Recently I wrote a post titled Multi Site Pitfalls where I talked about 6 specific pitfalls you may face when going Milt site. In the next couple of weeks I plan on unpacking each one and talking more in depth about what they mean. Scroll down on my blog and you will be able to read the original post so this will make sense.
Pitfall #1 Make Sure God is Calling you to Multi Site.
Because so many churches are having great success with multi site, it has the potential to be the thing churches feel like they're supposed to do because everyone else is doing it. I do hope tons of churches go multi site because I believe it's an amazing way to further the Kingdom of God and offset the growing numbers of churches that are closing their doors, but I also don't think multi site is for every church. What I'm trying to do is challenge you to seek God and ask Him if this is the direction you should go. Multi Site is hard, and it will stress your church to it's very core, and not all churches are in a place to survive the stress brought on by adding sites.
In upcoming posts I'll talk specifically what I mean when I say multi site will stress your church to it's core, but in this post my challenge to church leaders is to simply seek God before moving to a multi site strategy. Don't start a site because others around you are, or because it seems like a cool thing to do, I really challenge you to move to multi site only, if God is calling you to do it.
This is so important because if you haven't really prayed your way through the decision to go multi site, you'll either quit when it gets tough, and trust me it will get tough, or you'll continue in spite of the fact that it's failing miserably because pride will keep you from admitting you made a mistake. Neither of those options are good for a church that was probably already doing God's work well.
Listen carefully, please don't in any way be discouraged from going multi site by this post, just pray like crazy and make sure you know God is calling you to this. One of the ways you'll know God is calling you to Multi Site is, no matter how hard you try, you won't be able to shake off, pray off, or wish off, His leading. That's exactly what happened to my pastor, Bil Cornelius. He tried to move past the leading to go multi site many times, but no matter how hard he tried he couldn't shake it, so we moved forward and God sustained us when times got tough, and man did they ever get tough.
Again, I'll write in depth in the next couple of weeks what I mean specifically when I say tough, but for this post my hope is this will lead you to pray and fast, and pray and fast some more, so if you move forward on your vision to go multi site you'll know you did it because God told you to.
John
John,
Good to see you back at blogging again. I'm looking forward to your insights here as I've struggled myself with this idea and the reasons for it. I'm open but there's not enough practitioners here who've done it successfully as BAF has.
Thanks in advance for your thoughts!
Posted by: Scott Cheatham | January 31, 2009 at 04:09 PM