Episode 661: When the Lord casts a vision of planting a network of multiplying churches, the planter finds himself sorting through all sorts of unexpected developments. Host Clint Clifton discusses some of the unique aspects of building a church planting “family” with Colby Garmin, teaching ministries elder at Pillar Church in Dumfries, Virginia, and Keith Wieser, who leads Resonate Church in Pullman, Washington, and the Resonate collegiate church planting network.
In This Episode, You’ll Discover:
- Some of the challenges of creating continuity among network churches, while still allowing them to express their uniqueness
- The trick of changing the scale of disciple-making to actually creating church planters
- Ideas for structuring the network organization and making decisions as a group
- The degree to which network churches should reflect franchise branding
- The challenge of dealing with the subtraction aspect of multiplication
- The importance of changing your mindset from linear to non-linear growth
Helpful Resources:
- Interested in learning more? Check out our Church Planting Primer
- Are you ready to enroll in our Church Planting Masterclass?
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Sharable Quotes (#NewChurches):
A lot of our motivation to keep the churches connected was we wanted people to have some continuity of experience in a military lifestyle where they experienced very low continuity. @ColbyGarman
Our process was going back and saying, “How do we get to having someone go out and plant the church?” and trying to reverse engineer that. @KeithWieser
How do you create something where the process of building disciples, you just change the scale to create a church planter? @KeithWieser
Our goal from the beginning was a network of generations of disciples. So they are connected to that individual who discipled them. Their planting church is really connected through that discipleship chain. @KeithWieser
From the beginning, we we decided we were just naturally organic. We wanted the commonality to be created by being trained within our churches. @ColbyGarman
The relationships are the glue that holds our network together. The reason we want to keep in this network is because we love one another. @ClintJClifton
The way we gather and discipleship-oriented structures are very similar. There are some things that are non-negotiables. @KeithWieser
We want to help military families feel like they’re walking into the same family, like going to a cousin’s house. You’re in the same family but there’s a lot of differences. @ColbyGarman
One of the most challenging things for us is being able to say what is the actual process versus the product and are we unified around the product? @KeithWieser
I went to a project and it wasn’t the way I would do it. Someone discovered something so much better and I’ve got to figure out how to help them to see the end and not do it like I would do it. @KeithWieser
Do I pursue you the path to multiplication or do I pursue the path to growth? @ClintJClifton
Multiplication looks like subtraction at the very beginning, and that’s the hard thing to be able to help people press through. @KeithWieser
The math doesn’t lie, and this is the math Jesus used from the very beginning. @KeithWieser
If you keep leaders to yourself, they sort of spoil. Whereas if you send them away, they prosper. God develops them in an incredible way that He wouldn’t have if they just stayed as a leader all the time. @ClintJClifton
There’s moments where you’re not even sure if this is going to work out, and then you see them get put into that crucible and that crucible does more for them than I could have ever done. @KeithWieser
Published April 26, 2022