GOSPEL PRIORITIES

The primary way that the priority of Multiplication is implemented in the EPC is through church planting. Church planting in the EPC is under the auspices of the Church Planting Team (CPT), led by veteran church planter and pastor Tom Ricks. The CPT trains, nurtures, and equips EPC church planters, as well as helps congregations, networks, and presbyteries get the right church planters in the right places.

The mission of the EPC Church Planting Team is to cultivate a culture where church planting is embraced, encouraged, and celebrated by all EPC churches, with the goal of each congregation becoming a Parent (by planting one or more new churches), a Partner (joining other EPC churches in their area to plant churches), or a Patron (by providing financial support to those starting new churches) of church planting.

The future focus of the CPT is:

1. Put more time, attention and resources into recruiting the next generation of church planters from seminaries around the country.
2. Continue to offer church planting leadership diagnostic for church plant launch teams, church sessions, or planting networks who need support in beginning church planting.

As we look to the future, we will continue challenging every congregation in our denomination to be active on some level in church planting. Today, more than 55 percent of our congregations are participating as a Parent, Partner, or Patron, but we have a long way to go. We will be aggressive in finding new church planters to meet the growing opportunities, while working hard to take good care of our current church planting pastors and their families..

As of January 2023, there are more than 50 active EPC church plants around the country—about 8 percent of the total number of EPC congregations.

Click here for more information about EPC church planting.

Under the strategic priority of Transformation, church health strategies in the EPC are based on a three-fold plan in the areas of evangelism, church health, and transitional pastoring. Our desire is that every one of the EPC’s 630+ congregations will be an outpost of the Kingdom, with every member viewing himself or herself as a missionary on a mission. Based on that premise, the EPC Church Health Team is focusing its efforts on three critical elements to improve church effectiveness: Training Missional Leadership, Guiding Pastoral Transition, and Coaching Missional Mindset.

For more information about church health strategies in the EPC, see www.epc.org/churchhealth.

The EPC has been a global movement since before the term was clarified as part of the vision statement. Early partnerships with national churches in Brazil, Argentina, and Kazakhstan set the tone for a denomination on mission. Recently signed ministry partnership agreements with Presbyterian bodies in Mexico and Peru provide opportunities for church planting and other ministry.

World Outreach, the global missions arm of the EPC, focuses its work in “The Hard Places” of the Middle East, North Africa, and other predominantly Muslim areas of the world where few, if any, have access to the gospel of Jesus Christ. The vision of World Outreach is to glorify God through full-cycle church planting that firmly establishes the Church of Jesus Christ among the least-reached peoples on earth.

This vision is central to the EPC as a whole. In fact, fully 20 percent of Per Member Asking/Percentage of Income (PMA/POI) contributions supports the ministry of EPC World Outreach.

Creating a leadership development culture is critical as the EPC seeks to sustain long-term, transformational growth. A key implementation of that strategy is the annual General Assembly/Gospel Priorities Summit held each June. The Summit features plenary speakers and equipping seminars on a host of topics pertinent to church leadership development.

Topics for these have included The Impact of Leadership on Church Revitalization; Six Key Relationships Every Pastor Needs; Building a Culture of Generosity; Leaders Who Matter; Multiplying Leaders: Internships and Residency Programs; Reaching the Next Generation; Strengthening the Small Church; Transformational Family Ministries; Strategic Church Planting in the 21st Century; and many more relevant subjects.

Past plenary speakers have included Thom Rainer, author of Simple Church; renowned church historian Mark Noll; David Kinnaman, President of Barna Research; and many others.

In addition to the Gospel Priorities Summit, a number of ministry-specific and Presbytery-level leadership development events are scheduled each year, including workshops for church administrators and executive pastors; the annual church planters’ retreat, an annual chaplains’ workshop, and more.