Perhaps you’ve heard the often-told adage that 80 percent of all new church plants fail. Not true. While there’s no comprehensive research on the total number of new churches started annually, the most recent research on literally thousands of new church starts show that 99 percent of all new churches survive the first year, and 68 percent survive to year four. Moreover, of the churches that survive, more than 70 percent are self-sufficient financially by the fifth year.