Lessons learned seven years into planting a church

Lee Stephenson: Welcome, everyone. Unfiltered podcast - Lee Stephenson here. Church planter. Overseer of Converge Church Planting.

Danny Parmelee: Danny Parmelee. I oversee Church Planting for Converge MidAmerica and Southeast.

Lee Stephenson: And we are still recording live from Orlando during our Church Planters Assessment Center. And one of our assessors, a Converge church planter, Chris Highfill is here. Chris, say hi. Introduce yourself. Where are you at? Where's home for you?

Chris Highfill: Hi, yeah. Thanks for having me, guys. Really appreciate being here. Again, my name is Chris Highfill, lead pastor at Grace River Church. We planted a church just west of St. Louis. And we're seven years into that church plant right now. And happy to be here at the Orlando Church Planting Assessment Center.

Lee Stephenson: Awesome. Chris, why in the world did you plant in the St. Louis area? What was the reason? What was the call  for you personally to go there seven years ago?

Chris Highfill: That's a great question. I actually thought I was gonna plant in Boston. That was my first thought and had a mentor that had planted up there. And we thought that we'd do a residency and plant out of his church. Went and checked out Boston a few different times and realized we just don't like Boston. It was just the...

Danny Parmelee: Sorry, Boston listeners. So, we will give you his email address.

Lee Stephenson: Great lobster rolls.

Danny Parmelee: You send him some nasty emails.

Chris Highfill: Right. My email address is Lee Stephenson at Converge. No. But in all seriousness, just didn't really have a heart for Boston. And my mentor asked me, "What's one town you've always wanted to live in, but you've never lived in?" The town I currently live in didn't need another church. And I said, "Man, I've always wanted to live in St. Louis." And I had an uncle growing up, that I spent a lot of time in St. Louis at his place. And just always thought someday I'm going to end up in St. Louis. And I had no idea that someday would be because I was going to plant a church.

Danny Parmelee: Okay, because I have to interject here, because this is a conversation that I have with church planters all the time when they're trying to figure out the “where.” And for some reason, it would seem more spiritual for you to pick Boston. You know what I mean? Where planters always go, "Well, God's gonna send me somewhere where I don't want to go." And yours wasn't even Oh, I prayed about it. And there was this angel of the Lord that showed me. But you literally wanted to live there. And I just think for some church planters, they or pre-church planners that are listening to this, it's okay to just want to live in a city. That if you can see your family there, that you essentially plant yourself there. And out of that is going to come a love for the city and for the people and eventually a church. So, just wanted to interject that. Continue on.

Chris Highfill: Yeah, as I began to pray about St. Louis, it was just opportunity after opportunity began to open up. Started kind of visiting different towns outside of St. Louis. We knew that we probably wouldn't be in the inner city of St. Louis. We just... we're a suburban couple. And so it just made sense for us to be in the suburbs. And opportunity opened up to do a residency at a church. And then, also, opportunity came up really, to help out in the local Chamber of Commerce. And that's a crazy story in of itself, because I'm a business college dropout. And then somehow I got really involved in the chamber there and that I would get to be the unofficial chaplain of the O'Fallon chamber. Which was a really great opportunity to meet a ton of people that are far from Christ.

Lee Stephenson: Love it. Love it. Now, tell us a little bit of the story. Where did you start? Because you weren't from O'Fallon?

Chris Highfill: Yeah.

Lee Stephenson: So how did you from nothing, get something going? And just kind of walk us through the progression of your church plant.

Chris Highfill: Yeah, I mean, it's sentimental, because this is the month of our seven-year birthday. And so, I always reflect back and see Facebook pictures and stuff like that in our timeline as a reminder of what happened. But we started with a small group in my living room. We did parachute into a new community where we didn't know anybody. And so, like you mentioned. So, we started the small group Bible study. Started inviting people to it.

Lee Stephenson: Just like people from the gym, work?

Chris Highfill: Anybody. We'd meet neighbors, people from the gym, just some something for people to come to. And grew that Bible study into a launch team. It took us about three months to get that to around 20 people or so. And then that...we transitioned out of a Bible study really into about an every- other-week launch team meeting where we're just meeting in our living room. We outgrew the living room. And so, then we would rent some facility space in our community to be able to just meet people. Did a lot of barbecues, a lot of special events. We would join in on events that were already happening. And so, let's say there's an opportunity set up booth up at some local carnival. We would do that and be able to meet a ton of people doing that. We did movie nights in the park. And so, we targeted young families. And so, we would do movie nights in the park throughout the summer. And just kind of built, and built, and built. And then we did preview services. We picked a location - my kids’ elementary school. And it was a really great spot. We don't always recommend elementary schools because they don't have the greatest amount of parking sometimes. But it was perfect for us because it gave us some great momentum. This particular elementary school was not tucked back into a neighborhood. So, it was easy to find, right? There was plenty of parking. And it made us look and feel bigger than we actually were, because the space wasn't gigantic. Oftentimes a middle school or high school gymnasium are really big.

Lee Stephenson: And toilets are small.

Chris Highfill: Exactly. So, it all worked out. But we started in the elementary school. We were there less than a year. Opportunity came available for us to move to the YMCA, which was even better location for us. And so, we moved with about 150 people over to the Y. And then went to two services soon after that. And we started a capital campaign about four years into our plant.

Danny Parmelee: You had not identified a building yet. So, this was a capital campaign saying, we know we're going to need money sometime. So, let's just think ahead here.

Chris Highfill: Yeah, we started this campaign really based off a vision. We were a growing family, and we didn't have... We probably could have raised more money if we had a piece of land or a building we were looking at. But we just told our church, "Man, we know that the future is bright, and that our best days are ahead of us, not behind us. And so, we got to figure out a location for our growing family." And so, we did a capital campaign. With 50 giving units we were able to raise over $500,000 over a three-year time commitment. That week, we went to my commercial real estate agent, and I said, "Man, I feel like a middle school kid with 100 bucks in my pocket. I got to figure out a location."

Danny Parmelee: And I remember viewing some properties with you that you were just so dead set on.

Chris Highfill: Yeah, I mean, there were some that were just really bad. Storefronts and things that just weren't going to be great. And Danny was like, "Please don't do this. This is a big mistake." I thought he was crazy. And then we found the same weekend that we went all in... You know, as a pastor, you tell your church crazy things like, "God's gonna meet us in the middle." It's not like a bad song, but like God's really gonna meet us. Whenever we take our step of faith, God's gonna meet us there in the middle and give us just undeniably our opportunity. So, we made that commitment on a Sunday. I called my commercial real estate guy on a Monday. And he said, "Chris, I just saw a property that we looked at six months ago that dropped $400,000 in price and went from 2.1 million to 1.7 million overnight." And he also said, "One thing we didn't know about this property was it has a built-in tenant." And the built-in tenant... This is a crazy story. But the math on $1.7 million, a loan for one point seven. The math on that is $10,000 a month with a mortgage. And our tenant actually pays us $10,000 a month to be there. It's a clinic. BJC Hospital has a little drug testing clinic there. And it's an amazing opportunity for the church. So fast forward.

Danny Parmelee: No wait, pause. Your church is about how many in attendance at this point of the capital campaign and about what was your offering?

Chris Highfill: Yes. So, we were... At this point in the capital campaign, our annual offering was around $250,000.

Danny Parmelee: And so a lot, but not huge. And people wise?

Chris Highfill: We were 250 people.

Danny Parmelee: Okay.

Chris Highfill: And so, yeah. So, that was pre-moving into this space. We got into the space, and we were like, man, just feeling like it was just home. In fact, I slapped my worship pastor on the back and said, "Man doesn't feel amazing to be home?" And he's like, "Yeah, this is great." And then the next week COVID happened. And that was, that was like it. And I thought now our $2 million building turns into a recording studio. It's like this is it. And it was a pretty crazy experience. But what's crazy today is you know, this past weekend, we were 430 people. And so, we're past and beyond our COVID numbers now. And we're in three services now. And just trying to figure out some of those next steps as we reach our community. It's been a game changer being in the building, though. It's really changed everything.

Lee Stephenson: Love it. What? Because I know church planters. I mean, I've wrestled with it as well, like, we just got to get somewhere. We got to stop the... You know, and sometimes we could be three weeks into doing portable church. And we're like, "I'm tired of this!"

Danny Parmelee: Our people are tired!

Lee Stephenson: Yeah, exactly. We got to go get a building. Buildings are a blessing. They can at the same time be a curse. What were some of the challenges that you faced going from portable to permanent?

Chris Highfill: I would say also we were portable for five years. And so, some guys lose track. Three weeks in and you're already exhausted, it probably means you don't have the right systems in place. And you're not inspiring your people well. And so, I would just encourage planters think this is a long haul.

Lee Stephenson: Mic drop. Boom.

Chris Highfill: You gotta be thinking this... You can't be thinking... Because we always fast forward somebody's story and don't realize the pain that you go through. But I mean, some of the transitions... We tried to be really aware of the transition. Especially with our setup team. Because we had like 50 people serving on that team. And we thought these people can't lose their job in our church. Because we're convinced... At Grace River, we're convinced everybody needs a relationship and a responsibility. And if you take that away, then what's their role in the church? And so, we talked a lot to our setup and teardown teams as we were making that transition because you don't move into a building overnight. And so, we were still portable. I think after we closed on the deal, and everything was set, we were still portable for almost nine months as we did construction. And so, we let them know that you're still going to have a job here. You're still gonna have a role here. This is important. Nobody gets to retire. And so, things are just gonna change. And, you know, we transitioned a lot of those people. We never had a parking lot team. So, we transitioned a ton of those people into the parking lot team. And it's been a great fit. Because they don't... A lot of people on the set up and teardown team don't want to talk to people. What's great about the parking lot team, all you gotta do is wave, smile, and point. I mean, it's a great role for them. And now they're really excited because they don't get there at like, 6 am when it's freezing cold out.

Lee Stephenson: They can actually sleep in a little.

Chris Highfill: Yeah, or when it's just really crazy hot out. So, it's a nice arrangement for them. And so, it's been a good transition overall. You know, yes, people fell through the cracks, and it wasn't seamless. But I think the biggest encouragement I could be as people make the transition from being portable to permanent, is deciding that everybody's still going to have a role. Nobody loses their job. And then just know that things are gonna change a little bit. Just even the property management is a whole different thing. I think you told me that buildings have an unquenchable thirst for money. And I had no idea, you know, what you thought. You know, when you’re portable, you don't even buy trash bag liners. You don't buy toilet paper. You don't think about air conditioning units going out. You don't think about... I think one of the first things that went out was a lift station. I don't even know it existed. But there's like to get sewage out of your building. Like when that breaks that's on you. That's not on the city to fix. You know, it's like, there's all these things to consider and think about. Like man, we, you know, there's an unquenchable thirst when it comes to finances. When it comes to actually property management. Especially having a tenant. Because we're in a situation where we have to... When it snows at Grace River, we have to salt the parking lot. It doesn't matter if it's a Monday. Because that clinic's gonna be open on Tuesday. And so, unquenchable thirst. Really, when it comes to being from portable to permanent, there's a lot of surprises along the way. You'll reach all kinds of people still. We're right off the interstate, which is an interesting situation. And so, we never had benevolence calls before, but now we do. And so, preparing and getting ready for that. Some of those changes that will take place. The number one reason why people come to our church now is because they drove by and saw the building. Which I wish that wasn't the number one reason. I really wish it was because somebody invited them. But it's been a game changer. Number two is they Googled us. And number three, is somebody invited us. And so, it's been a big transition. Because we were at the YMCA, our church smelled like a crime scene. So, nobody came because they drove by and saw that there was a banner outside. Yeah. But though I do, I'm a little nostalgic. I do miss the YMCA days. Life was a lot easier. And I never had to worry about who was going to change a lightbulb. And oh, that trash is full. I would just tell the person working behind the front desk, "That trash is full." Or that bathroom doesn't smell clean, or whatever. And it was their job to clean it. Well, you know, now it's our job. And so, it's been a bit of a transition in that way. But it's been good.

Lee Stephenson: What is your long-term vision for that area of Missouri? St. Louis. I know you're involved in the region, and coaching, and recruiting church planters. What is your vision for what you'd like to see God do over the next five years?

Chris Highfill: Yeah, that's a great question. You know, we know that in the metro St. Louis area, that over 80% of St. Louis goes to church nowhere. And so really, it's over the whole state of Missouri as well. And so, we'd love to see churches get planted at every single exit off the interstate. I mean, there's a spot. Especially with a parish mentality in the St. Louis area. There's a spot for a new church literally off of every single exit. And so, we're getting ready to send our first church plant out of our church. We're going to plant a church in Hannibal, Missouri. And so, we've got a guy that's our church planting resident. And Nate Meyers is going to do a great job in Hannibal. But this is the first of many. We'd like to see more, and more, and more churches get planted. That's not to say that we won't ever do a campus church. We may do that at some point. But our heart, our desire is to send out men and women to plant churches and to make disciples. And so, we know the best way to see people meet, know and follow Jesus is to start a new church. And so, will Grace River grow to whatever number? I don't know. I know this: is that we're just getting started. And our best days are ahead of us. I feel like we're in chapter one of the story of our church. And I hope that we get to send a lot of people out to plant new churches.

Danny Parmelee: Now I know that Columbia, Missouri has been just one of those cities that I hear you talking about and praying about. Speak to maybe the "why" of that. Or if there's any listener out there that's a church planter and hasn't decided on a city. Why to contact you or why to consider it.

Chris Highfill: Yeah, I mean, Columbia is a place... It's a growing community in St. Louis. I think it's the fourth fastest growing city in the state of Missouri. And some great things happening. It's a university town. And so, you get a chance to reach younger people. But there's also a pretty liberal dynamic in the city as well. And so, there's a great opportunity to reach people that are far from Christ there. It's a growing community, like I mentioned, with all kinds of new subdivisions popping up everywhere. And there's also a little bit of an urban dynamic as well. And so, there's a spot for a person that wants to plant a church in Missouri. We've got some great opportunities. Columbia is one of those spots. And we'd love to see the right person fit in that city.

Lee Stephenson: So last question, and it's very, very important. It's probably the most important question we've asked the entire time of our conversation. When it comes to the pronunciation of Missouri is it Missouri or misery?

Chris Highfill: I say Missouri. It's a great place to live. And so, I'm from Missouri. And so, I'm a lifer. Love the place.

Danny Parmelee: I thought you were going to say something about the Chiefs or something like that. And kind of a razz him a little bit.

Lee Stephenson: It's a little too soon. I like Chris and I want him to come back.

Danny Parmelee: And this is unfiltered but we don't want any swear words to start flying.

Chris Highfill: It's early. It's early. It's been a couple of weeks but we’re getting better. And this is a decade dynasty so we can lose here and there and so it's alright.

Lee Stephenson: So, one win classifies as a dynasty. That's incredible.

Chris Highfill: Yeah, it's gonna be good.

Lee Stephenson: Yeah. Well, good luck with that. So, thanks for tuning in everyone. Chris, thank you for sharing your story and your wisdom and experience with all of our listeners as well. Until next time, everyone, keep it real.