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(RNS) — At least 5 million Americans attend a multisite church, where they often watch a video beamed in from another site and have access to all the advantages of a megachurch without the crowds.

The multisite movement, which started with a handful of large churches in the 1990s, is now relatively commonplace. An estimated 1,800 churches use that model nationwide, according to “Multisite Revealed,” a new report from The Ascent Leader, an evangelical leadership training group.

All told, those churches have about 6,000 local sites, known as campuses. And they are found in almost every state in the union.

“Where are multisite churches located?” Warren Bird, the lead researcher on the report, said during an online event Wednesday (Oct. 21) highlighting the report.…