Crowdfunding, Kickstarter, and The Future of Training Church Planters

 *My post here was originally published on April 9, 2015 in Christianity Today.

What if there was a more effective way to train church planters? A way that focused on developing competencies and skills rather than the memorization of steps?

Every church planting program falls somewhere along this spectrum between a heavy emphasis on the classroom or field experience. Both are necessary, but there are weaknesses with an either/or approach. On the one hand, an over-emphasis on the classroom assesses one on their knowledge, rather than their ability to actually put their knowledge to action. On the other hand, an over-emphasis on field experience tends to be isolated to one particular method of doing ministry in a contextualized context, which may or may not guarantee success when the context of ministry changes.

As much as most church planting programs recognize the necessity for a both/and approach, most are just simply requiring both classroom and field experience time, rather than discovering a way to integrate them together.

Enter: Crowdfunding.

By now, crowdfunding, Kickstarter and Indiegogo are household names. Since 2009, over 8.3 million people have pledged $1.6 billion to 82,000 projects on Kickstarter. Also, over 15 million people from 224 countries visit Indiegogo a month. The most well known crowdfunded initiatives are arguably the Pebble smart watch, Oculus Rift and Hoverboards (yes, I did say hoverboards). Each of these initiatives started as an idea, and as a result of crowdfunding, they turned into reality. Crowdfunding touched a soft spot in my heart when LeVar Burton brought Reading Rainbow back to the world when over 100,000 people pledged $5+ million to it.

What if this was a part of their core curriculum? After all, where else would a potential planter have the real life opportunity to innovate, collaborate, cast vision, create momentum, and raise funds before they planted a church and had to actually innovate, collaborate, cast vision, create momentum, and raise funds for their church? Crowdfunding would be the perfect way to mix classroom and field experience time for a church planter. Essentially, by requiring the church planter to crowdfund an idea, you would be cross-training them in many of the same areas required to plant and lead a church. (Obviously there’s more to planting and leading a church than the skills required in crowdfunding, but there are many overlapping areas.)

Imagine if crowdfunding was part of the training ground and litmus test to see if an individual had the core competencies to plant and lead a church?

Not only would you be able to identify actual strength and growth areas in the planter, by which you could create a plan of development around, but with successful crowdfunded initiatives, you would also be creating an additional revenue stream that could be used to further fuel and fund church planting efforts.

When researching successful crowdfunded initiatives, I discovered five common traits:

1. The idea was innovative

• There was something in this idea that distinguished them from their competition
• They were trying to solve a problem
• The fact that they were successful was a proof of market validation

2. A team was behind it

• According to Indiegogo, campaigns run by two or more team members raised 94% more money than campaigns run by single individuals
• There is a greater diversity of skills
• The work is shared
• There is a bigger network for promotion

3. There was a compelling vision

• The vision was told via a story – most often through the means of a video
• They knew how to put themselves in the shoes of their audience
• They asked people to help them make something special happen – there was a greater purpose than just raising money

4. There was momentum before, during, and after the campaign

• They developed pre-launch, launch, and post-launch timelines
• They gave perks and incentive for supporters

5. They asked for money

• They had a clear ask and weren’t ashamed by it

So, if crowdfunding was a part of the core curriculum for every church planting program, then every potential church planter would grow in their ability to:

1. Innovate

• They would brand their church and distinguish it from others
• They would identify a need and provide a solution for it

2. Collaborate

• They would work together on a team
• They would increase in their self-awareness of their strengths and weaknesses
• They would work with others to compliment one another’s strengths and weaknesses

3. Cast vision

• They would craft and communicate a message in a compelling manner
• They would film a promotional piece and learn the importance of video
• They would become story-tellers

4. Create momentum

• They would develop timelines and systems for getting things done
• They would manage a project
• They would grow in their ability to use intrinsic and extrinsic motivation

5. Raise funds

• They would get better at asking for money
• They would know how to budget
• They would know how to spend a budget

What are your thoughts? Is this the future of church planting training?