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Money for Planting Your Church
Kenya Church Growth Bulletin, Oct 01, 1995.Rev. Egba Awo 
Since the day of Pentecost until today, church planting has been a vitalpart of Christian ministry. The society needs the church. Remove thechurch, and the rest of our society will not be anything better thanhell. This is one of the motivating factors for the Church PlantingCentre working day and night to see the church in Kenya becomemore healthy. However, church planting as an activity has sloweddown a lot in Kenya and in many other African countries as a result of many obstacles, notably finances.Lack of finances has brought confusion and discouragement to thepoint that some church planters have left the work. It has been hard,no support from anywhere. We begin to feel "I have prayed and waitedenough; I'm not sure I can make it; I better look for an alternative job."But before you quit, let us consider the following questions.
Who Initiated the Planting of that Church?
We read the promise of our Lord Jesus Christ in Matthew 16 verse 18saying "I will build my church." The church is not founded by men, itwas established by God. Wherever a new church is needed, God willcall out a man to start it. The church planter who moved at theinitiative of God should respond like Isaiah, "Here am I, send me" (Is.6:8). It is unlikely for people in the community to be excited about thearrival of a new church. This is because the devil does not want to seenew churches planted.You cannot go on your own desire, or imitate what others are doingand expect success. If God does the sending, then He will beresponsible for the support as well. The planting of a new churchshould be a miracle from God. This is a miracle that God would like toperform with you. There are so many examples of men who succeededbecause God sent them. Think of John (John 1:6) and Isaiah (Is. 6:8), just to mention a few.
 
 
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Missionsandmoney.euI consider it a great opportunity to team up with the Holy Spirit andbuild a church. When you are working with God, you are not limited byresources or circumstances. I strongly believe in what you can achievethrough the gift God has deposited in you. Be a faithful partner with agreat God and you will plant a great church.
What is Your Target?
The businessman does not embark on building a factory without firstdetermining what he is going to produce. The type of products orservices expected will determine the plans and approaches of settingup the industry. The same kind of demand is applicable when we areinvolved in church planting. To the church planter, people become theexpected raw materials as well as the product. The reason for startingchurches is people. People are basic to church planting. Our financialand leadership needs can only be solved by people. We help peopleserve the needs of other people.Church planting should have people as top priority before money,buildings, programs or equipment. Whenever the issue of churchplanting is mentioned, we are quick to point out the problem of finance. I think this is completely wrong.The first consideration should be the conversion of people who in turnwill be involved in sharing the responsibility of the ministry. WhenPeter was worried about money to pay taxes, Jesus asked him to goand catch fish. Out of the belly of the fish God provided enoughmoney. Do not be surprised that within your reach God has prepared abig fish with enough resources for your needs. People won to the Lordshould be involved as partners in the ministry. However, this does notmean that the church planter should adopt unrealistic methods toextract money from the people, or only reach out to people who seemto have a lot of money.
Have You Determined Your Financial Needs?
I will not take any church planter seriously who goes aboutcomplaining about lack of money without concrete evidence that heactually needs that money. Does he really know how much money hewill need at a given period of time? Or does he know the specific needsthat would cost him money, and if so, how much? In other words, heshould be able to demonstrate his need for finance with a written planor budget indicating how much money is needed and how it will beused. Doing this does not require financial expertise, it requires onlyclarity of vision and purpose. Many of the initial stages of church
 
 
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Missionsandmoney.euplanting are not all that expensive. Proper steps should be taken to cutdown or avoid expenses where necessary.Some Christians believe that so far as it is God's work, all we need todo is to pray and He will provide as the needs arise. But it does notalways work out that way. If you do not have plans, your prayers willlack focus and it will be difficult to measure progress. Planning itself isa proof and application of faith.Moreover, people will give only as they are convinced that a needexists. Churches on their own part need to sit down and prayerfullydetermine the needs before sending out a man to plant a church. If the church is not able to look into the future and decide what resultsthey expect, then I wonder what business they have in churchplanting.
Have You Identified Your Sources of income?
Planting the new church cannot wait until all the money is available inhand. Financial assistance must come in from somewhere to getcertain things started. There are many available sources to financechurch planting. The duty of the church planter is to discover thesesources and use them to the maximum.The initial funding should come from the sponsoring churchdenomination. Any church that still takes the Lord's Great Commissionin Matthew chapter 28 seriously will not fail to provide for churchplanting in its annual budgets. Such grants should normally take careof the pastor's salary, rent, literature, transport and some other needs.Another source of financial assistance could be the previous localchurch of the pastor or the local church where the church planter hasbeen called out from. It should not be strange for a local church toidentify itself with the financial needs of a man who has been calledout from among them to plant a new church. The church at Antioch(Acts 13:2) presents a good example. Whenever God calls a man, Hewill also call a church to support him. I have seen churches in Nigeriathat make donations to their church planters two or three times. Insome cases the church handles the issue as the church planter meritsit.The third source of finance is the members of the newly plantedchurch. Many church planters, in their bid to gain outside financialsupport, normally plead that the believers are new in faith and arepoor. But remember the story of Elijah and the woman of Zarephat (I
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