Europe ready for multi-site

Churches in Europe are challenged, but ready for multi-site

By Jim Tomberlin

Many of you know that I have strong emotional ties to Europe. I spent half of my formative years growing up in Germany as a military kid. My brother was born in Heidelberg. I was a pastor in Germany in the 1980s and 1990s. My grown children have lived in Italy, France and Germany. I have two grandchildren from Ukraine. I drive a German car. I care about the evangelical church in Europe. In other words, I’m invested in Europe and in the church there.

I was in Europe last year on a multisite lecture-coaching tour. This was the result of numerous emails and Skype calls from church leaders of various networks across Europe.

I gave multisite presentations to church leaders in England, Switzerland and Germany. I met with church leaders and pastors from Newfrontiers, International Christian Fellowship (ICF), Anglican Holy Trinity Brompton, the FeG (Evangelical Free Church of Germany), and the Russian-German evangelical movement.

They asked the same questions that American pastors ask: Is multisite biblical, when to launch campuses, where to launch, how to deliver the teaching, do video sermons work, how much does it cost, how do you staff the campuses, how do you manage the campuses, what is the difference between church planting and multisiting? They weren’t asking me to defend the multisite model – they were asking how to do multisite. These are the kind of questions Kingdom of God leaders ask the world over. I came back exhausted and challenged, but encouraged by what I saw and heard.

Here are my general observations of the church in Western Europe:

1.    Church work is hard anywhere, but overall it is far more difficult and challenging in Europe than in America.
2.    Even though America is following Europe in becoming a post-Christian nation, the evangelical church in America is still very strong, influential, well-resourced and generally respected. The evangelical church is growing in Europe, but it is very small, with limited influence and resources, and is often perceived as a cult or sect.
3.    European church leaders do not have a “build it and they will come” mentality. Buildings are a means to an end for them, not the end game.
4.    There is a serious and strong commitment to church planting and a growing interest in multisiting, especially among the next generation of emerging church leaders.
5.     While there are exceptions, very few evangelical churches grow beyond 100 people in attendance in Europe. A church of 200 is considered a big church.
6.     In spite of these challenges, there are signs that Western Europe is beginning to break through these daunting barriers. ICF Zurich is a Geneva church of 2,800 in four locations and the headquarters for a church planting movement across Europe.

Holy Trinity Brompton in London is the largest multisite church in Europe with 5,000 people attending 10 services on three campuses, utilizing video sermons and all within 10 minutes walking distance from each other.

Nicky Gumbel is the vicar (senior pastor) and founder of the effective outreach Alpha Course which precedes the launching of their campuses and church plants. The huge influx of Russian-Germans from the former Soviet Union have congregations in the multiple hundreds size and several over 1,000 in attendance.

In all these networks there are vibrant young church leaders emerging who are breaking out of the box of conventional church thinking.

Here are my recommendations humbly offered to Western European church leaders:

1.    Concentrate on the size of the harvest and our great God and don’t be intimidated by the size of the challenges. There are plenty of people to reach who are far from God with around 95 percent of Europeans unchurched.

2.    Focus on reaching a city through multiple church plants and multisite campuses rather than just planting one church per city. Burger King and KFC initially started in Europe with a “one city-one store” approach and failed. McDonalds had a “one city-multiple stores” strategy before going to other cities and succeeded.

3.    Break-through the 200 attendance barriers by launching churches and multisites with a stronger core of at least 50 people and adding staff beyond the pastor.

4.    Consider uniting existing congregations together in the same city as one church in multiple locations.

5.    Don’t be afraid of visionary leadership and powerful preaching, but encourage and develop it.

6.   Incorporate video technology into your churches regardless of multisite. It will enhance the teaching and learning experience of your members. Europe is every bit as technically sophisticated as America, if not more so. Embrace it.

7.    Innovate! Breakthroughs require fresh approaches and bold action. Incremental steps will get incremental results. Don’t be afraid to lead the way. Pioneers break new ground. Old wineskins cannot contain new wine. Give permission and resources to innovation.

Is Europe ready for multisite?

Multisite is already on the ground in Europe. The European Church Planting Network documents this in its 2010 report, European Models of Multi-site Church.

I have long believed that the multisite model makes even more sense in Europe where vibrant biblical-based churches are sparse, land prices and building costs are astronomical, and masses of people are concentrated in high population centers. My trip reinforced that belief.

Multisite is in the embryonic stage in Europe but is three to five years from becoming an accepted and proven model there. This will happen and I want to help make it happen. Everywhere I spoke I was asked to come back to help the multisite efforts that are emerging. The plans are in the works for 2011. Want to join me? Want to be a part of the multisite revolution in Europe?

Is Europe ready for multisite? Ja!

Tomberlin, senior strategist, MultiSite Solutions, Scottsdale, AZ, has consulted with a number of churches about multisite, mergers, absorptions and acquisitions. [ www.Multi-SiteSolutions.com ]

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