Best Practices to Develop Church Planting Churches [Part 3]

By Ed Stetzer

In this series, we’re looking at eight ways that many organizations are intentionally building into their church planting systems an emphasis on developing church planting churches. Here are Part 1 and Part 2.

Network Events

Host regular network events for church planters to equip them to think through and further define their church multiplication strategy.

The day-to-day work of planting a church is daunting. It’s easy for church planters to do little else besides daily tasks within their first three years. When networks host regular training events, it forces a rhythm into the church planters’ calendars to regularly think about church multiplication.

A Brief Case Study

A network founded in 2010 was originally based in the Northeastern states, but now plants all over North America
Between 2014 and 2017, this organization assessed 250 church planters
During that time, they funded 95 churches with $1.4 million
This network considers at least 50% of their churches to be church planting churches

When we asked them to list the top three factors that led their churches to become church planting churches, this is what they said:

Factor #1: “A culture of multiplication”

Factor #2: “Empowering leaders”

Factor #3: “Regional events”

Why are regularly held network regional events important for church multiplication? Whenever church planters attend a city gathering or a regional training, it reminds them that they are part of something bigger than their own churches. Along with other churches and ministries in their cities or regions, they form a collective expression of God at work. In these events, a sense of positive “peer pressure” forms to help planters think beyond their own church. When a fellow church planter is in a room with 30 peers and shares a humble story of how he or she is launching another church even when the current church is barely sustainable, it makes multiplication seem more doable than if someone shared an inspirational story about a church of 3,000 members that was multiplying.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Ed Stetzer

Ed Stetzer (@edstetzer), is a professor and dean at Wheaton College who also serves as Executive Director of the Wheaton College Billy Graham Center. Stetzer has planted, revitalized, and pastored churches, trained pastors and church planters on six continents, has earned two master’s degrees and two doctorates, and has written hundreds of articles and a dozen books. He is regional director for Lausanne North America and publishes research through Mission Group. Stetzer is a contributing editor for Christianity Today, a columnist for Outreach Magazine, and is frequently cited in, interviewed by, and writes for news outlets such as USAToday and CNN. He is the founding editor of The Gospel Project, a curriculum used by more than 1.7 million individuals each week for bible study. His national radio show, Ed Stetzer Live, airs Saturdays across the country. He serves as teaching pastor at Highpoint Church in Chicago and has been the interim teaching pastor at Moody Church in downtown Chicago.