Up until I officially pulled the trigger and began working to plant a church in downtown Kansas City in Fall 2008, my fund-raising experience was limited to asking my Dad for a weekly allowance, which I had successfully pulled off back in the ’80s.

Therefore, as I squared up to the task of funding a church’s operation, including my own salary, for the first several years of its existence, I didn’t have a lot to go on. Making things tougher was the reality that some of the guys I would have instinctively turned to for help were in the middle of raising funds for their own churches and projects, and were not jumping up and down with excitement at the prospect of helping a newbie learn the ropes.

As a result, when I set out to ask people to fund Crossroads Church, the tools of my trade were vision, determination, and some glaring misconceptions. One of those misconceptions stands head and shoulders above the rest. In a nutshell, it’s the mistake of equating SIZE with the ability or willingness to collaborate and share resources.

I want to preface this by saying that Crossroads Church Kansas City has a couple “large” churches (statistically, “large” is more than 200 members) supporting us. So by no means am I saying that large churches make bad partners in church planting or that large churches never partner with church plants.

However, as I’ve worked hard at fund-raising over the last several months, it’s no stretch to say that a majority of large churches I’ve connected with, including some very large churches (over 400 people) are not interested in partnering with a church plant in a significant way. I’m not saying this is a national pattern or universal trend, simply that in the KC area, this is the way it seems to be.

Now with very few exceptions, the leaders I’ve talked with, be they pastors of large or small churches, have been interested, encouraging, and supportive. In other words, there were only a couple dudes I wanted to punch—all the rest were stand-up guys. But the fact remains that at this point, 80% of Crossroads’ support comes from churches that are “small,” or under 200 people.

If someone had told me things would go this way six months ago, I don’t think I would have believed it.

However, this is reality. A couple of our partner churches are church plants themselves: LifeConnection (one year old) and Fellowship of Grace (two years). Both of these churches are sacrificially and creatively helping us get off the ground. Both run under 200 people. By contrast, pastors of churches running over 400 have explained to me that “we’re still getting established” and “we have a ways to go” before they could get involved in an outside plant.

So without making any big generalizations, it’s safe to say that in church planting as in dog fighting, it’s not the size of the church in the fight, it’s the size of the fight in the church. Churches who are committed to the gospel and generosity will find a way to make it happen.

A church’s size or popularity is no indicator of its ability/willingness to put resources toward a new gospel endeavor. Sometimes larger churches are so financially committed to infrastructure that, ironically, most of their money and time is spent on self-maintenance. Sometimes there are already too many plates spinning. Sometimes the gospel focus and generosity just aren’t there.

Since I’m an NCAA basketball fan, I can’t help but think in hoops analogies. I like to think I’m getting a greater appreciation for Bill Self’s job. In church plant fund-raising, as in NCAA coaching, the blue chip recruits will always be out there. If they invested in your program for even a year, they would have a huge impact.

However, blue chip recruits are hard to court and slow to commit. They have a short attention span and a ton of invitations. That’s why it’s a mistake to exclusively go after big name players. Every successful coach recruits hard-working, blue-collar players as well. Not only will the 3-star recruit work harder and stay longer than the 5-star, he will also have a higher level of appreciation for the chance to contribute and win.

So there’s my two cents as a church planter and fund raiser. Go after a few of the power players, but put lots of your stock in the small and mid-size churches. They will take your risky, shoe-string adventure seriously, since they have been there themselves and maybe still are. They will relish the fact that you are inviting them to collaborate even though they are not the Duke or Kansas of churches. And frequently, they will lend the concentration and sweat equity that any church plant needs to take root.