In talking to many church planters and being one myself, there is one thing that runs like a scarlet thread throughout our lives and journey: Very few churches and pastors have any interest in supporting a church plant financially. In fact, it is interesting to note that very few churches that were a church plant themselves, in the beginning, have very little or no interest in supporting a new church plant. Less than 5% of churches in America are involved in starting new churches. I must confess that as a new pastor in the early 90’s, I was selfish and concerned only with what we were doing within our church body. I cared verbally about missions, and wanted to care more, but immaturity led me to think and act very selfishly for our church only. I felt like God would understand because we were so busy. Sure! It was only when my friend Charles Dustin taught me to understand 2 Cor. 9:10-15, “….your generosity caused them to offer many thanksgivings on your behalf to God and they prayed for you, which greatly glorified God….” (paraphrased) God showed me the formula for why blessing the missionary would bless the local church in short order. It was a reciprocal act. It was then that I began intentionally looking for people, plants, and mission organizations to partner with, from seminaries to cowboy church plants. It was an invaluable lesson. I’ve never had large budgets in my churches but there has always been $200 and $500 per month that we could find somewhere, to partner with energetic, passionate, and faith-walking leaders. If Peter Wagner is right in saying that “The single most effective evangelistic methodology under heaven is planting new churches,” then we must get kingdom-minded, habitually-intentional, and seriously-interested in partnering financially with a new church plant, realizing that there is plenty of room in our community for another church. Have you checked to see that in most counties, 80% of the population attend no one’s church on a given Sunday? That includes the influence of all the great churches that are already in your community. America alone is one of the top 4 largest “unchurched” nations in the world. Take an intentional leap and reap the results!
