One Church in Two Locations

At Connect City Church, we believe God is leading us towards an ongoing, strategic commitment to fulfill the Great Commission and His vision for our church by being strategically placed within the city limits of Rome, Summerville and other future cities. Because of this, we launched intentional worship space in both Rome and Summerville in March of 2015. Both campuses are vitally connected and distinctly defined by Connect City Church’s mission, strategy, and doctrine.

By God’s grace, as we continue to pursue God’s vision for Connect City Church, we must remember that He is not simply building a monument of ministry at Connect City Church; rather, He is launching an ever-multiplying movement of mission through Connect City Church. In order to reach Northwest Georgia and Northeast Alabama for gospel transformation, we need to be present where the majority of people live – in the cities.

Life might be simpler if we were all in one location, but we believe the Lord is calling us to reach the entire region. As a multi-site church, Connect will have the strengths of both a large church, covering a large geographic area, and a small church, with centralized leadership and a focus on community. The apostle Paul says, “I have become all things to all people, that by all means I might save some. I do it for the sake of the gospel that I may share with them in its blessings.” (1 Corinthians 9:22-23). For the sake of the gospel, Connect City Church will attempt to dwell in the various county seats in the region in order to love and preach good news to our neighbors.

Why should Connect City Church become multi-site?

The purpose of becoming a multi-site church is to make more and better disciples by bringing the church (staff, resources, members, ministries, worship environments, etc.) closer to where people are. The motivation is to do a better job of loving people, including different types of people, with an outcome of making significant advances in obeying Jesus’ Great Commandment (Matt. 22:37-40) and Great Commission (Matt. 28:19-20).

What does it mean to be “One Church in Two Locations?”

While we know the comparison seems a little uncomfortable, practically, a multi-site church functions in a way similar to a multi-site business. Just as a restaurant or bank will add locations in new areas in order to reach new customer segments, we as a church are adding locations in different locales to reach lost people with the good news of the Gospel. It would not be feasible for all of Northwest Georgia to use one bank location or eat at the same restaurant. And instead of having dozens of independent churches—what would it look like to have a different independent bank on every corner?—we see the strength found in a unified body. Our desire is to take the Gospel to various neighborhoods using local congregations; thus our new campuses will be in different locations in order to reach different areas of northwest Georgia. Just as local bank offices can draw on the resources of the bank’s headquarters, both Connect campuses will have the advantage of sharing our resources. Each will have its own schedule, its own staff, its own volunteers; yet will still be one body of believers known as Connect City Church. There will remain one Connect City Church budget, one elder team, one oversight team, one vision and one mission: making it simple for people to connect to God and each other.

The relationships that have been built between the people of Connect are vital and important to the unity of our church. Every effort will be made to continue to nurture and protect these relationships as we strive to continue to do life together as a family. There will be various ministries and church-wide events that we do as one body. The first of these, a quarterly Women’s Gathering, will begin in November 2014 to provide all the ladies of Connect a chance to meet for fellowship (alternating between the Rome and Summerville locations) and to share in each other’s journeys. Starting in March 2015, both campuses of Connect will come together for a monthly dinner, worship, and communion at our Summerville location.

How does a church stay true to its identity and maintain unity as a multi-site church?

While the new campuses will look different in some ways from our current facility (due to the location, congregational make-up and cultural context), it will retain the same biblical principles that are a part of Connect City Church now. The most important factor in maintaining unity as one church in many locations involves the church having a crystal clear understanding of their DNA – their vision, mission and values. Continuity comes as this DNA is replicated from campus to campus and venue to venue. And as mentioned above, Connect City Church will be intentional about having monthly gatherings where all of our folks, distributed across the region, come together to break bread together and worship Jesus.

What are some of the advantages of a multi-site church?

Assists in reaching friends and family unwilling to travel a great distance to church
Brings together the best aspects of larger churches and smaller churches
Increases the total number of available seats during optimal worship times
Overcomes geographic barriers when a church is unable to remain in its current facility
Enables untapped talent to emerge each time a new venue or site is opened
Mobilizes members of the body through an added variety of ministry opportunities
Improves a church’s stewardship of funds and resources
Enables a church to extend itself into smaller niches
Models and trains people for church planting elsewhere
Provides a pipeline for the development of emerging leaders and future staff