How a multi-site church creates more opportunities for community impact

Christ Fellowship is a multi-site church. That means we are one church family meeting in multiple locations across our region. We currently average around 30,000 people in all of our combined campuses. Before you begin to revel in our fruit, I want you to understand why we worked so hard to pioneer a new way of doing church.

One of the major roles of the American church must be the reformation of our great nation. We started down the arduous path of multi-site development knowing that would help us mobilize a vast army of compassion, which could impact on our region. 

No one cares about our politics or moral issues until they know we love them. The 
multi-site model creates more outreach opportunities and makes us more aware of the broader needs of our community, allowing us to serve in a more strategic and thoughtful way.

As our people step out to serve others in loving compassion, more doors are opening for us to have greater influence. For example, when we saw that the foster care system in our area needed help, we established the Place of Hope children’s home. Because of the widespread impact of this faith-based program to care for abused and abandoned children, we are now able to speak into the entire foster care system and offer positive contributions on the local, state and national levels.

Annually, we adopt schools in our region that need help so we can bring value to the kids in the inner city. We feed over 100,000 people at Thanksgiving, partnering with our fire and police departments. We have also adopted one of our rural communities, where many are struggling in these tough economic times. We are building centers to help provide needed support and encouragement.

Our ultimate goal in serving others compassionately is to earn credibility in our community and leverage it for the message of truth, rooted only in God’s Word, to be proclaimed.

We also actively encourage our people to serve on their local school boards and in local, state and national governments, thus positioning themselves to have a voice of influence. We know that in doing so, our local, state and national leaders will easily embrace the godly foundation that has made our nation great.

It is our responsibility, as pastors and leaders in the church, to educate our people about our Judeo-Christian values and to keep our godly heritage at the forefront of all we do and all we stand for today.

The pulpits of America helped shape the very heart and soul of our great nation during the Revolutionary War, in the establishment of our Declaration of Independence and during the formation of our Constitution. Preachers were the ones calling their people to action.

On Jan. 21, 1776, after preaching the Sunday morning sermon with his congregation, Reverend John Muhlenberg took off his robe revealing his military uniform and called his men to fight for our young nation. Three hundred signed up that day to join their preacher in the battle for the freedom we still enjoy today.

We are still in a battle for the soul of our nation today, and we must stand up and engage in battle once more. Pastors, it is still our responsibility to stand up and fight for the truth. We must take up the banner of virtue and godliness, and stand for the guiding light and principles of truth that our nation was founded upon.

Irish political philosopher Edmond Burke said, “The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.” We can all do something. We can start today by rallying our people to do what they can to care for others’ needs. As people see we care we will be given opportunities to speak the truth, which will steadily reestablish the godly foundation of our nation, built on the cornerstone—the Lord Jesus Christ.

Tom Mullins is the founding pastor of Christ Fellowship Church, a multi-site church ministering to more than 30,000 people weekly in South Florida and online around the world. Tom and his wife, Donna, are the founders of Place of Hope Children’s Home and Place of Hope International Children’s Homes. Tom travels internationally to speak on behalf of Christian organizations such as EQUIP, Cru and Athletes in Action.

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