My New/Old Friend Paul

This past week at our state missions training center I got to talking with some other church planters about our location dilemmas. I had just received a call from... (well I'll tell you from who tomorrow, but it was an exciting and amazing call). We got to sharing ideas on how to make the best use of a school facility to set up for church. I mentioned that our ability to meet at North Landing is dependent on finding two teachers that are willing to let us use their rooms on Sundays for our nursery and preschool. Two guys in the room looked at me like I was from another planet. "What do you need rooms for, the hallways work so much better!"

This was another one of those G-incidents (God/coincidents). I had just thought of using the hallways last week on my own, but didn't think it was practical or would look nice. I shared my concerns with them and then got an education. They started telling me how they did there set up in the hallways and who else I could talk to that does it also. Then another church planter walked in and overheard our conversation. He chimed in, "hey we use the hallways too, here's how we do it."

One of the guys in the room was Paul McDaniel, the pastor of Family Life Church in Mechanicsville, Virginia. Paul's the kind of guy that you're convinced you've known for years after spending five minutes with him. Why, because he treats you like you're a friend that's he's known all his life. He said to me, "Hey my church equipment is on you way home, you want to stop by and look at what we use to do our set up?"

I of course took him up on the offer. I tell you what, they know what they are doing at Family Life. They share my same heart for making something look like a million dollars, but finding a way to buy it for a million dong. (Dong is the currency of Vietnam. One million Vietnameese Dong equals about $60.) I can't thank Paul enough for taking the time to show me what they do and how they do it. And I am simply amazed at how God contually puts me in the right place at the right time.

location, location, location

Being the son of a realtor I have heard the phrase "location, location, location" many times. Location is a major component of planting a church. There are four things we are looking for in choosing a place.

1. Size, Expandability, Flexibility. The place has to be big enough to accommodate our needs (parking, nursery, preschool, worship, etc.). When you could have as few as 75 or as many as 400 on your first Sunday, it's quite a challenge to find a place expandable enough. Flexibility is also an issue. Commercial real estate leasing agreements often ask for a 3, 5, or even 10 year commitment. If you're signing a lease that ties you to a location for 3 years, it had better be one that you can still use if you grow.

2. Residential Area. The location needs to be close to where people live. I have never understood why people are willing to commute 45 minutes to work, but will rarely travel more than 10 minutes to go to church. But it is what it is, and therefor being close to residential neighborhoods are important.

3. City Approval. This is an often overlooked factor. I have heard many horror stories over the past month about pastors that have signed a lease or worse yet, bought a building only to find out that the city will not approve the site for church use. In Virginia Beach there isn't a zoning label for churches. Rather the city grants a conditional use permit for a church to meet in a location that is zoned for business, industrial, etc.

4. Drive by traffic. Putting a sign out in front of where you are meeting is the cheapest form of advertising. Being able to put out a sign in a high traffic area isn't a must, but it is such a great thing to have that it makes this list.

Conclusion: This is why schools and movie theaters are the most common place for church plants. They almost always meet all four of the requirements.