I love this church, and the fact that we are a multisite faith family. I cannot say that enough. However, I think we have some growing to do. I think we need to get small to grow big, just like pruned perennials.
Confession time: the last few years of waiting and processing ideas for our next site have been really hard for me. I have a vision of our city being transformed through relational ministry and can see multisite playing a huge role in this. But we keep putting on the brakes and I find that frustrating. There – now you know my bias.
The reality is we ARE a multisite church, but we are NOT behaving like it. I feel like too often we get busy “doing church”, maintaining our internal workings and programs and we simply do not prioritize outreach and invitation into close community. I’m just as guilty as anyone for getting caught in the hamster wheel of life. Busy, busy, busy. We work hard when we want something and we want bigger everything: houses, holidays, paychecks, Starbucks cups… But do we see our friends and neighbors encountering Jesus and getting baptized as a big thing, something we want? Something we are willing to work hard for?
Church family, I believe we need to make a change. We need to get our priorities straight. As a multisite church our goal is to reach out, grow new believers and see our members ministering out of their strengths and passions. The best way to do this is to get small to grow big.
The beauty of smaller church sites and small groups is the greater relational impact we can make on each other. It’s in these smaller settings that we are challenged to grow in leadership and service of others, hear how others have seen God at work in and through us, and be encouraged. Doctoring each other’s wounds is best done in close-knit community, too, where you are known. Multisite allows us to maximize the relational benefits of a small church setting as well as the strengths of a larger church (programs for example).
I’m so excited to see where God takes us in the year ahead as we look at ways to GROW by becoming small, and invite you to join me in this adventure!