I remember when this question was first posed to me about 20 years ago. I had no idea what that meant. I said, “Yes to both.” The expert in front of me said, “Nope, it’s one or the other.”

As we began to move into multiple locations at Granger, I began to understand the difference. And now that I’ve worked with hundreds of churches, and am back in the seat of Executive Pastor of Campuses and Culture at Willow Creek – it’s become even more clear.

A Church with Multi-Sites

• You have an “original” or “main” campus where almost all of the content is produced and distributed.

• The services and content are designed almost exclusively with the “main” campus in mind, and the other campuses figure out how to make it work.

• The Senior or Lead pastor is focused mostly on the “main” campus, and typically there is not a “Campus Pastor” at the original location. If there is, he or she is more of an associate with the senior pastor still operating like the pastor of that location.

• You try really hard not to call it the “Main Campus” but you can’t help yourselves.

A Multi-Site Church

• There is a separate “Central” team that produces content and supports the teams across all campuses. This central team is not part of a specific campus team. Often, this team offices in a location separate from any campus.

• The Senior or Lead pastor is not on staff at any one campus. He or she is part of the Central team.

• All campuses, including the “main” or “original” campus have their own Campus Pastor.

I recall being told 20 years ago that soon just about every church will have multiple locations, but most won’t make it past three or four locations. Why? Because it requires a completely different system and way of thinking to move to a central team model. It’s not right or wrong, just different. 

That was my experience at Granger. Before I left, we got to 3 locations, but just couldn’t get over the hump to make the changes necessary to become a multi-site church. The gravitational pull of the “main” campus was just too strong.

At Willow, we have been making that transition over the past few years. We are still deep in the midst of the transition, but here are some notable differences.

Willow up to mid-2020

• A church with six “regional campus” locations.

• South Barrington was the mothership campus. It was the sun, and the other six campuses were orbiting around it. 

• The Senior Pastor was focused almost 100% on South Barrington, the “main” campus.

• All campuses were very autonomous. Minimal shared operations (IT, accounting) and minimal shared content (weekend sermons often used one-week delayed). Everything else (children’s curriculum, groups, adult discipleship, worship, creative moments, fund-raising, building design) was figured out at each campus and not shared. 

• Some campuses had their own vision, values, branding, websites and more. None of the Willow facilities had a similar feel as another. 

Willow Now (see org chart overview in sidebar)

• We have a refreshed mission, vision and values that nearly everyone has bought into and is championing. 

• We’ve built a central team that offices separately and is not tied to a specific campus.

• This team collaborates with each campus to collaborate together on content that will be used at every campus.

• The Senior Pastor is not tied to any specific campus. We now have a Campus Pastor at the South Barrington campus.

• We still broadcast from one campus (South Barrington), with services now “live” or almost live at all locations (rather than recorded, edited, and played a week later). 

We are in the clunky phase of implementation. We were told by others who made this transition that it would take 2-3 years before it would feel smooth and natural. We are just over one year into the transition. Some areas feel smooth—many areas are still very clunky.

In our monthly XP Coaching Network, 60% of the leaders are from churches with multiple locations. It’s been great to learn from them. I’d love to hear from others of you who lead churches with multiple locations. Are you a church with multi-sites? Or are you a multi-site church? Have any of you gone through a similar transition? And if so, what were your learnings?