Reaching Out With the Word -- and Technology

Today's worshipers -- particularly those under 40 -- are more fickle and demanding than previous generations of churchgoers. No longer satisfied with a lone church organist, a scratchy-voiced choir and a few Bible stories for their children, they expect a dynamic preacher, polished worship services in an array of styles with slick videos and professional music along with well-planned religious education.

To provide that, say ministers and church-growth consultants, churches are spreading their brand, rather than funding smaller independent spin-offs that wouldn't be able to afford upscale worship amenities.

Multisite churches have "got a common identity. It's just the geography is different," said John Vaughan, a Missouri church-growth consultant.

Pastors who have embraced the multisite concept say it is akin to franchising their brand.

"It's kind of like going to Starbucks. You know the product you're going to get," said Mark Wilkinson, lead pastor of Journey's Crossing, a Gaithersburg-based church that holds its services in movie theaters with a rotating team of ministers. It has two such satellite services and plans 18 more.

But skeptics wonder if the multisite trend is more about bolstering egos than spreading the message. By focusing on spreading their own name and brand, rather than assisting the formation of independent churches, megachurches get even bigger and their head pastors become even more famous, said Thumma, who studies the growth of large churches.

"Clergy who consider this approach really need to reflect on their motive," Thumma said.

At McLean Bible, which has clashed with neighbors over the thick traffic that clogs area roads Sunday mornings and earned the ire of Jewish leaders with its campaigns to convert Jews to Christianity, church leaders say they are launching their multisite expansion because, less than three years after completing their Tysons Corner campus, they have run out of room.

Since opening the final phase of the sprawling building on Route 7 in 2004, average attendance has climbed 30 percent, and its 2,400-seat main auditorium is overflowing at Saturday evening and Sunday morning worship services.

"We've reached our effective capacity in the building," said Mike Hurt, McLean Bible's director of community campus development.

Paying for the expansion isn't expected to strain the budget of the church, which counts among its members many of Washington's elite, including White House officials, members of Congress, Pentagon leaders and corporate executives. Church leaders expect to have the church's mortgage paid by 2009 and plan to devote $3 million a year to outreach efforts.

Hurt said the church plans to beam Solomon's sermons into each location, and sermons by the Rev. Todd Phillips to its young-adult services. To keep the spiritual feeling that might suffer from so much televised preaching, every venue will also have an on-site pastor, offer religious education and produce the bulk of the worship service, customized for each place. Ultimately, the church expects 60,000 worshipers to attend weekend services across the Washington area.

In the weeks before the Rosslyn Spectrum launch, volunteers handed out 10,000 fliers at the Arlington Metro stop during morning and evening rush hours.

On the evening of the service, volunteers clad in orange safety vests stationed themselves at the Metro to guide worshipers to the Spectrum.

But after more than 600 people arrived for the first service in the 387-seat Spectrum, a second service was hastily added, and Starbucks coffee and bagels were provided to the worshipers forced to wait. According to an informal survey, church leaders said, about 30 percent of the attendees were new to McLean Bible.

Chandini Burt, 35, an Arlington lawyer, said it was her first time at a McLean Bible service. Going to McLean for a service "is a bit far for me," she said, but friends who attend McLean have praised it, and she wanted to try it out.

During the service last week, youth pastor Phillips pleaded with worshipers to fill out cards letting the church know whether they would consider coming at a later time in order to fit in two services.

"We don't claim to have everything figured out yet," Hurt said with an air of calm as young worshipers in puffy jackets, looped scarves and boots poured in.

Nonetheless, he said, the church is aggressively pursuing space to continue opening more sites. "If we find our next spot, we're ready to move."