CHURCH PLANTING

Church planting in the EPC is under the auspices of Tom Ricks, National Director of Church Planting, and the EPC Church Planting Team (CPT). 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. In addition, the CPT goals include:

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

As of January 2023, the EPC has more than 50 active church plants around the country—which is about 8 percent of the total number of EPC churches. These congregations are in various stages of development, from the early planning steps, to home Bible studies, to regular weekly worship, to full “local church” status as self-supporting, elder-led bodies. In addition, seven Church Planting Networks facilitate church planting in specific geographic regions.

Further, the EPC has an overall church planting goal of every EPC church being a Parent, Partner, or Patron of church planting.

Parent: A church plants a “daughter church” from budgeted resources, often with a core grooup of members committed to form the basis of the planting congregation.
Partner: A group of churches work together to collectively to plant a church or churches.
Patron: A church (or individual) that is investing financially in church planting.

For more information about church planting, contact Tom Ricks at tom.ricks@epc.org.

Use these quick links to navigate to the appropriate section:

Mission and Vision
Church Planting Networks
Church Plants
Success Stories
Church Planters Retreat

MISSION AND VISION

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.

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.

CHURCH PLANTING TEAM REPORT TO THE 42ND GENERAL ASSEMBLY

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CHURCH PLANTING NETWORKS

Church Planting Networks are consortiums of churches in a city or region that join forces and leverage their collective resources to plant new congregations. Several of these networks have sprung from EPC church plants themselves, which take advantage of the leadership experience of starting new work. These networks also work in partnership with the appropriate presbyteries to plant new EPC churches.

Among the strategies implemented in these networks are Church Planter Residency programs, in which a prospective church planter enters into an immersive learning opportunity in a collaborative ministry context. A residency program also helps create a pipeline of well-prepared church planters.

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CHURCH PLANTS

Each of these EPC church plants is currently meeting for worship and ministering in its local context. We have many more in various stages of development, from the earliest planning stages to core team recruitment to home Bible studies.

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SUCCESS STORIES

These worshipping communities started as church plants, and are now self-governing local churches—which is the goal for every EPC church plant.

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CHURCH PLANTERS RETREAT

A significant aspect of supporting church planting in the EPC is supporting and ministering to church planters. A key strategy in supporting EPC church planters is the annual Church Planters Retreat, held each October in Colorado Springs, Colorado. The retreat includes three days of training, renewal, peer networking, breakout and mentoring sessions, fellowship, prayer, and more.

Watch for information about our 2023 gathering.

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