Is the Multi-Campus Church Concept Biblical?

The following article was posted is by Pastor J.D. Greear of Summit Church in Durham, NC. I thought it was interesting and worth passing on:

Is The Multi-Campus Church Concept Biblical?

John Piper shared some interesting perspective on this question I thought was worth passing on to you (mixed in with this are some of my own thoughts… so, the parts that don’t make sense you can blame on me…). I found this very refreshing since many of those promoting multi-site don't seem to have wrestled with the biblical implications of the approach... they only have a "this works so it's got to be right and don't criticize me or slow me down with the Bible" kind of attitude.

Let me say right up front: you can’t mandate from Scripture that all churches should be multi-campus. But.. with that said…

Consider the church in Jerusalem. Here’s a few salient points to let marinate:

They had a massive growth problem: The 2nd chapter of Acts tell us that within a few weeks well over 10,000 people had come to Christ (5000 men…) and people were being added “every day.” Acts 2 records the crowd’s response to Peter’s sermon as, “What should we do?” Peter tells them and 3000 souls respond, and in Acts 3 5000 responded, and they are only counting the men. That created a “Holy cow, what should we do?” question for the 120-person core group also! They were dealing with going from 120 to over 10,000 in one week. No conscientious Christian ever says “we’re growing too fast” any more than a cancer patient says “I’m healing too fast.” The Jerusalem church scrambled to do what it could to accommodate that growth.
The Jerusalem church remained as ONE church: Three times in Acts a reference is made to the church in Jerusalem, and each time it is referred to in the SINGULAR. Acts 8:1: “There arose on that day a great persecution against the church in Jerusalem.” Acts 11:22: “The report of this came to the ears of the church in Jerusalem, and they sent Barnabas to Antioch.” Acts 15:4, Luke describes Paul and Barnabas’ return to Jerusalem: “When they came to Jerusalem, they were welcomed by the church and the apostles and the elders.” Each time, it does not refer to churches, but church. Not once, that I can find, is it referred to as MULTIPLE, independent congregations.

The church devoted themselves to the Apostles’ teaching: Acts 2 says that the new church gathered around the teaching of the Apostolic team.

There is no way they could have been gathered as one large group: There was simply no facility that could hold them in Jerusalem. Acts 2 tells us they were meeting to hear the Apostles’ teaching daily “in the temple.” The temple was only about 26 acres, and a lot of other stuff was happening there. Plus, this was before microphones and video projection. Thus, it would take multiple, smaller gatherings for 10,000 to devote themselves to the Apostles’ teaching. That’s probably why it says they met “daily.” You see, it never says that all 10,000 met every day, just that every day some portion of them were meeting to hear the Apostles’ teach. Do you get what that means? A “teaching team” of Apostles were holding multiple services in the temple. I’m sure each Apostle was teaching the same sermon multiple times each week. You can’t tell me that each rushed home and prepared a new message every day. And you can’t tell me that if they had blogs, video and T-1 internet connections they wouldn’t have been using thme.

Eventually, the one church met in multiple houses every day to devote themselves to the Apostles’ teaching. This seals the deal for me. One church, meeting in multiple houses. A traveling group of Apostles’ teaching every day in different houses and different locations in the temple or wherever else they could find space.

Their megachurch had massive organization problems and members who felt left out. In Acts 6, people were complaining that in the Jerusalem megachurch member-care was not happening. Notice the Apostles’ response. They didn’t start reading Brian McLaren books and declare themselves post-megachurch and poopoo the whole idea of a big church. Nor did they read George Barna books and start meeting on the golf course with their Ipods. Nor did they complain that as trained ministers they weren’t able themselves to do the member care Jesus had ordained them to do. They appointed another organizational structure within the church to minister to the needs of the growing body. Big church is messy. But it’s better than letting people go to hell.