Hirsch & Stetzer Discuss Multi-Site?|?Integrating Missionally – W. David Phillips.
I saw this link on Tall Skinny Kiwi, and since I’ve never been in a “satellite campus” but find the phenomenon fascinating, I decided to take a look.? I think that Stetzer’s remark at the end is partly true but doesn’t go far enough.? He’s right that a congregation of fifty and a congregation of nine thousand and a multi-site congregation of ten screens and two thousand spectators each can turn Christianity into a spectator sport; I also think he should have taken a moment to note what about certain kinds of congregational life lead to that spectatorship.? I know that I’ve had more than one unfortunate online run-in with the disciples of Frank Viola and company, but ultimately I think that Alan Hirsch made the best points in this clip: the ultimate mode of judging this or that congregation can’t be the relativistic “there are congregations worse than us” game; Christians must be in some senses Platonists when it comes to communities–if there are entire classes of entirely passive congregants, then something is askew with the way that the congregation does things.? Perhaps I’m an incorrigible small-congregation dude (who sometimes thinks that house church wouldn’t be such a bad way to go), but I do have trouble imagining an engaged and mission-driven congregation of nine thousand.? I’ll admit that I’ve never had extensive interactions with such a critter, but I’m inclined towards suspicion.
