WASHINGTON – With 13,000 worshippers, a $93 million campus and multimillion-dollar budget, can McLean Bible Church – the Christian colossus in Tysons Corner, Va. – possibly get any bigger?

Yes, it can.

The evangelical megachurch, one of the country’s largest and fastest growing, is launching an ambitious expansion. It plans to build a “spiritual beltway” around the region by opening nine satellite locations to bring tens of thousands more into its fold. Through televised broadcasts, congregants at each location would see and hear portions of the same service at the same time.

Unlike the traditional church-growth strategy, where houses of worship spun off – or “planted” – independent entities, an increasing number of large churches are growing by opening multiple locations under the same name and considering themselves one church.

Nationwide, one in four megachurches, those with more than 2,000 worshippers, hold services at satellite locations, up from 5 percent in 2000. The number of megachurches with multiple sites is expected to double in the next few years, according to Scott Thumma, a professor of the sociology of religion at the Hartford Institute for Religion Research.

Recently, the first satellite church was launched, with a regular Monday night service aimed at young adults, in leased space in Arlington, Va., after holding three preview services there in the fall.

If successful, senior pastor Lon Solomon told worshippers in a sermon, “We can keep expanding our impact for the Lord Jesus in this town until we have touched the entire town for Christ.”

Often using technology to beam in worship services from a central location, multisite churches are spreading their “brand” to new congregations that are many miles, or even several states, away. Sometimes the branches add their own touches, such as live music, a local pastor and on-site religious education.

“The culture has changed now,” said the Rev. Deron Cloud, founder of the Soul Factory, a Forestville, Md., church, who now preaches to his 4,000-member flock through a satellite hookup from a new Soul Factory branch in Atlanta. He has raised $1 million and plans to open sites in North Carolina and Alabama this year.

“People used to talk on the telephone and meet in person, but now the culture is satisfied with e-mails and Blackberries,” Cloud said. “We as a congregation made a decision that if we are going to embrace people, we must leave the four walls of the church.”

Today’s worshippers – 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, Md.-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.

Mike Hurt, McLean Bible’s director of community campus development, said the church plans to beam Solomon’s sermons into each location, and sermons by the Rev. Todd Phillips to its young-adult services. 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 worshippers to attend weekend services across the Washington, D.C., area.

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.