APRIL 26, 2005
Good Students, Good Teachers
If you're thinking of moving into a multi-site ministry, learn from churches that are already successfully pursuing this form of ministry. While style and manner of worship may correctly be your top concern, the 32 churches participating in Leadership Network's Multi-Site Leadership Community have identified seven other issues that must also be addressed:
Leadership development: How do you select, train and ensure the accountability of leaders for the new location?
Staffing and structure: How can you best organize and equip a staff to serve multiple locations?
Assimilation: How do you create a sense of connection to the local campus and truly become "one church in multiple locations"?
Launching: What impact will a new site launch have on the sending church?
Communication: How do you manage the suddenly more complicated communication challenges?
Vision and momentum: How can a church stay true to its core values when it goes multi-site?  
Funding: What are the implications for the church's budget and cash flow?

To learn more about multi-site ministry, see Leadership Network's concept paper "One Church with Many Locations" here.