New ways of being BIG
Without being BIG
Scott Thumma
Hartford Institute For Religion
Research
Hartford Seminary, Hartford CT
The goal
•less overhead
•less infrastructure costs
•less conflict with the community
•less duplication of effort
•less impulse to build
•big in resources
•big in impact
•big in ministry activities
•big in influence
•big in the Kingdom
And
Spirit-led
Creativity
The Internet is the model
 little overhead,
 shared resources,
 interconnected nodes,
 customizable,
and yet a major influence.
All megachurches do this out of necessity.
A Very Large Church is:
• Costly – higher price to build.
• An Encumbrance – higher cost to maintain.
• Conflictual – creates battles with local
neighbors, city, and the environment.
• A Challenge – to keep filled.
THE FACTS
Just because a congregation attains several
thousand in worship does not mean it has a
large sanctuary.
The median (midpoint of the range – meaning 50% were below
and 50% above this figure) seating capacity of the largest
worship service was 1,400.
Only 5% of megachurches have sanctuaries of
3,000 seats or more.
53% of churches hold four or more services
over two or three days.
Nearly all (97%) megachurches hold
multiple worship services, with 5% holding
9 or more each weekend.
A majority of megachurches felt they had
insufficient building space for their
ministries.
These churches have found other ways
of creating enough seating for those
who want to attend.
At least 50% of churches use multiple venues for
worship as well as satellite locations to increase
seating capacity.
Half of these say the multiple services are
somewhat or very different in style from their
main worship service.
Over a third of churches (37%) helped plant at
least one new congregation in the past 5 years.
Twenty-seven percent of megachurches
hold services at satellite locations (up 5%
in 5 years) and another 27% are
considering doing this.
Of this group with multi-site locations,
three quarters have just one or two
additional locations, but 10% have more
than 5 separate locations.
Twenty-two percent of congregations
claimed to have started a satellite or offsite campus since 2000.
34% employ a multiple venue worship
service format where these services with
distinctive styles and focus are held
simultaneously in buildings on their
main campus.
Alternatives
Multiple worship services
Venue worship services
Church planting
Multiple campuses
Using existing buildings
Networking of like-minded churches
Multiple Worship Services
Pros
•less need to build larger
buildings to accommodate
everyone
•give your best leaders
practice at leading worship
Cons
•increases the load on the
senior minister
•increases work load for staff
doing multiple services
•provide flexibility of service
times
•makes service times rigid – in
and out, less flexibility or
lingering
•tailors the services to suit
different interests, subcultural groups
•less interpersonal interaction
with whole congregation,
maybe clichés form
•perhaps decreased attendance
when senior minister isn’t
preaching
Venue Worship Services
Pros
•tailors the venues to suit
different interests, sub cultural
groups
Cons
•Can divide your congregation
into clichés or sub-groups
•provide flexibility of service
times
•increases need for more staff
doing multiple services at the
same time
•give your best leaders practice
at leading worship
•less impact than with one
huge congregation
•decreased work load on senior
minister
•the senior minister is only
viewed through the screen
•less need to build larger
buildings to accommodate
everyone
•complex technological
challenges in broadcasting
sermon
Church Planting
Pros
• give your best leaders their
own congregations
Cons
• little control over pastor’s vision
• allow them to grow in own
directions
• duplicating of work load due to
running the many churches
separately
• enable new ministries to tailor
to new areas
• less impact than with one huge
congregation
• reduce load on senior
minister
• considerable cost and risk in
getting planted churches to thrive
• enhance church reach into
other parts of the country
• harder to keep in contact with
daughter churches
Multiple Site Campuses
Over a third of megachurches are Multi-site
Multiple Site Campuses
Pros
• give your best leaders their
own congregations
• allow them to grow in own
directions
• enable new ministries to
tailor to new areas
Cons
• Can divide your congregation
into sub-groups by areas of the
city
• need for duplicating efforts
throughout the city
• less impact than with one
huge congregation
• reduce load on senior
minister
• the senior minister is only
viewed through the screen
• Less congestion and
pressure on the main campus
• complex technological
challenges in broadcasting
sermon
• Less driving for members
Using Existing Buildings
An old idea going in new directions Storefront churches
•Mall spaces
•School spaces
•Existing Churches
•Hotels
•Businesses
•Stadiums
•Movie theaters
National Community Church meets in the
Regal Theaters located on the 4th floor
at Ballston Common Mall.
National Community Church meets in
the movie theaters at Union Station
Networking of Like-Minded Churches
Network with smaller churches to:
 address large community & national
issues
 be supportive of other clergy
 create alliances
 share resources
 educate and instruct each other
 influence religious trends
 in place of or in addition to national
denominations
In 2000 – 20% of megachurches belonged to a
Network, Fellowship or Association of churches
A large presence does not
require a large building only a large vision.