What do we do?

Church Planting

As PAC seeks to saturate Appalachia with healthy churches, we have found that three primary items are needed to plant a healthy church: a faithful and qualified planter, a dedicated core group, and a geographic location to plant. While all three of these do not need to be in place prior to beginning the church planting process with PAC, they must all be present prior to launch. To help equip a planter and a core group, we have developed three primary phases of church planting which begin with a sending church and continue with PAC coming alongside of that sending church. We truly believe that we are stronger together. The three phases include the Intern Phase, the Residency Phase, and the Planting Phase.

Intern Phase

During this phase, the focus is on the planter. The sending church bears the primary weight of investing in the church planting intern at this stage. A potential church planter serves as an intern of that sending church and that church determines if he is elder qualified. Once the sending church confirms his qualification as an elder (although he does not have to be ordained at this time) the church planting intern applies to join PAC. During this time, several things begin to take place:

  • The PAC assesses the intern to determine if he is a right fit to plant with PAC. Both the application and the interview assessment serves to determine areas of strength and areas of weaknesses to help tailor the training that the planter will receive through PAC.

  • PAC officially determines whether or not to accept a planter into the PAC training process.

  • Once a planter is adopted into PAC, he then transitions to the Residency Phase.

Residency Phase

During this phase, in addition to equipping the planter, the sending church begins to focus on the core group whose purpose is to launch the church. Throughout this phase, the resident continues to serve the sending church and he also begins to complete tasks assigned to him by PAC (e.g. study materials, assessing the community where he intends to plant, equipping the core group, etc.). The planter is paid a small monthly stipend for work with PAC. In addition, the following takes place:

  • SMART goals are established for the core group. These goals will help to determine the overall spiritual health of the core group and readiness to launch.

  • PAC continues to invest in the church planting resident through training and other resources (in addition to financial compensation).

  • The sending church helps to train and equip the core group, primarily through the resident, to prepare them for the planting phase.

  • The sending church helps to financially facilitate outreach and service opportunities for the core group.

Planting Phase

During this final phase, the focus begins to be more on engaging the community where the church will be planted. PAC will continue to provide resources and training for both the planter with a scaffolding approach (where the focus is on equipping the planter and core group to lead and serve with less and less assistance from PAC). In addition, the following takes place:

  • PAC continues to invest in the planter with training and resources.

  • PAC helps to financially support the planter as he gives more of his attention to planting.

  • PAC helps to provide resources for various processes (by laws, assimilation, discipleship, etc.).

  • The sending church continues to invest in the core group and assists in finding a location for Sunday services.

  • The sending church helps to plan “soft opening” services prior to launch.

  • The sending church helps with planning initial services as needed.

  • PAC helps with post-launch needs and questions.

  • PAC will seek to help ensure pastoral health as the church begins to be established.