Book Review: The Multi-Site Church Revolution

I just finished reading a new book, The Multi-Site Church Revolution: Being One Church in Many Locations. (Disclaimer: I received this book for free in exchange for a review on my blog). Multi-site churches are becoming more common, and no two churches seem to do it the same. This book promises to help your church discover how to:

• cast a vision for change
• ensure a successful DNA transfer (vision and core values) to its new site
• develop new leaders
• fund new sites
• adapt to structure and staffing change
• use technology to support your worship services

The book is organized in four major sections: an overview of what a multi-site church is, how to execute a multi-site church, what makes multi-site churches work best, and a strategic view of how multi-site churches can impact your community. At the end of each chapter, there are worksheets that can assist with application of the topics and there is even a questionnaire to help you assess if your church would benefit from using a multi-site strategy.

I found that the book does a wonderful job providing examples of different types of approaches to multi-site churches. This is probably due to the type of research that went into the book, where the authors visited a large number of churches that are using a multi-site strategy. There are many churches using a variety of approaches documented throughout the book, and each study provides a nice way to bridge theory with real-world situations.

While there are a number of chapters related to vision, leadership, and even technology implications of going multi-site, the chapters were light in practical application. The strongest chapter on execution was related to the reproduction of leaders across campuses, both prior to going multi-site and afterward. This seemed to be the strong-suit of the authors. Technology was the weakest chapter, speaking only of using technology to address live vs. playback teaching but skipping concepts such as the need for additional hardware and data entry/management across sites.

Overall, the book is a great introduction to what a multi-site church is, what execution models are available, and offers plenty of case studies. The worksheets at the end of each chapter help guide the reader through assessments and discussions with their staff and lay leaders. While the case studies tend to bog the reader down if they are already involved with a multi-site church (as this reader’s church has), it is a great introduction and preparation for a new church diving into a multi-site strategy.

[tags]multi-site church, book review, Multi-Site Church Revolution[/tags]

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