Multi-site misperceptions Part 2

Since Eric challenged me in my comments section to read his other posts, I did…here is my response to his posts…

Eric,
It seems you are honestly willing to learn so I am going to give you some of the basic arguments against your thinking.

First is the "max hedrom" comment.  Why is it assumed that because a speaker is on video he is robotic, unfeeling and not able to connect with people?  Unless you are against all "Big" churches (over 500) I would assume that you do not have a problem with IMAG in these churches.  This is simply the speaker being on a screen so people in a larger auditorium can see them better.  What is the difference?  In our campuses people laugh as much, cry as much and respond as much as they do at the live venue.

2. Your second argument is one that has been made many times but that I still just can not understand. This is the idea that somehow the only "saint" that can care for and minister to a church is the speaking pastor.  As a church planter I do not just assume but know that you would agree with Ephesians that the goal is that the "Saints would do the work of the ministry".  Because of the multi-site model there are more people serving, more people doing ministry and far less reliance on one pastor to do all of the work of the ministry.  This it would seem is actually carrying out the Ephesians mandate better than a church of 400 where everyone looks to the speaking pastor to teach, care, guide and love for them.

3.  We are not starbucks.  If any of the people who have misperceptions about multi-site would ever actually visit one they would be able to speak intelligently.  We have regional flavor, different personalities in our campus pastors and overall each campus cares deeply about their communities and seeks to reach them.  We simply leverage a few DNA elements of a tried and true methodology and resources of a large organization to help these regional flavors taste even better.  We have very sharp leaders in our campus pastor positions who would not be satisfied just being puppets on a string for some wizard behind a curtain.

4.  Finally its Both and not one or the other.  For some reason everyone seems to think we have to decide whats better, multi-site of church planting.  Thats like asking, "whats better the arm or the leg", we need both to be an effective body. In the words of the great theologian Rodney King, "Can’t we all just get along".

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Filed under: Seacoast Church/Multi-site