Are multi-site churches biblical or not?

I am a staff writer for the website GotQuestions.org, and I received a question that I wanted to share as well as the answer that I provided. The question had to do with “multi-site churches (in general)”, something we see more and more of today.

Let me state up front that I am not a huge fan of multi-site churches (only because as a pastor I really feel the need to connect with people personally), I believe that we should NEVER (read that again, please) sit in judgment of OR DISCREDIT a bible-based, Gospel-centered church that is using multi-locations and technology to reach people. God can work in all things, and if it’s for His Glory — then by all means … PRESS FORWARD!

Question: Is multi-site church biblical? In regards to multi-site, can there be “one church at many locations”?

Answer: Thank you for writing to us. While churches being “multi-site” can present all kinds of new challenges for leadership, there is nothing un-biblical about it. Consider the view this way: The first church (see Acts 2) was birthed in Jerusalem at the Day of Pentecost. Are all bible-based churches simply not an off-spring of that original church? Churches today use hundreds of different ways to reach into communities and present the Gospel to unsaved persons, and while there may be a lack of fellowship (for example: a person who attends the 8am service at site “A” may never meet someone who attends the 10:30 service at site “B”) … the mission and vision of the church is the same:

Ephesians 4:11-16, “And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers, to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, so that we may no longer be children, tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes. Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, from whom the whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love.”

God bless you and may you find a church where God speaks to you and where you are being fed by it’s staff to equip YOU for the work of the ministry. ~ Rev TJ