Plant a church, join a movement.

It depends how you define risk. With 80-85% of American churches plateaued or declining, some might consider it more risky to minister in that environment. It depends how God has wired you.

Yes, as you can see in our Operating Guidelines, with guidance from your coach, 100% of personal support must be raised for the Lead Pastor, the Executive/Associate Pastor, and for a third Full-Time-Equivalent, which may be one more full-time staff or two half-time staff or three one-third-time staff, etc.

Nope. Sometimes people who wouldn’t have the patience for seminary turn out to be great church planters. There are more important success indicators: entrepreneurial track record, spouse support, ability to connect with the unchurched, et cetera.

We encourage you to name your church in such a way to strategically target those who don’t know Christ. Sometimes “Baptist” works, other times it doesn’t. We don’t make a big deal about the name, but we do expect that our churches freely inform their congregations about our denomination and participate accordingly.

No, you and your team, with our help, will build your launch team.

That depends on her. One of the beauties of church planting is that the spouse can chart her own course. There are no expectations. Some wives are incredibly involved, others to a more moderate degree.

We strongly discourage this and require 100% of your personal support to be raised. The launch funds that we provide are designated for physical startup expenses, i.e. facility rental, environment, AVL equipment, curriculum, children and youth ministries, etc.

Absolutely! According to a Forbes Magazine study, entrepreneurial ventures which were partnerships were four times more likely to succeed. Many of our church planters bring “ministry partners” with them. Value and agenda harmony issues are already settled and there is built-in emotional support.

We have qualified, experienced coaches who will meet with you face to face each month, up through your first anniversary of public worship services. They know their stuff. You will be coached well–face to face, over the phone, email and so on.

We require 100 committed, giving, serving adults in your Launch Team prior to Grand Opening. Some of our church planters soft launch before Grand Opening, and some do preview services before Grand Opening. Soft launches and preview services still require the 100 adults.

All kinds. As long as you are functioning in your area of giftedness and you do not vilify others in the movement whose style is different than your own; you’re clear to operate with your unique style.

Across denominations in the United States, only about one-out-of-three new churches “make it”. Our track record over the past ten years is about nine (9) out of ten (10) make it. The reason is because of the strong support our movement offers for church planters, spouses et cetera.

Just about everywhere. When we mobilize church planters we factor in a number of criteria: natural fit, skill and experience levels, church planter preferences and current opportunities.

If you’ve made it into our movement, you probably won’t fail. But if you do, you will be treated with dignity and we will help to find another ministry fit for you.