We launched our church planting residency 2.5 years ago. This year, we plan to have 4 residents. We’ve already identified 3, and we’re in the process of looking for a 4^th (see below for more details).

We invest a lot of time, energy, and resources into our residents. Why? Because we believe a church planting residency is one of the most effective ways to prepare planters. Here are 6 reasons I think anyone who feels called to plant should consider a church planting residency:

1. ASSESSMENT. Church planting is hard. In the last 5 years, there has been an explosion in the training and resources available to planters. Despite that, 1 out of 3 church plants still fail. The main reason? The lead planter – lack of spiritual preparation, inadequate training, and unrealistic expectations. As the maxim goes, “everything rises and falls on leadership.” Healthy plants require healthy leaders.
    
   A good church planting assessment is a must for planters, but a residency is even better. Why? A residency combines the benefits of a formal church planting assessment with the informal, ongoing assessment of a local church. We take all of our residents through a rigorous assessment process, but no matter how good a formal assessment is, it doesn’t compare to walking alongside a guy for 9 months of a residency and speaking into his life, his marriage, and his ministry. The best assessment tool we have for church planting is the local church. A residency leverages that resource for the health of the planter.
    
   
2. TRAINING. This one builds off the last. Growth and development happen best in community. Too many planters approach their training in isolation. The best place to learn how to plant healthy churches is in a healthy church. Many planters are coming out of unhealthy church contexts – it’s often one of the reasons they are driven to plant. Often they know what they don’t want, but they don’t know what they do – or they’ve never seen it. A residency offers planters the chance to be trained in the context of a healthy church that has planted churches. I’ve heard (and I believe it) that 9 mo in a residency puts a planter 3 years ahead in his thinking about planting.
    
   
3. COACHING. Residents don’t just benefit from the experience of a church planting church – they benefit from the experience of residents who have gone before them. Our planters love to pour into the guys coming behind them. They’ve been there; they’ve seen it; and they want others to learn from their successes and their failures.
    
   
4. RESOURCING. Church planting is expensive. Fundraising takes a lot of time and energy, even for those who have experience raising money. Our residents come out well-resourced. In fact, they aren’t sent out until they have their funding in place. We invest significantly in our planters, but they still have to raise a good amount of money. We teach our planters how to fundraise, we set them up with opportunities, and we give them time to travel to raise the resources they need.
    
   
5. TEAM-BUILDING. Money isn’t the only resource a planter needs. He also needs a healthy team. We help our residents discover the key people they need on their team, and we give them a hunting license on the church to recruit whoever they can get to go. Last year, we sent out over 80 people as part of one of our church plants.
    
   
6. RELATIONSHIP. Church planting is lonely. Many planters feel isolated. Churches assume what church plants most need is money, but most planters are looking for more (thought they still need the money). They’re looking for connection to a like-minded network of churches – camaraderie, brotherhood with a group of churches that share their DNA. Through the course of a residency we establish a deep relationship with our planters – when they suffer we suffer, and when they rejoice we rejoice. We pray for them, and we leverage our resources to serve them.

We’re looking for more residents for this year, for strategic cities all over the U.S.Interested in applying? You can get more info HERE. Contact us directly HERE.