Why plant churches?
Like starting a small business, someone in a particular community looks around and sees a need that isn’t being met. They create a business plan and solution to meet the very need they perceive. In the same way, church planting is about seeing the emotional, physical, psychological and spiritual needs around us and responding.
The Church Planting Team encourages churches and leaders in the EPC to multiply by planting new churches in needed areas. It is important for people to have a place to consider the claims of Jesus Christ in a faith community that is relevant to the needs, concerns and issues facing those individuals.
We accomplish this by training, nurturing, and equipping EPC church planters, as well as helping congregations and regional presbyteries get the right church planters in the right communities by:
1. Prioritizing time, attention and resources into recruiting the next generation of church planters from around the country.
2. Offering church planting support for launch teams and leaders who start a church plant.
Finally, the Church Planting Team is 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 in church planting at some level.

In the EPC we equip over 600 churches across the country to be inwardly strong and outwardly focused, getting out into our neighborhoods and sharing the love of Jesus with our neighbors. We accomplish this through a three-fold approach: ReFocus, evangelism, and transitional pastoring.

When a church is healthy they know who they are and why they exist. A healthy church is committed to sharing the good news of Jesus with their neighbors and to being that good news for their neighborhood to experience in life together.

ReFocus
Like other organizations, when seasons of life and ministry change, churches can sometimes get stuck in their ways of doing things. The ReFocus process helps our churches get back to the main purpose of why we’re here as God’s people. The church spends extended time in prayer, planning, and learning in relationship with their neighbors to set off on a new season of their ministry life together.

Evangelism
As communities of people seeking to love God and love their neighbors, our churches are developing relationships with other people in their community. We want those relationships to be intentional, not only showing the love of Jesus but also inviting our friends and neighbors into a new life with Christ.

Transitional Pastoring
When a church moves on from a previous pastor, it enters an in-between period. This is a great time to ask really important questions like “Why are we here?”, “Who are we?” Since there is already a lot of change happening in that community, this is a chance for them to ask the big questions on their way to a fresh sense of identity when new pastoral leadership arrives.

The EPC is committed to sharing God’s love globally. The Great Commission and the Great Commandment guide the EPC’s emphasis to speak and live out the Gospel. This means sharing the good news of Jesus with people who have never heard of Him and displaying how the reign of Christ brings healing and restoration to a broken world.

World Outreach, the global missions arm of the EPC, focuses on serving “The Hard Places” — regions like the Middle East and South Asia, areas where the Gospel of Jesus Christ is largely unheard. World Outreach seeks to serve the Church by empowering Spirit-filled witnesses to make disciples and plant reproducing churches among those with least access to the gospel. This reflects the heart of Christ’s mission: to undo the curse of sin and bring salvation, hope, and restoration to the world.
Visit EPCWO.org to learn more.

Equipping leaders so that the church can display the love of God in the world is critical as the EPC seeks to sustain long-term, transformational growth.

We do this by providing resources and encouraging relationships that will enable church leaders to grow and deepen their relationship with Jesus. We develop cohorts with other pastors or pastors and spouses to grow in community together, and we host webinars that encourage important conversations so they’re paying attention to their own health and well being and the health and well being of their families. We provide these resources in the hopes that all of our church leaders can receive the help they need, especially in times of crisis.