I found this article by Colin Hansen pretty interesting. I’m a big fan of Tim Keller and I have a few friends who attend Redeemer. I grew up in a very, very small church (less than 50 members), and now I attend a very dynamic large church… I thrive in smaller settings, and the author stirs up my longings to attend a smaller church.
In the hierarchy of church problems, most pastors wouldn’t mind figuring out how to handle a congregation that has grown so rapidly that they can no longer get to know everyone personally. The multisite church boom has met this very challenge by leveraging the best teachers with new technology to reach mass audiences at low costs. Motivated by spreading the gospel of Jesus Christ, pastors understand the number of new professions of faith as a sign of God’s blessing. There appears to be little downside to adding new church sites. There is little of the personal risk and exorbitant cost of church planting. In fact, there are few arguments against multiple sites that can’t also be made against multiple services in one church building. And most medium and large-sized churches crossed that line without much consternation some time ago. So if people don’t mind watching a pastor on television, what’s holding us back?
The accompanying article from USA Today was also a good read:
Multi-site churches mean pastors reach thousands: Here:
NEW YORK — Susan Hong stops Pastor Tim Keller as he dashes up the steps of a Baptist church on a hectic corner of Broadway and West 79th Street.She heard him preach at 10:30 a.m. on the Upper East Side. Now she has brought friends to hear him at the West Side 5 p.m. service. He briefly greets her, then slips into the service just before his sermon.
In 45 minutes, before the final hymn, Keller’s gone — off to deliver the same sermon, “The Gospel Changes Everything,” on the East Side.
Then, again, Keller, founder and senior pastor of Manhattan‘s Redeemer Presbyterian Church, will dash back to West 79th Street for his fourth service of the day at three leased locations.
It’s not the traditional American mom-and-pop church, where the same pastor counsels parishioners, visits when they’re ill or marries or buries them.
