An interview with Jim Tomberlin | Christ Community Church

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An interview with Jim Tomberlin

By Greg Ligon and Geoff Surratt

How did you get started down the multi-site church journey?
I remember when this idea first hit me in 1997 as a senior pastor in Colorado Springs. My church had grown from a handful to 5,000 people in the 8 1/2 years I served there. I experienced all the joys and pains of a growing church. We went to multiple staff, multiple services, multiple days, multiple media, multiple venues, and multiple building campaigns- all on one campus. We were a multi-tasking church!

After we built out as much as we could on our current campus, we became one of the experimental satellite sites for Willow Creek's Leadership Summit. The Summit was a three-day conference simulcast live from Chicago to Colorado. I'm sitting there enjoying the Summit being video-cast from Chicago to Colorado and have this thought, "I wonder if this concept could work for a local church every week? Could we be one church in multiple locations and use video to extend ourselves across our region?"

At the same time, Larry Osborne and I were in a Leadership Network think tank where I learned about his video café experiment.

So I went to my church leadership and said, "Why don't we launch a second campus using video?" They responded the way most people respond when they first hear about this concept, "Why would anyone want to go to church to watch a video screen?" But the idea wouldn't let me go and eventually brought me to Willow Creek to pioneer the satellite congregation idea. What seemed crazy and unthinkable at the time, is now being done all across America.

By the way, my former church in Colorado is now in two locations and launching a third one soon.
How did you get to Willow Creek?
As one of the early WCA churches in Colorado, a relationship developed over time with Willow Creek that eventually resulted in an invitation to join the leadership team at Willow.

Willow Creek had been in a plateau for five years because their facility was full and a third of the congregation lived more than thirty minutes away. I was specifically hired to help with the teaching and to pioneer the multi-site strategy for Willow.
What was Willow Creek's experience with multi-site?
September 11, 2001 was the first Leadership Network gathering of churches that were beginning to explore the multi-site concept. When I announced that Willow was launching its first satellite campus in two days using a video-cast message-half the room laughed and the other half cheered us on. Today, most of those who laughed are now doing it.

In the five years I served at Willow, we launched four regional congregations around Chicagoland.. Each campus is 30-90 minutes from the original campus. We've rented space in public schools, private Christian schools, a warehouse, a fitness center, and a fine-arts theater. We've tried a live simulcast satellite feed, but came to prefer using delayed video.

Each regional congregation started with 200-300 people and grew to over a thousand in attendance and became financially self-sustaining within the first year. Each campus baptizes about 10% of their attendance every year. The initial start-up costs were also given back to Willow's building campaign. Presently, nearly a third of Willow Creek's weekly attendance is at a regional campus.
What lessons did you learn from your Willow Creek experience?
Video teaching works. It works for believers and seekers because it's not about the medium, it's about the message. Dynamic teaching delivered through video in the context of a local congregation can reach the lost, transform lives, and grow a church.

Multi-site is effective. A multi-site church can extend its impact and reach more people faster and cheaper than containing its entire ministry in one location. Multi-site leverages the advantages of a large congregation while maximizing the intimacy of a smaller congregation.

Geographical proximity matters. The closer an active church attendee lives to their church, the more likely their attendance, serving and giving is going to increase.

Campus Pastors are crucial. The success of a multi-campus church rises or falls on the local campus pastor.
What "non-negotiables" have you identified for churches considering going multi-site?
Embrace the new paradigm. Commit to becoming a multi-site church, not a church with multiple sites. Going from a "mono-site" to a "multi-site" mindset is a paradigm shift of enormous proportions. It's a whole different way of doing church that affects every staff member, program and resource of the church. Make sure you understand these implications before committing to a multi-site strategy.

Appoint a senior staff person to lead point in transitioning to a multi-site church. This person is someone who wakes up every morning thinking about multi-site and quarterbacks the church's transition to a multi-site strategy.
What are the most interesting developments you are seeing with the churches you are working with around the country?
Multi-site churches are prolific. By the end of this decade, every major city and community in America will have multiple multi-site churches.

Multi-site churches come in all sizes. Although mega-churches initially pioneered the multi-site model, this model works for churches of all sizes.

Giga-churches in smaller buildings. The emerging mega-churches are moving away from building super-large buildings in a single location to extending themselves geographical through multiple locations.

Rural-Urban Renewal. Mega-churches have been essentially a suburban phenomenon, but the multi-site model is expanding vibrant evangelical churches into urban and rural communities.

Multi-Cultural Churches. Growing churches are becoming more intentional about being multi-cultural. Multiple venues and locations make this possible.

Theater Churches. Theaters are becoming houses of worship in unprecedented ways and numbers. Theaters are becoming a preferred inexpensive venue for many churches rather than a last resort and a natural for multi-site churches.

Mergers and Acquisitions. The multi-site movement is revitalizing struggling congregations through mutually- beneficial mergers and acquisitions.