Why Multisite Church Might Be a Fantastic Fit For Rural Communities

Our church has started plans in motion for launching our first multisite location in the town of Neepawa, Manitoba. When faced with the how, we had two main options: "traditional" church plan (which, in itself has many different layers about what that actually looks like) or multisite (again, many different layers). You can read up on my own personal journey on how I became a fan of multisite here: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3

We decided to go in the multisite direction for a few reasons that I think might be a fantastic fit for rural communities:

1. Strong Admin Support
   When beginning something like a church, there are many key elements that the church planter/campus pastor must put a lot of energy into in order to get it off the ground. This is true in planting or launching a campus. What if, much of what bogs down a church planter, is already totally taken care of? Budget? Got one of them - and even a finance person to watch over and administrate it! Elder's Board? Got one there, too  - and they're already experienced in these leadership roles. Need a church policy? Already got one. There isn't any need to reinvent the wheel - There is already a system that is able to handle much of the heavy admin work to free up the planter/campus pastor to work in their 'sweet spot' and cultivate the community connections and learn the DNA and culture of the town.
2. Maximize Church Resources
   There are resources that are available at an established church that many new churches don't have access to (or they have to do a lot of work-arounds to make it work). Things like a leased high-end printer/photocopier are frequent at many churches but cary a cost that a start up doesn't have on hand. You're also able to share things like computers, licences for children's ministry curriculum and electronic check in, CCLI, a trained and established volunteer base to help you begin you ministry well. Many of these things would be considered "big church features" (I have never seen a rural church with electronic child check in) and to leverage these in a smaller environment give a start up church an advantage. 
3. Established Culture/DNA
   Probably the biggest intangible of the list - culture/DNA can make or break any organization - especially one in it's infancy! When you work hard to transfer a healthy culture from an established church, it gives a new church a HUGE leg up when it comes to dealing with conflict, success, staffing, volunteer recruiting, announcements, etc. Having a healthy and established culture gives you good building blocks to the rest of the ministry - it also helps you share things more easily between locations because everyone has the same essential "culture." The rural churches that are not healthy, growing or seeing people come to Christ, more than likely carry with it a culture that extends these problems. A healthy culture gives a new church an advantage in an environment that could suffocate it with an unhealthy one, if not careful.
4. Shared Preaching
   This one is probably the one that most people would bristle at and have the biggest issue with how multisite churches do things - BUT - having a flexible way of delivering messages to congregations can save a lot of work for a church planter/campus pastor. If you've ever preached, you know that a lot of work and time goes into crafting a sermon (at least, I'd hope so!) and having the flexibility to have sermons in the que from an established church - of which you share a the culture and DNA of - can really be a life saver during particularly heavy work weeks. This allows you to continue to connect with and shepherd the congregation without having to do all the preaching and it is the relational connections that are probably most important in a smaller rural context.
5. Vibrant Spirituality
   If you're in a position to be planting a church or launching a campus, a recipe for disaster is to do it when your church is unhealthy and spiritually stagnant or dead. In many rural communities, (at least the ones that I have experience with would fit into this broad stroke) many local churches lack health, vitality and vibrant expressions of their faith. When a former resident of Neepawa (who is a Christian), heard that we were planning on going to Neepawa, he responded by saying, "Oh great, just what Neepawa needs - another dead church!" If the sending/planting church is healthy, you get a leg up and are able to encourage existing believers in the community that you going to (that vibrant spirituality is something that CAN happen in a small rural context... even in their current church!) as well as draw in the unchurched to a healthy church environment. When a church has vibrant spirituality, it makes discipleship and evangelism much easier and exciting!

Granted, these five-points will share some characteristics with church planting and sometimes, depending on the model, a church plant may really excel at some of these points. These points weren't meant to start a planting vs. multisite fight, rather highlight some of the reasons why multisite might work really well in a rural context. 

The best part, I believe, is that multisite is very flexible in what it looks like - you can really customize what each location looks like while maximizing the established structure and healthy dynamics of an established church!

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What do you think? Can multisite work in rural contexts? Can multisite be done that in a way that is different than what we've seen done already? Leave a comment!