Next month will mark our 10 year anniversary as a multi-site church. We started our second campus in the fall of 1999. In 2003, we merged with an existing church and in 2006 we launched 2 additional campuses in movie theaters here in town. Today, we have 5 campuses and 1100+ staff. In 2002, I moved into my current role as Director of IT and Websites. Over the last 8 years, I have experienced the blessing of growing pains….especially as it relates to the multi-site model.

One of the interesting dynamics of being multi-site is how to manage 5 different campuses but yet retain the oneness and unity of the church, staff, and its congregation. I have seen some multi-site churches manage each location as its own free standing self governing church. Decision making, programming, infrastructure, etc are all localized to that specific location. I call this the localized model. I have seen other churches that govern all of its campuses, programming, etc. from a central campus. I call this model the centralized model. Then there is everything in between. As our church has grown and has moved from point to point between the two extremes, here is what I believe are some best practices when it comes to multi-site operations:

1.  Deploy the same model of church growth at each location. Most models differ in their method of assimilation and discipleship. Some use home groups and other use the traditional Sunday School model. Whatever your church does best, I recommend you do it at all locations.

2.  Centralize the operations. Of course, there are exceptions, but for the most part I have seen that support functions like IT, Communications/Marketing, Accounting, Security, Church Records (a separate department in our church), Facilities, HVAC, and Shipping/Receiving (if locations are within close proximity) are best managed from a central location or more importantly by a single staff team. This provides the following benefits:

• Centralizes purchasing and leverage greater buying power. For example, all technology purchases are made by IT. All furniture and capital expenditures are coordinated by Facilities.
• Standardizes processes and workflows thus allowing for more cost efficient deployment of technologies. Localizing technology initiatives results in Burger King technologies (‘have it your way’) which will kill your budget and frustrate your staff.
• Maximizes staff utilization.

3.  Localize the programming. By programming, I mean specific ministries and events. More than likely each campus serves a specific demographic and not necessarily the same as those of the other campuses. As a result, programming is best coordinated by the campus staff rather than a more removed centralized staff. On occasions, a multi-site event with other campuses helps build oneness and unity across all campuses, but for the most part each campus should handle its own programming.

4.  Develop clear and consistent branding across all locations. In a multi-site church, there is plenty of opportunity to give everything its own logo, website, printed piece, etc. Before long you have more noise than voice. Not all ministries are created equally and practically speaking there is usually not enough resources to support multiple websites, branding and rebranding for each individual department or ministry, etc. It may be fine to a point, but this practice does not scale as a church grows larger.

Personally, I am a proponent of a single website for a multi-site church, organized by campus with specific attention to its respective audiences. I believe Second’s website does this very well (of course I am biased). Second’s website is organized by campus but within each campus the design changes for three different audiences: adults, students, and children.

5.  Establish a clear and singular chain of command. Don’t place staff under both a localized supervisor such as a campus pastor or campus administrator AND a centralized supervisor. For example, it does not work well if a worship staff person answers to both a campus administrator for day to day responsibilities AND to a centralized supervisor who oversees worship for all locations. If the two supervisors don’t agree or work together well….you have a wishbone affect. Guess who is the wishbone?

These are just a few of the lessons learned in my experiences at a multi-site church. It is interesting to talk with friends who work with multi-national corporations and listen to how those organizations handle the balance between global and local entities. According to one close friend who works with the 5^th largest energy company in the world, the trend is moving towards more globalization of operations rather than localization….where decisions, standards, and technologies are being made at a very high level rather than at a national of localized level within the company. Will churches follow suit? Time will tell, but the tensions between the ‘one church’ and ‘multiple locations’ is very real for many. What leadership and operational trends are you seeing in multi-site churches?