Creative Scribble

Two years of getting ready to start this new church have seen me make some big mistakes while also stumbling on some things that went pretty well. So I thought a quick recap of those things that ended up panning out would be good for me and other church planters to learn from. For the big mistakes, ask my wife

Partnering with many other church plants. Five of our supporting churches are church plants from 3 years to 13 years old. Those pastors have been unbelievable. They have kept me from making mistakes with facilities, launch team timing, fundraising, and more. No church planter should try to do it without having been on staff at a church plant or having a church planter helping them through the process. Or both! Now they are there for me as we start facing real-life issues as a church.

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Hiring an administrative assistant early. This was huge and I should have done it earlier. My assistant only works 8 hours a week but wears it out for those 8 hours and has been a life saver for me. As much administrative stuff as there is to do, every church planter should make this happen. It’s the best thing I’ve done for me and our church.

Hiring an all part-time staff. Rather than paying just one big salary for me (would have been nice!) or even two full-time salaries, we went with one full-time salary for me and broke the rest into part-time salaries for an assistant, an intern, worship, and creative. This has made our staffing dollars go much farther and helped me get much more accomplished.

Buying used and saving the difference. We spent about $30,000 less on equipment (children’s, sound, video, lighting, lobby, trailer – everything) than it would have cost new. Around 80% of what we have is used. There’s no way we could have afforded to buy everything brand new but looking at what we’ve got, you’d never know it!

Asking everyone for money. Our gifts from individuals have ranged from $25 to $4,000 and church gifts have been from $400 to $20,000. Monthly commitments range from $10 to $1500 per month. Literally, every little bit has helped. In what has been the worst economy in 25 years, we have been able to buy all of our necessary equipment and make our payrolls. We are within about $3,000 of what we need to finish everything (a mailing and facility rental). I know God will send it.

Being in the parade! The 4th of July Parade was our first exposure to the community and was a homerun. Just this morning I heard a girl say she remembered seeing our t-shirts in the parade. We gave away 900 doorhangers and 50 t-shirts. There were about 3,000 total people there. And it was fun!