Journal: Bibliotheca Sacra
Volume: BSAC 175:700 (Oct 2018)
Article: Insights For Ministry Expansion From DTS Extension Sites
Author: Joshua J. Bleeker

BSac 175:700 (October-December 2018) p. 439

Insights For Ministry Expansion From DTS Extension Sites

Joshua J. Bleeker

Joshua J. Bleeker is Dean of DTS-Washington, DC, and Assistant Professor of Educational Ministries and Leadership, Dallas Theological Seminary, Dallas, Texas.

Abstract

When should you launch a satellite site from your church or establish a new beachhead for your parachurch’s vision? What local factors signal an opportunity for ministries to take this step of faith? Dallas Theological Seminary (DTS) wrestled with these questions while implementing distance education, and the stories of its various extension sites offer insight into assessing ministry expansions.

A Vision For Expansion

“It is probable that we will have to establish even sooner than we had expected, a second unit, and organize an entire faculty and equipment somewhere in the East, preferably at Washington, D.C. How wonderful it would be if God should release the funds from the mountain in time to enable us to do this very thing!”

Lewis Sperry Chafer, 19281

Barely a year after the first full class of graduates donned mortar board and tassel, Chafer—founder and first president of Dallas Theological Seminary (DTS)2—envis-ioned a future that leveraged distance education to carry out DTS’s mission. He observed factors affecting Christianity’s influence and

BSac 175:700 (October-December 2018) p. 440

concluded that the situation called for a “bold new departure” in theological education.3

It took over sixty years before DTS established its first extension site, and by then, the factors had changed all over again. How did the “new” DTS discern the time had come? How do contemporary ministries evaluate the same leap?

Wade Burnett, a church multiplication consultant with Multisite Solutions, keys in on four areas that consistently attract people to churches: teaching, worship, children’s ministry, and connection (relationships).4 When peoples’ needs meet a church with these resources, church growth often occurs. Burnett has done the careful, research-based work to identify factors that contribute to multisite sustainability. DTS, in starting new sites, operated from assumption-based and research-based postures, with varying results. A survey of the rationale and results for these extension sites suggests a prioritized list of markers of opportunity for expansion of parachurch ministries.<...