After a delicious steak dinner with our best friends the other night, I couldn't help wondering what church planting would look like if done with the Outback Steak House method. How would you do it?

The Conventional Wisdom in the restaurant business is find a good location, operate as many hours as possible to spread the fixed costs, and keep the food costs as low as possible. The Outback Steak House breaks all three rules. When Chris Sullivan and Robert Basham started the chain they wanted to have some life beyond steakhouse management for their two interests: boating and golf. Figuring their managers should get the same, they determined the Outbacks would only be open in the evenings - one shift a day. They thought offering everything all the time would water down the product. They decided to open less hours and do it better. What they discovered was both their waiters and their pastor avoided burnout (industry average manager turnover = 35%; Outback turnover = 5.4%). The point: doing less and doing it better. The Outback Steak-Church would do a few things really well.

Most Americans in love with vision more than Steak, prefer to dream big and build likewise. Hey, if you've got people lined up two hours for a steak dinner what would you do? Tear down your barn and builds a bigger sanctuary, right? Not at the Outback. The typical Outback is 6,000 square feet (with the kitchen taking more than half of that) and seats only 220. Only 220. Why? Because that's t