Church Finds Extra $100,000 a Year for Ministry

What would your church do with an extra $100,000 a year?

After partnering with CDF Capital, Discovery Church in Colorado Springs gets to explore the answer to this question.

At CDF Capital, we’re focused on helping churches grow. So when Discovery found that their interest payments were standing in the way of them doing more ministry, CDF Capital was thrilled to help.

Discovery: the “Me Too” place in Colorado Springs

Colorado Springs is one of the most evangelical cities you could ever visit. It’s the home of large parachurch organizations such as Focus on the Family, Compassion International, the Navigators, and many more. Large Christian employers draw many Christian employees— which means that most churches there grow by attracting already churched families.

When Greg Lindsey became the lead pastor at Discovery Church, he and the staff recognized a special opportunity to serve the city by embracing the unchurched.

Greg knows what it’s like to feel unwelcome at church. He knows the kinds of fears that leap into people’s minds when they hear the word “church.” He knows the anxiety that come from brokenness. In a city like Colorado Springs, it’s easy for unchurched people to think that no church would welcome them.

 

That’s why Discovery Church’s motto is “Me Too.” They accept that everyone has failed.

This radical approach has quickly attracted all kinds of people: sex addicts, ex-cons, abuse victims, and former pastors. Discovery is different enough and safe enough for anyone to discover once again who Jesus is.

It’s working. Most of Discovery’s 2000 attendees have either never been to church or have walked away from the faith at some point in their lives. And they’re not just trickling in: Discovery Church has been one of the 100 fastest-growing churches in the U.S. since 2014.

Physical and financial limitations

Discovery’s rapid growth came with a problem though: where were all the people going to worship? They were getting cramped, and they knew that they didn’t just need space for their current congregation—they needed space for hundreds more people to welcome in.

They took out a loan with another lender to acquire a huge building (formerly a grocery store) so that the church could continue to grow. This solved their space issue—in fact, the new building gave them enough space to double their size again.

But then Discovery faced another set of problems. Operating such a large building is expensive, and paying off the interest on their building loan was prohibitive. Plus all the responsibilities of managing the new space and the new debt fell on the church’s small staff of 11 individuals.

Despite their growth, loan payments forced them to say no to ministry opportunities.

Freedom through refinancing

This didn’t sit well with Greg and the Discovery team. Growth shouldn’t come at the cost of ministry. Discovery Church wanted to be free to invest in their staff and ministry programs for this spiritually young congregation—but their ministry efforts were shackled to their interest payments.

Having great relationships has its advantages, and with a strong relationship with CDF Capital and our team, Greg turned to us to discover his options.

We listened to Discovery’s staff and assessed their situation. We looked beyond the financials to understand their ministry needs and the roadblocks they were encountering. We found that if Discovery could reduce their loan payments, they would have more funds to grow their team and invest in ministry to their congregation.

The solution: Refinancing their loan with CDF Capital significantly cut their monthly payments. It also relieved Discovery’s leadership of a great deal of stress—which allows them to devote not just money, but attention to ministry.

In the end, CDF Capital is saving Discovery church more than $100,000 a year!

Discovery is reinvesting those funds in their staff and ministry efforts. For example, they can finally invest in creating discipleship materials specifically for the brand-new believers in their church body. This has been a vital need at Discovery for a long time, because most of their new members need material that’s more introductory level than other church curriculum options. Now, thanks to Discovery’s lower monthly payments, they have time, funds, and energy to nurture their members into mature disciples of Jesus like never before.

We can’t wait to see what else God does through Discovery in Colorado Springs.

CDF helps churches grow

At CDF Capital our mission is to help churches grow into their potential. Discovery is just one of the churches we helped to refinance a building loan so they can spend more on growth and less on interest.

To learn about how CDF Capital can help your church, check out all of our financial capital for churches options.