Every business has a “business model”. For a church, the term “enterprise model” is more appropriate even though it means the same thing. Churches that talk about their business model seem to attract a lot of criticism.
A church enterprise model is analogous to a health club’s business model- you build it and they come, all the profit is earned from the last few members in the door. A spiritual or physical health club is built for a certain number of people it must have to survive and for a larger number of people it may have to thrive and expand.
Once the club is built, a huge part of the expenses are fixed, owning and maintaining and minimally staffing the physical plant, maintaining the management structure, etc. As new members are added, staff may be added but it is a small fraction of the income received from the new members. The closer the facility comes to full utilization the higher the surplus that can be used to further the goals of the enterprise.
Economically, in either a physical or spiritual health club, what matters is at the margin. What does it cost to get and keep a new member? What does it cost to serve a new member? Relative to tangible industries, like paper or pizza, health clubs that serve intangibles have enormous “profit margins” that should shape how expenses are targeted.
Since the cost of serving new members with existing church infrastructure is really low (too low to calculate if we mean one new member) the amount a church can easily justify spending to get and keep that new member on a cash flow basis is equal to the present day value of contributions that can be expected from that new member over their life with the church.
And this is where economics and the church enterprise model tie in to the need for personal pastors. Personal pastors can lavish the most attention on the newest members and contactable visitors. This expensive attention is worth it both commercially and spiritually. Commercially, because getting a new member or visitor to become a tithing member is worth a lot of expense because it generates a lot of income for the church without increasing church infrastructure expense. And more important, spiritually the new member or visitor is much more likely to be a new believer who needs all the discipleship possible, including learning the blessings of giving.
It is possible that, after a time with a new member personal pastor, a newer member will be “handed off” to another pastor who is less specialized but still provides the essential point of contact, personal knowledge, and position of authority with the member.
Every few years in a growing church there is an infrastructure reset, also known as a new building. This reset causes expenses to go way up and the congregation to go from a thriving size in the previous facility to a surviving size in the new one. But new large church buildings also bring tremendous opportunity. As visitors flock to the new facility, much of the bricks and mortar cost can be thought of as advertising dollars. Doing everything reasonable to turn a high percentage of those visitors into members and tithing members is essential to quickly grow through the surviving stage and get back to thriving from where God will again faithfully bless and enlarge the territory.
A church enterprise model is analogous to a health club’s business model- you build it and they come, all the profit is earned from the last few members in the door. A spiritual or physical health club is built for a certain number of people it must have to survive and for a larger number of people it may have to thrive and expand.
Once the club is built, a huge part of the expenses are fixed, owning and maintaining and minimally staffing the physical plant, maintaining the management structure, etc. As new members are added, staff may be added but it is a small fraction of the income received from the new members. The closer the facility comes to full utilization the higher the surplus that can be used to further the goals of the enterprise.
Economically, in either a physical or spiritual health club, what matters is at the margin. What does it cost to get and keep a new member? What does it cost to serve a new member? Relative to tangible industries, like paper or pizza, health clubs that serve intangibles have enormous “profit margins” that should shape how expenses are targeted.
Since the cost of serving new members with existing church infrastructure is really low (too low to calculate if we mean one new member) the amount a church can easily justify spending to get and keep that new member on a cash flow basis is equal to the present day value of contributions that can be expected from that new member over their life with the church.
And this is where economics and the church enterprise model tie in to the need for personal pastors. Personal pastors can lavish the most attention on the newest members and contactable visitors. This expensive attention is worth it both commercially and spiritually. Commercially, because getting a new member or visitor to become a tithing member is worth a lot of expense because it generates a lot of income for the church without increasing church infrastructure expense. And more important, spiritually the new member or visitor is much more likely to be a new believer who needs all the discipleship possible, including learning the blessings of giving.
It is possible that, after a time with a new member personal pastor, a newer member will be “handed off” to another pastor who is less specialized but still provides the essential point of contact, personal knowledge, and position of authority with the member.
Every few years in a growing church there is an infrastructure reset, also known as a new building. This reset causes expenses to go way up and the congregation to go from a thriving size in the previous facility to a surviving size in the new one. But new large church buildings also bring tremendous opportunity. As visitors flock to the new facility, much of the bricks and mortar cost can be thought of as advertising dollars. Doing everything reasonable to turn a high percentage of those visitors into members and tithing members is essential to quickly grow through the surviving stage and get back to thriving from where God will again faithfully bless and enlarge the territory.
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