The Reproducing Church
Lessons we've learned about how to multiply groups, services, sites and churches.
When I travel, I look for Starbucks. I know I will need a good cup of coffee in the morning. And when I go to any Starbucks I know I will get a great cup of coffee from friendly people in a relaxing environment with good music. I know this because after hundreds of visits in dozens of cities, I have almost never been disappointed. Starbucks has proven itself as a brand. That is one main reason you can find them on what seems like every corner of a given neighborhood. Whether we like it or not, similar thoughts go into how people choose to attend church. People want to find something they need—the good things of God—from friendly people in a relaxing environment with good music. And they want to experience that consistently enough that they can trust the church. The megachurch proved that a church can draw from an entire region rather just one neighborhood if it becomes one of those trusted places. The problem is that people will drive only so far, and buildings can grow only so big. More recently, many churches are finding a way beyond those limitations: multiple sites. We now clearly see that we are not limited to a particular community, region, or building size. Reproducing GroupsWhen five buddies started our church, Community Christian, in 1989, we had no idea that ten years later we would be meeting at more than one location. What we did know was that we would emphasize the often-talked-about and less-practiced idea of reproducing through apprentice leaders. We made sure that every small group knew it was expected to reproduce, and that was done through developing an apprentice leader. Reproducing ServicesAs we developed leaders, we took a step of adding a second service. We didn't wait to do that until we ran out of space or seats. Instead, we believed that if we had the leaders, God would send the people. So we added a second service within six months of starting Community Christian Church. Today, we have 22 weekly celebration services. Reproducing SitesThe Multi-Site Church is simply an advanced and sophisticated understanding of that same idea. The same idea that motivated us to reproduce small groups caused us to reproduce services (congregations) and when God presented the opportunity, reproduce sites. When we started Community Christian we were just five college kids trying to disciple one leader at a time; we didn't know that in a few short years we would have eight locations in Chicagoland.
But the idea doesn't end there for a church with a reproducing culture. In the last three years we have planted four churches and will launch a fifth next year. This simple idea of reproducing leaders has now evolved into a network of reproducing churches (www.newthing.org). Benefits of a Reproducing ChurchWhen a church becomes a reproducing church, it discovers several benefits:
If your church is limited by geography, demography or building size, those need no longer be inhibitors. When your church history and tradition says "stay here," but growth opportunities say "move over there," you now can do both by employing the Multi-Site Church strategy. Dave Ferguson is Lead Pastor of Community Christian Church, Naperville, Illinois (www.communitychristian.org). The church is hosting a Multi-Site Conference, October 24 & 25 in Chicago, along with the leadership teams of North Coast Church in San Diego and Seacoast Church in South Carolina (www.multi-site.org). |              |
