Multi-Site Church Video Screen Utterly Fails At Pastoral Counseling

This past October, my church launched a 2nd site. It meets in a nice middle-school, which was previously the suburb’s high school. There is a 500-seat auditorium, and we use numerous other rooms for Sunday school classes from birth to adults. The youth group (15-20 students) meets in the school’s media center (aka “library”), which is spacious & has a flood of natural light through a wall of windows. (They love it!) We recently held a church potluck in the school’s cafeteria.

About 250 people branched off from the 1st site to launch the 2nd site. (I am one of those 250 people.) In the last month, we’ve averaged 350+, so attendance has jumped about 40% in just 4 months. (Lots of new faces from the surrounding neighborhoods.)

The sermon is simulcast from the 1st site. To accomplish this, we have a 16’ center screen, on which our pastor appears essentially life-sized, at the place where he would be if physically present. Two 12’ side screens are used for scripture, lyrics, video announcements, and close-ups. [For a sample of what this looks like: See the “Type 3” photos here: http://anthonycoppedge.com/4-types-of-church-video-venues/ . (Be sure to read the accompanying description.)]

Now to address the satire of the OP article: Does this mean that 350 people are bereft of pastoral care (or counseling) as needed? Of course not.

We currently staff the 2nd site with five paid staffers (two full-time, three part-time), including a full-time campus pastor. He has 20 years of pastoral experience, in both youth pastor and senior pastor positions. (I could go into detail about how he came to be in this position, but I’ll just say that clearly God led him to us.)

In addition, it’s not as if the 350 attendees at the 2nd site lack access to any of the other pastors (including our Lead Pastor) at the 1st site. Our Lead Pastor shows up on occasion early on Sunday mornings at the 2nd site, and spends time with the set-up crew (on which I serve). We staggered our Christmas Eve services so that he preached live at both sites that evening. He attended the previously mentioned potluck at the 2nd site. He also attends/leads new member meetings/classes, etc. at the 2nd site. (So it isn’t as if the 2nd site attendees never see him other than via simulcast.)

Plus, anytime any of the attendees from the 2nd site wish to talk with any of the pastors at the 1st site, we can dial a phone, send an email, drop into their offices (the two sites are about an 11 minute drive apart), or make arrangements to meet virtually anywhere else. (Not to mention that two pastors from the 1st site are currently teaching ABFs at the 2nd site, so that kind of interchange exists too.)

[pvawter]

What you’re describing sounds an awful lot like one man pastoring two churches. Why not just let the campus pastor preach and make the plant independent?

It’s one church, with two locations. That’s nothing unique; in the U.S. there are at least 5,000 multi-site churches (many with numerous sites).

We’ve planted other (independent) churches since my church was founded in 1963:

Six English-language churches: in 1971, 1979, 1986, 2002, 2004, and 2008.

One Spanish-language church: in 2006.

Together, those seven churches have aggregate attendance today of perhaps 4,000 - 5,000. One of them, the 1979 church, is itself now a two-site church (they did it before we did). Plus, some of the seven have since planted other churches of their own.

This time, for numerous reasons, we chose to make it a 2nd site, rather than an independent plant. (That’s how we were feeling led.)

––––––––-

Historically, it was J. Frank Norris (fundamentalist Baptist) who helped originate the concept of a single senior pastor over more than one location:

”In 1909, Norris…..accepted the pastorate of the First Baptist Church in Fort Worth, where he served for forty-four years until his death.”

…

”In 1935, Norris accepted the pastorate of a second church, Temple Baptist Church in Detroit, Michigan. By 1946, the combined membership of the two congregations was more than 26,000. For sixteen years, Norris commuted by train and plane between the two churches.”

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/J._Frank_Norris

(Note: In the case of Norris, before simulcast technology existed, he would preach at each church on a bi-weekly schedule!)