Wait! Don’t Start That Church... yet.

Theoretical church planter checklist = 

Reputable Bible college: Check. 

10 years + of youth ministry experience: Check. 

MDiv from a good seminary: Check. 

Awkward choice of facial hair: Check. 

Smokin’ hot wife and three amazing kids: Check. 

Son of a lead pastor/planter of a large church: Check

According to the standard checklist issued by WCPO (World Church Planting Organization--which I just made up) I seemed to have it all. I was told by a couple people that I had the “pedigree” of a church planter and I was ready to roll. I made it through assessment with flying colors and was even blessed/encouraged by a denomination. What more did we need? I don’t exactly know how to say this because it wasn’t a case of being gun shy, we just weren’t ready to start a church. There was still something missing.

In our ongoing conversation about church planting my wife and I spoke frequently about a church that reproduces. We wanted to be about more than starting one church, but about reproducing leaders at all levels and sending people out to do it again. It made sense to us because we believed that people our age weren’t going to drive from long distances to hear a preacher, so if we want to reach them, we have to go to them. The thing that is causing people to catch the vision of Jesus’ mission is the idea of being Christ followers together, doing life together, seeing the world transformed by truth together. For that to happen, the best strategy was to reproduce and recreate churches or locations throughout the county in southern California that had captured our hearts (Ventura County). The only problem with this is that I had no idea how create a reproducing church culture. If we were going to be successful at accomplishing the vision God had given us, we needed to learn from people who had done what we were called to do.

About 12 months ago I was hanging out at a conference in Naperville, Illinois and through a series of conversations I was introduced to the concept of a Leadership Residency. I had never heard of anything like this in the church world before. I had heard of internships, but I had already done one of those. The leadership residency concept was new to me. The way it was described was simple, a doctor goes through college in pre med, med school and then, when he’s done with the book studies he does a residency at a hospital. This is where a doctor hones his craft and learns the intricacies and style of the particular area of medicine that he wants to practice. I loved the idea, but it just didn’t make sense with a house, kids and a heart for starting something that could barely be contained.

It didn’t take long for God to open us up to the reality that this type of thing needed to happen. If we wanted to see this vision of the reproducing church become a reality we needed to be a part of that life and culture gaining the hands on experience, building our network and learning from people in the world of the reproducing church. God was using this concept to alter our understanding of the ordinary path of a church planter. It’s gotten to the point for me that I would say don’t start that church without doing a residency. Honestly, I can’t tell you if it has “worked” or not because I haven’t started a church yet. Regardless of what “works” there is a healthy way to prepare to start churches. I believe that going through a residency is an extremely healthy way to prepare yourself and your spouse (if applicable... meaning if you’re married... if you’re not then this doesn’t apply... meaning not applicable). If this has sparked your interest, I’ve provided a few links at the bottom of this blog for you to check out. You can also contact me for more questions and yes... if you want to be a resident with me at Anthem Church and witness the launch of a brand new church, give me a call. We will be hosting a NewThing resident with the goal of preparing you to launch a church/campus in the future. 

Some reference points on Leadership Residencies:

www.newthing.org (contact Eric Metcalf: Eric@communitychristian.org)

www.hcbc.com Hill Country Bible Church Residency Program (click “Church planting”)

www.theaterchurch.com/about/protege National Community Church Protege program