There are two huge mistakes that pastors tend to make when moving to a multisite model. They reinvent the wheel and they pick the wrong kind of person to be a campus pastor.
Multisite has become so common and ubiquitous that most pastors and leadership teams assume that they can figure it out on the fly. Rather than spending money or taking the time to seek out training and advice from those who have done it before, they visit a couple of churches, read a few articles, and then launch out, completely oblivious to the subtle nuances that make for the success or failure of a multisite. They’re a lot like a couch potato who watches lots of golf on TV and decides that he’s ready to join a private club and play at a high level after buying an expensive set of clubs.
The second major mistake is choosing the wrong kind of campus pastor. It’s a mistake nearly all of us who were early pioneers in the multisite movement made. We tended to choose shepherds instead of leaders. The fact is, if you want a campus to grow, you need to put a leader (not a shepherd) in charge. And preferably a leader who has a strong track record of growing things. When it comes to leadership, past is prolog. Shepherds who have maintained but never grown anything they’ve led are highly unlikely to grow a new campus. If you give them 200 people. Five years later they are likely to give you 180.