Barring any last minute changes, it looks like The Courageous Church will be moving its Sunday morning location from Center Stage to one of about 4-5 new spots on Sunday, March 1st. Overall, Center Stage has been an awesome Sunday morning location for us, but four primary factors are causing us to consider a quick shift.
1. It's not cost effective. Including all security and tech costs, Center Stage cost us between $8000-$9000 a month. I knew this was the cost before we launched there, but we expected to be raising more money on a weekly basis than we have been. I pledged to my leadership coaches and others that I would not run our entire church into the ground by remaining @ Center Stage past a point of where it was not affordable. We are @ that point. For what we are paying to be @ Center Stage I cannot justify the percentage of our budget that it is costing right now. I took a calculated risk to have us launch there and I am still glad we did it, but it has not quite worked out for us. We could stay, but it's just not cost effective.
2. It's too big. Although we had nearly 700 people @ our Grand Opening, our Sunday morning crowds since then have all been less than 300 people. Center Stage costs what it costs, in part, because it is big. For us, right now, it's too big. In spite of the fact that we have great attendance for a church that is just 4 weeks old, it really doesn't look like it.
3. It's not a good example. I feel very strongly that the way the church spends its money should set a great example for how we hope and expect individuals and families to spend money. Right now, The Courageous Church is what we call House Poor. Have you ever (had a house) or visited a family and they house was amazing on the outside and you go inside only to see that the family cannot afford furniture and has a bunch of empty rooms? That's house poor and it is often a cause of poor planning or overspending. I refuse to run our church in this way.
4. Other options have opened up. When we chose to be @ Center Stage, God opened up several doors for us to be there and no other viable options existed. That's not the case today. I have a feeling we may be back @ Center Stage somewhere down the road, but a few other options that are less than half of the cost are open right now that just make a whole lot of sense.
(((My family is hungry. They get that way sometimes. I have to fix something to eat for the crew, but hope to tell you about the options very soon!)))
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