Our vision to plant 100 new churches in South Florida seems like a huge task at first glance. It gets even bigger if you look a little closer. Have you ever thought about what it might cost to plant even one church, let alone 100? If you look at what it typically costs to plant a church, you’ll see that the math doesn’t work.
Let’s take a look at a typical church planting strategy. It quickly costs hundreds of thousands of dollars to keep a church up and running. Most churches can’t afford to pay a lead pastor more than a modest salary, and for this reason, many church planters move on quickly. They have to attract partners and funding, and the clock is constantly ticking. Sustainability really has nothing to do with reaching people – it’s about getting enough money or you fail. The typical church planter will stay for three to four years to get things going and then move along after the church gets up to 80-100 people. In most cases, it is an unsustainable model.
We believe the key to planting a successful, sustainable church is bi-vocational ministry; people who can make a living and plant a church if they have the right training and support. Maybe they are in finance or construction or technology, but they are also trained and equipped to plant a viable church.
A church that is full of leaders that do ministry alongside their chosen vocations is one that can pour their money back into the ministry instead of people’s salaries. Bi-vocational ministry is the best way to make church planting math work – and it’s how we are going to plant 100 new churches in South Florida. If you want to join us, please attend our Preview Weekend at the end of this month!