Is a multisite campus with a video-screen pastor a real local church, or a franchise that undermines biblical ecclesiology?

• R

  Reese4d ago

  I've attended the Plano campus of one of these multisite churches for six years now. My small group leader knows my kids by name, showed up at the hospital when my wife had her appendix out at 2am, and has walked us through some genuinely hard seasons. If that's not a shepherd knowing his flock, I don't know what is. The 'embodied pastor' argument conflates the senior preacher with the entire pastoral structure. Elders, deacons, life group leaders — THOSE are the people doing the daily shepherding. The teaching pastor on screen is doing what Paul did when he wrote letters to churches he couldn't physically visit. Was Colossians not authoritative because Paul wasn't standing in the room?

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• N

  Nina3d ago

  The New Testament actually gives us zero explicit instructions about sermon delivery technology because, shockingly, fiber optic cable had not been invented yet. What it DOES give us is clear instruction about love, discipleship, accountability, and the ordinances. If a multisite campus faithfully administers baptism and the Lord's Supper, maintains meaningful church discipline, develops real community, and preaches the Word accurately — the vehicle for that preaching seems like a secondary matter at best. The Reformers would have loved radio. Luther would have had a podcast.

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• RR

  Reese R.3d ago

  I actually did my seminary thesis on ecclesiology at DTS and the multisite model has more in common with the Antioch church sending teams than people realize. Acts 13 isn't a franchise, it's a multiplication strategy. That said, I do think the video-venue model specifically creates a passive consumption culture that undermines the priesthood of all believers. Plant actual independent churches with indigenous leadership. Don't just open another screen.

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• O

  Omar4d ago

  okay so i grew up at Prestonwood and i remember when things were actually... local. you knew the pastor, the pastor knew you, there was weight to that. now my cousin goes to a campus 40 minutes away and she barely knows who her campus pastor even is. she watches the same video everyone else watches and calls it community. i dont know man. it feels thin. not saying god cant work through it but it feels thin.

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• NR

  Nina R.3d ago

  Can someone explain to me how this is different from a televangelist? Because from where I'm sitting in Garland, it's not. You've got a celebrity pastor, a production team making him look good, campuses designed around his brand, and local people paying tithe money that flows upward to a central organization. The New Testament church had no celebrity structure like this. None. Read Acts 2 again. Every single one of those early believers was IN THE ROOM. Come on Dallas, we are smarter than this.

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• NB

  Noah B.3d ago

  My family just relocated here from Portland and we've been visiting several of these multisite churches trying to find a home. Honestly the production quality and theological depth of the preaching at some of these campuses blows away a lot of stand-alone churches we visited. But my wife raised a really good point on the drive home last Sunday — she said she felt like an audience member, not a member. That distinction matters. We haven't joined anywhere yet partly because of this exact tension.

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• JS

  Jamie S.4d ago

  Nope. Hard disagree. A franchise is exactly what it is. You want proof? Watch what happens to one of those campuses when the mothership has a scandal. The whole thing collapses because the identity was never local to begin with.

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• DT

  Diego T.3d ago

  Fun fact that I'm pretty sure nobody here knows: the early church actually met in homes with no single recognized preacher at all for the first couple centuries. So technically every large church with a dedicated pulpit and a stage and a sound system is already a massive departure from New Testament ecclesiology. The video screen is maybe the fifth or sixth compromise down a road Christians started walking a long long time ago. I'm not saying any of it is wrong I'm just saying lets be consistent about where we draw these lines.

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