Hurdle Two: Workable Funding Models:
“If you build it they will come,” is a cute slogan for mystical baseball movies but the thinking behind this quote has tripped up many a planter. Most business models assume a four to five year window just to get their books in the black. Many planters on the other hand are not even sure what “in the black” means since an undergrad degree in Youth Ministry doesn’t really cover complex business financing.
Planter need specific and in-depth training in choosing and managing a funding model.
There are at least three models, in general, from which to choose:
1. Bi-vocational business model: In this model the team leader (or someone highly invested in the team) possess the skill to run a for profit business at the very same time they are planting. This model works great for a VERY SPECIFIC and unfortunately very small percentage of planters who great at business. If you can preach, plant and be a money entrepreneurs this might be the model for you.
2. Large Gift Start Up: This can also be called The Publisher’s Clearing House Method. The Idea is that someone (Foundation, Denomination or Rich Uncle) shows up on your door step and gives you a large lump to start the ministry.
3. Support Teams. In this model a team of monthly prayer and financial supporters funds the salary, administrative and facility budgets throughout the start up. This is my favorite model becuase the process of meeting with and persuading team members to join the plant has many benefits for planter other than just the financial. This method does require up to date training and on going coaching. Gone are the days of just sending out a mass mailing and getting an instance donor base.
Of course, there are more than three models and combining models can be a big plus.
Hurdle Three: Customized Strategy.
In the sprint to launch planters can be tempted to relegate research, prayer and retraining entirely to a one week period (usually called a “Bootcamp”) some six months to a year before their launch. Knowing a missionfield and customizing specific ministry to meet the needs of that particular piece of earth usually takes more time A type planters want to give. It also often requires leaders to learn new skills from scratch. Veteran leader frequently are resist admiting the don’t know what they are doing. This means the planter must resist the temptation to rely on skills developed in other ministry contexts and admit that they don’t know how to do ministry in this context until they have done the proper scooting of the mission field.
World-class athletes model this learning and adapting behavior weekly. They study each variable of the competition and develop specific tactics for each contest. Failure to employ this same level of customized planning almost always guarantees a gravel-laden nose.
Hurdle Four: Laughter and Prayer.
I used to call this the Coaching Hurdle but after attending three training conferences on coaching and reading six tons of verbage on the subject and then actually coaching planters, I am pretty convinced coaching is not enough. This relationship must go far beyond advice and active listening. Good planters don’t need me to lead them to the right answer. They can usually find better advice using Goggle then I can facilitate in any weekly coaching call. What they can’t in a book, seminar or web page is help with feeling of isolation and spiritual opposition.
Isolation is perhaps the biggest hurdle of all in planting. The only way to overcome it is to have family, not organizational cohorts, in your corner. Having an advocate who cares for you enough to make sure you are laughing and praying on a regular basis can facilitate an amazing amount of hurdle jumping power.
Of course there is far more to planting than assessment, funding, strategy and laughter but in the dizzying array of variables, making sure that we make a clean leap over each of these four obstacles can greatly increase the chances of long term health are real fruit for Christ.