Years ago, our senior pastor had a vision of starting another church further east on Long Island. 5 years ago, my husband felt called to start that church. We are now 3.5 years old and just finally moving from the hotel we've been meeting in and will be building out a warehouse for our church.
When we started, my husband asked if they were thinking video and it was clearly stated "no" but within a year of being there, that is what we went to. We have a large staff at church and had 11 pastors so until that time, we had my husband preaching 1/2 the time and the other pastors coming out and preaching too. It worked out well but then we went to video. It was not a good time, I'll just say that. Our church campus attendance dropped by more than half. But God spoke to our senior pastor and we only had the videos for 6 weeks and now we're back to hubby preaching more than 1/2 the time and the other pastors guest preaching as well.
I believe that churches - even the separate campuses - should have live preaching at each campus. A friend of ours has a church with 3 campuses and what they do is the pastors meet together and plan out the sermon series together. They work on the same passage, the same message but then put it together in their own style/words. It works out great, honestly! I wish we could do that but then again, hubby's had some great message series that have been so good.
Years ago, I lived in Colorado, working at a rescue mission as senior addictions counselor. There are few SBC churches there, but I found a non-denom where half the staff was from reformed seminaries and the other half was from SBC seminaries. It had, at the time, two campuses -- which, by the way, I have no problem with a church facility being described that way as I noted others did on this thread.
At any rate, the campuses are at opposite ends of a major thoroughfare in the north part of Colorado Springs, about 10 miles apart. They use video links but have live music at both locations, the two praise and worship bands playing the same songs and video cuts being put up on the screens in both campuses showing worshipers at both campuses while the music plays. Announcements and other non-sermon on-camera segments alternate between the two campuses. The senior pastor usually preaches from the west campus, but occasionally does so from the east campus.
The last I heard from friends there, they are opening a third campus in downtown Colorado Springs sometime in 2014. Don't know if that is still on the drawing board or not. The bottom line, though, is that each campus had its own distinct flavor, its own fellowship, its own atmosphere, but both blended well with one another on the occasions events took place involving both campuses, but only at one venue or the other. I was amazed at how well everything tied together, and the fact that it felt like one church body.
I'm convinced it can be done well, but it may not be for everyone. Our church, my current church, six years ago dwindled to fewer than 350 worshipers over an open feud between the senior and music pastors, to the point both were asked to leave. We prayerfully sought new staff, found the right people, healed, grew and now have over 1,500 worshipers regularly at three Sunday morning services in a church that was designed to accommodate 850-900 in that timeframe. We were faced with either building a mega-campus -- which no one was particularly interested in doing -- or doing a multi-site church, which is what we've decided to to.
We're taking it slowly. The target date for opening our second site is September, 2015. We aren't sure whether we will go with video or a second staff at this time. I'm on the planning committee, and have contacted my previous church and their staff has consulted with ours. Whichever way we go, I'm sure it will preserve the feel and community of a single church body if we approach it with the proper prayerful attitude and sense of being the body of Christ that has brought us to this point in just six years.
