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.

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Spiritual Gifts Series: Click | View Series

We have different gifts, according to the grace given us. If a man's gift is prophesying, let him use it in proportion to his faith. If it is serving, let him serve; if it is teaching, let him teach; if it is encouraging, let him encourage; if it is contributing to the needs of others, let him give generously... (Romans 12:6-8 NIV)

Spiritual Gift of Giving Defined

The gift of giving is the ability to give money and other forms of wealth joyfully, wisely, and generously to meet the needs of others and help support ministries.

People with the Gift of Giving

Regardless of the amount, people with this gift genuinely view their treasures, talents, and time as on loan from God and not their own. They are often moved to meet the physical needs of others. They enjoy giving of themselves and what they have. Even if they do not possess the resources to help, they earnestly pray for those needs to be met.

Giving in Scripture

Roughly 25 percent of Jesus' words in the Gospels are related to our resources and stewardship of them. Though he was poor, Jesus not only fed thousands (Mark 6:41) but also gave us his life as a gift (John 15:13). Elsewhere in the Bible, the widow (Mark 12:42-43), Tabitha (Acts 9:36), Barnabas (Acts 4:34-37), and the Macedonian church (2 Cor. 8:1-2) all had this gift.

Do You Have This Gift?

• Do you tend to see the needs of others more than other people do?
• Do you enjoy giving your time, talent, and treasure to others?
• Do you see giving to a worthwhile project as an exciting honor and privilege?
• Do you give to the church regularly, cheerfully, and sacrificially?
• Do you often hear people commenting that you are a generous person?
• Do you find yourself looking for opportunities to give your money—even when no one asks?

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with Matt Boswell
Qualifications of a Worship Pastor: Click | View Series

Not a Lover of Money

(1 Timothy 3:3 & Titus 1:7)
A worship pastor does not do his job primarily for money. He provides for his family well, but his primary motivation is his calling, not his paycheck. He doesn't lead worship and write songs for the sake of money, but to express his love and knowledge of Christ. The motivation of a worship leader should be the good of the people he is called to serve, not his own gain.

Good Husband and Father

(1 Timothy 3:4-5 & Titus 1:6)
The home life of a worship pastor is the most important part of his ministry. The home is where church begins. If you're not leading your wife and your children well, you should not be trying to lead the church. The organization of the church is built on the organization of the home. The great commandment was first given to us to teach in our homes, not our churches. Deuteronomy 6 tells us that God gave the greatest commandment (love God most) to the husbands and fathers to teach their wives and children. Before you think about, pray for, and plan for your ministry for the church, do so for your family. Give your wife the greatest love story of all time; give your children the hero they deserve. They are your primary flock, and you are their primary pastor. Do that job well! The home of a worship pastor should be one worthy of admiration and should stand as a living testimony to the gospel.

Lover of Good, Upright and Holy

(Titus 1:8)
A worship pastor should be a man of joy. A joyful disposition and an infectious hope in God are essential for successful and qualified leadership. A worship pastor should communicate the joy and hope of God in song, prayer, and life. Our goal in meeting corporately is to "stir one another to love and good deeds" (Heb. 10:24), and the worship leader has to champion that cause and be "stirring." He should continually be growing in godliness and in his own sanctification, as he also calls the church to do so.

Conclusion

The role of a worship pastor goes much further than leading songs on Sunday. The worship leader is a culture-setter and champion for our affections to the Lord. He gives our souls the words we need to sing to God. Few people have the opportunity to affect people in the way worship pastors do. I have an elder who tells me that his favorite thing is when he catches himself on Sunday evening singing the songs that we sang Sunday morning. He judges the effectiveness of our service not by how he sang then, but how he sings later. His recollection brings him close to God all over again. Without a band, a stage, a screen or any people, he is again brought to the throne of God by the faithful service of a worship leader. What a great and profound privilege and responsibility! May this list of qualifications and exposition bring great challenge, conviction, and encouragement as we continue to grow together in biblical ministry.

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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.

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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

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Dr. Wayne Grudem, editor of the ESV Study Bible and one of the top evangelical theologians of our day, explains why theology is so important for the local church.

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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.

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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.

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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:

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Some months ago my friends at Leadership Network invited Larry Osborne, Greg Surratt, and myself to meet with young pastors of growing, larger churches over the course of a few days in one of LN’s numerous learning communities. It was a great time, and even though I was supposed to be a mentor pastor, the truth is I learned far more than I taught, as is usually the case in situations like these. Much of our formal and informal discussion time centered on the economy and the rough water facing churches economically.

Cut Budgets

At Mars Hill in Seattle we have pared our budget back and had a round of layoffs at the end of 2008. Still, we did finish the year above budget, beat the previous year’s giving by a healthy margin, and are floating by God’s grace and our people’s generosity. I heard amazing reports at the conference from parts of the country (such as Nevada and Arizona) that have been far more seriously hit.

I scratched out a few notes in my Moleskine along the way and shared them with our Executive Elders. I am now passing these practical points on in case they can be of help to other church and ministry leaders. 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.

Some Scriptures to Guide Financial Decision-Making

The book of Proverbs, on two occasions, says, “The prudent sees danger and hides himself, but the simple go on and suffer for it” (Prov. 22:3; 27:12). Since there is no one of merit indicating that the financial mess we are in will be resolved anytime soon, it is foolish for ministry leaders to not see the dangers that are potentially lurking ahead and make adjustments as necessary. Simply, this is no time for foolish naivete and goofy “Trust the Lord” talk when wise stewardship is not in place.

In the New Testament, Paul says the following: “Now there is great gain in godliness with contentment, for we brought nothing into the world, and we cannot take anything out of the world. But if we have food and clothing, with these we will be content. But those who desire to be rich fall into temptation, into a snare, into many senseless and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction. For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evils. It is through this craving that some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many pangs” (1 Tim. 6:6–10).

Covetousness or Contentedness?

Indeed, much of the mess people are in with their personal finances is the result of covetousness instead of contentedness. Additionally, since the god of money has died and shows no sign of a sudden resurrection, it is a wonderful time to call people to live within their means and worship Jesus rather than trying to use him to give them their idols of status, possession, and security. Furthermore, it is a good time to warn our people against such things as foolish investing and even gambling, because when times are hard, rather than living within their means, some are prone to risk everything out of a sinful love for money.

What About the Rich?

Paul continues by saying that there are always people who are doing well financially, even when times are tough: “As for the rich in this present age, charge them not to be haughty, nor to set their hopes on the uncertainty of riches, but on God, who richly provides us with everything to enjoy. They are to do good, to be rich in good works, to be generous and ready to share, thus storing up treasure for themselves as a good foundation for the future, so that they may take hold of that which is truly life” (1 Tim. 6:17–19).

This fact is commonly overlooked, but indeed, not everyone is dying financially. There are people, albeit a few, who are flourishing. For example, those in certain medical and educational fields are still working in growing fields, and they may not be enduring the kind of financial strain that the majority are. Still other people are rich, with plenty of margin to spare. We should remind our own people who find themselves doing well financially of Paul’s timely words to the rich.

Continued here.

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