Tag: church fundraising

Stop Wasting God's Money

Posted on August 18, 2009

Great post from friend and fellow planter, Bob Thune, on Church Planters and Money. An excerpt:

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?

Gnosticism & Fundraising

Posted on June 30, 2009

Many of us have a gnostic view of money. Church planting good; fundraising bad. Preaching great; money evil. Pastoral ministry is truly spiritual, business, finance, and administration are sub-spiritual. This is not a biblical view of the world. We were baptised into one faith and one Lord who is both Creator and Redeemer. He is lord of the physical and lord of the spiritual. To quote Rob Bell, “Everything is spiritual for God.” Gnosticism is a dualistic philosophy that exalts the spiritual over the physical, the eternal over the ephemeral. The recent issue of Cutting Edge contains a series of article that address Church Planting and Money. The opening editorial reads:

ONE OF THE OLDEST ERRORS IN THE CHURCH IS FALSE DUALISM, PITTING “SPIRITUAL” REALITIES AGAINST MERE “EARTHLY” REALITY. IN THIS VIEW, PRAYER, BIBLE STUDY, AND CHURCH SERVICES ARE TRULY SPIRITUAL AND WORTHWHILE PURSUITS, WHILE DEALING WITH MONEY, ADMINISTRATION, OR LEGAL MATTERS ARE SEEN AS UNFORTUNATE REQUIREMENTS—DUTIES AT BEST, AND CORRUPTION AT WORST. WHILE YOU RARELY HEAR A PASTOR SAY “I HATE DEALING WITH PEOPLE’S PRAYER LIVES” OR “I HATE TEACHING THE BIBLE,” IT ISN’T UNCOMMON TO HEAR SOMEONE SAY “I HATE DEALING WITH MONEY” OR “I HATE ADMINISTRATIVE DETAILS. (p.3)

Some of us need to repent of our dualism, of seeing God as sovereign and concerned only with our piety and not with our pocketbook. Some of us need to redeem our view of money with an understanding that the Gospel redeems consumers to spend, not just “spiritually” but practically. Our money should be governed by the gospel and move towards mission. But that is uncomfortable. We would rather live with the comforts of unspiritual spending, than invest our whole lives into the mission of God. Our idols of comfort, clothing, and standard of living hide beneath our functional gnosticism. God is calling us to repent and believe that Jesus is Lord over our entire lives, finances included, to bring us into a life of joyful giving and worship.

As I write this, Austin City Life is approximately 55% self-supporting, and our outside support is in decline. We have had public church gatherings for just over a year, though we existed in decentralized form for a year prior. We are experiencing gospel renewal, radical community, and growing mission. But is Jesus Lord of our finances, our budget, our discretionary income, our savings? We need to consult our hearts and our spending patterns to find out who really is lord of this part of our lives.  We also need more financial support, to be a community that loves with our giving and not just with our being.

Pray. Repent. Give. Love. And enter into the joy of obedience to Jesus as Lord, and of full participation in his mission. For Jesus, everything is spiritual and nothing is gnostic.

Wisdom for Beginning Planters

Posted on October 28, 2008

Some things to keep in mind as you begin planting, especially if you are bivocational:

  • Continually ask the Spirit to help you adorn the gospel of Christ in the workplace and the church. What happens at work doesn’t stay at work. The whole gospel should affect the whole of your life. Work should be mission. Labor to close the gap between the sacred and the secular. Make notes of pastoral insights on how to bring the whole gospel into the workplace.
  • Continually ask the Spirit to give you great discernment in where to focus your precious time. There will be a ton of things you can do in the early stages of church planting. You shouldn’t do all of it. Make lists and prioritize. Separate the immediate from the distant. A detailed five-year plan for the church shouldn’t be at the top. It will all change in the first year anyway!
  • Do not compromise your own communion with God for the “growth” of the church. Don’t rely on the fumes of gospel ministry to minister the gospel. Rather, continually delight yourself in the God of the gospel in order to proclaim and incarnate the gospel of God.
  • Do not compromise your family life (devotions, hang time, dates) in order plant the church. If managing your own household is a qualification to be a pastor (1 Tim 3), your marriage to be a public display of the gospel (Eph 5), and your children eternal souls, then don’t diminish the gospel by neglecting your family for email, blogs, books, meetings, and so on.
  • Don’t try to plant a church of 250 or whatever number suits your fancy. Too many guys think they need a #2 by the time they get 25 people because they are trying to be a church of 200. Because they are visionaries, they want to bring the future into the present. Not everything in the future needs to be in the present. As an early stage planter, you have the privilege of focusing on things on a small scale. Focus on the essentials of Gospel, Community, and Mission. Be simple, faithful.
  • Allow bivocational tension to press you into deeper prayer, not overworking. In the sovereignty of God you are where you are. More than anything he wants the challenges of planting to press you deeper into communion with him and intercession for the church and the city. Don’t replace prayer with overworking.
  • Fundraise like a madman if you haven’t. You can relieve the financial stress by fundraising. Target non-profits and private donors. Be able to articulate your vision in 60 seconds. Have several ways of explaining your vision for several different audiences (buisnessman, potential core team member, unbeliever). Darrin Patrick raised 200,000 before planting The Journey. Fundraise in community. Get your core team to do artwork on a brochure, stuff envelopes, mail to their contacts. Multiply your potential donors by spreading the love.