Church Planting is No Joke

“Starting a business is tough, but man, being a Pastor is even more difficult,” is a quote from my mentor who ran a successful business for more 10 years.

My name is Justin Knapp, and I’ve been in ministry since I was 19 either serving over church planting teams or helping establish organizations in other countries. If there’s anything I have learned over the years, that statement above could not ring truer.

The Only Thing Consistent in a Church Plant is Inconsistency

With the majority of my adult life going towards ministry, I understand the challenges of money, attendance, awareness, structure, as well as solving the problems that you never expected. In every single one of my experiences the only thing that remained consistent was inconsistency.

The Major Linchpin of a Church Plant is Space

Here’s the wild thing about planting a church: finding space feels like one of the greatest challenges to what you do. It’s where your congregation will come to worship, meet, and where you go to work. Whether the leadership team chooses to meet at someone’s house, rent out a school, partner with an established organization, or any of the other variations, the problem remains the same: “Where are we going to meet?”

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Often, you’re facing the constant need to set up in a rush, make sure everything is in the right place, ensure all of the cords are plugged in, only to tear it down even faster than you put it up at the end of service. Oh, and don’t forget, during tear down, EVERYTHING has to be organized so you can do it all over again next week.

This is a crazy process that few understand, but likely you’re there (or have been there) and understand how answering the question “Where are we going to meet?” comes up often when you’re planting a church. Bonus: the stress and dollars connected to answering this question mount on the entire leadership team.

Getting Into Your Own Commercial Space Is Terrifying

While I was planting a campus, my mentor told me that we needed to finally take the steps to get into our own commercial space.

Now, the question “Where are we going to meet?” morphed into “How are we going to pay for this?” “Are you sure we’re ready?” “Am I ready?” “But this is a long-term commitment.” “How do we make this work?”

I knew we needed to take the step into getting our own commercial space, but doing this meant we would quadruple our overhead and take on a whole lot of risk while we are at it.

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Here’s the deal: I took on the lease. The church finally had the space myself and the leadership team felt we were ready for, and man, I was so excited to get things moving forward and increase the impact we could have in our community.

Then it hit me.

Churches Use Only 13% of the Week to Cover Overhead

Most companies are able to use their space and make money over five days per week; we only had two days (really 12 hours) per week to cover our cost. Here’s the major point I cannot stress enough: In a month, you’re likely using your space for 13% of the week to make a profit.

To be honest, that hit me hard. Not only is signing a commercial real estate contract terrifying (guess who signed a 5-year escalating lease? This guy.), it’s also a challenge for nonprofits to ensure every moment in that space is used well.

Houston, We Have a Solution

We are able to rent out our cars, homes, extra equipment on the Internet via the sharing economy. So why could I not find something that helped me share my fully equipped, underutilized space with other businesses in my community?

I looked at my space and this gift that was placed into my hands. I had a building, it was leased to me to operate a church and I thought about all of the downright AMAZING church plant Pastors and leadership I had met throughout the years asking “Where will we meet?”

I knew there was a way we both could find a win.

I was trusted with a building and had to ask myself, “I’m not accountable for what I have not been given, but for what I have. How do I do better with what I have?”

Finally, a Way to Do Better With What You Have

That’s when SpaceTogether started. I have had no less than three other organizations operating their business within my space since that moment.

We’re building a marketplace to help you do more with what you’ve been given; to see other businesses reach milestones through your space. SpaceTogether connects organizations with equipped underutilized space (think churches with a building) with businesses looking to use that space (maybe a church plant or small business that are willing to pay for short-term use).

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Commercial real estate does not have to hold you back from doing more in your community as a Pastor or leadership team.

Now, you can share your space and help other businesses while decreasing your overhead so you can do better with what you have.

Let Your Space Work For You, Not Against You

By sharing our space, not only have we been able to help people get started in their calling, but we have been able to decrease our overhead immensely (I’m talking by 120% people).

The old saying, “Find a way to make money doing what you love and you will never work another day in your life,” is slightly off. I love what I do, but I still work hard every day. Despite all that, it is downright AMAZING to know that my building is powered by people that want to affect the world in an amazing way and do the work that needs to be done.

Growing your organization with space sharing is possible. Whether you need flexible space or want to share existing space - SpaceTogether exits to simplify the space sharing process from beginning to end

So, are you ready to let your space work for you? Click Here.

Or, are you looking to rent a space? We’ve got you covered too.