A Multi-Site Church Roadtrip

Exploring the New Normal

Book Details

Discerning Reader Editorial Review

Reviewed 03/12/2010 by Chad Vandervalk.

Not Recommended. Interesting, but not enough fresh insights to make it worthwhile.

There has been a movement within the last few years to develop single-campus churches into multiple sites. To accomplish this, there may be a video feed from the main campus to other campuses, or a pre-recorded message broadcast, or even a teaching team sharing the teaching in the various campuses.

The main thing that makes this different from a church plant is that the various places all have the same organizational structure. They share a board, a vision, and leadership.

In their book A Multi-site Church Road Trip: Exploring the New Normal (ostensibly a follow-up to their earlier The Multi-Site Church Revolution), Geoff Surratt, Greg Ligon, and Warren Bird take the reader to various churches around the United States that operate under this kind of a model.

It was interesting being exposed to all of the different ways that this basic model was being used throughout the country. The authors do a relatively good job at presenting the churches, their struggles and their growth strategies.

One of the main concerns I have with this book is that it presents this model as though it is the next big thing. According to the authors, this is the way of the future.

There are some real advantages to partnering in this fashion, but we have known this for years. Denominations worked, and still work, because they allow individual churches to do in partnership what they could not alone. Many of these multi-site churches reminded me of really small denominations, ones with some rather top heavy control.

While we may disagree with the role of the multi-site movement in the future, the real issue I have with the book is that it is not very enjoyable to read. There is no sustained connection over the book, rendering it quite uneven. The different authors write in different styles, which I found distracting. It was really just a collection of descriptions of a bunch of churches organized under one structure.

Interesting, perhaps, but not very useful in my opinion.