Passion Church's God Sized Vision...

What is the “God-Sized” vision of Passion Church?

Someone asked me this recently, and honestly, it shocked me a little because what we are doing on a weekly basis is already so far beyond where we thought we would be at this stage. I guess I assumed everyone knew what our God-sized vision was.

But maybe I fell into the same trap many pastors, business leaders, and entrepreneurs fall into, thinking that because something is constantly on my mind, it must be on everyone else’s too. Because I know it, surely everyone else knows it as well.

It sounds silly, but I can say from experience that when you eat, sleep, and breathe something every day, you start assuming everyone else does too, and not only that, but that they also know exactly where you are heading.

So with that in mind, I want to talk about our God-sized vision, because it’s probably not what you think.

From the very beginning of this church plant, we have had long-term steps in mind throughout my leadership here. Don’t worry, this is not me saying I’m leaving anytime soon. You all are stuck with me for a long time. :)

So let me break it down in steps.

First: plant the church.
That happened on January 5th, 2025.

The second step was to find a home where we could grow.

The third step was to find a home where we could begin building ministry wealth and creating a strong financial foundation for the future.

The fourth step was to replicate the process as many times as possible across as many campuses as possible.

But our vision for those campuses may be different than what most people expect.

Our goal is not to create a massive network of campuses streaming my sermons every week. Honestly, I have very little desire for that. What I do have a deep desire for is to see the Kingdom of God grow and to help train, equip, and release the next generation of church leaders. So our vision is to plant churches, support them, help staff them, mentor their leadership, and walk alongside them for their first three years before releasing them as independent sister churches — churches we maintain close relationships with, but do not control.

That has always been the vision. So what was the timeline for all of this? Honestly, the coolest part is how far ahead we already are.

I truly thought we would still be stabilizing our church plant. Instead, we are already searching for a space where we can continue growing while simultaneously stepping into stages three and four, building both room for ministry growth and the financial foundation for future expansion.

With the equity we expect to gain from this next purchase in June, we believe that within just a few years, we will be able to leverage that into whatever the next step is very quickly, not ten years down the road, but potentially within 3–5 years.

So what comes next?

We continue to grow. Then we continue pursuing real estate opportunities like we are now, or even larger opportunities. Personally, one of my dreams is to purchase a strip center with a large anchor-tenant space that we could occupy as a church, while allowing the surrounding businesses to remain and help pay the mortgage. Imagine what that would free up financially for ministry, missions, outreach, and church planting. Then we replicate the process again and again. I don’t just want Passion Church to become a big church. Honestly, that’s never really been the goal. What excites me is the idea of multiplication.

My personal goal, and I think this may be the first time I’ve ever publicly said this, is to replicate ourselves 50 times before I retire.

If we were able to do that over the next 25 years, that alone would already be incredible. Fifty churches impacting fifty communities, raising up leaders, serving people, preaching the Gospel, and reaching people far from God. But the part that really becomes wild is what happens when those churches begin doing the exact same thing. If Passion Church planted and released 50 churches, and then each of those churches planted 50 more churches over the next generation, the numbers grow exponentially very quickly:

Generation 1: Passion Church → 50 churches

Generation 2: 50 churches each planting 50 → 2,500 churches

Generation 3: 2,500 churches, each planting 50 → 125,000 churches

Generation 4: 125,000 churches each planting 50 → 6,250,000 churches

That’s the power of multiplication instead of accumulation. The goal isn’t to build one giant church empire. I don’t want a giant network of churches streaming my sermons every week, with one organization controlling everything.

What I envision is to help raise up healthy churches that raise up healthy churches that raise up healthy churches.

Churches led by pastors who know their communities. Churches that genuinely serve people. Churches that grow through relationships, discipleship, outreach, and local impact. Churches focused on reaching people far from God. And the really exciting part is this vision is not only spiritually sustainable, but it can also become financially sustainable.

When we own property rather than rent it out, we build equity. That equity becomes something we can stack, leverage, and multiply over time. In the business world, commercial real estate is often structured so the rental income eventually pays off the original loan, sometimes within a decade or so, depending on the property and structure.

So imagine this over time: We purchase properties strategically. Maybe strip centers. Maybe commercial buildings. Maybe larger anchor spaces where the church occupies one section, while surrounding businesses continue operating and helping pay the mortgage. Instead of throwing money into rent forever with nothing to show for it later, we slowly build assets that can fund future ministry. Over time, that creates something powerful, a financial engine that can support the expansion of multiple churches at once.

Imagine being able to:

help young pastors plant churches debt-light,

financially support new ministries,

aggressively fund missions and outreach,

provide stable church spaces, and continue multiplying churches without constantly starting from zero financially every single time.

Now, to be clear, there are hundreds of little steps and details that are not in this email, partly because I don’t want to bore you all with the logistics of this, but to excite you with the scale of the mission. But also because we honestly do not yet know everything that will be entailed in this.

It’s a vision, not a science.

Thankfully, I have incredible mentors in both the church and business worlds who are equipped to help us navigate this wisely as we go.

And let me also be very crystal clear about something else: My goal in building wealth through the church is not to enrich myself. Honestly, my personal financial goals come through building businesses, owning gyms, investing wisely, and taking care of my family well outside of church ministry. I do not want the church to make me rich, nor do I want it to exist to enrich our staff or elders. Now, let me also balance that statement clearly because I think this matters: I absolutely do believe pastors and church staff should be paid well. I believe people who dedicate their lives to ministry should be able to live comfortably, provide for their families, take vacations, save for retirement, have good benefits, and live healthy lives. That is not sinful. In fact, I think it is healthy and biblical.

Healthy churches should take care of healthy leaders.

I want our staff to have great salaries, strong benefits, healthy work environments, and sustainable lives. The ministry should not require people to live in constant financial stress just to prove their faithfulness. But there is also a line. We will never build this church around making a preacher rich. At least not while I’m here. You are never going to see us paying someone millions of dollars a year to preach sermons while ministry around them suffers. That’s not the mission. The mission is to use resources wisely to expand God’s Kingdom, help people, plant churches, serve communities, and point people to Jesus. Money is a tool. Not the goal. The goal is to build wealth that can be transferred back into God’s Kingdom. The goal is to create resources we can pour into other churches:

startup funding, helping pay staff before churches can afford it, purchasing curriculum and ministry tools, helping churches secure spaces, and allowing new churches to begin in environments far healthier than what many church plants start in now.

Imagine being able to let a new church rent a better space than what we started in, for less than what we paid. That’s the vision. Our goal is not to accumulate wealth. Our goal is to gather it and then disperse it back into God’s Kingdom. Think about this for a second: What could happen if there were 50 churches on the same mission?

How many medical missions could we host every year?

How many families could be fed?

We could potentially eradicate a significant amount of hunger across the Triad and beyond through dozens of life pantries operating in local communities. We could make a real dent in mental health struggles, addiction, loneliness, and hopelessness through 50 congregations consistently preaching the Gospel, discipling people, counseling families, and walking with people through life change.

Imagine the reach.
Imagine the impact.

Really stop and let that sink in for a moment.

All of this takes time.
It takes money.
It takes talent.
It takes leaders.
It takes sacrifice.

That is what we want to gather, and that is why we want to gather it.

So that every bit of impact ultimately points every one of those people to Jesus.

And then every church we release carries the exact same DNA and mission:

serve the community, love people well, grow through relationships, preach the Gospel clearly, and replicate the process again. And then they do it again.
And again.
And again.

That’s the God-sized vision of Passion Church.

Not building something centered around one person.
Building something that can outlive all of us.

With Love,

Pastor Josh