pault.jpgHow do you fund a church plant?  For many planters money is the number one challenge to being able to pursue their calling.  I've been thinking about creative ways to do this and wanted to post an idea:  (This is at the idea stage, so things may change)

In order to (1) help church planters fund their ministry or (2) bring people on and train them up within a hands-on environment we would create a 'tentmaker' company. (Picture of Paul the 'tentmaker) This company would allow church planters to be trained and work part (or full time) from home or here in San Diego. The nature of the position would offer a residual commission, which would slowly taper off after a church planter quit working. (We're looking at a couple companies now that look like they'd work.)  The objective would be to create a plan that would fit earning goals of the planter, including after they quit working.

For people who want to transition into ministry, we would offer an intensive training.  During the day, trainees would work roughly 5 hours but also take one-class a day.  This class would teach practical theology for ministry, philosophy on ministry, missiology with hands-on projects to actively do this work in a multi-site church plant.  All this training would be done with other men who are learning from one-another and living in a community.

For example, we have a recent church plant on a college campus.  A person could come, work, be trained and actively participate in the new church plant.  The goal would be to transition the person to full-time ministry or to equip them to go plant a church at another college campus with a funding base from their work.

This is just a start, I appreciate any feedback/suggestions.  Church planters, is this something you would have wanted to do if you could have?

UPDATE: The Tentmaker Group has launched to help church planters raise funding.