One way churches are expanding their reach into their community and surrounding areas is by going multi-site. While this is certainly a great idea, many churches often take the plunge before having a clear strategy.

Here are 4 smart things successful churches do before they go multi-site:

1. Get good at something.

Unless you are good at something on your first campus, why go to a second? Think about the old movie “Multiplicity” with Michael Keaton. A copy of a copy always loses resolution. In other words, why give birth to a second campus that is a less clear and/or simply a blurry version of the first campus? [Tweet “Get great at something and then figure out how to reproduce it at multiple locations.”]

2. Slim down. 

Most churches that do multi-site successfully have just three or four things to export. In other words, a church that has 36 ministries on their original campus will have significant problems exporting all those ministries to the new campus(es) with precision, success and acceptance.

3. Consider the cost. 

Just like going from one child to two in your family changes the family game, so going from one site to two or three and certainly four changes the game for the church. A whole new leadership mentality and infinitely more complex organizational structure is necessary for multiplied campuses. So as you consider multi-site, do not only consider the financial resources but also the human resources that will be necessary to sustain the new, more complex, era of multi-site ministry.

4. Ready your original campus. 

As a church goes from one to two and three and four sites, the biggest change is quite soon realized on the original campus. Not everything emanates from the original campus anymore, nor does the original campus get priority or preference on resources or staff as there are more “mouths to feed” / campuses in the organization! The original campus is also often the “sending” campus that feeds or seeds the new campuses. Therefore, there must be a very pro-active plan put in place to keep the original campus growing, healthy and contagious.