Replanting a Church: Finances, Part 1

We are working through an article by Scott Thomas on replanting an existing church, that is, renewing a church so that it grows and matures as a church plant does.

Envision a body not reacting to finances to determine God’s call (Matthew 6:24).

1. How will faith in God calling a body to reach out to the community and world be weighed against financial responsibility and stewardship?
2. If mortgages or debts exist, how will they be paid off in a realistic way over a reasonable time period?
3. What attitudes or practices about money and finances need to be changed?
4. Is a budget in place? Is it a true reflection of the church’s giving and spending (balanced budget)?
5. What expenses can be cut immediately to be redirected toward the church’s mission?
6. Is the body (especially the leadership) making decisions based on finances or on God’s calling?
7. What creative ways can you generate more income without sacrificing resources, biblical principles, or expending paid personnel?

Remember: this is about replanting an existing church. And existing churches have budgets and mortgages. And mortgages and other prior ministry commitments limit a church’s options for future ministry.

Therefore, a replanting effort has to carefully look at its budget and consider whether its budget priorities reflect God’s priorities.

Budgets usually divide into these categories —

* Building — debt service and maintenance

* Staff salaries and benefits

* Ministries that serve the membership: children, teens, education

* Ministries that serve those outside the church: benevolence, missions

Now, I list them in this order because that’s how it is for most of us. We have to make the building payment and we have to make payroll. We then take care of ministries essential to the spiritual health of the members — and if there’s anything left, we serve those outside the congregation. And this is actually not as wrong as it sounds. After all, who is willing to surrender the souls of his own children for the sake of missions? It’s just that we need to be a little more thoughtful.

Try this instead —

* Building — debt service and maintenance

* Staff salaries and benefits

* Essential ministries that serve the membership: children, teens, education (which includes much of the mission and benevolence budgets)

* Ministries that serve only those outside the church: benevolence, missions

* Non-essential ministries that serve the membership (including the building expansion we’ve been talking about and the teen beach trip)

We’re legally and morally required to make the building payment, but we aren’t required to build an expansion.

We need staff but their task should be to equip us to serve others, not to serve us.

We need to provide for the spiritual health of our teens, but separating that from missions and benevolence is to utterly fail to provide for the spiritual health of our teens. They need to be involved in missions and benevolence (just like the adults). You can’t have one without the other.

I’d far rather send the kids on a short-term mission in support of our missionary’s work than to Six Flags and the beach for devos and relationship building. And I’d far rather the teen budget be committed to service projects in town than any of that. (Why on earth do we insist on sending the teens away to do good works, as though they can’t do good works here? What lesson does that teach??)

The building

Outgrowing your building

It’s been shown by many churches that you don’t have to own a building to grow. All but the largest churches can rent space at a local school, save a ton, and do quite well. The early church came to dominate Rome without having a single building for three centuries.

Or go to the house church model. That’s a First Century model, and many congregations have done this with success. So don’t just assume the necessity for a building.

Now buildlings can be great tools for the mission of Jesus, but don’t build just for your own needs. Build missionally.

If you own a building and you’re growing, at some point you’ll fill your auditorium. Don’t build a new building. Rather, go to multiple services. Members and staff will complain, but it’s the right choice. Use the savings for missional purposes — plant a church, build twenty orphanages in third-world countries. Just don’t build a monument to your success. You don’t need it.

Some churches have gone to as many as 5 services before building a new building — and many prefer to go to multiple campuses rather than build that gargantuan building. You see, multiple campuses allow a church to avoid the cost of building a huge building and to also serve a larger geographic area.

Other churches have avoided the new building by planting a new church — and even routinely spinning off new churches as size becomes an issue. And these new churches (or new campuses) often grow very rapidly as they bring a strong church to a new community.

Personally, I hope my congregation grows astronomically fast and never builds a new building on its present site. I’d far rather sort out the difficulties of a third service than take on millions in debt. And by controlling the church’s fixed costs, the additional contributions we receive from the new members can all go to God’s mission to the world rather than bricks and mortar.

Under-growing your building

If your church is declining in numbers, your building may be too big. Consider —

* Replanting within your own church (as I’m describing in these posts)

* Merging with another church in town (some declining churches have merged by becoming an additional campus for an existing, growing church)

* Inviting a church planting organization to plant in your present building

* Selling the building, giving the funds to a church planting or orphan care organization, and meeting in homes or rented space

Just don’t sit there in a too-large building thinking that doing the same thing will magically produce different results.