Should you think in terms of renting as a long term solution?
My answer is that if all you can do is all you can do then all you can do is what you should do. So rent if you must.
The traditional option in North America is to start a church using a school facility. And I heard somewhere that you do a tad better if that is a high school and not a grade school. Schools are often located on major streets. But more and more new schools are embedded in the subdivisions where people live. Those are often hard to find for newcomers to church. If a person attempts to come to church and they have to make 3 turns off a main street they will get lost on the way. Or at least they will have the option of "I couldn't find it" as their excuse for turning around and going home. I heard recently of someone seeing sandwich board signs all over the place but they were still not able to follow the arrows. Go figure. Honest. College graduates. But the signs didn't work for them.
That is a bit off topic here but it points to the need to make sure you think all this through carefully.
Back to rent or not.
I have never met anyone who started a church in a school and who was still there three years later who thought that the school was a long term solution. The number one complaint I hear is that they got tired of setting up and tearing down every week. If that is the only reason then hire people to do your set up. There are lots of teenagers out there who know which end of a chair belongs on the floor. The cost of purchasing that labor is much less than the cost of the interest on the mortgage you will need for the facility of your dreams. Seriously, why pay for ministry staff when you could have good people in your church volunteer to do much more ministry if they didn't have to set up and tear down every time you meet. Chair setters come cheap. The same thing applies for most of the work that needs to be done to set up your Rolling Stones quality sound system. Most of the work is in the lugging not the plugging.
My biggest objection to resting in the school beyond an initial start up phase is not the mundane of the foregoing. I just don't like it when people don't pay their own way. The rent for the school, and more and more school boards are cottoning on to this, never covers the real cost of the school. Rent is found money for the school so they only cover the cost of keeping the thermostat set and the floor mopped. But the rent you will pay won't cover your part in putting the mortar between the blocks or even repainting the blocks.
So the real cost of housing a church is not addressed. The church sinks into expectations that they could have a big roof over their head and still only use it to capacity for a couple of hours a week. It just doesn't work for me.
Here is how it goes. The church gets tired of setting up and tearing down so someone says, "Why don't we lease that old empty store over there?" Then one of two things happens. If the owner of the store is really desperate you get the answer that you want to hear for a limited time. So you go back to the church and talk about the wonderful opportunity to lease the building at a preferred rate. Then of course when the lease ends, the rent doubles and you are worse off than you were in the school. Or the other alternative which is even more favorable is that the owner quotes you the market rent. You either find a way to meet the terms of the market or not.
You see, if this were the price of a cup of coffee you would understand it more readily. If someone is selling you a cup of coffee for 25¢ you know something is up. You don't actually believe the 25¢ number tells the whole story. You just have to know that there are some other obligations that will follow. To follow the analogy here, the full story is you can have the coffee for 25¢ if you're willing to pay $3.00 for the doughnut.
There's only one reason why somebody wants to rent you something. They want to make money. So at the end of the day it ends up being cheaper to purchase than to rent. Renting might save you a little money today but it will cost you more money in the long term.
If renting is all you can afford to do then renting is what you should afford to do. However, it is highly likely it will not be suitable for the long-term.
I hate it when I have to be the bearer of difficult news for people. You might actually believe that I am negative about all this. Not really. It is sort of like salvation. I have to get you to admit that you're a sinner before I can get you saved!
I have thought long and hard about all of this. And I have drawn some conclusions that are really exciting. I will roll them out for you in the future.
My answer is that if all you can do is all you can do then all you can do is what you should do. So rent if you must.
The traditional option in North America is to start a church using a school facility. And I heard somewhere that you do a tad better if that is a high school and not a grade school. Schools are often located on major streets. But more and more new schools are embedded in the subdivisions where people live. Those are often hard to find for newcomers to church. If a person attempts to come to church and they have to make 3 turns off a main street they will get lost on the way. Or at least they will have the option of "I couldn't find it" as their excuse for turning around and going home. I heard recently of someone seeing sandwich board signs all over the place but they were still not able to follow the arrows. Go figure. Honest. College graduates. But the signs didn't work for them.
That is a bit off topic here but it points to the need to make sure you think all this through carefully.
Back to rent or not.
I have never met anyone who started a church in a school and who was still there three years later who thought that the school was a long term solution. The number one complaint I hear is that they got tired of setting up and tearing down every week. If that is the only reason then hire people to do your set up. There are lots of teenagers out there who know which end of a chair belongs on the floor. The cost of purchasing that labor is much less than the cost of the interest on the mortgage you will need for the facility of your dreams. Seriously, why pay for ministry staff when you could have good people in your church volunteer to do much more ministry if they didn't have to set up and tear down every time you meet. Chair setters come cheap. The same thing applies for most of the work that needs to be done to set up your Rolling Stones quality sound system. Most of the work is in the lugging not the plugging.
My biggest objection to resting in the school beyond an initial start up phase is not the mundane of the foregoing. I just don't like it when people don't pay their own way. The rent for the school, and more and more school boards are cottoning on to this, never covers the real cost of the school. Rent is found money for the school so they only cover the cost of keeping the thermostat set and the floor mopped. But the rent you will pay won't cover your part in putting the mortar between the blocks or even repainting the blocks.
So the real cost of housing a church is not addressed. The church sinks into expectations that they could have a big roof over their head and still only use it to capacity for a couple of hours a week. It just doesn't work for me.
Here is how it goes. The church gets tired of setting up and tearing down so someone says, "Why don't we lease that old empty store over there?" Then one of two things happens. If the owner of the store is really desperate you get the answer that you want to hear for a limited time. So you go back to the church and talk about the wonderful opportunity to lease the building at a preferred rate. Then of course when the lease ends, the rent doubles and you are worse off than you were in the school. Or the other alternative which is even more favorable is that the owner quotes you the market rent. You either find a way to meet the terms of the market or not.
You see, if this were the price of a cup of coffee you would understand it more readily. If someone is selling you a cup of coffee for 25¢ you know something is up. You don't actually believe the 25¢ number tells the whole story. You just have to know that there are some other obligations that will follow. To follow the analogy here, the full story is you can have the coffee for 25¢ if you're willing to pay $3.00 for the doughnut.
There's only one reason why somebody wants to rent you something. They want to make money. So at the end of the day it ends up being cheaper to purchase than to rent. Renting might save you a little money today but it will cost you more money in the long term.
If renting is all you can afford to do then renting is what you should afford to do. However, it is highly likely it will not be suitable for the long-term.
I hate it when I have to be the bearer of difficult news for people. You might actually believe that I am negative about all this. Not really. It is sort of like salvation. I have to get you to admit that you're a sinner before I can get you saved!
I have thought long and hard about all of this. And I have drawn some conclusions that are really exciting. I will roll them out for you in the future.
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