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8 Statistics Every Multisite Church Leader Should Know
July 25, 2016

“Multisite churches grow faster, have more lay participation and reach more new believers than single-site churches.”Leadership Network/Generis Multisite Scorecard

Over the last few years, there has been an unprecedented increase in the number of multisite churches in the US. And, why not? After all, multisite churches have proven to be an effective means of reaching out to people and plugging them into local church communities.

The #multisitechurch movement show no signs of slowing down! Click To Tweet

The recent facts and figures indicate that this movement shows no signs of slowing down. Here are eight statistics that every multisite church leader like you needs to know.

1. There are only 12 single campus churches among the 100 largest churches in the US:

The idea of launching a multisite campus was a radical one in the 1990s! Today, the tide has changed and multisite churches have become the norm, rather than the exception.

In 2014, an exhaustive cross-denominational study of multisite churches by Leadership Network concluded that there were 8,000 multisite churches across America. In fact, if multisite churches were a Protestant denomination, they’d be the fourth largest. That was two years ago! This number has only increased ever since.

2. Smaller churches with 100 to 400 attendees are going multisite:

Multisite churches are typically identified with mega churches. This is no surprise, considering that most giga-churches – with over 10,000 in attendance – are going the multisite way.

However, this trend is slowly becoming common in smaller churches, too. That is why 41% of churches that went multisite at 1,000 attendees say that they could have done so at a smaller size. What do you think is a healthy attendance size for churches to launch a new campus?

3. Lay participation has increased in 88% of multisite churches:

Mobilizing more volunteers is something many growing churches grapple with. Well, here’s some good news! Going the multisite route seems to be a great way to spur on your church members to take on more responsibilities and ownership at church.

Isn’t this a great way to rally your church members for action?

4. 68% of multisite churches have a formal leadership development process:

The ability to develop leaders is critical for any thriving church. The report by Leadership Network reveals that most multisite churches follow well-thought-out processes for leadership development.

This means that multisite churches are better equipped to find volunteers and staff to lead various ministries than single-site campuses are! In the words of Jim Tomberlin, founder of MultiSite Solutions, “As baby boomer senior pastors retire, more churches are looking for new senior pastors with multisite experience.”

Does your church have a leadership development process in place?

5. 87% of campus pastors are raised up from within the church:

Finding the right leadership is one of the biggest challenges for any new church plant. It is key that the new leaders share the vision and mission of the original church. That is why most churches prefer to identify potential leaders from the existing team or even congregation, since they already embody the original church’s DNA.

Leaders recruited from outside, on the other hand, need at least a year for training and acclimatization before the launch.

The numbers are before us – multisite campuses seem to do a better job at raising leaders from within! Has your multisite church also trained and released leaders from within the church?

6. 85% of multisite churches have grown since starting a campus:

According to pastor and businessman Dr. Steve Greene, no other approach to evangelism has witnessed such a high percentage of growth as the multisite church! The Leadership Network research found that new campuses grow by 28% the first year and 25% the second year.

The average new campus attendance was 125 in the first month, 160 after one year and 200 after two years.

Irrespective of the church size, multisites grow at an impressive 14% per year. What is the rate of growth in your multisite church?

7. 47% of multisite churches have a campus in a small town or rural area:

Did you know that one in five Americans live in rural and frontier areas? Yes, that’s right! Approximately 60 million people reside in rural America today. No wonder that nearly half of all multisite churches have launched campuses in such areas!

In fact, the multisite church has emerged as the one of the best strategies of reaching out to rural communities. In the book, Transforming Church in Rural America, Shannon O’Dell writes that the rural back roads of America are the new frontier for church expansion, and the multisite church is leading this wave of outreach.

That’s not all! A whopping 83% of these churches describe their small town or rural area church as healthy. Are you planning to start a church in a rural or small town?

8. 52% of multisite campuses launch in rented spaces:

Over the last two decades, Portable Church has helped scores of multisite churches launch in rented venues. There are many reasons that explain why more than 52% of multisite churches prefer moving into portable venues as opposed to only 34% that purchase or construct a building.

Launching in a portable venue not only cuts a church’s costs dramatically, but also allows for better flexibility and scalability to match its changing needs. In fact, you can check out these 10 practical advantages that portable churches have over permanent buildings right HERE.

Do you also plan to leverage the many advantages of portability at your next campus launch?

 

If you are planning to launch your next campus soon – we can help you launch strong! Our experts at Portable Church have helped many multisite churches successfully launch new campuses in all kinds of portable locations. We’ve walked the whole journey with them – right from consultation and finding the right venue to providing equipment and training volunteers.

Give us a call today at 800.939.7722 and we’ll make sure that the launch of your new campus is the smoothest yet!

We also have an amazing FREE resource for you! The 7 Lessons From Multisite Church Leaders Micro-Course features short video interviews with experienced multisite church leaders. Get this great resource today!

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