Residents who successfully complete Passion for Planting’s 9-month Church Planting Residency program are eligible to receive a $5,000 grant to help fuel their church plant.
What Does it Mean to ‘Successfully Complete’ the Residency?
Residents must meet or exceed the following expectations to be considered to have successfully completed the Church Planting Residency:
Before the Cohort Starts
- Complete Online Application: The online application below will take 60-90 minutes and require a $500 registration fee.
- Affirm Theological Alignment: The online application includes theology for you to assess and affirm your alignment. You can preview the Faith Statement for Leaders here.
- Receive Final Approval and Acceptance: Passion for Planting will review each application, conduct interviews, and check references. We will communicate formal approval to residents accepted into the cohort.
- Join Onboarding Call: You and your supervising sponsor will join a Zoom call in late August 2025 to talk through the program, get the syllabus and discuss sponsor church expectations (sponsor MUST participate).
During the Cohort
- Attend the In-Person Kickoff: You’ll come for a 1-day in-person orientation event in September 2025 (mandatory).
- Participate in Weekly Cohort Day: You’ll participate in the weekly 6-hour group Zoom calls (9am-3pm Eastern) from the first Wednesday in September 2025 to the first Wednesday in June 2026. No more than five absences are allowed during the term.
- Attend Two On-Site Intensives: You’ll come to two 4-day in-person gatherings – December 2025 and March 2026 (mandatory).
- Complete Homework and Presentations: Your homework assignments must be completed between Zoom calls. Assignments are due weekly and presented to the group.
- Build Camaraderie: Build relationships, collaborate, and learn from one another.
- Use PlanterPlan App: You will develop and manage your custom church launch plan using this web tool.
- Stay Teachable: You must maintain a teachable and coachable posture with peers, sponsors, coaches, and facilitators.
- Be Accountable: Your sponsor is your primary line of authority for accountability during the cohort journey.
To Successfully Complete the Residency
- Develop a Comprehensive Church Planting Strategy: Along the journey, you will prayerfully craft over 20 strategy documents, covering everything from Disciple Making and Fundraising to Marketing and Budget. All of these culminate in an overarching Launch Strategy document tailored to your target community.
- Create a Custom Launch Plan: Using Passion for Planting’s proprietary church planting web app, PlanterPlan, you’ll put together a custom action plan with everything you need to organize the dates, the doers, and the dollars for your real-world church planting project.
- Give a Final Presentation: At the end of the Cohort, you’ll present your strategy and your plan to peers and church planting leaders (think of it like defending a thesis—minus the academic stress).
Grant Eligibility
Cash grants to residents are not automatic. For eligibility, we require:
- Successfully completing the Residency as above
- Demonstrating alignment with Renew.org Faith Statement for Leaders
- Being affirmed by a contextually-relevant assessment (assessing your health and readiness to launch what you’re attempting)
- Compatibility of your project (upon completion of the residency, you’re proposing a healthy, reproducing, disciple-making ministry)
Ready to Apply?
Take the best next step on your church planting journey today.