Tuesday, September 28, 2010

anybody ready?

So we've got folks driving to GraceSLO from as far away as San Miguel and Santa Maria.

Check out this awesome conversation between Mark Driscoll, Mark Dever and James MacDonald on the pros and cons of multi-site churches and church planting.



Might this work on the Central Coast? Should it work on the Central Coast? Maybe we're thinking too small?

It challenges me and overwhelms me.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Our family has attended Reality church (http://realitycarpinteria.com/) for about 7 years. For the last 3 years there have been major capacity and parking problems as the church has grown. Last year, a second campus was set up in Ventura. There is pastoral staff at the Ventura location, and worship is live, but the message is video streamed from Carpinteria to Ventura.
The staff describes the situation as 1 church, 2 locations. Last week, for the 1 year anniversary of the Ventura campus, a third service was added.

MATT

Steve Potratz said...

Great video. Very educational. I've attended Marks downtown Seattle campus. I understand the model better having experienced this video. Thanks for sharing it Tim.

tim weaver said...

Great discussion. I like the thought that the of vision of the multi-site is to have them become a church plant. I like the idea that it provides opportunities for growing leadership and the are using it that way.

Is it Biblical? I think that you would have a really hard time saying that the Word stands against it. It wasn't an option in the early church.

My concern is that the weaning from the mother-church could be too slow and stunt the maturing of the leadership in a multi-site design. It should not take 5+ years for a body of believers to have elders, pastoral and preaching leadership, such that they stand alone. It is critical that this leadership be local to the body that it is serving.

Each body of believers will have a different personality and issues that need to be addressed from the pulpit. They need a preacher addressing them specifically. Video could bring in any number of great preachers bringing great sermons teaching great things about the Lord, but that may not be what the body needs to be hearing for the times that they are in.

Those are my first-5-minute very half-baked thoughts.

Prem Saisha said...

Hi there!
New follower..
Hope you stop by too.. ;)

Anonymous said...

Please please stop building so many mega multisite churches...
it has it's good sides, sure... but I don't see any benefit of that isn't also present in the planting church model. None. Unless you like feeding perxonaility cults - which is what large mega churches (including multisite churches) do. The Christian life is about more than just a decision. It is about a life of dicispleship and knowing Jesus and relationship with God and others.

this video makes me sad too. They are brothers in Christ - and yet they can not really stop talking over each other, so quick to defend their positions, that it makes me embarassed to be a Christian of that kind.

Love one another. Love is patient... ???

I did not see that lived out in any way in this video and it felt worse than watching politicans argue on TV. At least they wait for the other speaker to finish and at least they don't also preach love in the same breath.

Love never fails regardless of the model. Speak and live love and the gospel no matter the church model.