Church Planting
Living the Book of Acts
We understand the challenges involved in starting a new ministry from scratch. We also understand the amazing possibilities. If you’re considering planting a church or are in the early stages, we’d love to walk alongside you through the process.
We can help you understand the different stages of planting a church—from vision to team building to leadership development. We can help you think through the essential issues to consider along the way—including prayer, finances, structure, and outreach.
And if you have a vision for planting not just one church, but many churches– a multiplying movement of churches — then you’ll definitely want to connect with us to be better prepared and resourced for the amazing adventure that lies ahead.
An essential for church planters: Spousal cooperation
Of the hundreds of church planters I've coached over the years, the vast majority have been married. The impact of church planting on a marriage and family is significant. It can put stress on the relationship, and kids can feel in a fishbowl as if everyone is...
Building Body Cohesiveness: The glue of church planting
One of the 13 core competencies of a church planter is “building body cohesiveness.” Dr. Charles Ridley, developer of the church planter profile, refers to this one as “the glue.” This competency highlights that hard-to-put -your-finger-on quality of being able to...
Flexibility and adaptability: An essential competency for any church planter
In this series of blog entries, we’ve been walking through some of the 13 essential competencies for church planters, developed by Dr. Charles Ridley as part of the church planter profile. This one is called “flexibility and adaptability.” While those may initially...
Creating ownership of ministry
An essential competency of any successful church planter is the ability to create ownership of ministry. It’s not just MY church; it’s OUR church. These planters: Make multiplying disciplemakers Recruit and mobilizes others Instill in others a sense of personal...
Church planters must be responsive to the community
The term Dr. Charles Ridley uses for this essential church planter competency is “contextualizing.” A planter who is responsive to the community, “discerns the culture of the local context and implements redemptive ministries that meet the needs of people.”...
My recommendations for discipleship processes
This blog post is adapted from an excerpt from my latest book, The Church Planting Journey. In any healthy ministry, there needs to be a strategy in place for passing discipleship along from one person to the next. Here I cover a few of my most important...
Visionizing capacity: not just a dreamer
An essential quality for church planters is that he or she has a visionizing capacity. This doesn’t just mean having dreams. There are lots of dreamers. But a church planter has the dream and gets others to buy in and live it out. It means taking the dream and...
Bounce-back-ability
In this blog entry, let’s zero in on one church planter competency: resilience. The official definition from the Church Planter Assessment is: Resilience—stays the course in the face of major setbacks, disappointments, and opposition. Dr. Charles Ridley,...
Planter “knock-out” factors
I used to think you could coach and train almost anyone into anything. But after many years of being as a practitioner of both, I now see that you need to have some starting-point qualities from which to work. Without these qualities, the church planter is eventually...
What does it take to be a church planter? The timeless core competencies
I was recently teaching a church planter assessment course in Phoenix, and it reminded me of how timeless the role of church planter really is. How the Church Planter Behavioral Assessment Profile Began Dr. Charles Ridley spearheaded a qualitative research project in...