are not new. They are minature denominations with a similar type of structure. There are great numbers of poor and struggling churches in the U.S. where some of the resources of a multi-site church could be used to build them up (send leaders, finances, provide administrative support etc.). You wouldn’t have to even plant a church, just adopt a struggling church.
I believe that multi-site is more about ego and domination than truly being missional. Despite this, I do believe that God is taking something with bad intentions and using it for His glory (Philippians 1:18).
Anonymous,
You are right, multi-sites are not new, the concept has been expressed in various ways throughout church history.
All of us have a tribal tendency i.e. denominations, networks, alliances, etc–which isn’t necessarily inherently evil.
One third of all multi-site campuses are the result of a church merger or what I call an “adoption” or “absorption.” That being said, birthing a new church is easier than resurrecting a dead one.
MultiSiteGuy