CHILD CARE AND CHURCH DEVELOPMENT

A new church start faces many obstacles. Where to meet is one of the most significant. An additional quandary is how to have any ministry other than worship in borrowed space. Further complicating the issue is the amount of land needed for the church and the size of a “first unit” create an almost insurmountable financial obstacle. Finally, how does a church without a facility, or with a borrowed or inadequate facility, develop a ministry to serve the unchurched community?

One solution might be utilizing a weekday childcare program to address all of the above. Such a program can provide a place for the church to worship, study, fellowship and serve; it gives the church a presence in the community 24/7; it eliminates the need for a huge piece of property and cost of a new building when the church is at its weakest; and it provides a ministry to the unchurched.

The benefits go far beyond those listed above:
1)By addressing the felt needs of the unchurched we are more likely to reach them with the Gospel;
2)People will pay for quality childcare, education, and Christian teaching within a clean and safe environment;
3)The children served are actually taught the faith unlike most of the rest of the children in the culture;
4)Children are great evangelists to their parents;
5)Many lives are changed through these ministries;
6)The church earns a reputation in the community for caring competency;
7)The church stays in touch with the needs of the unchurched in its community through these ministries;
8)Opportunities for ministry multiply through the networks of unchurched parents who enroll their children in the ministries;
9)The church is able to provide a much higher quality children’s ministry for the “normal” church activities because of the synergy provided by these week-day programs;
10) Resources come to the church through the families served and their networks – resources that the church would never otherwise have access to;
11) Money is generated to provide additional space for the traditional church functions;
12)The facilities are of higher quality, cleaner and more attractive than the church could ever afford to provide on its own.

We have developed a plan for starting a new church, or re-invigorating an old church using Childcare as the foundation. This plan shows that a new or existing church could buy land and build its first unit or next unit and cover the primary cost of the project out of the revenue of a weekday childcare ministry.

This means that a new church could buy land – probably 5 acres – and build its first unit without being “married” to a location or having to manage the huge cost of an adequate land purchase for the long-term needs of the church. After the Center is fully operational and the congregation is growing, the church can devote its financial resources to buying an adequate piece of property. Eventually the church can sell the land and buildings housing the childcare facility and use the proceeds to help with the cost of additional facilities on the permanent site or may choose to keep the Center at its current location for a variety of reasons.

The model allows the church to focus on ministry rather than being consumed with land purchase and building its financing its first unit. Recognizing the importance of demographics, cost of land and facilities, labor costs and comparable tuition rates in a specific location, a model can be built in most cases which can greatly accelerate the acquisition of a facility and the growth of a congregation.

One example built with location specific data: 90 children paying an average of $125 per week for childcare distributed among the appropriate ages, combined with 50 after-school children paying $10 per day can produce $650,000 annual income. Of that income, $460,000 is required to cover the operational costs of the center (salaries, supplies, cleaning, insurance, etc). This would provide up to $190,000 for debt service per year, which can fund a $1.5 million loan for land and building.

A second example in a very different location also built on very specific data: 225 children paying an average of $925 per month without an after-school program can produce $2.25 million annual income. After operating costs of $1.5 million, $750,000 is available for debt service, which will fund $7.5 million in capital improvements.

If a church built a building that would include 5 rooms for childcare, a large assembly area for a weekday indoor playground and a sanctuary on Sunday, support space, parking and playground, the childcare center could cover the mortgage on a $1.0 - $2.0 million facility, including all development, building, land and furnishings costs.

In order for this to work at least these things have to be in place:

1)The demographics must support the need and market for such a ministry.
2) The church must be willing to serve the unchurched.
3)The director hired to run the center must have excellent qualifications including the ability to attract, train and keep staff and recruit children/families for the center as well as superb management skills.
4)The church must be willing to “own” the ministry insuring quality control and fiscal responsibility within the program.
5)The pastor must understand the value of the ministry and be fully committed to its excellence and growth.

This model is superior, in our opinion, to starting a new church in a public school. This gives the new congregation an immediate presence in the community, 24/7/365. It provides a daily connection to and ministry with the community in very concrete ways. It creates space of a higher quality and usefulness than the new church could otherwise afford.

In 1983 I was appointed as pastor to a small church averaging 75 people in worship. I discovered a very small Mother’s Morning Out program consisting of 13 children. I added 26 children to a Mother’s Morning Out Program that had been operating two days a week. We also added three more days of operation. The income from that program paid all the costs of the program and made a significant contribution to the financial position of the little church. We later added an After School Program which also served 30 children and their families and provided a van for the church to use – one the church could not possibly afford on its own – and needed additional cash flow.

Later we expanded the Mother’s Morning Out and the additional income provided the cost of a classroom modular that the church could not have afforded. This allowed us to serve a significant number of previously un-served families and provided space for use on Sunday.

One of my mentors had taught me “the church grows directly proportional to the number of people served who will never likely join that church (Dr. Kennon Callahan).” While few of the children and families served in this expanded Mother’s Morning Out and After School Program ever joined the church, some did and many others did who learned about the church through the witness of these non-members.

These learning experiences eventually resulted in a Christian School that has the largest enrollment of any United Methodist Christian School east of the Mississippi River and the only United Methodist High School in the eastern United States. This growing school currently serves 1,000 children, pre-school through high school. It has an annual budget of $8.5 million and employs 200 people.

When we decided to build a new 3,000-seat sanctuary it became obvious this facility would require significant childcare space for Worship services. Therefore we included 35,000 square feet of space in the plan to be used exclusively for childcare. In order to serve more families and to help with the cost of the facility we created the First Steps Academy providing weekday child-care for 250 children and their families. This ministry is designed to produce $2.25 million in total revenues per year, of which $750,000 will be used to help with the mortgage on this $20 million structure.

Today, 20 years after that first Mother’s Morning Out program, that church averages 5,000 in worship, has over 6,000 members, owns 55 acres of prime real estate, has made over $40 million in facility improvements and most importantly won almost 2,000 people to Christ in 2002, and over 2,300 in 2003.

For more information or to enlist some significant help contact:
John Butler
jbutler@aslangroup.com
678.592.9241