Church vision is the driving force for all growing churches. What is the vision and direction God is leading your church?
Vision can lead to church growth and that growth can lead quickly to the need for facility expansion. However, expansion necessitates financial investment. This is where most churches start to feel that pull into the area of discomfort and uncertainty.
How do we best fund vision?
Rather than approach this simply as another building project and need for more space, approach the building as a tool for ministry. How will this project impact our ministry reach?
That is what your people will get excited to visualize. This is what creates the fertile opportunity to raise significant funds for growth and make the case for the project need.
There are various types of church expansion and capital projects, and each provides its own challenges but also opportunities to promote vision.
- Expansion and construction of existing facilities is the most common. It can typically involve sanctuary, kid’s space, gathering and fellowship or education space.
- Land purchase and ground up construction takes the longest and is the most time consuming and costly.
- Acquiring existing space (through long term lease or purchasing of existing facility) creates the need to renovate and customize based on your needs.
- Relocation is the most expensive of the options but is sometimes necessary. Sale of the existing church property can help offset some of the cost.
- Seed money for future opportunities has become a very popular option. Portable churches know that they need a permanent long-term location but may have not yet identified a viable option. Rather than wait until the opportunity presents itself, churches will start taking steps to raise capital in preparation rather than wait.
- Debt retirement is a great option to get the church in a better spot financially so it can do more ministry with the current budget. Surprisingly, these are not the hardest type of project to fund if this is a means to an end. The reduction or elimination of debt can meaningfully impact the annual budget and ministry plans in a significant way. In a short matter of time, a church can have greater ability to do ministry without debt payments.
All of these options afford the opportunity for leadership to articulate vision and direction for the church. Emphasizing the impact on future ministry and investment in reaching lives for Christ are what people get excited and motivates them to give in greater capacity.
If it’s only about bricks and mortar, it’s harder to get people to engage sacrificially. If they get a true passion what the project brings, churches see an incredible response.
Church capital projects should focus on ministry first and not fundraising and money. Of course, money and resources are needed to expand ministry, thus enabling more outreach and impact for the future. Remember, there is so also much more competition out there for over and above ministry giving from many places. We are bombarded daily by appeals to be generous. Dollars are daily diverted to other areas (sacred and secular). When their people are given a special project or emphasis, churches are surprised at the newfound level of support when they approach their church family.
Correctly approaching church vision funding will automatically have a positive impact. A church full of people giving sacrificially and obediently to the Lord for a perceived need will create unity and blessing. A unifying, healthy process can create momentum for years to come.
Done correctly, the church will involve more of its people and as a result will increase budget giving. A concerted effort to teach both regular giving (tithing) and over and above giving (sacrificial) help educate the entire church family. The assumption is that capital campaigns will drain the giving to the church’s operating budget, but the opposite is true if done properly.
The often-unexpected result of a properly orchestrated church capital campaign is that it will strengthen and expand your giving base. Supporters become more passionate. More givers will step forward to give because they have been given a tangible goal.
Many pastors will say that this opportunity to stretch and challenge their people was a very healthy process and one the church typically has not seen on such a significant scale. Lordship and Biblical stewardship are emphasized.
When a God-given vision is articulated, the church is challenged to pray and respond accordingly in a sacrificial way. All of these lead to greater support than a church has previously seen and a greater sense of unity. When done right, this momentum is carried forward into the church’s next season of ministry.
Chuck Klein is the principal and founder of Impact Stewardship Resources, Inc., which has raised over $1 billion for ministry and served over 500 churches in over 30 states, www.impactstewardship.com.
