If you’re a church planter, chances are you’re wasting money.

The Sales Pitch

Let’s be honest: this is America, home of free-market capitalism. There is money to be made from church planters. And so a whole church-planting industry is ready to tell you that if you’re going to do it right, you probably need:

• a club-ready sound-and-light system
• a few Macs with top-of-the-line video editing software (might as well throw in an iPhone so you can Twitter your sermon prep)
• a top-end website with content management
• a children’s ministry setup that rivals a corporate daycare
• a trade-show-style display booth for all your visitors’ information
• industrial signage for both the inside and the outside of your venue
• a custom trailer to haul it all in

Most new church planters fall for this sales pitch like Tony Romo in the playoffs.

Don’t Believe the Hype

But in case you haven’t yet spent $100k on your “startup costs,” let me suggest that you hit the brakes and consider a crucial point: That’s GOD’S money that you’re spending. You’re going to stand before Jesus and answer for every dime. When many church planters in Africa don’t even own a Bible dictionary, do you really want to argue that the lighting rack was a “must-have?”

Don’t believe the hype. You can plant a missional church with next to nothing. We forked out only $19,000 in startup costs and got everything we needed. Sound system? We bought the most basic thing that would get the job done. Children’s ministry? We asked for donations from Christians and other churches in our city and got almost everything for free. Website? We bought a template for $50, tweaked it a little to make it our own, and hosted it with a local provider for a fraction of the cost of the turn-key church-planting web solutions. Computer and projector? We worked through the IT director at a local university who included our order in his volume purchase and passed the discount along to us.

Don’t Be a Statistic

You know the stats: 80% of church plants fail. Of course I hope your church isn’t one of them. But in your budgeting decisions, you should act as though it could be. If you had to shut things down, would you feel okay about how you’d spent the Lord’s money? Would any of your donors have reason to question your expenses as frivolous? Can you stand eye-to-eye with the family in your church who’s struggling financially and tell them with integrity that you’re spending only what’s necessary?

Don’t Take the Bait

A few months ago a church planter I know had to close up shop. As I scrolled through his fire-sale ad on Craigslist, I couldn’t help but wonder: did he really need all this stuff? If he had allocated funds differently, could he have stayed in the game a little longer and reached a place of viability? It’s not my place to question his decisions; “before his own master he stands or falls” (Romans 14:4). But I’m concerned that lots of young, starry-eyed church planters are easy prey for the salesmen of church-plant capitalism.

You don’t have to be. Stand firm, church planter, and don’t take the bait. We’re 4 years in, and I just now ordered business cards. Letterhead? Maybe next year.

Pastor Dad

Every dad is a pastor. The important thing is that he cares for his flock well. Pastor Mark Driscoll's new eBook offers spiritual insights on fatherhood. Get it here.

In Vintage Church chapter eleven we answer the question, "How Can a Church Utilize Technology?" This chapter includes a succinct summary of technological innovations in the history of the church such as pews and seats, electricity, organs, and the Internet. We also discuss the things churches need to consider regarding their use of technology. An example of this is the following excerpt from Vintage Church pages 274-275:

In addition to using technology in the corporate worship service, the church also benefits from taking full advantage of the opportunity for its preaching and other resources to become "sticky" to a larger audience for a longer period of time, thereby multiplying its influence. This includes use of the Internet, which has become the new front door for churches and the place people visit before showing up at any physical location....

Admittedly, not a lot of pastors are interested in the specific details about new technology. However, consider why it matters to churches. First, nearly everyone is on the Internet. Second, while on the Internet people are primarily looking for content and connection—two specialties of the church. In short, technology gives the church an opportunity to provide gospel content and relational connection to more people than ever before....

I offer this chapter as something of a field guide for those churches that want to wisely determine how to utilize various technologies for the benefit of the gospel. In offering specific counsel I am well aware that much of it will quickly become dated as innovation continues, but I offer it nonetheless in hopes of being helpful. My point is not that our church is cool and yours can be too, but that there are some great new ways to reach more people for Jesus that are worth considering for every church.

Vintage Church:

In this book, Mark Driscoll and Gerry Breshears discuss the essentials of what it means to be a biblical church. Find out more.

In Vintage Church chapter ten we answer the question, "What Is a Multi-campus Church?" With the fast growth of multi-campus churches and the multiple ways they are organized and led, we felt there was a timely necessity to discuss and define multi-site churches. Since Mars Hill, where I preach, is a multi-campus church with video broadcast sermons, we addressed this controversial issue as well. The following excerpt on multi-campus churches is taken from Vintage Church pages 247, 254:

With increasing advances in technology, we are now seeing the principles of one church meeting in multiple locations exponentially applied. The result has come to be called the "multi-site church revolution," which includes the controversial advent of "video venues." In many ways this is the circuit-riding preacher model renewed by technology. This chapter is devoted to exploring these two phenomena in both theological and practical detail....

Admittedly, by the time this book is published we will be doing things differently and likely will have added even more campuses. In sum, since our experiment with video two years ago, we have grown to a church with a peak attendance of eight thousand people spread across sixteen services on seven campuses with the capacity to double our attendance in the coming few years. Half of our attendance already participates via video, and in the coming years video will be the primary way in which people hear me preach the gospel. I now preach live four times on Sunday at our main campus. Some weeks I pre-record the sermon if I am traveling, in which case all services are video, and if I am sick or need a break I can just preach the morning services, which is a great relief.

Based on the five ways of doing multi-campus church, we are doing the partnership model at one of our seven campuses, the teaching-team model roughly 20 percent of the time across all campuses, and the regional-campus model. We also have some smaller informal gatherings both in the U.S. and around the world experimenting with the low-risk model to see if there is potential to make Mars Hill a national and international church.

We are by no means experts at all of this, but we have learned some things that I believe are helpful. (Seeing how friends such as pastors Ed Young Jr., Craig Groeschel, and Larry Osborne do their campuses has been very helpful.) Therefore, the following suggestions are offered as observations-not obligations-for those considering doing multi-campus church.

Vintage Church:

In this book, Mark Driscoll and Gerry Breshears discuss the essentials of what it means to be a biblical church. Find out more.

Part of the Pitfalls in Church Planting series.
Continued from Pitfalls in Church Planting: No Accountability.

Most church planters have grossly underestimated the importance of a permanent building. Churches used to be able to plant in a school and spend the first few years growing to a size of 400-500 before they even attempted to build anything or move into a building. Well, times are much different. In most cities you can no longer rent high school auditoriums, so the only spaces available are elementary or junior high school cafeterias. This space only holds around 100-150 people and provides little to no space for children.

Get an Intermediate Location

Instead of planning on growing your church to 400-500 and then building, church planters must find an intermediate location as they get to that goal. This could be 6000-7000 square feet of office space or storefront that used to be retail. You don't have to own it or build it, but you need to get serious about finding a location where people can come to you and know you'll be there every week.

Most churches double in size the weekend they move from being mobile to a more permanent building. People are also less prone to give faithfully to a church that's mobile. They don't know if it will be there in two months, so why sacrifice? But with a permanent location, you have much more credibility with attendees and the city you are trying to reach.

To be continued.

Resurgence on Facebook:

Become a fan of the Resurgence on Facebook, get connected with other fans, and stay current on all the latest updates. Find out more.

We recently finished a 4-part blog series of practical advice for church and ministry leaders on how to deal with an economic downturn. "The big idea is how to keep morale up when money is down so that gospel momentum can be maintained. Just because money is down does not mean that our vision should be down. People need Jesus, and many need practical help from Jesus’ people."

Navigating the Series:

View Series: Money, Morale, and Momentum series page

Part 1: Some Scriptures to Guide Financial Decision-Making

Part 2: 3 Principles to Guide Financial Decision-Making

Part 3: 5 More Principles to Guide Financial Decision-Making

Part 4: 9 Ways to Keep Morale and Momentum Up During Tough Times

Pastor Mark:

Get the latest content from Mark Driscoll, the
preaching pastor at Mars Hill Church. See More.

American Church Life Series: Click | View Series
Continued from: Part 2

Outreach and Service

• There is a tremendous amount of outreach and service available through congregations. Almost all congregations offer some support for congregants in need.
• 94 percent of congregations have a social service ministry; 84 percent have an educational or counseling ministry; and 78 percent have an evangelistic or religious outreach ministry.
• 44 percent of congregations reported mission and service trips, 32 percent offer prison ministry, 30 percent offer street evangelism, and 22 percent provide college campus ministry.
• 81 percent of congregations help others through food pantries or soup kitchens, 73 percent through cash assistance for the less fortunate, 68 percent through clothing donations, 43 percent through assistance for seniors, 43 percent through service trips to poor communities, and 40 percent through home repair for those in need.

Of particular interest was overseas giving and missions work by congregations. Here are some preliminary results from that effort:

• In 2006, about 56 percent of congregations gave money to U.S.-based organizations providing relief and development overseas. 33 percent gave donations directly to programs or organizations in foreign countries, and 35 percent reported that people from their congregation went on short-term mission or service trips overseas. About half of congregations supported other types of mission trips or missionaries overseas.
• Congregations gave about $7 billion in 2006 to support the needy in foreign countries. About $3.8 billion of this amount went directly to overseas causes.

The NDCS reports, "This is the first information that has been available on overseas giving by US congregations. Until now, no one knew the extent and shape of the overseas work by U.S. congregations. We will be looking more closely at these data to better understand congregational overseas ministry, and will send reports to you as these are available."

Share on Facebook

A Book You'll Actually Read:

Clear, biblical answers to some of the most common questions—all in concise books you'll actually read! Mark Driscoll boils down the big ideas into little books. Find out more.

Vintage Church Series: click here

In chapter five of Vintage Church we answer the question, "What Are Baptism and Communion?" Part of that answer can be found in these excerpts from pages 114 and 130:

By virtue of reminding us of our connection to Jesus and his people, baptism and Communion are supposed to be incredibly meaningful. In Christianity, baptism and Communion have been sacred rituals practiced for thousands of years in every culture by people who, by faith, trust in Jesus alone for their salvation. Different words are used to describe these sacred rituals. The most common term is sacrament, which refers to an outward, visible sign of an inward, invisible spiritual reality. In this sense, there are many sacraments. But most often the term is applied specifically to rites instituted by Christ for his church....

The church will stay on mission as it reflects deeply on the sacraments as gospel dramas where the Word is spoken and made visible, and where the blessings of life with the triune God brought to us through the Word made flesh, who died for our sin and rose for our new life, are lived out faithfully in the sacramental community of the Spirit to the glory of God the Father.

Vintage Church:

In this book, Mark Driscoll and Gerry Breshears discuss the essentials of what it means to be a biblical church. Find out more.

Part 4 of the Money, Morale, and Momentum series.

Continued from Part 3.

1. Morale

The big dissatisfiers of staff are pay (including benefits) and policy, so the goal is to keep pay high and policy low, as is reasonable.

2. Conflict

Email should only be for positive things and neutral information. For something negative, pick up the phone or meet face to face.

3. Momentum

People do not support a world that they did not create, so momentum is maintained as people are called forward to building new initiatives, new campuses, new church plants, and new ministries. Momentum is either forward or backward but never stagnant, which means even when money is down vision must stay up.

4. Freedom

For most senior leaders, freedom is a high-value item. While they do not use their full freedom, stress and anxiety are inevitable if they do not have it. Too much policy can remove freedom, and in so doing hurt the morale of senior leaders and subsequently slow or stall momentum.

5. Budgeting

Eat what you kill and have a monthly and quarterly budget that you watch so you do not get too far behind. If you do, and you then lay people off, their severance will cost you for months, which will put you even further behind financially than if you had the financial data to make cuts earlier. The days of an annual budget are gone. Things are changing so quickly that ministry leaders need to carefully track income and spending weekly, comb over monthly reports, and not make budgets in anything other than pencil beyond a quarter in advance. Changes to the budget need to be made quickly; otherwise poor reporting and slow responding will sink the ministry financially.

6. Wants

Communicate what you want for your people and not just what you want from them. During this time we want them to work hard, budget well, live generously, share with one another, grow in faith, live within their means, learn contentment, and grow as stewards in all of life.

7. Opportunity

This is a good harvest time because the god of money has been killed and is not resurrecting, so people are searching for a new god and are open to the gospel, community, and service. This means it is a great time, for example, to have budgeting seminars and such to teach people biblical principles about wealth and stewardship. Guys like Dave Ramsey can be very helpful in this area.

8. Financial Planning

Have a financial planner meet with staff members annually at your expense to get them in order personally and ensure they are being wise stewards. If your staff members do not have wise budgeting and stewardship plans, they will not influence others in the ministry to do the same. It is wise to ensure that coaching and help are available for the staff members to be the first fruits of good stewardship.

9. Safety

Sometimes it is the overlooked small things that ruin everything. So, as budgets are cut, such things as human safety cannot be cut. One tragic example is a church that opened a new children’s wing, and somehow a small screw was left on the floor; a child swallowed it and died. Too few churches have good security, cleanliness, and safety, and there is no excuse for cutting these kinds of things.

Pastor Mark:

Get the latest content from Mark Driscoll, the
preaching pastor at Mars Hill Church. See More.

Part 3 of the Money, Morale, and Momentum series.

Continued from Part 2.

It is imperative that a ministry has guidelines that shape its financial decision-making. Simply, without sufficient overarching principles in place, making particular decisions about how monies should be spent and how budgets should be cut becomes very subjective and inconsistent. This becomes increasingly important in larger ministries where multiple people are making budget decisions. Therefore, the following principles are offered as examples that we are using to guide some of our financial decision-making at Mars Hill.

4. Fairness

When financial cuts need to be made, don’t subscribe to fairness and make cuts across the board and across all ministries and staff members.

Instead, fund your core ministries and key leaders first and best.

One of the great errors that ministries make in hard times is imposing cuts across the board. This is unwise because cutting core ministries will compromise the health and viability of the church. Some ministries are supplemental—not primary—ministries. Secondary and supplemental ministries need to be cut back or even eliminated before there are deep cuts to primary ministries.

5. Terminations

It is wiser, if needed, to fire a few people than to cut everyone a little bit, because that hurts and discourages the best performers and carries the worst performers. If terminations are necessary, it is important to do so sooner rather than later. This allows you to give generous severance to those who are losing their jobs in hopes of giving them time to find replacement work. If you wait too long to cut staff, you will not have the money to pay them decent severance, which is unkind and really hurts morale. Additionally, just because there are terminations does not make it wrong to also give some people strategic raises. If some people are doing an amazing job and carrying more responsibility than ever, they may still merit a raise, even in tough times.

6. Hiring

Financial downturns are a great time to hire strategic senior-level leaders because the market for them has shrunk and they are available.

Many ministries are overly concerned with keeping everyone they have on staff, and in so doing they can easily overlook the opportunity that is before them to hire world-class staff members that could increase the bar of excellence in the ministry.

7. Real Estate

This is the time for multi-campus churches to pursue real estate from dying and struggling churches that are facing an uncertain future and would benefit from a partnership that breathes life into them. This is also a good time for any church, if it is able, to pursue purchasing real estate because the market is down and prices are cheaper than they have been in many years.

8. Visibility

People judge the love and health of a church in large part by what they see and do not see.

Therefore, to not give the impression of greed, we need to watch the appearance of lavishness personally and organizationally.

To not give the impression of ingratitude, we need to make sure the last things we cut are thank you gifts, volunteer appreciation, and bonuses. To not give the impression that we are poor stewards, we need to watch visible areas of waste. To not give the impression of being untrustworthy, we need to always spend money we receive on what we promised we would spend it on. Ministries that inappropriately spend designated funds are destroying their credibility with their donors and in so doing are sawing off the branch they are sitting on.

To be continued.

Vintage Church:

In this book, Mark Driscoll and Gerry Breshears discuss the essentials of what it means to be a biblical church. Find out more.

Part 2 of the Money, Morale, and Momentum series.

Continued from Part 1.

It is imperative that a ministry has guidelines that shape its financial decision-making. Simply, without sufficient overarching principles in place, making particular decisions about how monies should be spent and how budgets should be cut becomes very subjective and inconsistent. This becomes increasingly important in larger ministries where multiple people are making budget decisions. Therefore, the following principles are offered as examples that we are using to guide some of our financial decision-making at Mars Hill.

1. Spending

Spend money on those things that grow the ministry and not simply on those things that make it easier on your staff.

One is investment and the other is expense. There is always pressure from the staff to spend money on such things as improved working conditions and new technology. But with times being lean, all money needs to go toward welcoming as many people into the church as possible.

As an example, we outgrew our very limited office space at the Ballard campus and rather than renting nice, new, well-lit office space that was built next door, we have chosen to make due with what we have, which is not great. For example, my office is on the complete opposite side of the building from any bathrooms, has no natural light or fresh air, and is about 10 feet by 7 feet. It’s not big or pretty, and I lack my own private bathroom, sitting area, and eating area, which are common in megachurch pastors’ offices, but it works. Others on staff are making due in similar ways.

If we spend money on facilities, it has to be for increasing seating capacity so that more people can meet Jesus.

2. Pruning

Financial crunches are good seasons in which to make the cuts you have desired but have not had permission or timing for. Some will hear this as cruel, but it is in fact true. All of life and ministry is about pruning and then harvesting and then pruning again.

Without pruning, a ministry is wasting energy, time, resources, and leaders on proverbial branches that are no longer bearing lots of good fruit.

Because times are lean, there is no waste to be tolerated. Any ministry or leader that is not bearing much fruit may need to be pruned so that the proverbial tree can survive and continue to reap a harvest. Having consulted with a great number of ministry leaders, I can assure you that most—if not all—leaders know what needs to be cut. But they fail to act with courage because they anticipate fallout, people leaving, and hurt feelings. Sometimes God uses hard times to compel his leaders to make the decisions they need to make, and this is one of those times.

3. Core

Don’t make cuts on your core essential ministries but rather on your secondary and auxiliary ministries.

Tough times call for tough decisions. One of the toughest decisions is actually listing what your core ministries are. Those ministries need to be funded first and cut last.

To be continued.

Advance Conference:

Advance is coming June 2009. The Resurgence is hosting this conference in Raleigh, NC, to provision the local church for the advance of the gospel. Find out more.