Moving Beyond Our Own Strength: The Power of a Church Plant Prayer Team

As a church planter, you feel the tension every week. Your to-do-list seems endless as you work towards planting a healthy church. Funds need to be raised, social media graphics require designing, the sound system must be ordered, and the core team roster is glaringly small. In the constant, exhausting hustle to manage logistics and build momentum, it is incredibly easy to rely on our own strategic intelligence, talent, and work ethic. We build project management timelines, tweak our launch-day sermon, and craft the perfect social media campaign. While these aren’t bad things, deep down, you know that executing a flawless project plan isn’t the same thing as storming the gates of hell with the gospel. Jesus didn’t tell us to plant churches using clever marketing; He reminded us that apart from Him, we can do absolutely nothing (John 15:5).

Not getting snared by self-reliant, performance-driven church planting requires a radical, intentional shift in our mindset and strategy. It starts with a simple, sobering realization: church planting is not primarily an entrepreneurial enterprise; it is spiritual warfare.

You cannot displace the enemy from a community using catchy logo or great worship sets as your weapons. If you want to see lives transformed and a healthy, reproducing church established, you must anchor your entire timeline in supernatural power. That means before you recruit a worship leader, a kid’s ministry coordinator, or financial supporters, you need to recruit a dedicated Intercessory Prayer Team. A robust prayer team is not a spiritual afterthought or a luxury for large-budget plants. It is the vital engine that clears the spiritual ground so the seeds of the Gospel can take root. That’s why we’ve filled this month’s newsletter with ideas and resources to help you increase the prayer cover that’s supporting your ministry. Enjoy!

Enjoy!

-Patrick Bradley, Director of Operations

Mobilizing the Movement with God’s Power

Building a prayer team isn’t just about putting names on an email list and sending out occasional updates. To build a true culture of prayer that fuels your plant, we encourage you to actively mobilize your team through strategic prayer events during your pre-launch phase. This gets prayer warriors to the frontlines of the mission field before your grand opening Sunday ever happens. Consider embedding powerful prayer experiences into your launch timeline, such as:

• Neighborhood Prayer Walks: Gather your team, split into pairs, and physically walk the streets of the community you are planting in. Pray silently or quietly as you go. Pray over the schools, the local businesses, and the homes you pass. Ask God to break down strongholds, open closed hearts, and cultivate spiritual curiosity among the neighbors you will soon be inviting to church.
• Targeted Night of Prayer: Host a dynamic, worship-infused night of prayer for your launch team and financial supporters. Instead of focusing on logistics, spend the entire evening focusing on God’s sovereignty. Create specific prayer stations around the room dedicated to things like the hearts of the unchurched people in your city and the future children’s ministry.
• A 24-Hour Prayer Vigil: Leading up to a major milestone (like your first preview service), challenge your prayer team and sending churches to cover a 24-hour block in continuous prayer. Have people sign up to pray in 30-minute slots and provide a digital prayer guide that people can follow as they pray.

Leading by Example in the Secret Place

It is a principle of leadership that a church won’t grow deeper than its leader. If you want a congregation that breathes prayer, you must be a leader whose life is defined by it.

Planter, your strategy will never outpace your spirituality. If your prayer life is limited to stage transitions and staff meetings, your church plant will quickly take on the flavor of human effort rather than divine empowerment. Leading by example means prioritizing the secret place. It means getting on your knees before you open your laptop. When your launch team witnesses a leader who consistently operates from a posture of dependency, humility, and desperate prayer, they will naturally follow suit. Protect your quiet time with the Father, because the greatest gift you can give your future church is not a charismatic communicator, but a spiritually healthy, prayer-saturated leader.

If you could use some encouragement to fuel your prayer life, check out this 10-day Church Planting Prayer Guide by ARC church planters.

Mastering Your Intercession Strategy

As a church planter, you’re engaged in a battle that cannot be won by human effort. Yes, you will have to work hard, but you will have to prayer harder if you want to see spiritual strongholds crumble in your community. That means long before you design a logo or secure a facility, you must anchor your efforts in supernatural power. While practical logistics are vital, spiritual revival hinges on prayer. That’s why we developed a Prayer Team Strategy Template to guide all our church planters to empower an army of prayer warriors to support them in the fight.

This comprehensive worksheet moves your ministry beyond self-reliance and into divine empowerment. It guides leaders to map out a clear recruiting blueprint, establish sustainable communication channels, and helps you outline essential expectations. Most importantly, it helps you execute strategic milestones—like neighborhood prayer walks and 24-hour prayer vigils—leading up to the healthy birth of a church. Download the template today to ensure your new church is covered in continuous intercession!

Taking Your Next Step: Passion for Planting’s Distance Residency

Are you ready to turn your vision of a disciple-making church into a reality? The Passion for Planting Distance Residency is explicitly designed to equip leaders to make disciples and plant healthy, reproducing churches. This comprehensive training program allows you to stay in your current ministry context while receiving top-tier instruction, practical equipping, and cohort-based learning.

Applications are currently open for our next cohort, which officially kicks off on September 9th. Space is limited to ensure personalized attention, so if you or someone on your team is interested, we highly encourage you to apply soon. Best of all, residents who successfully complete the program will be eligible for a $5,000 cash grant to help fund their church plant! Don’t plant alone—join us and build a strong foundation. Apply for the Residency today!

Photos by Alex Woods, Elianna Gill, Jon Tyson, and adrianna geo on Unsplash

The post Newsletter June 2026 appeared first on Passion for Planting.

“Prayer is not preparation for the battle. Prayer is the battle.” — Oswald Chambers

Thank you for locking arms with us to cover our city and the future of Grace City Church in continuous, 24-hour prayer. Your investment of time in the secret place is clearing the spiritual ground for the Gospel to take root in our community.

Don’t worry about trying to fill 60 minutes with random thoughts. Use the following prayer outline to guide your time and keep you focused. If you finish a section early, simply spend the remaining minutes resting silently in God’s presence. Thank you!

0:00 – 0:05 | Step 1: Settle Before God Purpose: Quiet Your Heart (5 Minutes)

Transition your mind away from the distractions, notifications, and anxieties of your day.

• Silence your phone and sit comfortably in a quiet space.
• Take a few slow, deep breaths. Acknowledge that the Holy Spirit is in the room with you.
• Pray: “Lord, I come to You just as I am. Quiet my heart, focus my thoughts, and draw me near to You. I want to know Your heart for Grace City Church and our community during this hour.”

0:05 – 0:15 | Step 2: Adoration & Worship Purpose: Focus on His Greatness (10 Minutes)

Before asking God for anything, spend time celebrating who He is. Anchor your faith in His ultimate power.

• Read Out Loud: Psalm 100 or Psalm 67
• Reflect on God’s attributes: He is the Creator, Sustainer, and ultimate Redeemer of the city we are planting in.
• Spend these minutes telling God what you love about Him (His goodness, His unshakeable faithfulness, His absolute authority).
• Tip: Feel free to play a favorite worship song softly in the background to help guide your affection toward Him.

0:15 – 0:25 | Step 3: Confession & Heart Check Purpose: Seek Spiritual Purity (10 Minutes)

We do not plant churches out of human talent or personal pride. We must operate out of total, clean dependency on God.

• Spend a few moments in complete silence. Ask the Holy Spirit to convict you of any area of pride, self-reliance, or hidden sin.
• Confess those areas freely, knowing that His grace is immediate and complete. Remind yourself that the goal of Grace City Church is solely Jesus’ fame, not our own.
• Pray: “Most merciful God, I confess that I have relied too much on my own strength instead of Yours. Forgive me, cleanse me, and empty me of pride so that I can be a pure vessel for Your mission. Amen.”

0:25 – 0:40 | Step 4: Strategic Intercession Purpose: Pray for the Church Plant (15 Minutes)

Wage spiritual warfare on behalf of Grace City Church by lifting up the concrete, practical components of our upcoming launch.

• The Leadership: Pray for protection over our Lead Planter, their family, and their spiritual health. Pray boldly against discouragement, exhaustion, and isolation.
• The Launch Team: Pray for supernatural unity, passion, and a shared heartbeat for the lost. Pray that God draws more workers into the harvest to serve across all teams.
• The Logistics: Pray for favor with city officials, facility permits, equipment provisions, and financial resources to clear every obstacle standing in the way of ministry.

0:40 – 0:50 | Step 5: Our Neighbors & The Lost Purpose: Pray for Our Community (10 Minutes)

Intercede specifically for the unchurched and spiritually disconnected individuals living right around us.

“For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.” — Luke 19:10

• Visualize the neighborhoods, local schools, apartment complexes, and coffee shops in our city.
• Pray that God breaks through spiritual apathy. Pray that the “god of this age” loses his grip on your neighbors’ minds (2 Corinthians 4:4).
• Ask God to prepare the hearts of specific friends, coworkers, or family members to receive our invitations to upcoming preview services.

0:50 – 0:55 | Step 6: Listening & Journaling Purpose: Listen to the Father (5 Minutes)

Prayer is a dialogue. Posture your heart to hear what the Holy Spirit might be whispering back to you.

• Sit quietly with a pen and notepad. Open your heart to listen.
• Ask God: “Is there a specific word, scripture prompt, or individual You are placing on my heart right now?”
• Write down any impressions or scriptures that come to mind. If it feels significant, email it to our leadership team later to encourage them!

0:55 – 1:00 | Step 7: Thanksgiving & Commission Purpose: Close with Bold Anticipation (5 Minutes)

Conclude your hour by thanking God in advance for how He is answering your prayers.

• Praise Him that your prayers did not fall on deaf ears, but are actively moving in the unseen realm.
• Declare that our city belongs to King Jesus.
• Pray: “Father, thank You for the incredible privilege of standing on the frontlines during this hour. We declare that Grace City belongs to You. Let Your kingdom come and Your will be done in our city just as it is in Heaven. Amen.”

© 2026 Grace City Church | Planted to make disciples.

The post Grace City Church 24-Hour Prayer Vigil Guide appeared first on Passion for Planting.

Moving Beyond the Crowd: Building a Disciple-Making Culture

As a church planter or pastor, you feel the tension every single week. Sunday is always coming. The sermon needs preparation, the worship team requires coordination, the tech gear is acting up, and the volunteer schedule is glaringly empty. In the constant, exhausting hustle to build and sustain weekly worship gatherings, it is incredibly easy to settle for producing ‘Christian Consumers’. These are the folks who show up on Sunday, drop their kids off at the children’s ministry, and maybe serve as a door greeter a few times a month. They are good people, but deep down, you know that managing a crowd isn’t the same thing as fulfilling the Great Commission. Jesus didn’t call us to gather an audience; He commanded us to make disciples of all the nations.

Breaking out of the weekend-centric, consumer-driven church model requires a radical, intentional shift in leadership focus. It starts with absolute clarity. You cannot build a strategy for something you haven’t clearly defined. 

Think about your ministry. Do you have a clear and shared definition in your church of what a disciple of Jesus is and does? If a brand-new believer walks through your church doors this Sunday, do you have a clear, step-by-step pathway that guides them towards learning how to obey all that Jesus commanded? If someone from your team asks you to train them on making disciples, do you have a simple, relational and reproducible process to offer them?

A healthy church plant doesn’t just hope spiritual growth happens only by osmosis during a 35-minute sermon or a great worship set; it builds an intentional, reproducible culture. That’s why this month, we want to equip you to move beyond crowd management and step confidently into movement building. To help you with that we’ve curated a list of resources to help you articulate your definition of a disciple, clarify your specific pathway, and lead a church that multiplies.

Enjoy!

-Patrick Bradley, Director of Operations

P.S. If you’re interested in learning more about how the current consumer-driven church operation system came to be, read Todd Wilson’s new book, How Did We Get Here?

Crafting Your Pathway: The Disciple Making Strategy Template

Hope is not a strategy. If you want your church to produce disciples who reproduce, you need a clear strategy to follow. That is exactly why we created the Passion for Planting Disciple Making Strategy Template. This free resource is designed to guide you and your leadership team through the crucial process of articulating a strategy for how your church will make disciples who make disciples in your context. It forces you to answer the hard questions: What’s our definition of a disciple? How do we engage the lost with the gospel? How do we establish believers in the faith? How do we equip them to guide those in their sphere of influence towards spiritual maturity?

By working through this template, you’ll move your disciple-making process from a vague theological idea into a practical, step-by-step framework that any member of your church can understand and reproduce.

Transforming Culture: 7 Practices of Disciple Making Churches

Transitioning a church from a consumer culture to a disciple-making culture is hard work. If you are looking for a practical guide on how to make that shift, you will benefit from reading Bobby Harrington and Josh Howard’s recent book, 7 Practices of Disciple Making Churches.

The book breaks down the essential habits and systems that separate churches that merely gather crowds from those that actively multiply disciples. It highlights practical realities like the role of fasting and prayer, intentional relational environments, and how to champion a culture where every member views themselves as a disciple-maker. It’s an invaluable blueprint for pastors and planters who want to realign their staff and weekend services around the core mission of Jesus.

The Leader’s Heart: How God Shapes Movement Leaders

Before you can lead a disciple-making movement, God has to do a deep work inside of you. In his incredibly insightful blog post, Steve Addison explores the profound reality of How God Shapes Movement Leaders. Addison highlights that God is far more interested in the character and deep surrender of the leader than their natural charisma or strategic brilliance.

As Addison reveals the journey of leading a multiplying church often involves seasons of intense testing, failure, and brokenness. These aren’t detours; they are the exact tools God uses to forge movement leaders. If you are feeling the weight of ministry or wondering if you have what it takes to spark a disciple-making movement in your city, this article is a must-read. It will shift your perspective from your own performance to God’s transformative work in your life.

Daily Habits: Sustainable Discipleship

At the core of every growing disciple is a deep, personal engagement with God’s Word. Yet, one of the biggest challenges pastors face is getting their people to actually read and apply the Bible outside of Sunday morning. Enter Sustainable Discipleship. This powerful system is actively helping churches across the country develop resilient disciples of Jesus who are committed to reading God’s Word daily and, more importantly, applying it to their everyday lives. By providing structured, accessible, and highly relational tools, Sustainable Discipleship takes the intimidation factor out of Bible reading for new believers while challenging mature Christians to go deeper.

If you want a proven framework to help your congregation build life-long, sustainable spiritual habits, check out the resources offered by Sustainable Discipleship. Why? because as they say, “Excellence is never an accident; it is the result of high intention and sincere effort.”

Definitions Matter: Help Defining Key Terms

Words are one of the most powerful tools in a leader’s toolbox. Words allow you to communicate where God’s calling you to move as a church and can spell out exactly how people can join you on this mission. That is if you have clarity in your language.

Definitions matter, especially when you’re trying to lead people towards a common goal like making disciples who make disciples. If you’re trying to build a disciple making culture at your church, but don’t have a clear definition of what you mean when you say “disciple” or “discipleship” or “disciple making” you’re setting yourself up for a lot of frustration. To help you understand why having clarity on these terms is important and ideas for how to define each read, the blog post What Do We Mean by “Disciple,” “Disciple Making,” and “Discipleship” at Discipleship.org.

Take the Next Step: Passion for Planting’s Distance Residency

Are you ready to turn your vision of a disciple-making church into a reality? The Passion for Planting Distance Residency is explicitly designed to equip leaders to make disciples and plant healthy, reproducing churches. This comprehensive training program allows you to stay in your current ministry context while receiving top-tier coaching, practical equipping, and cohort-based learning.

Applications are currently open for our next cohort, which officially kicks off on September 9th. Space is limited to ensure personalized attention, so if you or someone on your team is interested, we highly encourage you to apply soon. Best of all, residents who successfully complete the program will be eligible for a $5,000 cash grant to help fund their church plant! Don’t plant alone—join us and build a strong foundation. Apply for the Residency today!

Photos by Josue Michel, Johannes Plenio, Joni Gutierrez, Jonathan Göhner, and Joshua Hoehne on Unsplash

The post Newsletter May 2026 appeared first on Passion for Planting.

You cannot faithfully plant the future if you do not understand the system that shaped the present.

Tuesday, May 19, 2026 at 1:00pm Eastern

In this live interview, Todd Wilson will help church leaders look honestly at the 70-year story behind the modern American church — not to assign blame, but to recover clarity for disciple-making, multiplication, and the future of church planting.

Join us for a live 1-hour interview with Todd Wilson, Executive Director of Passion for Planting and author of the new book How Did We Get Here?

Date: Tuesday, May 19th
Time: 1:00pm Eastern
Duration: 60 minutes (with live Q&A)
Cost: Free

Todd Wilson
Executive Director/Author

The post How Did We Get Here?- A Live Book Review with Todd Wilson appeared first on Passion for Planting.

Finding Space For A New Generation

Are you planting a church this fall? If so, spring is the season when the hunt for a facility kicks into high gear. While you might be tempted to look for a traditional building tucked away on a quiet street, there is a massive shift happening in our culture right now that should directly influence where you choose to host your public worship gatherings.

Believe it or not, Gen Z is currently attending church more frequently than their parents. After years of digital saturation, younger demographics are actively seeking out physical, embodied community. In his groundbreaking book The Anxious Generation, Jonathan Haidt exposes just how deeply our young people are suffering from a lack of in-person interaction, having traded the real world for a virtual one. The data is clear: they are not craving more online church options. They are desperate for face-to-face interaction, authentic relationships, and physical spaces where they can genuinely connect with God and each other.

This presents an incredible opportunity for church planters. Reaching Gen Z and Millennials is not ultimately about finding the trendiest venue. It is about choosing a setting that lowers barriers, feels accessible, and helps people take a first step toward community. For many planters, that means meeting in a local high school, community center, or theater located right in the flow of everyday life.

As you look for your fall launch facility, don’t just ask, “Where can we fit?” Ask, “How can this space help us connect with a generation that is desperately searching for connection?” This month’s newsletter is dedicated to helping you find, secure, and equip the right facility for your church plant. Enjoy!

-Patrick Bradley, Director of Operations

Go Portable First

Why wait for the perfect permanent building when you can launch faster and more strategically in a portable facility? Going portable isn’t just a steppingstone; for many church plants, it is a massive strategic advantage. Renting a school or a theater significantly reduces your overhead, allowing you to invest more of your budget directly into ministry, outreach, and staffing. It also keeps your church agile, deeply embedded in the community, and creates hundreds of volunteer opportunities for your launch team to take ownership of the mission every single Sunday.

If you are debating whether to wait for a permanent space or to launch portable this fall, check out this article: Go Portable First: Why Would You Wait? by Portable Church Industries. It breaks down exactly why launching in a temporary, rented facility might be the best decision you can make for the future health and growth of your church plant.

Don’t Forget The Cables

Figuring out exactly what you need to transform an empty gymnasium or a dark movie theater into a welcoming, engaging worship environment can feel overwhelming. You don’t want to overspend on gear you don’t need, but you also can’t afford to forget crucial items on opening day. From the right audio cables and pipe-and-drape to children’s ministry check-in stations and directional signs, the sheer volume of logistics is staggering. That is why we have done the heavy lifting for you!

Passion for Planting has created a comprehensive, field-tested Downloadable Church Plant Equipment List. This resource outlines the typical equipment we see in a portable church system, broken down by ministry area. Whether you are building your budget or finalizing your purchasing timeline, this free tool will save you hours of research. Download the list today from our website and take the guesswork out of going portable!

Merging For A Mission

While going portable is a fantastic option, some church planters actually end up acquiring a facility by merging with an older, declining church. Across the country, there are dying churches sitting in paid-off buildings with very few people left in the pews. Instead of closing their doors forever, many of these aging congregations are choosing to merge with vibrant new church plants, exchanging their building to let you infuse their location with your life-giving DNA. It can be a beautiful “win-win” scenario, but it is also a complex process that requires extreme wisdom, humility, and clear leadership.

Before you go down this route, we highly recommend you listen to Revitalize My Church podcast episode featuring Jim Tomberlin, or read Better Together, the book Jim and Warren Bird co-authored to help churches join forces for the Kingdom. These resources will help you navigate the tricky waters of church mergers.

From God-Given Dream To Reality

If God has placed a dream in your heart to plant a church, you probably already know the excitement that comes with the vision. But you likely also feel the overwhelming weight of the practical questions: Where do I start? What am I missing? How do I take this dream and turn it into something real?

At Passion for Planting, we believe that calling requires equipping. Our Church Planting Residency Cohort is designed specifically to bridge the intimidating gap between having a vision and turning that vision into reality. But don’t just take our word for it; listen to the voices of those who have walked this path before you. For many residents, the cohort is the turning point where abstract concepts become concrete action. Kevin McNeil of Canvas Church describes the residency as the place…continue reading

Photos by Ismael Paramo, Adrianna Geo, Adam Winger, and Mizanur Rahman on Unsplash

The post Newsletter April 2026 appeared first on Passion for Planting.

From God-Given Dream to Reality: Why the Passion for Planting Residency is Essential

If God has placed a dream in your heart to plant a church, you probably already know the excitement that comes with the vision. But you likely also feel the overwhelming weight of the practical questions: Where do I start? What am I missing? How do I take this big idea and turn it into something real?

At Passion for Planting, we believe that calling requires equipping. Our Church Planting Residency cohort is designed specifically to bridge the intimidating gap between having a vision and executing a strong launch. But don’t just take our word for it; listen to the voices of those who have walked this path before you.

For many residents, the cohort is the turning point where abstract concepts become concrete action. Kevin McNeil of Canvas Church describes the residency as the place “where the rubber meets the road”. He found that the program helped him digest big ideas and create practical ways to execute them, ultimately turning his vision into reality.

This sentiment is echoed by Chris Pasik of Unite Community Church, who called the residency “the single most important thing I did to plant our church”. He praised the program’s “laser focus on helping planters discover and build the church God has placed in their heart”.

One of the unique strengths of the Passion for Planting residency is its design as a distance program. This invaluable resource allows planters to stay in their local context and current ministry while preparing to plant. Josh Howard of BridgePoint Church noted that this collaborative learning environment helped him clarify vision and shape how they help people trust and follow Jesus.

Furthermore, the residency provides crucial support for those transitioning from established church leadership into the uncharted waters of planting. Many residents have shared that the cohort prepared them with resources they didn’t even know they needed. From connecting with experienced leaders to receiving tangible timelines that guide the process, the cohort helps planters launch strong. Perhaps most valuable is the continued community; the team remains willing to help with ongoing questions even after the cohort concludes.

The consensus among past residents is clear: this program is vital for health and success. Alumni like Chris Flathers of Connect Church state that as they look to plant more churches in the future, they will be encouraging all of their planters to partner with Passion for Planting.

If you have been called to plant, we cannot recommend this residency enough. It is time to turn your vision into reality.

Applications are now being accepting for next year’s cohort. Spots are limited, so apply today!

The post What Planters Are Saying About Our Residency Cohort appeared first on Passion for Planting.

One Thing Leaders Can’t Ignore

If we examine the life and ministry of Jesus, we notice a counter-intuitive strategy. While He preached to the multitudes, healed the crowds, and feed the masses, He spent the vast majority of His time pouring His life into a select group of disciples. He knew that for the mission to survive and expand beyond His earthly ministry, He couldn’t just attract followers; He had to reproduce disciples. He didn’t measure success by the size of the crowd on the hillside, but by the capacity of the disciples in the boat and on mission with Him.

As church planters and ministry leaders, we often find ourselves caught in the “tyranny of the urgent.” Sunday is always coming. There are sermons to write, logistics to manage, and relational fires to put out. In the midst of this whirlwind, leadership development often gets pushed to the back burner, viewed as a luxury we will get to “someday” when things slow down. But the hard truth is – things never slow down. If we wait for the perfect time to develop leaders, we will never do it.

When a leader fails to develop others, they inevitably become the lid of the organization. The church can only grow as wide as the leader’s personal capacity to care and manage. This is the “Hero Trap”—where the pastor does the work of the ministry while the congregation watches. But Ephesians 4 paints a different picture: leaders are called to equip the saints for the work of ministry.

Developing leaders isn’t about filling volunteer slots or getting tasks done; it’s a form of discipleship. It champions multiplication over addition. When you lead a follower, you add one person to the Kingdom. When you develop a leader, you multiply your influence and create a legacy that outlasts you. This month, we want to challenge you to shift your focus from gathering a crowd to building a core. The resources below are designed to help you build a culture where leadership development is not an event, but the very oxygen your church breathes. Enjoy!

-Patrick Bradley, Director of Operations

Mastering The Art of Leadership Development

If you are looking for a guide on how to build a leadership pipeline from scratch, look no further than Mac Lake. Mac is a leading voice in church leadership development, having helped hundreds of churches build systems that multiply healthy leaders. His book, The Multiplication Effect, is a must-read for any planter, but his online resources – not the least of which being his YouTube Channel – are equally valuable. He breaks down the complexity of “leadership development” into actionable steps, helping you move people from volunteers to leaders to multipliers.

• Check out his resources: Mac Lake Online

Leadership Multiplication Strategy Template

One of the biggest hurdles when developing leaders is knowing where to start. Too often, we rely on a “hope strategy”—hoping that if we run good programs, leaders will magically emerge. But hope is not a strategy. To build a culture of multiplication, you need a plan that is intentional, reproducible, and specific to your context.

You don’t have to reinvent the wheel. Passion for Planting has developed a comprehensive Leadership Multiplication Strategy template available for free. This isn’t just a generic form; it is a strategic tool designed to help you wrestle with critical questions about identifying, inviting, training, and coaching growing leaders.

This resource helps you move from accidental leadership placement to intentional development, covering every stage of the pipeline. Download it today, customize it for your church, and stop leaving your legacy to chance.

• Download it here: Template & Sample

Developing Leaders in Your Church

If you have thirty minutes this week, we highly recommend digesting the content of this video podcast on Developing Leaders in Your Church. It is all too easy to view leadership development as just another program to run—a mechanical process of filling holes in a roster. However, true development is organic, relational, and intentional.

In this episode of the Grow Leader Podcast, you will find practical insights on how to shift your primary identity from being a “doer” of ministry to a “developer” of people. We suggest watching this together with your staff or key volunteer team. Use it as a catalyst to discuss how you can move away from transactional recruiting and toward transformational discipleship. The long-term health of your church isn’t just determined by how many people attend, but by how many are being empowered to lead.

• Watch the video: Developing Leaders in Your Church

 Residency Spotlight: Chris Flathers & Connect Church

We love seeing our residency alumni thriving! Chris Flathers, a participant in our 2018-2019 cohort, planted Connect Church in Lone Tree, CO, with a DNA of multiplication. Chris doesn’t just lead his church; he actively coaches other leaders to build their own leadership pipelines with the Multiply Group. He has even integrated this training directly into the Connect Church App, where he shares training modules that you can use to develop your own team. It’s a fantastic example of a planter giving back to the Kingdom.

• Get the App & Learn More: Connect Church Website

Assessment & Boot Camp

Healthy, reproducing churches don’t happen by accident; they are planted by healthy, reproducing leaders. The DNA of the leader determines the DNA of the church. If you want a movement that lasts, you can’t afford to guess about readiness or strategy. At Passion for Planting, we are obsessed with getting the “Who” right before we worry about the “How.”

Assess Calling and Readiness: Is the leader ready? Is their calling clear? Our Church Planter Assessment (May 4-6) provides a prayerful, rigorous evaluation to answer those questions and offer them practical next steps to take as they prepare to plant.  

Equip the Mission: Is the leader’s vision clear? Is their strategy scalable? Our Church Planter Boot Camp (May 14-16) moves beyond theory. It introduces planters to the essential “how-to” systems and strategies needed to plant. And they come away with the entire P4P playbook.

Don’t just start a service. Start a legacy of reproduction.

Photos by  Jack Sharp and Small Group Network on Unsplash

The post Newsletter March 2026 appeared first on Passion for Planting.

The Gospel in Their Language

Before you can effectively plant the gospel in a new community, you must love your community enough to understand it. In our eagerness to start a much-needed church, it is tempting to rush into a new area with preconceived notions and pre-packaged strategies, assuming what worked elsewhere will work here.

We often try to “cut and paste” ministry models that worked for us in the past, assuming they will automatically thrive in our new context. But treating a unique community like a generic target is usually a recipe for irrelevance. Effective ministry isn’t imported; it’s grown locally. This requires deep, intentional contextualization—a willingness to slow down and listen before we speak.

We see this modeled perfectly by the Apostle Paul in Acts 17. When he arrived in Athens, a city renowned for its intellect and saturated with idols, his spirit was grieved by what he saw. Yet, his reaction wasn’t frantic condemnation. He didn’t immediately jump on a soapbox with a generic, one-size-fits-all sermon. Instead, scripture tells us he walked around, carefully observing their objects of worship.

Paul became a humble student of the city. He didn’t just see their statues; he studied their values, their fears, and their deeply rooted longings. He listened to their debates and even familiarized himself with their poets. He waited long enough to identify the “unknown god” they were yearning for. When he finally spoke at the Areopagus, he didn’t compromise the gospel, but translated it using their cultural language to build a bridge to Jesus Christ, rather than erecting an unnecessary barrier.

If Paul, inspired by the Holy Spirit, took the time to deeply study a pagan culture before engaging it, how much more should we? To reach your community effectively, you need to know its unique heartbeat, its hidden pains, and its celebrated assets. You must love the context before you try to change it, because listening is an act of love. That’s why in this month’s newsletter we’re pointing you to resources to help you becoming a student of your city. Enjoy!

-Patrick Bradley, Director of Operations

Numbers Don’t Lie

You can’t fully love a community you don’t truly know. While walking the streets and meeting people is indispensable, you also need hard data to understand who actually lives there. Are you basing your launch strategy on anecdotal evidence or facts? What are the real demographics regarding things like age, income, family structures, and ethnicity in your target area?

Passion for Planting wants to equip you with the objective data you need to better understand who calls your community home. That’s why we offer free Demographic Reports for your specific target area. This isn’t just census data; it’s a window into the lives of the people God has called you to serve. Stop guessing and start strategizing with real numbers. Request your free report today and take the first step toward truly understanding the landscape of your community.

Are You Building Bridges or Barriers?

As a church planter, you live in the high-stakes tension between the timeless truths of Scripture and the shifting cultural landscape of your new community. You know the gospel has the power to save, but the critical question is: are your neighbors actually hearing it? Or are they getting hung up on unnecessary cultural barriers you didn’t even realize you were erecting?

True contextualization isn’t about watering down the hard truths of the Bible to make them palatable; it is the missionary discipline of translation to make them understandable. In Contextualization in the Late-Modern West, Michael Keller defines the task as “translating the timeless message of the gospel into the timely language of a particular culture, without over- or under-adapting the message.”

If you want to ensure you are addressing the specific idols and deepest longings of your community with the clarity of the cross, rather than just imposing your own cultural preferences, read this article. It will help you proclaim that gospel in a way that is both faithful to God and intelligible to your neighbors.

A Strategy for Meeting Influencers

Every church planter has good intentions of being out in the community, but schedules fill up quickly, and without a plan, networking gets choked out by other priorities. To help you move from intention to strategic action, we’ve developed the Community Networking Strategy Template.

This tool will challenge you to meet more community leaders and influencers, helping you lay foundations for ongoing relationships. The template encourages you to approach every meeting with the ‘posture of a student’, genuinely seeking to learn about your community’s strengths and real needs. More than that, it helps you set a realistic pace, ensuring you don’t just network before launch, but continue meeting leaders after Launch Sunday as well. Download the Community Networking Strategy Template to organize how you will build bridges with key leaders in your area.

Faithful Steps 

Several years ago, Jacob McKlarney sensed that God was calling him to plant a church. However, after much prayer he sensed that God wasn’t calling him to start a church, but to spark a movement of new churches along the Interstate 81 corridor in Southwest Virginia.

Together with his wife Haileah, Jacob started to dream and pray about what that meant and what it would take to start a movement that multiplied disciples and churches in his region. As he began to dream, he realized he would need help and support to clarify his vision, and even more help to turn this vision into reality. That’s when he connected with us.

To help him prepare to plant a reproducing church, Jacob participated in our Distance Residency Cohort last year. This intense season of training helped him refine the church’s strategy for equipping qualified leaders and launching decentralized house churches. God has been faithful to their preparation! We are thrilled to report that Blacksburg Church just launched their first two house churches last month along with their weekly Sunday morning worship gatherings. The movement is just getting started, but we’re thrilled to hear how it’s gaining momentum. Read the full story on how their faithful steps are already bearing fruit.

Photos by Constantinos Kollias, Gayatri Malhotra, Adrien CÉSARD, Cytonn Photography, on Unsplash

The post Newsletter February 2026 appeared first on Passion for Planting.

How Jacob and Haileah McKlarney are moving from “doing ministry” to equipping the saints at Blacksburg Church.

For many church leaders, the burden of ministry can feel overwhelming. Several years ago, Jacob McKlarney found himself in that exact position. He sensed that something was fundamentally off in his approach to leadership. Looking around, he realized that instead of equipping believers to carry out the work of ministry—as Ephesians 4:12 commands of church leaders—he was doing all the ministry himself while church members simply watched.

That conviction became a catalyst. Shortly after realizing this lapse in leadership, Jacob and his wife, Haileah, sensed God calling them to step out in faith to plant a new church that would change that dynamic.

A Vision for the I-81 Corridor

The McKlarneys didn’t just feel called to start a Sunday service; they felt called to spark a movement. The mission of their new endeavor, Blacksburg Church, is clear: to equip all people to find and follow Jesus.

Their vision, however, extends far beyond the borders of a single town. Jacob and Haileah are praying to see a church planted in every town up and down the I-81 corridor between Bristol and Blacksburg, VA. To achieve such widespread multiplication, they knew they couldn’t rely on a traditional model.

A Church of House Churches

To realize this expansive vision, Blacksburg Church is not structured as one central gathering location, but as a church of house churches. This model rests on intensive discipleship, requiring the equipping of leaders who meet the biblical qualifications of an elder as outlined in 1 Timothy 3 and Titus 1.

During Jacob’s residency, the cohort prayed for God to provide two such qualified leaders within the next few months. God answered that prayer by providing John and Brandon. After being equipped by Jacob, these two men became the pastors of the church’s first two house churches, which launched the second week of January.

During the week, these groups focus on caring for one another, helping each other grow in intimacy and imitation of Jesus and developing new leaders. The ultimate goal is multiplication: developing leaders and disciples who are sent out to start new house churches, continuing the march along the I-81 corridor.

Gathering Together

While decentralized ministry is the core, corporate gatherings remain vital. On Sunday mornings, these house churches gather for corporate worship, Bible teaching, communion, and mutual encouragement.

Initially, Jacob planned for the entire church to gather in their large basement. However, their launch team has grown so much that they were forced to find a larger space. As Jacob looked for a space large enough to accommodate their Sunday worship gathering, he stumbled upon the Blacksburg Public Library. The library is an ideal location—its common room can accommodate over 100 adults, it’s free, right in the center of Blacksburg, and has off-street parking. The church launched their weekly corporate worship gatherings on January 18th there and continue to meet there every Sunday.

Partnering for Preparation

While God does the impossible, He often does it through faithful servants who take the time to prepare. Jacob and Haileah didn’t rush to plant. They recognized the need for a season of preparation to pursue God’s vision for Blacksburg Church.

They turned to Passion for Planting, first participating in our assessment to confirm their calling and identify next steps. Following a strong recommendation, Jacob then enrolled in our Distance Residency program. This process allowed them to prepare themselves and their plan, moving from an abstract calling to a concrete reality made possible with the help of our Project Management services.

We are incredibly excited about what God has in store for Blacksburg Church and the lives that will be forever changed through its ministry. Jacob and Haileah’s story is a powerful testament to the fruit that comes from taking faithful, prepared steps.

Feature Photo by Monica Bourgeau on Unsplash

The post Faithful Steps: Multiplying Disciples Along the I-81 Corridor appeared first on Passion for Planting.

Building the Engine: How To Build A Launch Team From Scratch

Are you ready for the abstract dreams of last year to collide with the concrete realities of January 2026? This month marks a pivotal, defining moment for many leaders across our networks who are gearing up for fall launches. While the rest of the world makes casual resolutions, these planters are right now beginning to gather, develop, and train launch teams, moving squarely past the dreaming phase and into the doing phase.

This is the critical season where abstract vision must start transforming into tangible reality. Planters are making the significant shift from saying “I have an idea for a new church” to declaring “We are now building this community together.” This process involves countless coffee conversations, vulnerable vision-casting events, and the courageous act of asking others to join a mission that doesn’t fully exist yet.

It is exhilarating, but it can also feel daunting to build something from nothing. Take courage in knowing you are following a biblical pattern. When the Apostle Paul set out to plant the church in Philippi, as recorded in Acts 16, he didn’t arrive with a pre-packaged crowd. He simply went to a riverside prayer gathering on the Sabbath and shared the good news. God opened the heart of a businesswoman named Lydia, and her household became the foundational core—the first launch team—of that vibrant church.

Like Paul, many of you are currently looking for your “Lydias”—those key individuals whose hearts God is opening to help establish this new work. At Passion for Planting, we deeply understand the unique, high-stakes dynamics of this phase. You are not building alone. Whether you are currently praying for your very first committed families or hosting your initial interest meetings, this newsletter is designed to equip you with the practical tools, strategic insights, and spiritual encouragement needed to build a strong foundation for the journey ahead. Enjoy!

-Patrick Bradley, Director of Operations

Launch Team Development Strategy

Planting a church is not a solo endeavor; it requires a dedicated team sharing your vision. However, gathering that team shouldn’t be haphazard. Stop hoping for the right people to just show up and start strategically building the foundation your new church needs right now.

Our Launch Team Development Strategy Template is designed to take the guesswork out of this critical phase. This tool guides you step-by-step through defining your vision, setting concrete recruitment goals, crafting your recruitment strategy, and structuring an effective onboarding process. It even helps you plan how to build a healthy team culture from day one. Don’t let the task of team building stall your momentum. Download this template today (or use our beta interactive AI version) to turn your vision into an actionable plan and assemble the team God has for your plant.

Launch Team Expectations

Before you ask anyone to commit, you need to have clear expectations of what it means to join. Written Launch Team Expectations are a simple, powerful tool that clarifies the commitment level (time, giving, service), the relational expectations, and the spiritual health standards required of your first team members. It removes ambiguity and ensures everyone is entering the mission with their eyes wide open.

Expectations are your first and best tool for filtering those who are merely interested from those who are truly committed. Download our Sample Launch Team Expectations and start crafting clear expectations for your launch team. This can also double as or evolve into a church membership covenant.

How To Train Your Launch Team

Your launch team isn’t just your initial volunteer corps or setup crew; they are the carriers of your new church’s culture. If you don’t intentionally train them, you risk launching with a crowd rather than a unified force.

The article How To Train Your Launch Team from New Churches is essential reading because it provides a practical, multi-week framework for embedding your church’s specific DNA into your core group before day one. It moves beyond mere logistics, guiding planters through teaching essential spiritual disciplines, fostering deep unity, and helping members discover their gifts for service. Don’t leave your church’s culture to chance. Read this to learn how to transform willing volunteers into a spiritually grounded team ready for mission.

Developing A Unifying Launch Strategy 

Once your core team is initiated, you need to invite them into the plan. Your Launch Strategy is the blueprint that clarifies where you are going and how you will get there. It gives your team the confidence that you have a vision worth following and a plan that can sustain it. This document should cover everything from vision and values to your financial and discipleship goals.

If you don’t have one, or if yours needs refinement, there is no time like the present. It can be the unifying document that gets everyone “shooting at the same target.” Download our Launch Strategy Template to prayerfully put together your own unique strategy.

Photos by Andrew Moca, Small Group Network, and Dylan Gillis on Unsplash

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