I have been mulling over the idea that any entrepreneurial entity in our society starts behind the 8 ball. What I mean is this: the level at which an entrepreneurs competition operates and the level of expectation from their prospective customers are at astronomically high levels.

The same is true for new Churches. Those expectation levels cross over – in ministry demands, level of quality, and personal attention.

In a perfect world a new Church would not need to start out at the same level as an established church. In the ideal world a new church could grow like a baby does – not being expected to take on adult roles until adulthood has been reached. Unfortunately, our culture has such high demands that new Churches must start out on a level that is equal to that of established Churches.

This is the reason that I am so passionate about doing everything we can on the front end to make sure that Epic Church is the very best she can be! Some people don’t understand why a new Church would need so much money to start (the average price is $300,000 over 3 years – I think this is even a little low). The reason is, people who are disconnected from Christ count! They are worth every penny and so much more. I will not allow the eternal future of those people in Kansas City that Epic Church will reach to be undervalued because the project seems to large or the number of zeros behind the $ are too daunting. I want to honor those people now; I want to work my tail off to pay the price of doing this right, on the front, so they can reap the rewards on the backside.

Isn’t that the kind of example Christ gave us, He paid on the front end so that we could be rewarded on the back end. He gave it all, so we could have it all. Simply put, $300,000 is nothing if it means seeing people who need Jesus come to know and love Him!

I was talking with a business friend today (he’s the kind of guy you want to learn from) about some of the practices they use to keep people satisfied and to encourage better business practices. One thing he said that got me really thinking was how they reward people who send business their way. His particular business gives out movie tickets to the current customers who recommend their service. I was shocked that in the church world we haven’t thought of this. I spend so much time encouraging people to bring folks to church and then don’t do anything to tell them how great it was that they followed through on that commitment to the mission of the Gospel. I want to be an encourager, someone who reinforces the positive in the body of Christ!

I’ll tell you what, people who are far from God and feel disconnected from Him deserve our very best, our top game!