Our Vision - Looking At The Details

“Our dream in the Central Pacific District is to build a network of reproducing churches by developing the right leaders in the right ways in order to make maximum Kingdom impact.”

In order to build a network of reproducing churches across the Central Pacific District, we need:

· The Right Leaders. 
      If we have the right person, everything else is flexible.  And God is calling those people out all the time.

· The Right Ways.
      We want people to be where God wants them to be, but we have prioritized five of our Urban Centers as our strategic places.  Along with that, we have identified "Target Cities" the God has been laying on the hearts of our District Leaders.

We will give our planters the advantage of the things they need to make the best  possible Kingdom impact, using:

· Assessment     

· Training

· Coaching

· Funding

 
(The Details of the Vision)

     Along with adding new churches one at a time, we need to see a multiplying effect as more and more existing churches take ownership of the challenge for church planting. Some churches will join with other churches to accomplish the parenting of a new church. Others will have the resources to parent churches without such a partnership, but can enhance the kingdom by recruiting partner churches to join them. Some churches will have the vision to be involved in parenting multiple churches. We will gladly encourage and coach churches who desire to be involved in multiplication to move forward in that endeavor.

    Giving birth to a church launch as a sponsor or parent church has proven to be effective. Not only has new life been issued, the “parent” church is recharged as a result of their obedience to Christ’s commission. Here again, we will join hands with the birthing church, working from conception to maturity, seeking to inform and encourage potential “parent” churches regarding their great potential of outreach.

    The successes from such an approach to launching have been seen time and time again. By “parenting” we mean giving birth to a work by supplying a significant nucleus group, strong leadership and appropriate training along with some sort of financial commitment The goal is to have the parent church make a financial commitment of some sort as well. By “sponsoring” we mean giving significant resources to the beginning of a new work outside of the sponsoring church’s geographic region. The burden for these types of church plants can come from an individual or group of people from within a local body. Normally the location of the church being birthed is centered where a significant group of people from the original church live. As churches grow larger, people drive from increasing distances—thus, the impetus for a work in a neighboring community. We need to be careful not to start a church merely for convenience. A vision for outreach must be diligently projected, and the calling upon the church launcher must be clear. One of the best methods for seeing a new church come into being is through the careful planning of a task force from within the parent church. When ownership of the vision is taken by the parenting church the process is accelerated.

    The churches that parent or sponsor new churches are an inspiration to other churches in the CPD. These great commission churches are setting the pace for extending the Kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ.

    And while we would like to see startups with significant critical mass, the reality is that there will be times where these works will start from a very small nucleus. Therefore, the numerical growth and leadership development may be slow. This is all right! A solid foundation is the priority here. As the sense of community develops and the burden for souls expands, God will give the increase, in His time.

The Right Leaders

    God is calling and developing men and women of passion and conviction to launch communities of faith throughout the Central Pacific District. Our responsibility through God’s power in prayer is to identify them and empower them to step into His challenge for their lives and ministry. We believe God is very specific in the way He calls workers into the harvest, and that He will give us the discernment to help guide launchers in their calling. If we have the right person, everything else is flexible. And God is calling those people out all the time.
    It should also be understood that the gifts necessary for getting a church up and going may not be the best gifts for sustaining prolonged growth. Therefore, some will be particularly gifted as church launchers and may well be moving on to develop another new church within a couple of years. The other half of the equation is making sure they are properly matched to the location and situation.

The Right Ways

    In the process of identifying the right people, we will help them discern what place it is that God is calling them to. We will also resource them to make them as successful as possible. We will assess them, and then train them through several means including a support raising boot camp and the sXt Church Launching Bootcamp. There will also be ongoing training and coaching as they are on site.
    While it is our goal to provide a basic level of funding, having the right person in the right place transcends that as we believe together in the abundant provision of God for the work. We will also develop partner churches who may not be at the point of daughtering a church themselves, but who will gladly partner with a plant to help resource them at some level. And as the planter raises financial support, more importantly, they are raising prayer support. Likewise, missional employment will be more than a way to make a living – it will be a way to connect with the community and make needed contacts with which to disciple others into faith in Christ.
Funding will be three-fold, including support raising and missional employment by the planter, and support by the District or CPD churches.

The Right Places:

Assessment:

    According to Dr. Charles Ridley, a concise description of the ideal church planter is, “A godly person with good relational skills, who excels in leadership and communication, and has a passion for reaching the unchurched and producing disciples.” We base our assessment on the Ridley approach, considering the 13 Characteristics of a church planter. Depending on the situation, we may also send the launching couple to an assessment center. As part of that assessment, we will come alongside them to develop a strategy for their individual situation: community, demographics, target, planter personality, resources, etc.

    We have a number of resources that are available for training our launchers. But where we want to start out is with the sXt. The sXt, or Strategic Multiplication Training is the church launching bootcamp of the Alliance. The other training bootcamp we use is put on by an organization called The Body Builders, and is for training in support raising. This support raising training is important not only for raising the needed funds for the launch, but also in raising awareness and prayer support, which quite frankly is more important than the financial support.
    We will also utilize church launching internships. They are for the purpose of developing expertise over the period of about a year as they work with a new church. In this role, an accountability structure can be established and the intern’s progress can be observed as they work toward future leadership in launching a church.

    There will need to be adequate time for coaching and encouragement which to some extent will depend on the planter and situation. Coaching appointments will take place for one hour every two weeks. Most of the time they will be via the phone or computer-cam using Skype. But when the circumstances dictate, or time allows, we will meet face to face.
Along with that, we offer support ministry by providing avenues for church launchers to come together for fellowship, team building, training, networking, encouragement, support, prayer, and accountability.

    While the biggest part of funding is money, there are also other aspects to consider. As stated before, funding will be three-fold, including support raising and missional employment by the planter, and support by the District or CPD churches.

    As stated before, we utilize an organization called “The Body Builders” to train launchers to raise their own support. It is based on a Scriptural foundation for stewardship, and from there they go on to focus on strategy and methods. Perhaps this is a good place to note that all launching endeavors will be met with opposition. It needs to be remembered that we are taking enemy held territory. Resistance will come from various directions. Therefore, the challenge to build a support team involves having people commit, not only to give, but to pray as we develop intercessors and prayer warriors to hold up our arms in the battle.

    We consider working a job outside of ministry to be more than a way to make a living. Since truly being a part of the community is crucial, it is a way to connect with that community in order to make needed contacts with which to disciple others into faith in Christ. In fact, even if all the needed finances are raised, we would still like the launcher to consider working at least part time for the first year, especially while the church is in the planning stages in order to accomplish this. Obviously there will be exceptions to doing that depending on the leader, situation and the strength of the startup, but overall we feel it is a good rule of thumb.

    We are developing partnerships with churches in the CPD with the goal of having them “adopt” individual church launches for financial and prayer support. Churches who have expressed an interest in planting, but have no real opportunity for it because of demographics and location would especially benefit from this kind of arrangement. This will constitute a portion of the support that comes from the CPD.

     We are in the process of developing the financial resources to assist in funding the launching of churches at a level that will be tailored to each situation including demographics of the community, model of the church to be planted, and the capacity of the planter.  These matching funds will be at a level agreed upon between the planter and the CPD.  Then, instead of considering the project funding to be a grant or a loan, we view it as an investment in building a partnership from the very beginning.

The Church Launchers of the CPD will be a part of a cutting edge team that together in God's power, realize the dream of dynamic, reproducing churches across California, Hawaii, Nevada and Utah!