When should a campus be paying for itself?

Everyone wants more campuses but few consider how to pay for them after the hype wears off. The "welcome to our [mythical number of] campuses watching online" will not resource the vision forever.

I believe in campuses being self-sufficient and self-funded as quickly as possible.

But not at the expense of branding, culture, and operational values that should be aligned with the overall mission and vision of the whole church.

If a campus can not fund itself sooner than later, I’d rather we just call it a “mission” or a “venue” so at least we can all tell it’s something different that will cost us more than it really helps us.

First, what I mean by paying for itself.

1. First step: Pay for it’s own operating expenses.

2. Second step: Pay operating expenses AND pay back the capital invested into it from the “global” or “central” church.

3. Third step: Pay operating AND pay back initial capital AND pay forward into the expansion/mission fund that will continue to pay for other new locations (or endeavors, whatever the church decides).

These go IN ORDER. And I track this in the accounting.

Of course I’ll start a campus before it’s been paid for. But I’ll still track what initial capital is required to start and operate it for a year. I won’t simply take it out of savings and forget about it. We have to know what it costs, how sustainable this strategy is, and if this is worth the investment. Again, for all the “missional” purists out there, if you goal is “souls harvest” at the complete abdication of all financial accounting, just call this a “mission” and be done with it. It’s simpler but hardly scalable that way. And to that point, this Substack is not about a traditional missions structure but scalable local church ministry.

For the rest of this post I’ll use this example campus and see how we can scale this to reach and serve people for decades, not a few years.

• January 1 launch date.

• 4 FT staff until 850 average adult attendance (I don’t believe in the “logic” of part time).

• $650,000 initial allocation (pays for staff and all operations for a year).