Developing a Regional
Church Multiplication
Strategy
Presenter: Dr. Dan Morgan
Associate Professor of Missions
Director, Nehemiah Project at SWBTS
Fort Worth, TX
Session 1
The Impact of Regional
Strategies- Two Case Studies
The Impact of the Status Quo
 The Northwest Baptist Convention
 Stuck at 450 churches for 20 years
 The Willamette Valley
 No church plants for a decade
 Bluebonnet Association
 Struggling financially, no new work in seven
years
Association Ministry Capacity
 A function of church ministry capacity
 Churches older than ten years tend to be
stable, but not showing net growth. Often
in slow decline.
 So, without church planting, associations
stagnate
 Yet, your stewardship is for each soul in
your region – this should generate urgency
Story 1: Bluebonnet Baptist Assoc
 Arrived 1999
 one 7-yr old anglo plant still on support
 Two old hispanic missions – on support
 A few churches willing to sponsor
 Status Quo growth
 Occasional maverick plants and affiliates
 Occasional church fight results in a split
 What was needed was a strategic plan
Strategic Planting
 Three kinds: clone, state-forced, partnership
 Clone – not adaptable to new contexts and
takes members from existing churches
 State-forced – Sometimes breeds resentment in
local churches
 Partnership – keeps ownership in the hands of
the local church by making them partners in the
process [J.K.’s preference]
Doing it right – Forming
Partnerships
 Dr Minton identified three critical issues
that would make or break an associational
approach
 Outside pressure – form a partnership with at
least three local churches, so they have a
majority and can resist outside pressure
 Project control – partnership shares control
 Planter accountability – Begins with selection
of a trustworthy, capable planter, then works
through a covenanted relationship w/ team
The Results
 2001 – first Strategic Planning Team – plant
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failed due to poor planter selection
2002 – Everyday Fellowship – Corey Webb –
good assessment – successful plant
2003 – 2006 – four churches per year
Now 18 total, 2 failed, 7 self-supporting, 1 notsupported, rest in phase-down
60% of churches help sponsor, number
continues to grow
All plants become partners in new projects
Particulars of J.K.’s Plan
 Uses a 2-yr phase down, helps them
prepare to go bi-vo if they aren’t going to
reach self-support in the two years
 Right now there are 7 churches
somewhere in the process with four more
scheduled for 2007
 This is a funded process, so growth is
limited by state and assoc. funding ability
– this is a limiting factor
Reproducing
 I sponsored a seminar in 2004 for ADOMs
 Jim Gaitliff attended and picked up on
J.K.’s process
 He customized it for his setting, then
systematized it as a program called
PRIME
 Now he is training other associations in his
system
Story 2: Kauf-Vann & Hunt Assoc
 Jim is a long-time Texas pastor who
became the associate ADOM for two
associations in 2004.
 No strategy, he was hired to establish one
 Attended J.K.’s training
 Formalized an approach around four
milestones
Jim’s milestones
 Right Place – develop list of sites for plants
 Windshield surveys, demographic studies, etc
 Right Planter – Screened and matched to a
site
 Recruited from churches, college, seminary
 Right Partners – local churches, assoc,
state, NAMB, non-local partner church
 Right Plan – Planter develops detailed
plan, and is trained to implement it
Results
 Hunt Association
 10 partner churches at start
 17 missions funded
 Gone from 68 to 86 churches in 30 months
 Kauf-Vann Association
 7 partner churches to start, now 30 partners, 40% of
total churches partner in planting
 20 missions funded
 Gone from 62 to 81 churches, 3 Hispanic cells, 4
multi-housing cells
Reproduction
 Jim is training several Texas associations
in his system
 Oklahoma and Missouri state staffs have
requested versions of PRIME for their
states
 Jim is training the Hudson Baptist
Association in New York State in this
process as I speak
Session Wrapup
 It is possible to move a stagnant
association toward remarkable growth
 There are a limited number of problems
that must be solved for success
 These two leaders have hit on a
systematic approach that points the way
forward for all of us.
 The next session will look in depth at that
systematic approach
Session 2
A Systematic Approach to Church
Multiplication
Pre-requisites
 A leader willing to engage the problem
 A compelling message to raise awareness
and recruit a few pastors to the task
 An association willing to let the staff try
and make a difference
Issues to address
 The strategy can’t depend on pulling members
out of existing churches, nor on a significant
increase in the average church’s giving
 No one entity can have unbridled control over a
church plant project
 The system must be able to resist outside
pressure that would subvert the process
 The planter must be able to implement his
vision, but with accountability for results,
character, and theology
A Model System
 A Process to develop a prioritized list of strategic
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church planting sites/people groups
A process to develop a pool of qualified planters
and match them to strategic sites
A process to form a Strategic Planning Team for
each project and initiate that project
A process to preserve and expand the resource
base: partners, money, planters
A process to reproduce the process in churches,
associations, and state conventions
Finding Sites and People Groups
 Who? – make it a major part of someone’s job
description; Key: it must be constantly updated
and re-prioritized with input from the ADOM
 Sites and Groups are the warp and woof of
targeting plants, so you need both geo and
demo info
 Matching projects with planters is a dynamic
process that needs active advocacy by the
ADOM or strategist
Finding Planters
 Seminary, College, Career sources all
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contribute
Assess for general aptitude and character
Match planter passion with particular
projects
This requires trained assessors and
coaches
As the pool of assessors grows, assess
toward specific contexts and models
Forming the SPT – Who?
 State, association always in
 Particular churches are asked
 A church plant
 A never-sponsored-before church
 A major funding church
 The planter will lead the team
Forming the SPT – How?
 The ADOM/strategist matches a project with a
planter and invites potential partners to meet
 The first meeting is to assess the planter and
agree to call.
 The second meeting, the planter presents his
plan and it is reviewed, then a covenant is
formed.
 Partners commit funding, and forms the first quarter
budget
 Planter commits strategy and to be accountable
Expanding the Resource Base
 The staff is always on the lookout for potential
planters, and partners with church planter
training centers
 The staff invites new partners with each project.
Minor partners often become major partners in a
subsequent project
 Plants are required to escrow a percentage of
receipts for sponsoring church planting – partner
the second year
 Partner outside assoc. for funding, while funding
is growing internally
Session 3
The Strategic Planning Team –
Key to success
Principles for Success
1.
2.
3.
4.
Covenanted partnership
Expanding the pool of sponsors
Planter free to implement his strategy
Partners fund a quarterly budget based
on demonstrated need
5. Partners help assess planter
6. Planter needs a veteran planter coach
The Covenant
 Partners commit for the duration of the project
 Meeting quarterly to review results
 Monthly giving to church plant
 The planter is guaranteed the right to implement
his strategy
 The planter commits to be accountable to team
for results, finances, character
 State and Assoc. partners adjust their money
quarterly as planter’s budget requires
 Signed, everyone gets a copy
Initiating the SPT
 ADOM or staff asks churches to consider
being a partner. Commitment adjusted to
fit the church.
 Minton has SPT assess planter, Gaitliff
has team of assessors do it.
 SPT gathers to review strategic plan of
planter, commit funds, and to sign a
covenant.
Quarterly Meetings
 Budget is funded quarter by quarter
 Planter is in charge of the meeting
 Reviews results of ministry initiatives
 Reviews finances
 Reviews plan for next quarter and the money
it will take to do it
 Project growth in people & finances to stay on
tract for self-support
 State and Assoc. leaders commit funding
Between Meetings
 ADOM or strategist is contact person
 Planter cultivates relationship with
partners – increases buy-in of partner
congregations to this project and planting
in general
 Planter spends to limits of his budget to
accomplish stated objectives
Session 4
From addition to multiplication
Model and honor multiplication
 Planters who will sponsor other plants
 Honor sponsors at annual meeting, etc,
especially “grandparents”
 Honor dying churches who sponsor a
church and then give it their resources
once it is established
Break Dependence on Money,
Buildings, and Seminary training
 All of these are good in themselves, but
can’t be turned into a CPM.
 Broaden planting to “new work” and
include new units that are dependent on a
mother church as well as independent
 Establish a system to get leaders from the
harvest
 Recruiting – “calling out the called”
 Training – OJT & lay Bible classes
Use World Missions to Fuel Local
Missions
 IMB short-term missions & journeyman
 NAMB short-term & USC-2
 Correspond with and host missionaries
 Take advantage of cross-cultural skills
brought back by journeymen and
missionaries
Push the System into the
Local Church
See Article
You have been given stewardship
 Of a region of this earth
 Over all the people groups who dwell in it
 To establish the Kindgom
 Working through local churches
 Until He returns