Help Us Raise $12 Million
In the previous post, I addressed the matter of the diffusion of innovation and church multiplication. The history of defining unreached peoples and setting church to population goals are related to this concept and tied to statistics.
In the States, April 1 is also known as April Fools’ Day. So, in one sense this post’s title is not accurate—I am not attempting to raise $12 million. However, if you continue reading what follows, systemic shifts are necessary for reaching beyond the quarter of the US population with the gospel—or an astronomical amount of money will be needed.
Consider two US locations, Jefferson County, Idaho and Barnstable Town, MA (I randomly selected these from the evangelical study recently released.). At 1.1% evangelical, Jefferson County has a population of 31,000 and 4 evangelical churches. Its present evangelical church to population ratio is 1:7723. To reach the ideal rural ratio (1:500), 58 new churches are needed.
Barnstable Town has 229,000 people with an evangelical percentage of 2.6%. Though there are 60 evangelical churches in the area comprised of 6000 members, its evangelical church to population ratio is 1:3817. To reach the ideal metro ratio (1:1000), 169 new churches are needed.
According to Psalm 50:10, God owns “the cattle on a thousand hills,” but He has not chosen to give us limitless resources. The question of money is an important one when it comes to Kingdom labors. So, we wisely ask, “How much does it cost to plant a church?”
Warren Bird attempted to answer this question. Assuming the present ubiquitous church planting model in the US (plant and pastor), Bird’s article, “Funding: What Does it Cost to Launch a New Church or Campus?” (ECFA Study 2022, pg. 2), noted the most conservative estimate is $70,000.
If we run the numbers for the new churches needed in Jefferson County, Idaho, an estimated $4 million is needed. If we do likewise with Barnstable Town, Massachusetts, then the number soars to $11,830,000.
And these are just two locations, in two states, in this country. . . and we have not moved beyond North America.
A systemic shift is necessary at the ecclesiological, methodological, and strategic levels.
If not, then help us raise $12 million dollars. No foolin’.
The 5 billion remain.