Church planters need all the help they can get. The business of launching a new church and establishing a new worship community requires all the strength God can offer. Luckily, churches can also rely on missionally-focused church planting networks to provide a great deal of support and guidance during the process too. But what other resources are available?
Here are 10 essential resources church planters can explore for more insight, training, and support:
#1 – Church Development Fund, Inc.
CDF Capital has been helping churches attain the resources they need to transform lives and communities and their mission and vision include a commitment and understanding that churches need more than financial help to succeed. They provide three types of transformational capital to churches: financial capital, leadership capital, and spiritual capital.
#2 – Church Plant Media
Church Plant Media provides websites for churches that are affordable, easy to use, and simple to maintain, helping new churches connect with people and the gospel. They also provide advanced partner support and a host of features including customization, multi-campus integration, The City or CCB Integration, and a church finder module. Their content management system, or CMS, provides flexibility and is designed to grow, serving churches of every shape, size, and stage of ministry from church planters to multi-campus congregations, and para-church ministries.
#3 – ChurchPlantingTactics.com
Church Planting Tactics is a weekly plain-language tips and tactics blog that shortens the church planting learning curve and helps church planters move through administrative tasks quickly.
#4 – Exponential Conference
Exponential Conference offers unique opportunities to meet and connect with leaders and church planters. This conference is the largest annual gatherings of church planting leaders on the planet and is designed to equip teams to discover their pathway. Offering workshops, training, and opportunities to connect at conferences in the Bay Area, Chicago, Houston, Orlando, Southern California, and Washington DC. Exponential Conference is one of the top 10 church leadership conferences church planters don’t want to miss.
#5 – Missio Alliance
Missio Alliance began as an initiative of Ecclesia Network to answer the need for a broader fellowship – one that could incorporate not just leaders and churches, but other networks, denominations, schools, and other groups that shared a desire to engage in dialogue and work around the most pressing theological and cultural challenges facing the North American Church in mission amid its rapidly shifting cultural context. Church planting resources include: events, audio/video recordings, articles, podcasts, blogs, and The Global Church Project
#6 – Mission Harvest
Mission Harvest is the ministry of Harvest Bible Chapel and focuses on church planting by offering training, conferences, pastor support, and mission trips that strengthen church plant initiatives worldwide. Harvest Bible Chapel has helped plant over 170 churches around the world over. Events include the Vertical Church Conference 2018 for church leaders and pastors.
#7 – NewChurches.com
NewChurches.com is a resource hub that helps build strong foundations by connecting church planters with top experts in the field of church planting and multisite ministry, and by regularly providing resources and information that church planting communities needed to thrive. Resources include their Planting Missional Churches guide, webinars, live events, online courses, podcasts, and blogs.
#8 – Passion4Planting.com
Passion 4 Planting is a church planting software platform designed to plant healthy multiplying churches through planter assessment, training, management, and coaching.
#9 – Reliant
Reliant serves as a hub for local churches, missionaries, and generous donors who support their work to mobilize church planters and missionaries across like-minded missional groups and church-planting networks. They serve as a trusted partner for networks who may not have the resources of a traditional denominational back-office or mission agency. Services include preparation, assessment, and team building. Reliant partners with Exponential Conference, Verge, Acts 29 Network, Ecclesia Network, Missio Alliance, V3 Network and works in the US, Latin America, Western Europe, and Asia.
#10 – Verge Network
The Verge Network exists to equip leaders for mission and is for church leaders, students, entrepreneurs, artists, urban innovators, business leaders, community development specialists, non-profit leaders, church planters and everyday leaders – anyone pursuing the mission of God, in community, whatever the context, for the sake of the Gospel. The network currently has 250,000 members, students, and subscribers, and offers members access to a library of master classes, webinar recordings, and an online community.
If you're looking for more of a church planting network to join, this article lists 10 missionally-focused church planting networks.
This is a really great resource for church planters. Having planted 2 churches myself, its these kinds of resources that make a huge difference in the life of the fledgling church. With the organization we planted with, we always say “never do ministry alone”. That’s so true. Thanks Lauren for putting together this great list for church planters.
Thanks for your kind comment, Nathan! I appreciate your readership. Best, Lauren
You should add ARC to this list. Arcchurches.com
Hi Braden, We included ARC on this other killer list of missionally-focused church planting resources\: https://churchtechtoday.com/2018/03/23/10-missionally-focused-church-planting-networks/ This ‘resource’ list above was all the additional organizations that we came across that were not quite full networks, but had many resources for church planters. Your comment made me realize we need to cross promote these two articles. Thanks!