Vineyard Church North Phoenix | Postpartum-Planting Depression...The Real Cost of Church Planting

The cost of church planting is something we don’t think or plan enough for. Church planting parallels the experience of families having a new baby – and they mimic what we call postpartum depression. Postpartum means after birth and depression means sadness, low in spirit and energy and discouragement. The big difference is people get to keep the baby; churches don’t. I’m writing from having gone through the depths of that experience.

We started our church with the vision of being a church planting church. In just over 13 years we’ve launched 3 church planters and planted a church in Mexico. We are in the process of starting a 2nd church in Mexico. We plan to continue to plant churches, but hopefully we’ve learned a few things and will be better prepared for the costs.

The Cost of Sending

The costs are very real to send out a new church. Many of them come to roost at the front door of the sending pastor.

Friends

We lose friends in the process and I guess the change in relationship is one of the hardest costs. I knew the first “on deck” pastor since he started coming to the church that had sent us out. He co-planted this church with me with the intention of planting his own as soon as we could. I watched him grow into a great husband, father, friend and church planter. Our relationship was different, more distant after he led a group of about 15 out of our church to plant.

Congregation Members

With our first church plant we sent out 15 people and were able to stay above 200. But in our second, we sent out 65 and 35 others decided to leave for other churches. We dropped below 200--something I was not prepared for. We had reverse momentum working and it took me 2 years to figure that out. I spent the next year in denial and the next in shock. We are just now facing reality that we have to do a turn around.

Pastors, let me be honest, pay attention to numbers. We are once again faced with rebuilding membership and breaking the 200 barrier for the 4th time.

Having admitted the dark secret, let’s move on to individuals. We sent out a church planting couple to another city. One couple doesn’t sound like much of a loss, but they were on staff leading Alpha, Enfolding and Servant Evangelism. They were just starting a young adult ministry and a ministry to newcomers. We sent a couple to help with our church plants in Mexico who were vital in our children’s ministry. In our second church plant we sent our youth pastor and dynamic worship leader along with a great worship team, small group leaders, children’s leaders, youth leaders and sound leaders. Our first church planter was an associate pastor, youth pastor and led our servant evangelism. Many other people went with these guys that I had grown to love. When I see them now there is joy, but also the sadness of not being able to see them as much as before. Our fellowship is now a long distance relationship. These are people we loved and they represent a very real price to pay with church planting.

Money

Giving suffers after a church plant and sometimes longer than we plan. We try to blunt the pain by cutting back for a few months ahead of time so the adjustment won’t be so hard. We go without staff and ministries. By the time they leave we’ve adjusted somewhat but there remains a financial cost before and after attached to the process.

Leadership Base

Here’s where the rubber really hits the road. Leadership development takes time and the right set of spiritual gifts. Each time we plant a church our future changes and I haven’t learned to read the future yet. The fear of the unknown is challenging. When someone is taking over a well set up ministry that’s one thing, but for the ones who were just beginning, it’s another. You don’t replace them so easily. We’ve had both situations at the same time. If there aren’t strong leaders in the wings or the ones in the wings aren’t as strong as you thought, then you lose ministries, and as a result, you lose other people. We’ve had to put some ministries on hold because leaders went off to help plant a church. Again, it’s costly.

Good News

The good news is our first 2 plants are over 200 and growing strong. Our latest plant is still in the gathering stage. The church plant in Mexico is leading the way in a new church plant locally and helping plant in a distant city.

Why do it?

Planting new churches is crazy! So why do it? It is very costly. So is having a child. Postpartum depression is no reason to stop having children, but it is something to take into consideration and be prepared for. Here’s why we do it!

Church planting is the most effective way of fulfilling the Great Commission. A church’s health is measured by its “going” or sending capacity, not its seating capacity, and we’re in the sending business, the business of fulfilling the Great Commission. That’s our heart and that’s why we do it.