Is the Multi-Service Model Really Practical?

If you want to fasten a shelf to the wall, then screws and a drill will seem practical. But if you want to cut an opening in that wall and install a window, then not so much. You’re going to need a different set of tools for that. Our goal determines which tools we need.

The same is true for our churches and their “vision.” Part of their vision should include multiplying churches. And that should impact their decisions about the tools they use, such as adding multiple services, plant churches, or something else.

A Vision Problem

If a church does not have a vision to multiply churches, then however “biblical” their vision may be, it is deeply broken from the start. The entire New Testament is the story of Christ coming to earth, conquering sin, gathering his disciples, and sending them out to preach the gospel and build up churches in all the world.

In the Gospel of Matthew, he promises to build his church (Matt. 16:18). In the book of Acts, everywhere the apostles go to preach the gospel and make disciples, a church is formed as a result (Acts 9:31). In the epistles, those same churches are taught to be faithful in their life and mission together as churches (1 Tim. 3:14–15). Then in Revelation, Jesus addresses a host of eschatological visions to “the churches” (Rev. 22:16).

All this tells us something about Jesus’s doctrine of the church: his network of multiplying congregations is central to his unfolding redemptive plan for all creation.

Therefore, every church should share Jesus’s goal of multiplying churches, not just managing its own growth. No single church, no matter how many services it hosts per week, could ever live up to the New Testament’s colossal vision for the church on earth. To pursue this kind of vision, we have to make the multiplication of churches one of the top priorities for every church—as if it is essential to the reason that each church exists.

Now, some multi-service churches are also passionate—and even effective—at multiplying churches. I’m grateful for this. But here’s the important question: “Which is a clearer biblical priority? Multiplying churches or multiplying services?” And if the answer is multiplying churches, then the next question is obvious: “Does multiplying services actually help us, or hurt us?”

Every Service Could Be a Church

I would argue that hosting multiple services is a “practical solution” that works against a far greater biblical priority. The argument is simple: every additional service a church holds could be a new congregation that the church multiplies. Meanwhile, with each additional service a church adds, that same church risks cutting in half its people’s vision and desire to multiply churches.

But multiplying services is so much more efficient and practical, isn’t it?

“Look!” they’ll say. “We’ve already done that. Tons of churches do. It just ‘works.’”

Maybe so. It’s also easier to mount a shelf to a wall than to install a window. But if your goal is to see outside, then no shelf will be able to help you accomplish that vision—no matter how efficiently you mount it.

Congregations working together to multiply churches is certainly in the Bible, and a single congregation with multiple identical gatherings is not. So it doesn’t matter how “practical” the multi-service model may seem, we must acknowledge how it works against the grain of biblical priorities. We need to be careful not to prioritize the organizational success of one church at the expense of multiplying churches.

Why Churches Add Services

God has blessed me with many great pastor-friends, and I think all of them fit into one of two categories: either those who are opposed to doing two services, or those who feel they have to if their building ever fills up. I cannot think of a single pastor-friend who feels strongly that having multiple services is a biblical priority, in and of itself, which helps to strengthen his church’s overall mission and culture.

That’s typically not why churches add a second service.

They do it because it seems like the most practical solution to a very real problem. Their building is full, and more people keep coming. In some cases, pastors add a second service because, frankly, the market now demands this solution. For many of their members, it’s a foregone conclusion: “If the church fills up, then the elders have to start a second service. That’s just how church works. And if they don’t, then I will be very suspicious of their motivations.”

But why?

For most members, I’m convinced it’s because they just can’t see how it would be practical for their church to turn people away . . . since the church’s goal is to reach as many people as possible. And therein lies the problem. What if there is a better, clearer goal that should matter more to us than simply solving the “problem” of a full building?

Okay, but Our Building Is Still Full. . .

You might be thinking, “But, Danny, we’re already turning people away, and some of my members are starting to look at me sideways. They’re not going to have the patience to hear me out about all of this. We need a solution, like, now!”

I get it. I’ve been there. But be patient with them! Hear them out. Love them well. (They also may be more willing to hear you out than you suspect. They are God’s Spirit-filled people; after all, some of them may even agree with you.) Affirm their godly desire to keep making disciples. Reassure them that you share this desire as well and that your church will never be “done” making disciples because your building is full. If that were the case, then they should be up in arms!

Consider hiring a church planting resident to develop and lead a new church planting team. Let the congregation know, “Our evangelistic efforts may be hampered for a time, but this church plant will effectively be our evangelistic effort. And they won’t be hampered in the same way!” Maybe start the search for a new, larger facility for your church to either rent or buy, so that you have the room to keep making more disciples as well.

There are plenty of practical ways forward. You may even think of a new one!

But if your people ask for a shelf, then patiently help them to see that a window would be far better. While the instinct to start a second service is understandable, this “shelf” they really, really want may actually keep the church from seeing clearly for years to come. Instead of seeing a full building as a logistical problem to solve as soon as possible, what if we saw this God-given momentum as a gracious gift to be used for the sake of multiplying healthy congregations?

If our members share a biblical vision for God using many, many churches to accomplish his purposes in the world, then their souls will start to long for healthy churches to be multiplied. That second service they thought you needed may start to seem less practical. And with every “window” we install, this biblical vision will become brighter and clearer to everyone, as if God is revealing his heavenly wisdom through these multiplying churches (Eph. 3:10).

Brother, that is a far more compelling vision than another multi-service megachurch. And in light of the New Testament’s vision, it’s also more practical.