Pastor Carl and I are in Chicago this weekend at a retreat done by Mark DeYmaz's multiethnic church organization called Mosaix. We did dinner and brainstormed topics tonite with 40 other pastors, professors, and other church leaders from around the country.
And wouldn't you know it: we ended up doing dinner with a former pastor turned professor/church consultant who has observed multisite churches from around the country.
As we were talking to him and listening to him relay some of his findings an observations, it was amazing to hear that he has observed exactly - exactly- the same things that we are discovering on our multisite journey in Waterloo.
He identified 12 big mistakes that churches make when going multisite, and shared a few of them with us. Do any of these sound familiar?
1. Communities need dedicated good doers, not periodic do gooders.
2. Don't think that simply because there are people from an area who are coming to your campus who like what you do means that you can launch a church in that area and it'll be successful. In reality, those people may be coming to your campus because they associate with your area more than their own. Do the demographic study, and form partnerships in the area before you launch. Let the corporate worship venue come from community groups, not vice versa.
3. Don't try to reproduce attractional. You simply can't do it. The people you're trying to reach aren't looking for what you're already doing. Go to the people you're not already reaching.
4. When most of your staff does not work or live in the area, you're missing the boat.
Makes me excited that, even though we've made some (or all!) of those mistakes, that were learning from them and making some great changes. Very excited to see what the rest of this retreat will hold for us. Humbled to see God moving.
We'll keep you updated!
