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BY MELISSA LAUBER
UMCONNECTION STAFF

While church-going is a fading phenomenon in our national landscape, with only 17 percent of Americans attending weekly worship, leaders of the Baltimore-Washington Conference say they're are not willing to surrender to decline. Rather, in efforts to foster new life and vitality, they're developing a unique church model to jumpstart health and growth in struggling
congregations.

Multi-site parishes, in which a large church comes together with a smaller one in a myriad of ways, is an option beginning to be pursued in at least 13 settings within the conference.

Proclaiming, not preserving

"Smaller churches are asking themselves, are we about preservation or proclamation," said the Rev. Matt Poole, an Adventure Guide who leads the conference's congregational development ministries. "Are we about preserving our identity and our building or proclaiming the Kingdom of God?"

Multi-site parishes are not about one church "rescuing" another, said Poole. "The better motive is wanting to have a greater impact in the Kingdom and needing someone to help accomplish that."

"Our goal is health," said Bishop John Schol. "Our goal is creating congregations that have a meaningful impact on their members' lives and the lives of their communities. With multi-site parishes we're creating models of health. We're enabling opportunities for a healthy church's DNA to be shared."

Both the bishop and Poole emphasize that multi-site parishes are not the vision, "they are simply a tool," but one that may prove vital in helping churches that want to draw upon the strength of the connectional system.

In 2008, 55 percent of churches within the Baltimore-Washington Conference averaged fewer than 75 people in worship; 90 congregations had fewer than 25 worshippers each week. In the multi-site model, one of these congregations may wish to join with a larger church nearby. (Within the conference, 90 churches reported average worship attendance of more than 200, a number people in many surveys report as their preferred size church.)

Defining ‘multi-site'

The naming of these arrangements can be confusing.

First UMC in Berkeley Springs, for example, is a true "multi-site church," with one pastor, but with one worship service in a traditional church building and another in a non-traditional
physical therapy site.

Started a year ago, the Rev. Andrew Cooney has grown this worship in a gym setting to between 40 and 60 people each week. The worship is a bit nontraditional. Each Sunday members are given a question of the day, and lively discussion is the service's hallmark.

Cooney and the congregation sometimes envision planting new campuses every few years, and their model is one most people think of when they hear the word "multi-site."

In the Baltimore-Washington Conference, in the past, there was a tendency for smaller churches to join in "cooperative parishes," pooling resources so they could do activities together and afford to have a full-time pastor. In the conference, there are 31 cooperative parishes, but these now also include the new multi-site parishes, which are different in that they intentionally yoke together one church that is flourishing on its own with another less thriving church.

How these churches are yoked is open for interpretation. "This isn't a one-size-fits-all model," Poole stressed. "It's not formulaic."

But a few factors seem consistent. The aim of the multi-site parish is to create one unified congregation, with one lead, senior pastor and a staff, which worships and does ministry in more than one location. If the partnership proves successful, property, income and other assets become shared, with each site setting and living within a self-sustaining budget.

One area success story

First Saints Community Church, a United Methodist congregation in St. Mary's County, was one of the first conference churches to become a multi-site parish.

In 2006, St. Paul's UMC in Leonardtown, First Friendship and St. George Island UMCs began a two year period of prayer, conversation, and shared ministry about joining together as one church. This time of discernment, which they refer to as the "engagement period," delivered a vision of what could be done through them in St. Mary's County, said the Rev. John Wunderlich III.

From that vision, First Saints Community Church was born in January 2008.

Wunderlich, the church's senior pastor, likes to use the phrase "building the bridge as we walk on it," to describe the process of creating one church at three locations.

As they built the identity of the new First Saints, church leaders from each of the sites took care to preserve the history and value the contributions of one another. "We built on our history rather than destroying it," said Wunderlich.

The church also acknowledged that change is often difficult. You always run into resistance, said Wunderlich, who advises those thinking about a multi-site parish to not give up. "We often quit right before the big breakthrough comes," he said.

Ed Priest, one of First Saint's lay leaders, is not sure what the next big breakthrough for his church might be. But he is convinced that the congregation is learning to come together in new and meaningful ways, gradually giving up the big/ little church mentality for an "our church" mindset.

It's a model of ministry Priest is certain is breathing new life into United Methodism in the region.

Laying the groundwork

The Rev. Jim Tomberlin, a consultant and expert on multi-site churches from Arizona (www.thirdquarterconsulting.com) did a training program Oct. 8 on this model of ministry for area churches interested in this arrangement.

Multi-site is no longer a trend in the church growth community. "It's the new normal," he said.

For churches considering this ministry, Tomberlin offered a number of ideas to consider.

He recommends churches that want to adopt one another having "at least an 80 percent DNA match."

He also suggested building on each locations' core competencies. What makes you remarkable, he asked. "Focus on that."

While the creation of multi-sites is complex, in the training, Tomberlin stressed that birth is easier than resurrection and restarting a church is preferable to artificially resuscitating it. "God has a purpose for every church."

Churches that are in essence merging finances, staff and vision should be sure to explore what's
negotiable, analyze risk and rewards for all parties, define the relationship that will exist between the congregations, establish timelines and know the financial realities of all assets and liabilities.

In addition Tomberlin suggested that each site, after two years, needs to be financially independent; that a courtship period of one to three months between leaders of both sites be undertaken; and that relationships supersede rules.

Adopting options for growth

Sometimes the smaller churches may contend with a feeling of having change imposed upon them, or of being swallowed up. But within the Baltimore-Washington Conference that "hostile takeover" model will not be used.

"We're choosing to follow more of an adoption model," said Poole, in which people come as they are into a new family.

"At the end of the day, it's all about leadership. Successful leaders embrace the genius of the ‘and,' not the tyranny of the ‘or'," Tomberlin said.

"This conference is on to something here. Lead the way, not just for your denomination but for others," he urged.

Churches that are interested in pursuing a multi-site model are encouraged to begin conversations with other congregations around them. "Discussion is always the first step," said Bishop Schol.

"No one arrives at perfection in the first step they take. But we're taking steps," Poole said. "God is a multiplying God and even though we can't see what God is up to, God is still multiplying the church."