Multi-Site in a Cornfield

Had lunch with Scott Engbrecht yesterday. Scott is the point man at New Life Fellowship, which is a new campus of Nappanee Missionary Church (NMC) where Scott’s dad, Dave Engbrecht has been the senior pastor since 1979. NMC is an incredible story. They’re sort of located on the opposite side of the South Bend region, only their cornfields are much bigger down there. Under Dave’s leadership, the church has had 27 years of consistent growth and is now reaching over 3,000 people each weekend. It’s an unbelievable story. Churches shouldn’t be that big in small towns like Nappanee–especially outside of the Bible-belt.

Scott is leading a new adventure in a community about 40 minutes away from Nappanee. Like several other churches have been doing throughout the country, New Life is using video messages from the main campus. There is no live teaching, but everything else is live including the music, the drama and the announcements. It’s working. That location started last January, and they’re already running close to 300. So, in case you were wondering, the multi-site strategy appears to work in cornfields as well.

Thanks for joining me for lunch, Scott. I loved hearing your story.