Critical Issues in North American Church Planting: #1 Money 2

Okay.  I realize this post is a little longer than what I normally do, but it is critical issue #1.  Let’s quickly review:

Critical Issue #5 Stress on the Family

Critical Issue #4 The Challenge of Contextualization

Critical Issue #3 Turfish and Apathetic Churches

Critical Issue #2 Need for Leaders

And Critical Issue #1 is. . .

That’s right.  You guessed it.  The most commonly mentioned critical issue among 190 participants was money.  To be exact, 50% of them mentioned it.  While this may not sound like a high percentage, you need to remember the research methodology:  I only asked one question, and it was open ended.  That means, the respondents were not given a list of possible critical issues from which to select five.  They were simply asked the question and allowed to write anything they desired.  Of these responses, the topic of money broke down into two categories:

Start Up Costs

Many of the respondents noted that they were needing more money to assist them with ministry expenses.  Rental fees for property, equipment purchases, Bibles, tracts, and a multitude of other items would fall into this category. 

Personal Finances

By far, the most common category was that of the church planter’s personal income.  Also, the most emotionally charged responses came from planters when they wrote about the lack of personal finances.   Here are few comments received:

“I am so gracious for the financial support that I am receiving. . . but it is just too little and too short.  My net income from [denominational entity] is less than $1000 per month, and in Northern California where I live you cannot get a one-bedroom apartment for this amount.  It is very tough for someone like myself with a family.”

“My personal finances have been a struggle.  What I am paid to be a church planter is not enough to survive in the area in which I am to minister. . . . I cannot afford to live in the area/housing of which I minister, which is a hindrance.” (from a church planter in Utah)

“We are supported, at this point, far better than the majority of the planters in this area.  However, the duration of the support being three to five years is simply not long enough for most plants.” (from a church planter in New York)

I was in a conversation with a church planter in Indiana who shared with me how this issue affected him and his church planting strategy.  He told me that his funding would soon cease, and while he loathed the thought of reaching poeple so that the church could financially support him, he confessed that such a reality was in the back of his mind. 

(At this point, I want to offer you something to chew on–I hope to blog about it in the future:  Could critical issue #1 be a reason that many church planters are settling for planting churches via transfer growth?  Think about it. . . . If you are laboring among a soil that is apathetic to the gospel, then it is going to take a long time to see people come from the harvest field and covenant together as a local church–a timeframe that extends well beyond the typical financial support of most church planters.  Could critical issue #1 be a reason that most church planting in North America is not primarily defined as evangelism that results in new churches?) 

Is It Really the Most Critical Issue?

Of all the leaders in the Kingdom who should receive compensation for their labors, missionaries rank at the top of the list. These church planters are on the front lines of Kingdom advancement, laboring in trenches where the enemy is the most ferocious.  There is clear biblical support that speaks on matters related to supporting those doing such apostolic labors.  Therefore, I want you to know that I fully believe that is good and proper to provide financial support to missionaries.    

As a missiologist, I do believe money is the most critical issue facing U. S. and Canadian church planters, when it comes to felt needs.  Let’s face it. . . people have to eat.  Children need clothes.  And electric bills must be paid.  But as a missiologist, I also believe that critical issue #1 actually stems from a much deeper critical issue. 

A few years ago, I wrote an article for Theology for Ministry in which I argue the most critical issue today is a theological issue, particularly an ecclesiological issue.  And a related paper, I presented at the Evangelical Theological Society can be found HERE.  How we answer the question, “What is the church (universal and local)?” will affect everything we do in church planting.  It will affect our methods and our strategy. It will affect the way we raise up leaders.  It will affect who can be a leader.  It will affect how we define church planter.   

And yes, our theology will affect how much money we believe is necessary to plant churches.

Let me give you an illustration.  I once asked a group of guys, “How much money is necessary to plant a church?”  One church planter in the group immediately responded, “$110,000. . . If you want to do it right.”  To which I asked the question, “What is your definition of ‘right’?” 

As people who think missiologically, we must think about critical issue #1, especially in light of the fact that over four billion people in the world do not know Jesus.

Practical Matters to Keep in Mind

1) Be aware of critical issue #1, and discuss it with your family before you begin your work.

2) Answer the question, “What is the church?”  Is your answer supported by the Scriptures, or does it contain a heavy dose of extra-biblical, culturally preferred aspects?  While the latter may not necessarily be bad, they may be hindering you from preaching the gospel in the fields and rapidly multiplying churches from the harvest.

3) Develop a theology of tentmaking (The Bible has much to say about this topic. Check out Paul’s perspective.). Are you called to be a tentmaker?  You may want to read an article that I wrote HERE.  Or consider being a bivocational church planter (HERE is an outstanding free book on bivocational church planting from the North American Mission Board, written by Steve Nerger.).  I tell church planters that even if they have full financial support for the first two or three years, they need to be working in the marketplace for theological, missiological, and strategic reasons(at least for the first year or two).  If you are a young college or high school student reading this blog, I want to encourage you to consider prayerfully getting a marketable skill and/or degree that will put you in contact with many unbelievers, from which you can plant churches.

4) Be realistic in your strategy development.  Before you start, answer the questions:  What will I do a few years into this work if my financial support expires and the church is not able to support me?  What will happen to the work if after a few years into it, that I have to shift from giving 40-60+ hours per week to taking on a another form of employment for 20-30 of those hours?

5) Determine now that you will not turn from your calling when your financial support ends.  I once was working with a church planter who said, “If God calls, He will provide.”  To which, I agreed and added, “and sometimes God provides by giving you two hands, a mind, and a strong back so that you can get a job.”

6) Determine now that as a minister in God’s Kingdom that you are going to work to make sure that critical issue #1 is not so critical for future church planters.

7) If you are supervising, coaching, or mentoring church planters, you may want to read an article that I wrote based on these critical issues: “Five Things Church Planters Wished Their Supervisors Knew.”