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Normandale Lutheran Church, located in Edina, Minnesota, a suburb of Minneapolis, has formed several nonprofits over the years to house outreach ministries, including The Center for Healing and Wholeness, a nonprofit that provides education and support for seniors and their caregivers. The Center was incorporated as a nonprofit in order to pursue grant funding and form partnerships with organizations beyond Normandale Church. The initial partners were a large healthcare organization, a Lutheran financial services company, and a local Catholic congregation.

Incorporating the Center has allowed Normandale to bring "more focus and energy to a specific part of our mission and ministry," says Dale Howard, associate pastor of outreach and congregational care at Normandale. The separate nonprofit has drawn a strong response from volunteers. "Through the Center, we have been able to muster and maintain a larger number of volunteers with a strong commitment to the work," Howard says. "Inviting people to focus on one kind of ministry has galvanized the volunteers and helped our church make great use of the skills and interests of church members."

In addition to providing volunteers, the church also generously supports the Center with financial gifts, adding its funding into the mix of foundation, government, and corporate grants that have been secured by Center staff. The Normandale congregation and the Center for Healing and Wholeness have created a "ministry synergy," fitting together the best of the congregation with outside partners and funders. The result: a ministry extended far beyond what one congregation could do on its own.

More churches are extending their ministries to new communities and new people by forming separate 501(c)3 nonprofit organizations. Schools, daycare centers, youth programs, housing initiatives, and a host of other church-based outreach programs now operate under their own nonprofit status. Some churches use a nonprofit as an umbrella organization for a teaching and equipping ministry or for mission work in other countries. Often, these separate organizations remain connected to their sponsoring church congregation in some way after they are formed.

Churches of all sizes, temperaments, demographics, and denominations are forming nonprofits—no one has a monopoly on this model. Is this model right for your church? How can your church decide if it is?

The main reason to start a church-based nonprofit is that the model will help you realize your ministry dream. To discern whether developing a nonprofit is best for your church, keep the discussion focused on your mission, always asking, "Which model will best help our ministry flourish and succeed?" By staying focused on your ministry dream, you will avoid making decisions based on who's in control, how you can get money, and the congregation's fear of change.

Too often, I see congregations pursue the nonprofit model because of what they can "get" for their ministry—money, partners, people, and more visibility. All of these may come, in part, because you decide to start a church-based nonprofit, but the decision to go ahead needs to be based on how you can best realize your ministry dream.

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