I read a 200 page book last night and when I closed the book I had gotten 1 good idea from the entire book. That's it: one good idea. 

Here's where some of my friends and I disagree: some would say, "What a waste! You spent $20 and 2 hours on a book and only got 1 good idea?"

Here's my position: "Yeah, but it's a really good idea." An idea that's going to help my church is amazing ways as we communicate to those outside of our church."

Should there be more than 1 good idea in a 200 page book? Of course. But the value of the idea was still worth more than the price I paid.

This all boils down to the argument of cost vs. value. I find with Pastors especially, we haggle over price, but don't factor in value as much. Don't misunderstand: we need to be good stewards and handle our finances wisely. But sometimes we can be pennywise and pound foolish.

In my opinion, value is much more important than cost. I once spent $700 (of my own money) to attend a conference and most of it was fluff. But I got 3 ideas that I implemented and that totally changed how we do outreach at Calvary. 

That $700 conference has saved our church tens of thousands of dollars we would have wasted had I not learned these principles. So while $700 for a conference isn't cheap, the value far outweighed the investment. 

This is my goal with everything I do on the church-strategies.com side of my life. There's an investment to our resources and coaching, but the value far outweighs the cost. 

Here's the bottom line: sometimes we miss out on information and experiences that could radically transform our churches because we're thinking too much about cost and not enough about value.