Let me be frank. Multi-site is not easy and is not for everyone. I have hated it at times and am thankful at other times. One of the things I love about multi-site is it forces you to grow, invest in, and pray for more leaders. If it weren’t for our Albany campus, our church wouldn’t have Andy Hayes leading our Albany campus Uptown team. Andy is a great leader and has grown immensely in the past couple of years. I am very proud of him. Sometimes, people will call asking about Multisite kids ministry. I always tell them we have far from figured it out. Here are the other six things I tell them.
1. Two sites stretch your parents more than you. Three sites plus stretches you and your staff more than your parents.
2. There is no perfect model. Everyone has a different take. Multi-site is really a franchising of your vision and values.
3. Multi-site is hardest on the kids’ ministry because of the massive amounts of leaders and infrastructure needed to pull off a Sunday. Once your pastor does one, start planning for five.
4. You have to be more sure of your values. They need to be clearer and simpler than ever before.
5. You need a point person staff or volunteer who you trust and who understands the church’s DNA and understands you and how you work.
6. You need to trust God more than ever because it really is bigger than you. One site you can manage, but get to three or four and your God dependence gets greater. A greater dependence on the Work of the Holy Spirit in our kids’ ministry has been by far the best thing to come out of our multi-site experience.
