The Classroom God Prefers

We had $2,100 in savings when we moved to plant Hope Chapel. Our weekly salary that first month? Fifteen dollars.

For context, our rent was $225. Do the math—it doesn't work.

Ruby sold Avon cosmetics door-to-door. I delivered gospel literature on foot because we couldn't afford postage. Someone gave us money to give away 20,000 copies of "The Cross and the Switchblade." I wrote a hot check for the labels to link the books to our church on a Friday—praying Sunday's offering would cover it before Monday morning.

It did. Barely.

I hated every minute of it. The fear. The uncertainty. The humiliation of needing help. But looking back, those lean years taught lessons no seminary could duplicate.

Financial limitation drove us to prayer.

When you can't hire staff or launch programs, you learn to depend on God and ordinary people. We couldn't afford to advertise, so we created personal relationships. We couldn't rent facilities, so we met in homes and parks and eventually a community center.

Scarcity forced creativity.

Without money for curriculum, we trained leaders to discuss Sunday's sermon in their microchurches. Without funds for outreach programs, we worked harder to equip our members to share faith with their friends. Without salaries for staff, we developed bivocational leaders embedded in their workplaces as missionaries.

The constraints became our greatest asset.

Churches with big budgets can hire their way out of problems. They can launch programs to meet every need. But they often struggle to mobilize members for ministry—why serve when paid staff can do it better?

We couldn't hire. So everyone had to play.

Robert Schuller taught us to "find a need and fill it." Chuck Smith showed us to "feed the sheep and let Jesus build the church." But poverty taught us to trust God for what we couldn't provide ourselves.

Here's the pattern I've watched repeatedly for 50 years: The global church proves you don't need money to multiply. Movements explode in China, Iran, and Africa with no budgets, no buildings, no paid pastors. Just the Spirit, the Word, and ordinary people willing to lead.

If they can do it under persecution and poverty, you can do it with freedom and limited funds.

The Four Shifts You Need:

1. Stop waiting for resources. Launch with what you have. Train the people in your pews. Use the spaces available for free.
2. View limitations as advantages. Small size means faster decisions. No building means lower overhead. Volunteer leaders mean broader ownership.
3. Trust people. The nurse, the teacher, the retired businessman—they can shepherd a microchurch without seminary training. Give them permission and support.
4. Measure differently. Stop counting butts, buildings, and budgets. Start counting disciples made, leaders developed, and churches planted.

Three Questions to Ask Yourself:

1. What are we not attempting because we think we lack resources?
2. How might our limitations be preparing us for multiplication?
3. What would we do if money weren't the limiting factor?

Practice This:

This week, identify one initiative you've shelved due to lack of funds. Brainstorm three ways to accomplish it without spending money. Then launch it with the people you have.

Remember, the disciples had no money, no buildings, no programs. Yet they turned the Roman Empire upside down. What they had was the Spirit and each other.

You have the same assets. Use them.

Note: I dive deeper into these ideas in my book "Let Go of the Ring"