Definition of Multi-Site terms

Multi-site church:  Short for multiple-site church, or one church with multiple locations.  A church is considered multi-site if it has more than one worship venue, more than one campus, or a combination of both

Campus:  Any location where a complete church ministry (i.e., adult worship, nursery, children’s programming) takes place.  A multi-site church may have several campuses.

Branch or satellite:  An off-site campus.

Venue:  A location where a worship service for adults is held, such as a church’s fellowship hall, gym, or chapel.  For example, Saddleback Church has one campus in Lake Forest, CA, but that campus currently has seven venues for adult worship.

Worship service:  Christ-centered community that usually includes singing, praying, and preaching.  It happens regularly, usually weekly.  Also know as a celebration, service of divine worship, worship experience, and sometimes simply “church.”

Strategic partner:  At North Point Community Church in Atlanta, where this idea is most actively being pioneered, a strategic partner is a church that shares North Point’s mission, strategy, values, and beliefs but remains a separate entity.

Note:  In this book, a “multi-site church” is one that develops worship communities in multiple locations.  Many churches sponsor off-site ministries (for example, helping out weekly at a local soup kitchen), but those alone do not create one church in  many locations. Likewise, when we cite weekly worship-attendance numbers in this book, we mean the number of adults and children who participate in a worship service during a typical week, without anyone counting anyone twice.