Multisite Essentials for the Modern Church

The multisite church concept may be established, but make no mistake, it’s evolving more rapidly right now than people realize. At Ministry Solutions Group, we’ve been watching a post-pandemic, digitally-driven church movement unfold, and it is redefining the modern multisite church model.

Online communication channels have changed how people engage with church. At the same time, church building inventory is huge at the moment. 

This puts church leaders in the driver's seat (if they’re willing to take the wheel). It gives them the opportunity to use multisite church to expand their in-person impact beyond a 15-minute drive from their nearest campus by building an organic, mutually-beneficial network that spans towns, cities, and even entire regions.

If you’re nodding along with me but you struggle to see the path from where you are to how to start a multisite church, that’s okay. We’re going to dig into the details below. Here are the essentials for how to do multisite in the modern era.

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Three Ways to Approach Multisite Expansion

You’ve reached the point where you’re ready to expand. You’ve gone from two to three services on Sunday. Your children’s ministry is overflowing. So is your parking lot. The next step? Church campus expansion. This can give your long-distance folks a chance to shorten their commute and even invite their neighbors to come along.

If you’re ready to think multisite, the next question is how? Broadly speaking, there are three primary ways you can expand to a multisite strategy:

• Build
• Lease
• Merge

We’ve seen all three of these at Ministry Solutions Group as we’ve walked through the process with dozens of churches across America. Here are the pros and cons of each one.

Building a New Church Building

I don’t think I have to go into too much detail here. Building is the iconic church real estate strategy, and most of us have seen it play out for our entire lives. The obvious advantage is that when you build a structure, well, it’s yours. You can do with it as you like, and no one will restrict you or be breathing down your neck watching to see what you do on their property.

That said, building a new building is ridiculously expensive. We have managed and funded over $1B of church projects and are seeing site and vertical costs together average around $325 per square foot and up to $490 per square foot in some markets. For those of you counting at home, a 5,000-square-foot building would come in at just shy of $2.5 million. Don’t forget about mortgage interest, maintenance, repairs, utilities, and so on.  Yeah. Not cheap. This leads us to the next option, leasing…

Leasing a Church Facility

Church building vs. leasing is a common question I get from church leaders. Leasing a facility can be attractive to some, and I understand why. The average cost to rent commercial space in the US varies from city to city, but it’s typically well below $500 per square foot. 

Resourceful leaders can find leaseable spaces and dramatically cut down on upfront building costs while gaining access to a permanent place to call home. Of course, leases come with some baggage. There are inexpensive leases like schools and movie theaters, but you have no site control. There are more permanent leases, but because you don’t have collateral to offer, your improvements to the facility have to be paid in cash. 

Merging with Another Church

Mergers may sound like a special case, but it’s actually a common one at the moment — and if you ask me, it’s the best option on this list. When you merge with another church, you gain access to a building that already exists and doesn’t need to be leased. 

To be clear, this is a low-cost option, but keep in mind that there is no such thing as a free building. As we always say at MSG, we haven’t seen a free building yet that doesn’t cost more than a million bucks. The greater point still stands, though. Mergers are a low-cost, fast way to gain a multisite space. 

The reason it’s particularly attractive at the moment is that many smaller but healthy churches are actively and willingly merging with larger, growing churches as a succession option. This creates a mutually beneficial situation where you gain a healthy, operating church body in another area near your church, while that church gets to integrate into an organization with a clear, exciting, growth-oriented mission. There are nuances to consider, as with any merger, but the general takeaway is that, when handled well, it is a win-win for both churches.

Before multisite, the strategy was to build large, attractional churches. 

At the onset of multisite, it morphed into having a small number of large campuses. 

In today’s multisite model, we are seeing a larger number of smaller campuses, which is driving so much of the conversation around mergers. 

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Considering Multisite Finances & Logistics

Choosing to build, lease, or merge is the first step, but where do you go from there? I’ll start by saying every situation is different. (It’s not helpful, I know. But it’s honest advice.) 

The reality is that if you want to go to multisite, you need to consider the right factors. These aren’t mysterious. Nor are they out of reach. In fact, they’re probably sitting in a data lake in your business administration office. 

Along with the financial factors, you need to assess things like giving units in geographic areas, attendance data, where people are driving from to get to you right now, and so on. (This is the kind of stuff that our team helps a church gather and analyze.)

Once you know if multisite is the right option and the area where you need to locate your new campus, other logistics come into play. A few that immediately come to mind include:

• Don’t let opportunities define your multisite church strategy. Do it the other way around. (Location is more important than a building deal.) Without a strategy to define your opportunities, you will heavily impede your ability to scale. 
• How many seats do you need to accommodate? (For every seat, you want 40 to 50 square feet of space.)
• Do you need supporting square footage for family ministry? 
• Is there adequate parking or access to parking to support your seating? 
• How can you leverage technology to empower and enhance your church expansion strategy? (Where is that built-in online crowd that you want to bring together and serve in person?)

Again, these are things that the Ministry Solutions Group specializes in because they matter. The way you go multisite has just as much of an impact as when and where you choose to do so.

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Using Multisite to Build Your Church Network

The multisite model used to be a top-down approach to church growth. It has quickly evolved into a peer-to-peer, network-driven alternative, and that is a good thing. Rather than only giant churches making the leap to multisite, any decent-sized church with a strong online presence can expand by using digital reach to cultivate an initial following and then collaborating with local churches to expand their influence across a region.

This approach is more than a new take on an old formula. If you ask me, it’s the future of the church.

If you’re interested in building a support team to help you make the multisite transition, you can also reach out to Ministry Solutions Group, and we can help clarify your vision with our Clear Path Forward process.

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