10 reasons building a church isn’t like buying a car or anything else for that matter.

1. A car can make you cool.  Church made Steven Furtick cool, but not Perry Noble, so you can’t always count on church to make you cool.
2. Churches gets better gas mileage – they’re wind powered.
3. All cars play traditional and contemporary music.



4. Cars change regularly to attract new people.
5. Cars don’t wish they were other cars and talk about why the other cars are so popular because they aren’t true to the manufacturer. (Gotta think on this one)
6. Cars don’t believe in Hell, some churches do. (Sorry Rob, that was a cheap shot)
7. We buy cars to get us somewhere.  When we get to church…we think we’re already there.
8. Your ministry can survive if you spend too much on a car...
9. There’s no base model church - you don’t come in and pick the red one and have us throw in some spinners.
10. While driving too fast can make you see Jesus, He doesn’t use cars to get people into heaven.

Here is where the analogy breaks down.

If you decide to by a corvette, and you go to four different dealers and get prices and the lowest price for the same awesomeness is $65,000, do you buy it?

It depends right?  It depends on what you can afford.

Too many people are getting awesome deals on cars they can’t afford.  Affordability IS the dealmaker.  (I’m thinking about getting a forehead tattoo with that on it).   “Understand what you can afford and then go out and make the deal with someone you can trust.” (Sidebar – did you know when you trade a car in; the sales guy gets paid a percentage of the difference between the real value of what you car is worth and what he can get you to take for it?  If you trade them in, have the KBB value printed and in you hand)

Back to affordability

There’s a lot of work that determines what you can “really” afford to spend on a car.  If you’re building a church, that process is magnified.  You have to know how much cash you can raise, what the bank will loan, what the payments on the debt will be to make sure you construction budget doesn’t have an affair with your operating budget and run away with her.

How will inflation affect you affordability?  Are there major, one time, expenses coming your way that will impact operating income and limit your borrowing?

Are you scared yet?  Good….fear is good for making you think before you act.  Heading into a car dealership, or a church expansion project without a grasp of affordability is like rolling the dice at the craps table, you may win from time to time, but when you lose it’s really gonna bite. (not a great analogy for a pastor but it’s better than the one I was working on about planning for the spirit to move instead of preparing a sermon)

If you church is growing fast, sooner or later you have to build or renovate.  Have a plan, get the right people around you from the start before you spend a dime.

If I can help I’d love to be part of the journey with you. I’m passionate about serving churches and would love an opportunity to talk with you about joining you staff to walk you through the process of clarifying exactly what you need and balancing it with what you can afford so you can CRUSH IT FOR JESUS in your city.

Email me and lets set up a time to get to know each other over the phone.

rwchancy@cogun.com

706.830.3782