One aspect of a ‘geographic’ video venue I experienced was the contrast of a localized mission verses duplication of the mothership. It seemed that the mission of the video venue was to duplicate the success of the “mothership” and the campus pastor played the role of ‘manager’ of the vision. What was missing in the video venue was the driving force of a local visionary to reach the local community.

The video venue did reach the 200 attendance mark, but will probably not grow beyond that without more autonomy in leadership, mission, and vision. I think this question should have been asked: “How can people be reached most effectively in that ‘geographic’ community?” verses “How can we duplicate the ‘mothership’ in another location?” The answers are sometimes different. Franchising the church has some huge pluses, but I believe new church start ups have a greater risk/reward potential on the local level.

Even most of the mega-churches didn’t just spring up “huge” overnight. I think we are just hitting our stride and beginning to understand what we are doing more and more. And these so called barriers are going to be smashed.

I must agree with Troy … it is very difficult to call it this early in the game … and i dont believe the “strongest proponents and harshest critics of video venues and the multisite movement seem to have missed” anything. They are pushing, leading and learning as they go … and have succeeded so far.

We are entering a generation were Video Communication is a “non-issue” – If we are not careful , we’ll cast a vision that will immediately create and uphold a tradition. (live teaching vs. video teaching)

I don’t believe it replaces church planting or local ministries… but it does have the potential to be the growing dominant force in reaching people…. (past the 1000′s and as effective as a church plant or other ministry as we have already seen)

……the best and biggest days of multisite are yet to come. just wait till the teenage years.

I’m simply pointing out that the assumption from both the proponents and the critics of multisite churches that large offsite (or multisite) venues are inevitable is probably not true – and the same for the assumption that venues can be widely franchised across the country by a high profile pastor who seeks to do so.

Thank you for your comments, I agree with much of what you said. There is a hands-on component that is lacking, even with the “best” campus pastors on-site.

This got me thinking though, are there many who desire their video-venues to be “mega-venues?” One of our main purposes for video-venues, is to create small, more intimate gatherings, where community can be fostered and developed. Of course we want growth (numerical) but the overall goal isn’t numbers.