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1. A Team Approach
a. Prayer-- Developing prayer teams for church planters, each church plant, Conference leadership, and denominational vision.
b. Church Planting Partnership-- Conferences working together from a unified set of Biblical principles, praying together, planning together, resourcing each other, supporting each other as we work as a Kingdom team. (This we began in November 1997.)
c. Leadership-- Currently our leadership is provided by Conference Superintendents, Church Extension Directors and Boards of Church Extension. In 2000 we appointed Tim Roehl as our "Denominational Church Planting Consultant." We have also used our strategic partnerships to work with consultants to further train us in church planting leadership.
2. An Attractive Church Planting Climate
a. A climate in each conference and across our denomination that attracts, honors and equips spiritual pioneers.
b. Recruiting from within-- Raising up leaders from the harvest for the harvest from within our churches whom God might call to plant churches (current pastors, youth pastors, lay ministers). We pray, watch and recruit church planting eyes.
c. Recruit from outside-- We will network with Bible colleges, local churches and wherever God opens a door to connect to harvest focused leaders!
3. An Assessment Process for Ministry Leaders Who Can Plant or Pastor... and for Churches Who Want to be Healthy, Fruitful, and Reproduce!
a. Assessment Plan that includes good screening for potential planters and pastors.
b. Assessor Training for church planting assessors in each conference.
c. Church Planting Assessment Centers
4. Adequate Funding Strategies from an "Abundance Mindset"
a. Strengthen existing Conference Church Extension funding programs. Most new churches are funded through monies raised by the Church Extension Boards of each Annual Conference and the planters network of family and friends.
b. Develop a denominational Church Planting Budget to hire leadership/consultants, acquire resources and allow us to support church planting efforts in our smaller conferences.
c. Include Church Planting in the denominational stewardship programs.
5. Advanced Training for Church Planting Leaders and Ministries
a. Ongoing training for church planters, Church Extension boards and conference leaders for unified and effective church planting.
b. Good church planting resources for our leaders: e.g. tapes, books, videos, etc.
6. Accessible Coaching Systems and Support
a. Qualified coaches in every Conference. Provide training for our Conference Superintendents, Directors of Church Extension and members of our Boards of Church Extension through a Coaching Clinic or Boot Camp experience.
b. Coaching Teams. Develop a Coaching Team in each conference and for our denomination.
c. Reproducible. Our coaching needs to be both planter-intensive and church-intensive (developing a network of churches that plant churches that plant churches).
7. Reproducible Systems for Multiplying Disciples, Leaders and Churches
a. Strategies with church planting principles that can be used in all our conferences.
b. Clear goals for each conference--how many churches they will plant in the next 5, 10, 15 years.
c. Churches who will plant churches who plant churches.
d. Clusters of local churches who will team up to plant new churches.
e. Partnerships with other groups as the Lord leads us.
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