Looking to Expand Your Church? Identify These 3 Markers.

So, you think it’s time to expand your church? Congratulations, pastor. You’ve created the greatest problem in the world when it comes to reaching people for Christ.

Before you start planning how to get more space, though, you have to answer the question: Is it really time to expand?

Just because you feel the pressure of a growing congregation doesn’t mean acquiring more space is the answer. Here are three “tells” to look for that indicate whether or not your church is genuinely in need of more space as a way to guide smart growth for your ministry.

1. Have You Used ALL of Your Space?

We get it. Of course, it feels like you’ve used up your existing space. That’s why a church expansion article caught your eye, right? But set aside the emotional components (and the overwhelmed feeling of that Easter service attendance number — we all know it’s a one-off). Let’s consider what it really means to use all of your space.

At Ministry Solutions Group, we’ve found that, by far, the easiest way to get more seats is to use the same seats more. (We’re big fans of activating church buildings to get the most out of every square inch of space.) Adding more services is much more efficient and effective than building bigger auditoriums. 

Of course, there’s a natural saturation factor that comes with adding more services. Certain time slots won’t attract a big crowd (and consequentially won’t take pressure off of those popular service times). Your staff and volunteers can only handle so many services in a given Sunday, too. 

Nevertheless, an expansion project is such a big commitment that this is a necessary question to ask. Make sure you’ve at least added that third Sunday service and that you are using those existing seats at full capacity before you invest in finding more of them. As my friend Jim Tomberlin, the MultiSite Guy says, “You want to be 11 months pregnant before you birth a campus.”

2. Are Your Church Finances Ready?

Stewarding church assets is an important part of leadership. This doesn’t mean you can’t invest in real estate or that having church debt is inherently a bad thing. The way you engage in church finances is what matters most here. For instance, our Principal and Founder, Nathan Artt, defines financial church stewardship like this:

• Good stewardship looks like a building that pays for itself through the capacity it creates.
• Bad stewardship is a ministry funding a building (rather than a building funding ministry). 

You don’t need to have a pile of cash to pay for a project upfront to be able to expand. Rather, you want to engage in an intelligent debt approach that seeks to accomplish specific things through every dollar you borrow. (More on strategy in a minute).

Other financial factors to consider are:

• Interest rates: Yes, they’re higher than they were before, but it’s important to remember that interest rates aren’t high right now. They are no longer abnormally low. (In the past 50 years, mortgage rates peaked at over 18% in the early '80s. Yikes! That’s high.) This may be the new reality for a while, and it’s okay to operate (with wisdom) within this kind of interest rate environment we’re facing.
• Location: Don’t let a donated building lure you away from your strategy. Location over the long-term is more important than a deal in the present. Besides, our team has never seen a “free building” that didn’t end up costing at least a million dollars once a church moved in.

3. Do You Have a Lot of Long-Distance Attendees?

The newest element of evaluating an expansion is the digital one. Whether you’re aware of it or not, you probably have the information in-house already (even if it’s sitting in a data lake in your business administration office) to discover where people are coming from. 

It’s helpful to look at how many people are driving from a ways away to get to you. Attendance, giving units, residence data — these can help you discover if there are areas where people are already committed and driving minutes to get to you. You can use it to identify areas where you may be ready to expand and where you will automatically have a built-in group of attendees willing to invite friends and neighbors.

Time to Expand? Then It’s Time for a Strategy.

If you review things like space efficiency, finances, and attendance data and find that it’s time to expand, great! Remember, though: healthy expansion takes time. It can also be beneficial to work with qualified partners who can bring experience-backed wisdom into the equation.

Once you’ve decided that expansion is the right move, the next step is to build a strategy to keep you on track. Start with some key questions:

• What does expansion mean? Expand a facility? Open a new campus? 
• Where are large groups of people coming from?  The majority of multisite campuses are launched within a 20 to 30 minute driving distances from the sending campus. Focus on those areas. 
• If a new building is involved, are you going to lease, buy, or build?

Gather, build your strategy, and then (and only then) take action. This will help you resist the temptation to chase the best opportunities over what is best for your church and its God-given mission.

If you find you need support throughout this process, this is where our team can help. We’ve helped manage and fund over $1 billion in church projects. Trust us when we say that we’ve seen it all. 

Our Clear Path Forward service is structured to help you get your feet under you, ask the right questions, and gain a clear understanding as you set things in motion. If that sounds like it meets a need for your team right now, reach out. We’d love to explore how we can help your church grow effectively in a way that helps you stay on mission.