Supporting home missionaries: Church Planter Intensive and coaching program
One of the ways WELS Home Missions works behind the scenes to support new home mission congregations and their missionaries is through a Church Planter Intensive (CPI) and coaching program. Brand new church planters gather together with experienced home missionaries for a Church Planter Intensive at Carbon Valley Lutheran Church in Firestone, Colo. Experienced church planter Jared Oldenburg (Eternal Rock – Castle Rock, Colo.) developed the program and Home Missionary Matt Rothe (The Way – Fredericksburg, Va.) now leads the training. This extended weekend seminar encourages and equips pastors who are called to plant brand new home mission churches. They are then paired with a coach from an established mission church to guide them for their first two years of launching a new church. Learn more about the program on the wels100in10.net website.
Here’s what three home missionaries had to stay about the program:
When I was approached about attending the Church Planter Intensive (CPI) in 2023, I had no idea how influential and vital it would be to my personal ministry and our mission start as a whole. Over the course of three days I was able to gather with other pastors in similar situations and explore church planting together. I’m brand new to church planting, and frankly had no idea where to even start. While there is so much to continually learn and no one perfect way to plant a church, CPI gave direction that would be missing otherwise. From finances to structure to leadership and beyond, CPI gave me peace of mind to know where to start, what to focus on, and what do in certain situations. I weekly refer to the CPI booklet. The Church Planter Intensive also connected me with other mission pastors who continue to talk, encourage, and bounce ideas off of each other. It’s a unique brotherhood that I don’t take for granted.
As much as the Church Planter Intensive was able to ground me, set our ministry on a good path, and send us out with valuable information, the coaching program is now my lifeline in an ongoing way. My coach is the most accessible avenue to bounce ideas off of, get input from, and help me grow as a pastor. We meet monthly to study aspects of church planting that I’ve never thought about. We also talk every week or two on the phone for feedback with our mission. I am so so grateful for my coach, the time he gives to me, and the huge heart that he has for missions. His brotherhood and coaching has transformed our new mission start and will continually be a blessing to me and many others. Thank you to everyone who makes the Church Planter Intensive and coaching program possible! It’s a massive blessing!
At the Church Planter Intensive, we developed systems and timelines which have helped us tremendously. We had some frame of reference and ideas formulated and ready to use when we got to Boston, and so many of the things we learned have been implemented. Someone told me that you have to be able to think inside the box to think outside the box. I think the analogy applies to CPI. Boston is a different home mission—WELS has never had a church in this city—and in some ways, you are forced to think outside of the box. CPI gave us the tools to orient ourselves to think outside the box and engage the city creatively and contextually. It was also incredible to network with the other church planting couples at CPI. The support that Katelyn and I felt after going to the training has been so helpful. I keep in touch with some of the guys from training, and we use each other as sounding boards and for support. It is wonderful knowing that there is a community of church planters all praying for each other and with a similar goal—to proclaim the peace only Jesus can bring to the ends of the earth!
I also can’t say enough about my coach, Rev. Lucas Bitter from Intown Lutheran Church in Atlanta, Ga., and his wife, Meredith. He and I both work in urban environments, and he has helped me think and rethink many ideas about working in the city. Meredith has also been outstanding in this process. She and Katelyn have a monthly call to discuss what it’s like to be a church planter’s wife and share experiences. My coaching calls with Pastor Bitter give me a chance to articulate what is going on in my ministry, ask questions, give comments, and voice concerns. His knowledge of church planting, his desire to reach those who are lost, and his love for Jesus is evident every time we talk. He’s been available, patient, and filled with wisdom. I look up to him as a mentor for ministry and life.
The Church Planter Intensive (CPI) coupled with the coaching program is incredibly beneficial for new missionaries. Throughout our schooling, you get a lot of exposure to what it’s like walking into an existing church. It’s a little different when you drive into a new city, and it hits you that you’re starting a new church plant there. There are SO many questions. Every church has the same mission, but each church carries it out in a different way. The Church Planter Intensive and coaching program didn’t necessarily tell me what to do, but exposed me to different ideas, experiences, and resources and provided me with a network of fellow missionaries to encourage and support me throughout this process. It helped bring so much clarity to my plans.
Each month I get to sit down for an hour or more with my coach where we talk about implementing part of what I learned at the Church Planter Intensive. He’s there to check in on how I’m doing spiritually, emotionally, and physically, and to be a sounding board for any ideas I have. It also gives me an opportunity to take a step back each month and look at our mission as a whole—where have we been, where are we going, and how we going to get there. He assists my mission so that I can really focus on Christ’s mission.
One of the greatest ways WELS Home Missions and the Church Planter Intensive are supporting their missionaries is putting a big value on the wife’s role in the mission plant process. My wife, Samantha, shares: “As a new missionary’s wife, it can be a little daunting to jump headfirst into the mission field since my husband was the one who went through the years of schooling, and he was the one assigned to our new mission church. I was encouraged knowing it’s not just the work of the pastor that’s important in starting a mission church. It also includes me, our core group, and the community we get to share Jesus with. Attending CPI encouraged me as a pastor’s wife to surround myself with a community of women who have gone through this before. They are sisters in Christ who I can lean on during the difficult times and celebrate with during the joyous times.”
The Church Planter Intensive establishes a brotherhood with other church planters right from the beginning. I have a network of people that care about me not just as a missionary, but as an individual. We remind each other that what’s at the heart of this work is individual souls who need to hear about their personal Savior. It charges me up to get back to that important work so that more lives can be touched by the life-changing power of Jesus.
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