Your church is already
funding discipleship.
Do you know what it's producing?
The median U.S. congregation spends about $155,000 a year. Much of it, from staff time to classes to outreach, exists to help people grow in their faith. Most churches have no way to see what it's producing. Source: National Study of Congregations' Economic Practices, Lake Institute on Faith & Giving, 2019.
Your discipleship budget already exists.
You just can't see it as one number.
These are not new line items. They are already in your budget, spread across six categories and funded by the tithes and offerings your congregation faithfully gives. Together they represent your church's formation investment.
These are not new expenses. You are already paying for discipleship outcomes. The question this page answers is whether you can see what they're producing.
How many people would it take?
Three numbers from your church. You’ll see how many of your people don’t have a clear next step, and how many would need to stay for Learning 4 Lyfe to pay for itself. No guesses about results, just math you can check.
About 0 of your people don’t have a clear next step right now. The Starter plan pays for itself if about 0 of them stay and give like your average attender. That’s 0% of the people who don’t yet have a next step.
Everyone you counted has a next step. That’s rare, and worth celebrating. The Starter plan pays for itself if about 0 people stay and give like your average attender.
For each option below: how many people would need to stay and give like your average attender for it to pay for itself in a year.
Impact is priced for each church, so there’s no fixed number to show here. We’ll work it out with you on a call.
What this is and isn’t. This isn’t a promise that Learning 4 Lyfe will keep a certain number of people. It’s the math you can hold us to: if this many people who would have drifted stay connected instead, the investment covers itself. Everything beyond that is formation you can’t put a price on.
How we got these numbers
- People without a next step: your weekly attendance times the share you estimated who aren’t yet in a group, class, or team.
- Average giving per attender: your budget times 81%, the average share of congregational revenue that comes from individual giving, divided by your weekly attendance. Your own giving records will give you a more exact number.
- People who would need to stay: each plan’s yearly cost divided by your average giving per attender, rounded up.
- Per person, per week: each plan’s yearly cost divided by 52 weeks and by your weekly attendance.
Where the numbers come from
- Your own inputs: budget, attendance, and your estimate of how many people have a next step.
- One published figure: on average, 81% of a congregation’s revenue comes from individual giving. National Study of Congregations’ Economic Practices, Lake Institute on Faith & Giving, 2019.
- What we don’t assume: how many people Learning 4 Lyfe will keep, how much of your budget goes to discipleship, or what a person is worth. We’d rather show you the threshold and let you judge it.
Why we talk about giving at all
Stewardship isn’t only what you spend. It’s what your spending produces in people’s lives.
An estimate to guide a stewardship conversation, not an audit. Your own giving and attendance records will be more precise.
The numbers tell you what's happening.
This shows you who.
The calculator showed you how many people it would take. Each of those is a person. Choose someone who may already be drifting from your church. Read their story. Then sit with the question it leaves you.