Introduction

The Greater Puget Sound region remains one of the most unreached and unchurched regions in the United States of America. According to recent research, the Puget Sound region is the 8th least churched region (52%) with the 3rd most unchurched residents (45%). Simply put, most people in the Puget Sound don’t know Jesus and never will unless something changes.

Problem

Millions of people in the Pacific Northwest are living without a relationship with God. Unless something changes they will all die, experience divine judgment & spend eternity without God.

Solution

Go Make Disciples and Plant Churches (Matthew 28:18-20)

Jesus’ words in Matthew 28:18-20 give us clarity on our mission. We are commanded by Jesus to go make disciples of all nations. This includes reaching the Pacific Northwest. It has been proven that planting new churches is the single most critical strategy for reaching new people for Jesus and seeing a communal transformation. However, the need in the Puget Sound region is much too great for any one church to address. This is why we believe there must be a collaborative effort across Christian denominations, tribes, networks, and cities for a unified regional movement of church planting.

Vision

Make a gospel/kingdom impact in every city in the Puget Sound region for generations to come so that every man, woman, and child has a daily encounter with Jesus in the places where we live, work, learn and play.

Vision Goal - See that every man, woman and child knows a faithful Christian, hears the gospel at least 3 times and is loved practically by a local church.

Mission Goal - By 2030 plant a movement of 100 healthy, disciple-making, multiplying churches in the Puget Sound region.

Organizational Commitments

It is not enough to say we will plant churches. We need to have organizational commitments that clarify how we will go about planting churches.

1. Health - We are committed to empowering healthy pastors to lead healthy churches.
2. Disciple-Making - We are committed to making disciples of Jesus who make disciples.
3. Multiplication - We are committed to multiplying new disciples, new church members and leaders, new small groups, new church planters, and new churches.

Clarifying Organizational Commitments

Health

We believe that healthy leaders produce healthy churches. For this reason, our commitment to health starts with healthy leadership. Once a church has healthy leadership the leaders can then model the way and lead the entire church in health.

• Healthy Pastors/Leaders - The Lilly Endowment, Inc., (an Indiana-based foundation) is concerned about the health of the big “C” church. In one of their initiatives, called Sustaining Pastoral Excellence, the endowment invested over $84 million to support sixty-three projects that explore what it takes to thrive in ministry. After seven years of research and studying hundreds of pastoral participants (their personal lives, marriages, families and ministries) the Foundation discovered there are 5 primary themes for leadership resilience in fruitful ministry: (1) Spiritual Formation, (2) Self-care, (3) Emotional and Cultural Intelligence, (4) Marriage and Family and (5) Leadership and Management. To ensure healthy leadership in our churches we will equip leaders to grow in these 5 areas so they can flourish in their leadership.

• Healthy Churches - We want to plant churches that are Christ-centered, Gospel Saturated, Biblically Solid and Missional. To see this happen, we will strive to help every church develop: healthy leaders, disciple-making disciples, church-based theological development, and church planting abilities.

Disciple-Making

We believe that the primary mission of the church is to make disciples. For this reason, we will equip churches to equip Christians to make disciples. Once a church has a culture of discipleship within the church family, then that church can then make disciples beyond the church family.

• Disciple-Making in the Family - To equip disciples we believe that the church has to have a passion and focus on discipleship. A focus on discipleship happens as God’s people embrace the gospel and live the gospel. Below are four distinctives of a church that has a discipleship culture:

• Gospel Relationships - We will strive to build loving, healthy relationships that result in people growing towards Jesus and living for Jesus. (Ephesians 4:11-16) Gospel relationships include the following spheres of relationships: Life with God, Life on life, Life in community, and Life on mission.
• Gospel Culture - We will strive for the culture of the church to incarnate the good news reality of Jesus’ kingdom here on earth. (1 Thessalonians 5:12-24)
• Gospel Message - (proclamation of the gospel “preaching” and sharing of the gospel “evangelism”) We will strive to defend and distribute the sacred message of Jesus and his kingdom. (2 Timothy 1:13-14)
• Gospel Disciplines - We will strive to practice spiritual disciplines so that we grow corporately and personally in grace with maturity and Christ-likeness. (John 15:1-17)

• Disciple-Making beyond the Family - Jesus did not call the church to be an inward-focused group of people. Rather, Jesus called the church to go make disciples of all nations to the ends of the earth (Matt. 28:18-20). This means for healthy discipleship to happen we must see our mission field as local and global. It also means we must constantly be sending out disciple-makers, starting in our local cities, then our geographic region, and then to the ends of the earth (Acts 1:8).

To make an impact locally we will strive to send disciple-makers (i.e. missionaries) to the places where we live, work, learn and play in our cities throughout the region.

Multiplication

We believe that equipping leads to multiplication. This means that before a church can multiply it must first equip the saints to do the work of the ministry (Eph. 4:11-12).  For this reason, we will strive to equip churches to equip Christians. Our equipping philosophy will be life on life equipping focused on the following areas: Training (Bible teaching), Apprenticeship (hands-on development) and Immersion (life context application).

Here are the ways we will equip churches to equip Christians:

• Multiplying new Disciples - We will strive to equip every man, woman, and child in our churches to be disciple-makers beyond our churches (Matt. 28:18-20).
• Multiplying Church members and leaders (deacons & elders) - We will strive to equip the saints by discovering each individual’s calling (2 Tim. 4:5), developing godly character (Gal. 5:22-23), growing in ministry competency (1 Cor. 12), and being commissioned to do the work of ministry (Eph. 4:12).    
• Multiplying Small Groups - We will strive to equip small groups of Christians to make an impact in the places they live, work, learn and play.
• Multiplying Church Planters - We will strive to equip church planters to preach, lead, shepherd, and do mission.
• Multiplying New Churches - We will strive to equip core groups to be sent out to plant new churches in their local cities.

Strategic Initiatives to Plant 100 Churches

1. Identify Churches - Identify 5-10 flagship churches and 25-50 Host/Sending church in Puget Sound with a passion for multiplication and church planting. Flagship churches will provide leadership for the church planting hubs and church planting residency. Host/Sending churches will be partner churches participating in the church planting residency with the Flagship churches. Together, in creative collaboration, the churches will operate the church planting residency.
2. Church Planting Hubs - Group flagship churches and Host/Sending churches into clusters to create Church Planting Hubs. Over time grow into 5 Hubs: Seattle, Eastside, Northend, South end, Peninsula. Equip these churches to partner together.
3. Church Planting Residency - Establish a church planting residency for the Flagship churches and Host/Sending churches to run in unity. Share resources among the Flagship churches and Host/Sending churches so that each church planting hub can run a church planting residency with four residents each year per hub. Shared resources will include: assessment center, curriculum/training, resident leadership coaching, housing, funding, and other things.
4. Leadership Pipeline - Empower and equip network churches to establish a discipleship pathway that enables them to make disciples and raise leaders. The pipeline needs to include raising the next generation of church leaders. The pipeline should include the development of high school and college students.  
5. Funding and Investors - Establish a mission fund to cover the cost of the residencies. Details of costs to be determined. **Fundraising strategy needed.
6. Legacy Project - Create a legacy project to enable partnerships with dying churches or pastors who are seeking to retire. The idea is to recycle these buildings so that we can plant new churches in them.
7. Culture of Multiplication - Build a network culture that values multiplication. The hope is that every church will participate in multiplication by continually raising church planter residency candidates. This enables the churches throughout the network to become fishing ponds to catch new church planter resident candidates. Set the expectation that every church produce a church planting candidate every two years. Not all candidates will be accepted to the church planting residency, so we need to have more candidates than open spots so that we can get the very best candidates.
8. Ministry Training Center - Establish a training center to ensure all pastors and leaders and future leaders in the network have the tools and resources they need to be healthy and successful. The training needs to be biblical, practical and integrated into regular church life.
9. Partnerships - Establish strategic partnerships with like-minded organizations to resource the network, church planting residency, church planters, and new church plants. Partnerships should be across denominations and tribal lines.
10. Pastoral Care Center - Establish a pastoral care center to ensure all church planters and existing pastors in the network are healthy, supported and cared for. This could be a strategic partnership with the Center for Pastoral Flourishing that Western Seminary is doing for the Pacific Northwest Region of WA, OR, CA.

Church Planting Residency Program

PURPOSE: The Saturate Church Planting Residency exists to assess, equip, send and strengthen residents and their families to plant churches throughout the Puget Sound Region.

Note: Think of the residency as a finishing school for leaders who already have Biblical competency and meet the character qualifications for a pastor. Leaders needing to develop Biblical competency and character will be equipped through the Leadership Pipeline.

Assess

Step 1 - Interest

The candidate will express interest to a host church or a pastor in a host church will express interest in a candidate. Candidates must already be known to meet the character qualifications outlined in Scripture for an elder/pastor (1 Tim 3:1-7; Titus 1:5-9; 1 Peter 5:1-4), and the candidate must be competent in Biblical knowledge with a spiritual gift of preaching/teaching. If a candidate meets these requirements and has a pastoral reference from his existing church then the candidate will be invited to formally apply to the residency.

For most candidates Step 1 will happen relationally in the context of their local church. It is encouraged for local pastors to meet with prospective candidates during step 1 to help them discern their calling. After discerning their calling and having their calling affirmed by their local pastor candidates will apply formally to the residency.

Step 2 - Formal Application

During Step 2 of Assessment, the candidate will formally apply to the Saturate Church Planting Residency. The application will include: a resume, personal theological overview, two sermon samples (video or audio), a written recommendation from a ministry leader, and a one-page letter sharing why he feels called to plant a church.

Once the candidate formally applies, they will enter into the Discovery process with Stadia. Stadia will determine if the candidate has the potential building blocks to be formally assessed. If the candidate does not have the building blocks then the candidate will not proceed. If the candidate does have the building blocks then the candidate will be invited to Step 3 and have a formal interview.

Step 3 - Formal Interview

The first interview will be with the Saturate Church Planting Residency Director at the flagship church within the church planting hub. If the candidate is affirmed, there will be a second interview with the candidate, Residency Director, lead pastor of the host church and other Host/Sending church pastors who are part of the church planting hub. If married, the candidate’s spouse will participate in the second interview. Likewise, some of the wives of the Host/Sending church pastors will participate in the second interview. If the couple is affirmed to proceed the couple will be invited to Step 4 and go to a formal church planter assessment with a church planting partner (Stadia, Converge, Sends, Acts 29, ett.).

Step 4 - Formal Assessment

During this step, the candidate and spouse will go through a formal church planting assessment. Since the host church pastor will be primarily responsible for the development of the church planter, he must attend and participate in the formal church planting assessment. If the church planter is formally approved for church planting the candidate will be invited to participate in the Saturate Church Planting Residency. If the candidate is not formally approved for church planting the candidate will be encouraged to be on a ministry team for a future church plant. However, the candidate will not be invited into the Saturate Church Planting Residency

Step 5 - Year One Assessment(s)

After a candidate is accepted into the church planting residency program the candidate officially becomes a church planting resident. However, the formal assessment process is not over. At the end of the first six months, the resident will receive a 360 evaluation from their Host/Sending church to give them feedback and encouragement on how they are doing. At the end of the year, the resident will receive another 360 evaluation from the Host/Sending church. At the end of year one, the resident will be assessed by the Host/Sending church to determine if the resident should continue in the program and go on to the sending phase.

Step 6 - Final Assessment

During the core group development phase and before the soft launch the resident will be assessed by partnership churches. The partnering churches will include the Flagship church, the Host/Sending church and other churches that are part of the Saturate the Sound Network. The point of this assessment is twofold: First, it is to affirm the resident to plant. And second, it is to strengthen the relationships among the partnering churches to resource and support the resident during the sending phase of the residency.

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Equip: Training, Apprenticeship, Immersion

Timeline: The overall timeline of the Residency will be two years. The first year will focus on equipping and the second year will focus on sending. During the residency, there will be regular checkpoints and assignments that must be completed within the scheduled time frame. Although the residency will be structured to meet the timeline it will also be highly relational.  Overall, the equipping of the residency will focus on four specific competencies: Preaching, Shepherding, Leadership and Mission.

Note: The residency program needs to include equipping for the resident wives. Equipping for residents wives TBD.

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Competency #1 - Preaching Development

Preaching Training

We want to develop preachers who will be able to winsomely engage both Christians and non-Christians with the truth of Scripture. The resident will have formal training through reading assignments, video training, and scheduled coaching with their Host pastor. Residents will also participate in a preaching cohort to develop their preaching gift. This training will be specifically focused on developing the following competencies.

• Biblical: What does it say? The 5 Rules: Context, context, context, narrative is not normative and the text can’t mean what it never meant.  
• Memorable: What is the big idea and how can story, metaphor, and illustrations help it stick?
• Emotional: How does this text form and shape our hearts?
• Apologetical: What are the objections to believing this truth?
• Christological: How does it point to Jesus and his work making him the hero of God’s story and our story?
• Applicational: How does this text call people to live the gospel? How does it apply to the different types of listeners?
• Contextual: Why does our city need this truth and what happens when we live this truth?

Preaching Apprenticeship

The resident will meet weekly for sermon preparation with the Host Pastor and preaching team. The Apprenticeship approach between the resident and those whom he shadows will be: I do/you watch, We do together, You do/I watch.

• The resident will learn the different ways to prepare a sermon (deductive, inductive, semi-inductive).
• The resident will learn how to prepare an entire sermon series (themes, text breakdown, small group tie in).
• The resident will gain the ability to discover, prepare and teach a consistent theme throughout each sermon in a series.
• The resident will learn how to write and deliver a sermon that is biblical, memorable, emotional, apologetical, Christological, applicational and contextual.

Preaching Immersion

The resident will strive to actively preach and teach the Word of God in a variety of congregational contexts. However, there will be two primary ways the resident practices his preaching gift: teaching classes and preaching. During the first year, the Resident will learn the basics of preaching. During the second year, the resident will gradually preach more and more. The goal is to get the resident to the place where he can preach week to week and fill the pulpit in the new church plant.

Actions:

• The resident will strive to preach or teach twice monthly or deliver at least 20 different sermons in the first 12 month period. Resident will have to take initiative and be creative to find regular preaching and teaching opportunities.
• The resident will have a monthly coaching review of at least one sermon a month. The goal is to grow in all of the skills needed to preach a real sermon to real people: engaging audience, grow in pace, timing, tone of voice, body language, eye contact, delivery, etc.
• The resident will participate in a preaching cohort, where other residents hear and evaluate each other’s sermons.

Competency #2 - Leadership Development

Leadership Training

We want to develop planting pastors who are leaders of leaders that model the Character of Christ while inspiring others to follow Jesus and be on his mission. The resident will have formal training through reading assignments, video training, and scheduled coaching with the Host Pastor. This training will be specifically focused on developing the following competencies: Leading self, Leading others, Leading leaders, Leading growth: depth & width and Leading momentum: adding & multiplying.

Leadership Apprenticeship

Resident will be exposed to a variety of leadership styles throughout the church family. During this process we want the resident to discover his leadership style by observing different leaders with different personalities and gifts in different leadership contexts. The Apprenticeship approach between the resident and those whom he shadows will be: I do/you watch, We do together, You do/I watch.

• Participate in weekly staff meetings with Host Church: the goal is to build relationships with the staff and learn how to lead a weekly staff meeting. Resident will functionally be a member of the Host/sending church staff until the Resident is sent out. [Start year 1]
• Shadow Small Group Coaching meetings: The goal is to grow in the ability to coach leaders and encourage Small Group leaders in shepherding and multiplication. [Start year one]
• Shadow Elder meetings: The goal is to grow in understanding of biblical eldership, build relationships with current elders and learn how to lead an elder meeting.  [Start year 1]  
• Shadow Executive Lead Team meetings: The goal is to grow in collaborative leadership and gain a perspective and understanding what it means to lead a church at a high level. [Start year 2]

Leadership Immersion

The resident will strive to actively lead in a variety of leadership contexts. However, there will be two primary ways the resident practices his leadership gift: Multiplying Small Groups and developing a Core Group.

Actions:

• The resident will create a vision, plan, and strategy to multiply Small Groups in the planting city. The goal will be to develop 5-10 Small Groups in the church plant city over a two year period. During this process the resident is to build trust & rapport with Small Group leaders and live life in the community and context of the planting city.
• The resident will create a vision, plan and strategy to build a core group in the planting city. The goal will be to develop relationships with people individually while helping the group grow in group commitment, group identity, group values and group stewardship. During this process, the resident is to build trust & rapport with the core group and live life on mission together in the planting city.
• Ultimately, the goal is for the resident to equip disciples to make disciples. This will be evident by 1. multiplying groups who make disciples and 2. building a core group that makes disciples.  

Competency #3 - Shepherding Development

Pastoral Training

We want to develop planting pastors who love God, love others and love their city. The resident will have formal training through reading assignments, video training, and regular coaching from various shepherding pastors. This training will be specifically focused on developing the following competencies:

• Gain an understanding of the fundamentals of the gospel; specifically, sanctification and Jesus-centered shepherding.
• Partnering with the Holy Spirit in ministering the gospel in truth, love, and grace.
• Engaging in incarnational ministry by being present to God and others.
• Pastoring others with prayer and God’s word.

Pastoral Apprenticeship

The resident will be exposed to a variety of shepherding styles and shepherding situations. During this process we want the resident to discover his shepherding style by observing different shepherds in different contexts. The Apprenticeship approach between the resident and those whom he shadows will be: I do/you watch, We do together, You do/I watch.

• Shadow/participate in 50 hours of pastoral care meetings: The goal is to learn the posture, difficulty, and joy of shepherding by gaining hands-on experience in facing the reality of pastoral care.
• Learn how to do weddings, funerals, hospital visits and care for those who are suffering.
• The resident will participate in Aspire and Elder Equip of Host/Sending Church.

Pastoral Immersion

The resident will strive to actively shepherd in a variety of ways. As time goes on the resident will gradually take on more and more responsibility for pastoring the people in his planting city. The goal is for the resident to become the pastor of the people in his city, naturally by pastoring them, so that at the time he becomes a planting pastor the people in his city can eagerly affirm that he has been pastoring them.

Actions:

• The resident will personally shepherd all counseling cases for his small group(s) and his core group.
• Feedback - The core team needs to give 360 feedback to the resident during the sending phase of the residency.  

Competency #4 - Mission Development

Mission Training

We want to help develop planting pastors who live on mission and have the ability to invite others to live on mission with them. The resident will have formal training through reading assignments, video training, and scheduled coaching meetings with the Host Pastor. This training will be specifically focused on developing the following competencies.

• Understanding a Biblical theology of Mission.  
• Growing as a missiologist of the planting city.
• Developing a heart of mission for the planting city.
• Practicing relational evangelism.
• Developing a strategic mission plan to impact the planting city.  

Mission Apprenticeship

The resident will strive to actively do relational discipleship by building relationships with non-Christians and sharing the gospel. This will be done individually but in the context of community with the Host Pastor and other leaders. The Apprenticeship approach between the resident and those whom he shadows will be: I do/you watch, We do together, You do/I watch.

• Resident will spend time weekly in planting city getting to know people to build relationships. The goal will be for the resident to build 5-10 relationships with non-Christians.
• Resident will strive to share the gospel 3 times a week with a variety of people.
• Resident will equip Small Groups to embrace the ONE LIFE/EVERY GROUP initiative (https://everygroup.org/). The Goal is that every group makes one new disciple a year.    

Mission Immersion

During the residency, there will be one primary project the resident will focus on to grow the mission in the planting city.

• The resident will create a vision, plan, and strategy to start and lead an outreach ministry or service project in planting city. The goal is to build relationships with non-Christians in the planting city and begin pastoring the city with a heart of love and service. This plan should include a breakdown of city demographics, who the target audience is for the new church plant and how the core group will engage within the city.  [This will start year 2]

Collaboration

A team value of the Saturate Church Planting Residency is collaboration. To ensure the Resident gets the DNA of collaboration the Resident will spend time shadowing different members of Host Church staff and volunteer teams. As well, the Resident will shadow partnering churches to see how they do services, staff meetings, and leadership development. The goal is to have a deeper understanding and appreciation for all of the differing roles that help a church be fruitful so the resident can best appreciate and encourage his team once he plants. The Resident will shadow the following roles: Hospitality, Operations, Kids, Students, and A/V. The goal is that by the end of year 1 the Resident will understand the basics of how each ministry functions.

Actions:

• Connect with ministry leaders of the Host church to get to know them and their ministry. [Year one]
• Shadow each ministry leadership cohort once. [Year one]
• If the ministry has team meetings, shadow a team meeting. [Year one]
• Serve at least twice on each ministry team for the Host church. [Year one]
• Visit partnering church services as a guest. Evaluate the church experience as a first-time guest.
• Visit partnering church services as a shadow. Strive to learn the ins and outs of how and why they do what they do.

Sending

Timeline: Every Church plant will have a timeline that is flexible and determined by the unique circumstances of that plant. However, in general, we want to plant with a four-phase approach: A time for prayer, A time for developing the core group, a time for the soft launch, and a time for the official public launch. We anticipate these things taking 18-24 months. Therefore, the second year of the residency will focus primarily on sending.

Prayer <span class="heading-normal">(Months 1-3)</span>

• The resident will lead monthly prayer nights with Host/Sending church to prepare for the church plant. The goal is to stir the hearts of God’s people and call on God for help.
• The resident will do bi-monthly prayer walks in his city in preparation for the plant. These walks should include people who are candidates for the core group. The goal is to invite local residents of the target city to pray for their city.  
• The resident will prepare a prayer plan for his core team to prepare for the plant. This prayer plan will be carried out in the developing core group phase. The goal is to establish a culture of dependency on God within the core group.

Developing the Core Group <span class="heading-normal">(Months 4-12)</span>

• Affirmation - If the resident is not yet an elder/pastor with Host/Sending Church he should go through their eldership/pastor process and be publicly affirmed as an elder/pastor during the sending phase. Ideally, the candidate becomes an elder/pastor before the soft launch however, we don’t want to be too hasty in this (1 Tim 5:22). Therefore, the candidate needs to be tested and approved before becoming an elder/pastor.  
• Identity - The resident should begin monthly core group meetings to bring the core together to grow in group relationships, group commitment, group identity, group values, group stewardship and group mission.
• Fun - Resident should lead the core group to do some fun relational building activities together. These could be informal events like BBQs or parties. The point is to have fun together and build relationships.
• Vision Casting - Resident will lead a regional vision cast night with Host/Sending church and partnering churches to share the vision for the church plant. Depending on the timeline for the church launch, the resident will lead a series of vision nights in the city he is launching with his core team, including several general public vision night.
• New Member Day - The resident should have a day where core group members that are not members of the sending church/church plant

Soft Launch <span class="heading-normal">(Months 13-23)</span>

• Host Church Support - Resident to begin preaching monthly or bi-monthly at the Host/Sending Church. This will help the Host/Sending church catch the vision for the plant and be more supportive of the church plant.
• Evening Services - Resident to launch a weekly evening service. This service will give the resident an on-ramp to growing into weekly preaching rhythms.
• Pastoring - At this point, the resident should be to be the primary point of contact for the small groups in his planting city. He should have regular rhythms of pastoring and encouraging these leaders and the people in the groups.
• Team Building - The resident will need to build service teams before and during the soft launch phase. The idea is to get the teams to be strong before the public launch.
• Disciple-Making - The resident will lead the small groups to be sharing their faith and building relationships with non-Christians.

Official Public Launch <span class="heading-normal">(Month 24)</span>

• Sunday Morning Service(s) - Resident will launch Sunday Morning Public services.
• Serving the Community - Although the new church plant will have already been loving and serving their community once they “public launch” they will strive to ramp up their involvement in the community.
• One Life - During the soft launch phase, the resident will have led the core group to be building One Life relationships with non-Christians. Once the public launch happens, the core group will be encouraged to start inviting their One Life to attend a church service or small-group experience.
• Ministries - By the time of the public launch the resident will have led the core group to develop whatever ministries are needed for the new church plant. Ministries will include things like: kids, bands, small groups, prayer, and community outreach.

Sending Support

New Church plants will be sent and supported by a collection of Saturate the Sound churches. The ideal sending and supporting team will be: the Flagship church, Host/Sending church, partners church, and other churches who are connected to the Saturate the Sound Network through their local cohort in the plant city. These churches will partner together to send and support the new church plant in a variety of ways including but not limited to the following:

• Sending leaders and people from their churches already on mission in the plant city to join the new church plant core group.
• Financially supporting the new church plant for 1-3 years.
• Gifting resources (sound equipment, chairs, etc…)
• Providing an advisory/legal board until leadership from within is identified and appointed.
• Preaching at the church plant to give the planter a break.
• Providing opportunities for the church planter to preach at Saturate the Sound Churches for ongoing exposure and support.

Strengthening

After the new church has been officially launched the work is not over. Instead, the work is just getting started. Research indicates that most church planters either fail or burnout due to not having ongoing support in the first several years of planting. For this reason, we believe ongoing support to strengthen the church planter and the new church plant is critical.

Soul Care - For the first two years of the new church plant the resident and spouse will continue to meet regularly with Host/Sending Pastor and his wife for on-going love, support, and soul care.

Pastoral Cohort - The church planter will be encouraged to participate in a Center for Pastoral Flourishing cohort. This will be a two-year cohort commitment and help the church planter grow in (1) Spiritual Formation, (2) Self-care, (3) Emotional and Cultural Intelligence, (4) Marriage and Family and (5) Leadership and Management.

Saturate the Sound Cohort - The church planter will be encouraged to participate in a local Saturate the Sound cohort for a monthly connect with local pastors to build friendships, unity, and collaboration among the local church in the planting city.

Council of Wisdom - The church planter will be encouraged to develop 4-6 mentor relationships with wiser pastors. The point of this council is to have access to wise counsel when needed. This council does not function as an elder team but rather functions as a board of advisors.

Spiritual Accountability - The church planter will be encouraged to have the Host/Sending church board of elders/pastor function as his spiritual oversight and accountability until the church planter can establish a plurality of elders/pastors at the church plant. During the first three years, the church planter needs to be developing future elders/pastors. However, it is recommended that the church planter not install new elders/pastors until year three or later. Once the church plant has a plurality of elders the Host/Sending church elder/pastor board can remain a resource to the church plant if and when needed.

Financial Support - The church planter and new church will have a cluster of partnering churches as well as network and denominational partners to give financial support during the first three years of the church plant. The goal is for all our church plants to be financially self-supported and stable by the end of year three. However, we understand that this will need to be something the new church plant grows towards.  

Becoming a Multiplying Church - One of the greatest ways to strengthen a new church plant is to work towards multiplication. Since we are striving to plant a movement of church plants, all new church plants will be expected to start casting vision for planting a new church by year 3. We hope that between years 3-5 the church plant is stabilized at which time the church plant transitions to becoming a Host/Sending church.

Funding

The Saturate Church Planting Residency will be funded by multiple sources. Fifty percent of salary funding for the resident will be raised by the resident before starting the residency. Twenty-five percent of the salary funding for the resident will come from the Host/Sending church. And the remaining 25% of salary funding for the resident will come from denominational or network affiliations.