MultiSite Churches Growing in England
Interview with Pastor Steve Tibbert
King’s Church-London

Growing dynamic and healthy churches is not easy anywhere, but especially in post-Christian Europe.
For the past two years I have had the privilege of coaching several dynamic and multiplying churches in England. One of these churches is led by Steve Tibbert who is a part of the Newfrontiers church planting movement begun by Terry Virgo thirty years ago. Newfrontiers has played a dramatic role in launching and revitalizing churches across Great Britain.

Steve is the pastor of King’s Church with nearly 1,500 people attending in three locations in southeast London. King’s Church was begun in 1880 by a student at Charles Spurgeon’s Bible College. Under Steve’s leadership over the past fifteen years the church has seen dramatic growth in size and diversity. Steve also oversees a number of the Newfrontiers churches in the United Kingdom. His recent book Good toGrow shares his church journey and is rich in lessons learned about growing churches in England.

I know you will be inspired and encouraged by this informative interview with a national church leader from Great Britain. Steve is married to Deb, and they have three sons.

Jim: What is the spiritual climate like these days in Great Britain?
Steve: While overall church attendance is still declining in the UK there are many sig
ns of health, particularly in London where church attendance is in fact increasing. For the first time in a generation we are seeing churches of some size and influence emerging, which is encouraging.

Jim: What does it take to grow healthy dynamic churches in Great Britain?
Steve: A move of God, good leadership and a contextualised message to the culture that you are trying to reach.

Jim: Describe how you do multisite at Kings Church? (Teaching, staffing, financial, strategy, etc)
Steve: As at this stage in our growth we have 3 sites. Our preaching is done live via a preaching team. We run one budget, one legal identity and our staff team members have a mixture of ‘one church’ responsibilities and site responsibilities.

Jim: What motivated you to go multisite?
Steve: Following a decade of growth on one site, two building projects and moving to three meetings (worship services) we ran out of space! The multi-site model allowed us to continue to grow in an urban context.

Jim: What was the biggest challenge?
Steve: Re-engineering all staff roles. And understanding the complexities of becoming larger – with more people than ever attending, whilst also being smaller – because each site is smaller.

Jim: What was the biggest surprise?
Steve: The biggest surprise was that the main site at Catford, which sent out over 300 people, has seen those spaces filled in so quickly!

Jim: One of your sites was a merger. What are some guidelines for a successful merger?
Steve: We were fortunate that the merger was with a church that was in the same movement and therefore many of the values were the same. This said, the philosophy and the culture of the merging church were very different to those we had developed. In my own experience of previous involvement with mergers, we have always closed the merging church and invited those that want to join King’s to do so one by one. This can be painful upfront, but it avoids having a church within a church during the years ahead. The primary leader in the church that merges also needs to own and lead the merging church family through the process.

Jim: How did your church become so diverse racially and ethnically?
Steve: Firstly, we live in a part of London that is very diverse, so our context is important. However context alone doesn’t necessarily mean you will get a diverse church. Secondly and probably most importantly, it comes out of biblical conviction
that God has reconciled us to be reconciled to one another. We believe that the church on earth ought to reflect our future reality together in heaven. We worked very hard at this issue and made huge mistakes while trying to retain a sense of humour as we continue to crash into each others’ biases.

Jim: So what’s next at King’s Church?
Steve: More meetings (worship services), more sites, more people committed to God.

I have a lot of requests from churches in Europe and South Africa who would like a partnership with a multisite church from America. Would your church like to help a church in Europe go multisite? Let me know below.