Confirming what’s Important in Launching New Church Locations! by Jeff Beachum
I was recently struck by a data point that has been celebrated by some decision-makers in the church and lamented by others. 68% of new church locations are still open after4 years. From the rearview mirror, that means that 32% fail. Gulp!
So just what are some of the reasons a new church location might thrive or fail?
A couple weeks ago, I was settling into seat 8C on a short flight to meet with a few church leaders and a key strategic partner. I started the customary small talk with my seatmate. “Good morning!”, “Are you heading home or away from home for a few days?”, “Is this a business trip or for pleasure? Usually something in that exchange gives a starting point for a nice little pre-flight conversation. When she asked the business or pleasure question, I honestly answered, “both!” And she was taken aback like it was something astounding. I explained that I love what I get to call “work” and the people I was going to see had become very dear friends. She could not withhold her curiosity and asked, “what do you do?” So I got to explain that I get to talk to church leaders about how God is blessing them and their church, and how they’re going to handle the growth. Specifically, to offer the use of a tool that might help them with their great problem of a growing church.
Her responses began to flow easier and with a bit of excited curiosity. I could tell she was familiar with the language I was using. I could tell she was churched. As she shifted slightly toward me in her seat, the conversation began to go to a different level.
“What is it that you do?” She wanted to know. With my best 30 second explanation, I put my hands together almost touching as if I were actually holding the church, “when a church over here is growing, and they need to start a new location say, over there” motioning toward the window of the plane, my. company can help the church start a new location in a rented space like a school, YMCA, movie theater, and hundreds of other rentable facilities. We provide everything a church needs to load into one of those facilities in about an hour, they can do their services, and then load out in under an hour.” The marketer in me quickly added, “it’s the quickest, least expensive, most professional way for a church to start a new location.”
To my amazement, she responded, “Oh! I know all about a church in a school! We tried that once.” Now it was my turn to shift toward her in my seat because things were getting good. “You say that like it didn’t turn out to be a good solution.” She sheepishly replied, “no, it didn’t work for us.”
I paused for a moment trying to determine if I should press in with more questions. I didn’t know what vantage point she had within the church to answer my curious questions. I didn’t want it to get uncomfortable. And certainly, I didn’t want to unintentionally offend her somehow. “Can I ask where this church was?” and she told me the name of the town. I blurted with excitement, “I know what church it was and I know the launch location!” She looked surprised and said, “No way you could know that!” So I told her the sending church and the site of the then new location. “How do you know that!” she almost demanded with a big smile.
In my mind, it was all coming together now. I didn’t know until I got on that plane that morning that this particular church launch had failed. And I NEVER get excited about a church failing with its strategy – especially a strategy that involves portability. But I was truly excited about this one only because I knew why it failed. And with great relief, I was confident it didn’t fail because of it being portable, or because of the Portable Church Solution they were using. I turned even more now to my new friend, “I haven’t connected with any leaders in your church in more than 5 years. Can I share with you why I would guess your new location didn’t work?” Her curiosity was peaking. “Please do!”
So with her permission, I proceeded slowly with my observations. “When we (PCI) helped to launch [NAME] Campus, [Campus Pastor] had a great location, a great new PCI solution, and a wonderful core group that seemed to have significant momentum.” She agreed, “yep!” She wanted me to continue, “The only thing I could see that had the potential to make this Kingdom venture fail was leadership. [Campus Pastor Name] was energetic, organized, and consummate shepherd. But I always felt that there was no vision and continued support (nourishment) from leadership at the sending campus. And I shared some details as to what would make me draw that conclusion.
Stunned, she turned away from me a bit, looking straight forward now, and said, “I think you’re right!” The lead pastor and the campus pastor are no longer around.
Leadership is everything! As a leader, praying for and getting a vision is only exceeded by casting that vision and providing an execution strategy for it. If you have a vision to be a sending church, then fully be a sending church! The end of a maturing process for both individual believers, and corporately as a church, is the SENDING process.
There are a lot of reasons why a newly launched church location might thrive or fail. Many times, the difference can be found in the way individuals are SENT out ON MISSION, and continue to be supported by the sending body.
Note: It can be argued that when a church uses a portability strategy and executes with Portable Church Industries, the solution that is provided is rarely the reason for failure. In fact, with the challenges presented in being portable, a PCI solution can be considered an advantage to thriving long term. 95.6% of new church locations launched with PCI are viable after 5 years. So, whether you are launching portably with an open ended stay, or are leveraging portability to get well established in a new community aiming for the NEXT permanent facility, a PCI solution can only help!
