Download the Q4 2023 Unstuck Church Report
Every quarter, The Unstuck Group compiles all the data we’ve collected to monitor trends in churches in the United States. For this quarter’s report, we are specifically focusing on trends in multisite churches.
The report is a reflection of more than 100 multisite churches that The Unstuck Group has served through the years and more than 80 ministries that participated in a multisite survey conducted in October 2023. This provides a very current snapshot of multisite churches of all shapes and sizes.
Key Findings from the Q4 2023 Unstuck Church Report
When analyzing the data from this multisite survey, we looked at several key factors that might distinguish the churches that were experiencing the most health from their multisite strategy, as measured by growth and baptisms. As the general characteristics indicate, the vast majority of multisite churches are experiencing both.
However, it does appear that how churches approach their multisite strategy does make a difference. And the biggest differentiator appears to be the degree to which campuses are identical or autonomous:
- Faster growth – Churches with more identical campuses have experienced attendance growth of 25% when compared to attendance one year ago. Churches with more autonomous campuses have grown by 13% in the last year. In other words, churches with identical campuses are growing almost twice as fast.
- More baptisms – Churches with more identical campuses are baptizing a higher percentage of people when compared to in-person attendance.
- More volunteer leaders – Churches with more identical campuses have twice as many volunteers in leadership roles over teams or small groups compared to churches with more autonomous campuses.
- More intentional leadership development – Churches with more identical campuses were also much more likely to have a formal leadership development strategy for volunteers. For churches with more identical campuses, 67% of those ministries indicated that they had a formal leadership development program. On the other hand, only 38% of churches with more autonomous campuses had a formal leadership development effort.
Are there churches that find multisite success by engaging a strategy that hasn’t worked for other multisite churches? Of course.
The learning here, though, is that there seems to be a correlation between the strategy for multisite and the likelihood of experiencing success, as defined by attendance growth and life change as reflected in public statements of faith through baptism.
Get Your FREE Copy of The Q4 2023 Unstuck Church Report
My goal for this report is that it spurs healthy conversations among the leaders on church teams as we take a look at:
- Multisite General Charactertistics
- Multisite Leadership
- Multisite Staffing & Structure
- Multiplication Strategy
The report also features my personal takeaways on identical vs. autonomous campuses, the differences between thriving and failed campuses, and additional insights from report sponsor Christian Financial Resources.
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2 Comments
Kindly explain multisite churches with ‘identical’ campuses,” vis multisite churches with ‘autonomous’ campuses.
I’ve not heard these terms before.
Thx,and Blessings,
Lynwood in Scottsdale
Hi Lynwood, The full report explains this in detail, but here’s a quick summary:
Multisite churches that have more identical campuses could be compared to your favorite franchise restaurant. No matter the location, the various restaurants have the same branding, relatively similar building design and familiar dining room environments. The menu is the same. The customer service experience is the same. The quality of the meal and how it is delivered to the customer is almost identical from location to location.
More autonomous campuses are like independent coffee shops. They all sell coffee, but the branding is different. The vibe in the shop is unique. The menu is a little bit different. And the experience for the customers may be distinctive from one coffee shop to the next. Most importantly, there’s no central headquarters providing support to the independent shops.