Each year my wife and I sit down to work on our finances as a family.  In the past we would consider the additional income from salary increases based on job performance, however, over the last two years of starting a new church we have taken a $15K deduction in salary, no increase, and taken on more expenses.  Our property tax has increased $150 a month alone in the last two years so needless to say it makes finances a challenge.

Don’t get me wrong it has been worth it.  God has provided for all our needs and beyond as we have stepped out in faith, but it has been a challenge.  Things break down, you always want more, credit cards make it easy to overspend, and each year it seems like children bring on new expenses.  As you step out in faith to start a new church be sure to count the cost of the financial sacrifices it will take on the front end.

Recently, a friend of mine in California started a company to help with some of these challenges.  It seemed like every financial quarter the credit card companies would reward us for going into debt and he started dreaming that perhaps we could be rewarded for getting out of debt.  It is called Payoff.com.  It is still in the beginning stages, but it is something I am excited about. It is going to create an online community to be around other people who are excited about paying off debt.  That is pretty awesome!

As you begin to dream about starting a new church I would do everything possible to pay off as much debt as possible.  God was so good to us to lead us to a place to pay off school loans, credit cards, car loans, so that we could enter into the church planting stages without any debt, but our house.  I wish payoff.com would have been around when we paid off that debt so we could have been around other people as we pressed toward our goals.