The following outline is an indication of the steps that need to be praryerfully and intentionally pursued in the development of a Church Plant. The complete document is available in a printable form by clicking here. Both the document and the appendicies included are both descriptive and prescriptive of the steps which should be followed by congregations or other entities desiring to enter into a partnership with the Texas District LCMS Board of Mission Administration in planting new churches. While these steps are not exhaustive, they are helpful in helping a congregation move toward planting.

Click here for the Church Planter Candidate Assessment Page.

1) Discipleship & Spiritual Growth Stage

• Our Pastor has been spiritually preparing his own heart for mission.
• We have worked toward discipling our people for mission.
• We have spent time in prayer and conversation to hear and see God's vision.
• We have met with our Mission and Ministry Facilitator (MMF) to prepare our leaders and members for missional thinking and action.
• Our leadership has a clear sense of God's call for our church to plant a church.
• We have a Church Planting Parenting team (not the Launch Team yet) in place.
• We have a Mission Prayer Team in place.

2) Exploration Stage

• Our Planting Parenting team has prepared our membership for church planting both spiritually and with adequate information to make a Spirit-led decision.
• We have done initial demographic studies of potential church plant locations. (click here for Right Place)
• We have determined the initial target population for this plant.
• We have a GO from our leadership team. (staff and lay leadership)
• We have a GO from our decision making body (Church Council; Board of Directors; Voters).
• We have determined that we wish to partner with the Texas District through the Board of Mission Administration and begun working with our MMF toward creating partnership agreement.

3) Preparation Stage

• We have given an initial verbal request to be included in mission funding with the Texas District.
• We have determined what general style must characterize our ministries in order to effectively reach our target group.
• We have developed a first draft of our Mission Plan (including right person, right place, right plan) and submitted it to our MMF [see Appendix B in the document].
• We have communicated with our MMF our readiness to interview approved Church Planter candidates as assessed by Dr. John Hirsch (click here for the Assessment Process) [see Appendix C] (both writing first draft of Mission Plan and seeking candidates can happen simultaneously).

4) Implementation Stage

• We have interviewed approved Church Planter Candidates and have made our recommendations to the appropriate decision making group(s) at our church.
• We have issued a call (if on the Ordained or Commissioned roster of the LCMS) or contract to the worker to which the Holy Spirit has led us.
• We have submitted our formalized Mission Funding Requests to our Texas District MMF [see Appendix D].
• We have worked with our MMF to secure a Church Planting Coach for the first two years for our Church Planter (Funding from the Texas District to cover 1/2 of the two year coaching process. District covers $2,500 and the planting congregation covers $2,500) Church Planting Coach will meet face-to-face with the Church Planter at least quarterly for two years. Ideally the Coach is a successful planter with coaching gifts/training.

Click here to download the Church Planting Steps document.

Go to Church Planting Steps page two . . .