Multi-Site Vision Casting
Jesus was always speaking in metaphors. One of them is found in Luke 6:43-44:“No good tree bears bad fruit, nor does a bad tree bear good fruit. Each tree is recognized by its own fruit.” Using Jesus’ metaphor of the tree, in the next ten minutes I am going to not only give you the history of BridgeWay for the past ten years, but also the vision of BridgeWay for the next ten years—all without saying the words BridgeWay or church. Think I can do it? Ten minutes: Ready, set, go.
Ten years ago, all we had was a seed. The seed was planted in the ground. We fed and watered it, but God caused it to grow. And what did it become? An apple tree. But if you look at the metaphor in Luke chapter 6, Jesus tells us that if an apple trees is healthy, two things will always, always, always happen: First it will grow, and second it will reproduce. And that is what the apple tree did.
Our vision for growth was to transplant the apple tree when it had grown too big for the pot we had leased out for it. We would raise a lot of money, and build a new pot that was bigger. But the more we pursued our vision for growth, the more we realized that we were no longer trying to grow an apple tree; we were now trying to grow a banana tree. And a very expensive banana tree at that: seven million dollars! But look what Jesus tells us in the metaphor:“A tree will be recognized by its own fruit.” God did not call us to grow a banana tree; he had called us to grow what? Apple trees!
Our vision for reproduction was to find seeds from other trees and then plant them here in the ground. We would plant seeds everywhere, in the hope that like us they too would become apple trees. But the more we pursued our vision for reproduction, the more we realized we were no longer trying to reproduce apple trees we were now trying to reproduce orange trees. And while the genesis of the idea was good, at some point we had gotten off the pathway. But look what Jesus tells us in the metaphor: “A tree will be recognized by its own fruit.” God did not call us to reproduce orange trees, he had called us to reproduce what? Apple trees!
As we were trying to figure out our vision for growing and reproducing our apple tree, something happened: We stopped growing and reproducing. It was not because we couldn’t figure out our vision, but because the apple tree had become unhealthy. So we asked God to do whatever it takes to make our apple tree healthy again, and as a result of that prayer two things happened. First, some people we love very much are no longer working on the apple tree. Second, we are spending 27 weeks hearing, reading, studying, memorizing and meditating on the book that will help us to become healthy again.
But, do you remember what Jesus told us? If an apple tree is healthy, two things will always, always, always happen: First it will grow, and second it will reproduce. Once again that is what the apple tree is doing. The past three to four weeks, it is obvious that the pot we leased out for the apple tree will soon be too small. The question now is, “How will the apple tree continue to grow and reproduce?”
Our vision for growth and reproduction is start once again with a seed. But along with the seed, what if we took a slice of apple and planted it in other places? Does anyone here live in Indianapolis? What planted a slice of the apple there?. Does anyone here live in McCordsville? What if we planted a slice of the apple there? Does anyone here live in Noblesville? What if we planted a slice of the apple there?
The miraculous thing that God does when we plant a slice of the apple in places like that is that there will now be apple trees all around. Not banana trees. Not orange trees. But apple trees, that not only look like but are like the first apple tree. Why? “A tree will be recognized by its own fruit.”
Multi-site is the strategy BridgeWay is adopting to accomplish Jesus’ vision for growth and multiplication of his church. Rather than growing a mega-church (i.e. the banana tree) or reproducing other churches (i.e. the orange trees), BridgeWay’s strategy will be to grow and reproduce on multiple sites, leasing facilities (i.e. the pots) rather than building them.
The Apple Tree: Our church located at multiple sites.
The Apple Slice: Our resources of people and finances.
The Apple Seed: Our DNA of mission, vision and values.