In the past twenty years, there has been a growing awareness and renewed focus on church planting in North America. This project examines one of the ways to increase effectiveness in church planting through the development and execution of a church-based church planting residency program. It examines the assessment, training, and support provided to church planters through case studies of two different types of church planting residency programs. These case studies outline the assessment and recruitment strategies, and then examine their training and equipping models. Finally, it describes how these planters are supported after completing their residency. The goal of this study is to assist Ambassador Church in developing a church-based church planting residency program.

A summary of the findings from the two case studies is found in eight best practices. First, the senior leader of the church must hold to the vision of church planting and be able to disseminate the vision to other key leaders. And, the passed down vision needs a clear missional focus. Second, financial investment is important in starting a church based residency program. Third, a qualified leader needs to oversee the program to guide the residents in recruitment, training and coaching. Fourth, a clear assessment process needs to be established in recruiting the best church planting candidates. Fifth, the best method of training church planters is through a combination of classroom learning and on the job training. Sixth, since each resident brings an unique background in experience, personality and spiritual gifts, the residency needs to be adaptable and flexible. Seventh, in addition to financial support, other support systems such as coaching, emotional and spiritual support need to a part of a long-term development of the resident. Finally, the two case study churches developed partnerships and cooperation with other churches and organizations to assist in their recruitment, training and support structures. This allowed the churches use their resources.

Download Here: DMin Dissertation Final

There are many factors that contribute to who we are and what we are about. Whether people, circumstances, or books, God can bring various experiences along our paths that shape us and our ministry. For me, 1991 was a one-year experience that served as the profoundly formative experience of my life.

Growing up at church, my understanding of ministry was either by sheer observation (usually what not to do) or just learning by doing (usually being told what to do). There was very little guidance.

After finishing at two seminaries with two Master’s degrees, I was as one person remarked, “educated beyond my intelligence.” I had all the theory without practice, until a friend told me about an internship at a large church in Fullerton, California. It was pastored by one of my preaching heroes, Chuck Swindoll. Just an opportunity to be trained under this gifted leader was one of my dreams.

When I applied, I had very little hope that I would be selected. Each year, they would select two full-time interns who would not only work with Pastor Chuck but would also be the interns with the church. This radically changed my understanding of ministry. The internship became the most valuable, formative experience for me. I call this year the seminary learning I never got from seminary, or simply the missing year of seminary.

In our internship year, the church was dealing with an elder convicted of child molestation. We saw how the church dealt with crises and how sin was confronted. We saw how the staff supported each other through the day-to-day grind of ministry rather than creating silos. We saw the key element of trust fostered and nurtured among the church board and staff. We saw worship joyfully experienced and God’s Word faithfully taught. We were also given opportunities to teach, lead and learn from all the staff.

I look back at that year as the most foundational and formational year of my life. It was an internship that was personal and practical. It focused on exposure and experience. It gave full access to learning.

Because of the value of internships in my life, I wanted to make this a part of our culture when we planted a church in the Los Angeles metropolitan area. The church plant began with five interns from Talbot Seminary and their spouses as the core group. It became a laboratory for these interns to learn how to do ministry. While nothing was set up, they established ministries like small groups, worship, young adult, outreach and assimilation. From our core group of six families we grew to about 60 adults and launched our church.

From this experience, I have learned some principles of developing a culture of internships or residencies. In my doctoral thesis, I examined two case studies of churches who had well-developed “internship” or “residency” programs. For the sake of this article, I will use the terms synonymously. While some have called an internship “slave labor” or “free work no one else wants to do,” the goal of an internship is to “provide supervised practical training.” The focus is more on the intern rather than the job. It is an investment for the long-term rather than for short-term ministry gain. While churches and ministries may gain from interns, it really serves to invest in building up workers for God’s kingdom.

So how does a church, regardless of size, develop a culture of internships? Here are some practical questions and principles to consider.

Do you have a vision for investing in younger leaders? It begins with the senior leader or leaders. If internship is truly to be a value, then it has to be a value with the person steering the bus. Leaders provide the access points for internships and should lead the church to value the process.
Are you willing to make financial investments? It takes more than a willingness to bring on interns. It takes resources. Will the church structure or restructure resources to invest in interns? The great news about interns is that it doesn’t take a lot.
Is there someone who can personally oversee the interns? Whether the senior pastor or a staff member, churches of all sizes can offer practical learning if time, direction, and guidance is given.
Are you willing to give a realistic assessment of the interns? Feedback is important during an internship process. Whether they are serving, teaching, or leading, there must be an assessment process.
Is there a training process in place? Some of my early internship experience was just about doing. I was a hired gun for a particular need like youth ministry, but there was no training. Training involves both classroom and on-the-job training. It also has to fit with the unique background and personality of the intern.
As I reflect on my days as a pastoral intern, it was one of the most important years of my life. All five principles were integral in the internship. The church was completely on board with this internship. It was celebrated from the senior pastor to the person sitting in the pew. They paid me a full-time salary. The senior associate pastor personally oversaw the process and met with us weekly to go over what we learned. To this day, he is still one of my personal mentors. We had consistent times of reflection and assessment. From the personal interviews at the beginning to internships to feedback through the year, we were constantly challenged to look at how God wired us as leaders. And, the training was both the reading of books and the studying of Scripture together (Pastoral Epistles) as well as on-the-job training. All of this contributed to developing me into a better pastor and leader.

For the sake of the kingdom, we can help the next generation become better pastors and leaders as well.

(from www.edstetzer.com)

This charge I commit to you, son Timothy, according to the prophecies
previously made concerning you, that by them you may wage the good
warfare, having faith and a good conscience, which some having
rejected, concerning the faith have suffered shipwreck….
–1 Timothy 1:18-19

Yet the ministry is one of the most perilous of professions. The
devil hates the Spirit-filled minister with an intensity second only
to that which he feels for Christ Himself. The source of this hatred
is not difficult to discover. An effective, Christ-like minister is
a constant embarrassment to the devil, a threat to his dominion, a
rebuttal of his best arguments and a dogged reminder of his coming
overthrow. No wonder he hates him.

Satan knows that the downfall of a prophet of God is a strategic
victory for him, so he rests not day or night devising hidden snares
and deadfalls for the ministry. Perhaps a better figure would be the
poison dart that only paralyzes its victim, for I think that Satan
has little interest in killing the preacher outright. An
ineffective, half-alive minister is a better advertisement for hell
than a good man dead. So the preacher’s dangers are likely to be
spiritual rather than physical, though sometimes the enemy works
through bodily weaknesses to get to the preacher’s soul. God Tells
the Man Who Cares, 90-91.

“Lord, the battle is intense and the enemy is strong. I pray for
every one of my fellow-servants this morning, especially those who
may be close to succumbing. Give Your great grace and victory
today. Amen.”

In this video, Ed Stetzer and I discuss this in our Vision trip to Taiwan.

From Ed’s Blog:

Video number 4 from the Jet Set Vision Trip in Taiwan all goes down during a cab ride through Taipei as Ray Chang and I talk about how second generation immigrant churches in America can be involved in God’s global mission. Ray is the pastor of Ambassador Church (an Evangelical Free congregation) in Brea, CA.

Watch and listen as a second generation Asian American leader talks about his vision for the nations. It’s worth your time!

I am blogging from Taiwan. You can’t get much farther away from Nashville.

While here I will be working with the Upstream Collective and another organization. For some contextual reasons, I won’t be saying the name of that organization in my blog posts.

And, as you can tell we will be avoiding some other terms as well. Many of our M friends move between different regions in the area and they have asked us to be careful.

I am bringing several pastors with me on the trip and we will be post video content here are on several other blogs. Our hope is that we might give some global focus on the missional conservation.

Here are some of my friends who will be posting content in the next week.

Andrew Jones (Tall Skinny Kiwi)
J.D. Greear
Matt Chandler
Ed Stetzer
David Phillips (Integrating Missionally)
Almost an M
Michael Carpenter (Dining with Sinners)
Derek Webster (re:frame)
Grady Bauer (Missional Space)
C. Holland (Missionary Confidential)
Kevin Mullins (Life.Outpoured)
Guy Muse (The M Blog)
Ray Short (Cultural Dichotomy)
Todd Littleton (The Edge of the Inside)
Paul Chambers Cox (OMS International)
Tim Patterson (Travel Light)
Justin Powell (Urban Idealist)
David Jackson (Moving at the Speed of God)
Ernest Goodman (Missions Misunderstood)
David Putman (DavidPutmanLive)

You’ll be able to keep up with our every move via  Twitter, Ed Stetzer’s blog, the Upstream Collective blog, and  at Dining with Sinners. Blogging friends (a full list will be published shortly) will follow along to provide running commentary and video of our adventures will be posted on the  Upstream’s YouTube Channel.

Two quick lessons: Be nice. Our testimony is either enhanced by our
behavior or repelled by our behavior. Second lesson, sharing our faith
is not a one person show. God is working through multitude of people
behind the scenes. In other words, it doesn’t depend on one person. We
all work together.

Later, I will share with you the stress of the first day. (hint: lost
my passport two hours before my flight . . . )

Check out my blog with whole bunch of facts, videos and insights on
Taiwan and Vietnam. http://transformission.wordpress.com

Also, our team of pastors has a blog on our travels:

http:://thejetset.wordpress.com

Keep me in your prayers to be led by the Spirit of God on these vision
trips.