The multi-site church is a phenomenon that you will no doubt be hearing about in the future. An estimated 100 to 200 churches nationwide are experimenting with this concept: one church (meaning one staff, one board, one budget) meeting in multiple locations, usually with the various sites developing unique personalities yet sharing the same "brand identity" and DNA.

One leading example: Community Christian Church, which was planted in Naperville, Illinois, in 1989. Its vision: "Helping people find their way back to God." In 1998, it launched a "south campus" twenty minutes away in a community center of a new housing development. A third site is in Carillon, a nearby "active adult lifestyle community" for those 55+.

Then in 2001, a struggling church in the town of Montgomery offered its building and five acres in hopes that by making it a fourth campus of CCC that new life would emerge. After six months of building rehab and enrolling about 100 new leaders and artists as "spiritual entrepreneurs," ...