Building a car versus building a factory

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This morning I was with a group of Pastors and business leaders from Long Beach. I love these guys; they’re bright, passionate and insightful. Our discussion was around the idea of supporting Church Planters, multiplying churches and helping churches reproduce themselves. In a nutshell we want to be as effective and efficient as we can in producing and reproducing a lot of churches focused on the transformation of the city. To get the conversation rolling, I simply wrote, “Build a car vs. build a factory” on the whiteboard and said discuss. It was fun to sit back and watch them share their thoughts and reflections. The reality is that there is a huge difference between building a car and a factory even though the final product or deliverable is similar. The conversation was really focused on these questions:

  1. How much time, energy and resources do churches spend planting one church as opposed to spending the same amount of time, energy and resources to “build” a factory that will plant many churches and faith communities?
  2. What is the most effective way to accomplish our mission of planting 50 churches in 5 years?
  3. What systems and infrastructure needs to be in place to best support numerous church plants and church planters?
  4. What is the most effective and efficient way to plant high impact, sustainable churches that transform communities and cities?
  5. What are really investing in?

Remember these are bright guys. Here is a summary of some of their observations:

Building a Factory:

  • Is about economy of scale
  • Puts emphasis on the process (clear beginning and end)
  • Reduces costs
  • Is about long-term solution and vision
  • Increases productivity
  • Is more sustainable
  • Focuses on a specialized skill
  • Produces a more reliable product
  • Requires bigger vision
  • Is less resilient to change and transition
  • Has more flexibility and adaptability
  • Involves many specialists and experts
  • Involves increased accountability
  • Is focused on goals and is measurable
  • Makes the product easier to export
  • Requires leadership

 Building a Car:

  • Dependent on skill of labor
  • The process tends to move slowly
  • Is difficult to reproduce
  • Can be more costly than expected
  • Requires resources that are difficult to find
  • Creates a product that is less reliable
  • The builder determines the process
  • Only needs small vision
  • Has less risk

In my opinion there are some great observations here. Here are some of my conclusions as it relates to church planting in HI-DEF:

  • Building a “church planting church” (CPC) may actually take less effort than planting one church and reproduce at a much faster more efficient rate.
  • The guys in the room are vision guys, builders and entrepreneurs. When talking about the church-planting factory, they seemed way more energized about how it could impact the church and the city then planting a church.
  • One Pastor noted that by planting a church we don’t need to change much of how we operate, by building a factory that rapidly produces churches we have to change everything about the current state of our church. There was energy around that thought!
  • It’s easy to stop after planting one church, but building a factory to plant many churches keeps you focused, accountable and productive, therefore the results are greater.
  • It’s hard to plant more than once church at a time without a system in place to multiply rapidly.
  • Factories produce a more sustainable product, they can endure change and in the end they are far more cost efficient.
  • Factories have way more resources to get the job done.

In closing, on my street there are 2 houses with custom cars in the garage and one house with a kit airplane. We have lived on our street for over 10 years and in that time the cars and airplane have never left the garage. I know the owners and at one time they had dreams of what they might produce and someday drive or fly. Their dreams have become places to store boxes and barriers to walk around in the garage. I asked one of my neighbor’s when and why he decided to give up, he said years ago! It was hard work, I’m not a specialist and I don’t have all the resources I need to finish the project. I thought it would be easy and it wasn’t. I keep it because someday I plan to finish what I started. Interesting perspective form a guy who thought he could build a car but hasn’t.