Questions to ask about naming when your church goes multisite.

Has your church gone multisite or are you thinking about it? It seems to be gaining more and more momentum in the church world. And if we’ve learned anything about this movement through the research being conducted by Barna Group and Aspen Group, it’s that there is no one-size-fits-all approach to being a multisite or multiplying church.

Some multisite churches have live teaching and worship at all locations while others utilize live-streaming or pre-recorded sermons. For some churches, all of their campuses share the same mission and vision, but each campus has its own vibe and serves a unique set of demographics in the area in which it is located compared to the other campuses. Some churches have several locations in the same general city/state/region while others have expanded, crossing state and country lines to do so. 

Whatever multisite model your church implements, one common question when going multisite is about church naming: should it be individual or centralized? We’ve worked with churches who have had to sort through this question, and they’ve ended up on either side of the coin.

Here are a few questions to ask when naming multisites:

  1. Does our church name still fully align with our mission?
    Your church’s mission statement is an explanation for who your church is and what you're doing in the community and world. It’s a cause for your leadership to champion and the staff to rally around, a targeted focus for your leaders to come back to as they make decisions on teaching, ministry initiatives and programs. So what does your church name have to do with this? Your church name should embody your church’s mission and help carry it out. If you’re going multisite and your church name doesn’t fully align with your mission anymore, then now’s a good time to think about a name change.

  2. Does our current church name make sense in multiple locations?
    When Spring Lake Wesleyan Church added locations, their church name had to be examined because they were no longer located only in Spring Lake, Michigan. In order to be intentional about including all future sites in their name, we helped them work through a strategic renaming process to select a name that works well in any location and still reflects who they are as a church – All Shores Wesleyan Church. Your church name should translate well to each new site you add to your church family. Make sure it’s clear to everyone, especially guests.

  3. Do our specific site names allow for future growth?
    Many churches opt to use the same main church name at each of their sites, and then they distinguish their individual sites by a street name, city name or region. Northview Church and Eastern Star Church both follow this naming strategy. Each church has multiple locations, and each location is known as Northview Church or Eastern Star Church, but they are distinguished individually by a street name, city name or region, such as the Fishers Campus. Keep it simple and evergreen to allow for future growth. And be mindful that if you use identifiers like North or South, you may run into an issue down the road if you add a location farther north or south – that’s where city and street names come in handy.

  4. Does it feel like we are part of one church?
    With growth comes growing pains, but if your goal is to be one church family in multiple locations, then be sure to communicate the value of each campus and celebrate how each is accomplishing Kingdom work as part of your one church body. Be mindful of using terms like “mothership” or “main” because they can contribute to an “us” vs. “them” mentality among your campuses or cause newer campuses to feel like they are a lower priority.

As multisites continue to increase, churches will continue asking questions about how best to handle leadership, branding and communications, financing, facilities, technology, staffing, operations and more.

Looking for answers to these questions? You’re in luck! The 2016 Alignment Conference is all about multisites, bringing together trusted experts and leading practitioners for a one-day, deep-dive into today’s methods and models for launching new congregations. This year’s event will be held October 18, 2016, at Community Christian Church in Naperville, IL. It's not too late to register!