Church Planting in Sovereign Grace Churches

We are looking forward to gathering again at this year’s Pastors Conference, and we hope you can join us! Along with getting to meet you, there are many tools and resources for church planting that we want to share with you during this time. SGC seeks to serve both church planting candidates and local churches.

The National Church Planting Group hopes that you can join us. And please feel free to bring anyone else with you!

We will gather Wednesday, November 6 from 3-4 pm at the conference hotel. Interest meetings are listed here.  See you in Florida!

For more information about SGC Church Planting, feel free to look at our website or contact us.

The Antioch Program

Sovereign Grace was born out of a desire to “plant and build” local churches. I like to joke that Antioch is the “and” connecting those two things – planting and building. It’s a program aimed at the intersection of missiology and ecclesiology – helping elders see how those two things are strengthened when they are linked.

The next retreat is happening February 2025 and we’d love to have you join us. 

Who Is Antioch For? 

Antioch is for elderships that desire to grow in outward mission. 

Antioch is named for and based on the example of the church in Antioch in Acts 11-13. It was the first church in the New Testament that intentionally looked beyond itself and proactively sent out Paul and Barnabas to plant churches. We want to build churches in that model and example. 

Antioch is for elderships because we are convinced that churches must be led by a plurality of elders, and that for mission to move forward the whole eldership must be united in its commitment to mission.

We encourage each team to bring all its elders (or as many as possible) to the retreat so that those men can pray and plan and discuss their local situations. 

Antioch is for elderships that desire to grow in outward mission. We want to come alongside churches that desire to grow in outward mission activity like evangelism, church planting, and global mission. Whether you feel stuck in reaching your neighborhood or are about to plant a church and want to keep the momentum going, Antioch aims to help. 

What Should I Expect?

The Antioch retreat is focused on equipping elderships at the intersection of ecclesiology and missiology to be sending churches. The retreat is followed and supported by coaching from the region or from church planting coaches in Sovereign Grace. 

Some key changes we’re making this year: 

• It seems likely we’ll offer this retreat every other year so it’s scheduled for February 2025 and then tentatively for Spring 2027. 

• We’re on the move and we’ll be gathering this time in Orlando, FL. This is to serve our brothers in the Southeast region who are eager to participate. And I’m sure some of our brothers in colder climates will enjoy the warm weather. 

• We’ll uniquely have a whole region going through this. The entire Southeast region is going to do their RAE and then stay for Antioch. I’m excited for the Southeast takeover this year but we'll have some others join as well.

How Did Antioch Start?

“Once we’re healthier then we’ll focus more on evangelism, mission, and church planting” 

I must have said that to myself a dozen times in my first couple years leading my local church in El Paso. We’d been through some challenges as a church and it felt like as soon as we addressed one thing, another thing appeared. I had great desires for connecting with our community, praying toward missions work, and participating in church planting, but they all seemed like something we needed to do once we were “healthier.” 

But after more conversations and reading more of the New Testament our elders came to a clear realization: outward mission was part of church health and contributed to overall church health. In fact, while there are necessary times of mourning or crisis care, outward mission should be part of the church’s very lifeblood.

And over the next few years as we made slow progress in the area of outward mission we watched it ripple out into other areas of the church – the saints were built up, the gathering was more vital and vibrant, and new believers added life and energy. 

Antioch was born out of a conviction that for our churches to be healthy churches in the model of the New Testament, they must be about the work of mission. It aims at helping churches see how the upward (worship) and inward (care and equipping) aspects of church life connect with the outward (mission). 

So much of our pursuit of mission locally was helped and shaped by others in Sovereign Grace who came alongside us. So those of us leading out in the Antioch retreat want to do all we can to faithfully come alongside others. 

What’s Our Hope?

Our hope is to see every church in Sovereign Grace intentionally, effectively, sacrificially, and consistently pursuing church planting and mission work. We believe every church regardless of its size, location, and resources can participate in this work. It will not look the same in every context but should be marked by the same consistent faithful pursuit. Over time, as each church pursues this, who knows what the Lord could do through us? 

How Do I Take a Next Step?

Find out more at our Church Planting Info Mtg. at the Pastors Conference - Wednesday, November 6th at 3 pm.

Our next planned Antioch retreat is February 2025. Please let us know if you’re interested, and we’d love to get you more information. 

Ricky serves on the National Church Planting Group with Sovereign Grace Churches, leading the Antioch Program, and is the lead pastor at Cross of Grace Church in El Paso, TX.

P.S. I wrote an article for the SGC Journal on the church in Antioch and what we can learn from it. That will give you a flavor for the program.

Small Towns Initiative

Sovereign Grace Churches is committed to planting, adopting and supporting local, gospel-centered churches.   Not only are Sovereign Grace churches found in urban centers, Sovereign Grace churches have been planted and adopted in rural areas as well! 

Whether churches are located in large city centers, such as Orange County, California or are located in rural areas of the U.S. and abroad, Sovereign Grace wants to see churches and their pastors thrive.

To that end, the Small-Towns Initiative was formed specifically with small town churches in view.  The purposes of the Small-Towns Initiative are three-fold: 

  1) To provide care and support for Sovereign Grace small town pastors.

  2)  To provide help and support for Sovereign Grace small town church plant.

3) To reach out beyond Sovereign Grace to build relationally with other rural pastors for encouragement, networking, and even potential adoption into SovereignGrace Churches.

Over the past couple of years, several rural Sovereign Grace pastors around the country have connected periodically via zoom and made themselves available as a resource for other small town pastors. 

At this year’s Pastors Conference there will be a Small-Towns Initiative Pastor’s Gathering on Wednesday afternoon from 2:00 – 3:00 pm. This meet-and-greet is for all pastors in small towns as well as those interested in rural/small town ministry. If you minister in a small town, we’d love to see you there.

What a joy to serve the Lord who is building His church and what a privilege we have to plant and build gospel-centered churches not only in cities, but in towns and villages all over the world!

Assessment for Church Planters

On January 18-20, 2024, the National Church Planting Group offered a Church Planter Assessment Weekender in Costa Mesa, CA.  The purpose of the “weekender” was to come alongside potential church planting couples, to serve them and care for them, by offering discernment regarding their next steps in ministry.  

The Church Planter Assessment Weekender rose from the burden of the National Church Planting Group to serve local elderships and regional church planting committees that might not have the same "in house" resources for evaluating potential church planting couples that some other Sovereign Grace churches have.  To this end, the National Church Planting Group assembled an “assessment team” of experienced church planting couples, each of whom also serve in extra-local capacities for Sovereign Grace Churches.

To be sure, the “assessment team” does not possess the ability to determine, infallibly, whether or a not a potential church planting couple can or will effectively plant a church.  The ultimate determining factor in that regard is God.  Nor does the “assessment team” possess the authority to decide if a potential church planting couple should, or should not, be deployed to plant a church.  That authority resides in their local elderships, together with their regional church planting committees.  However, the “assessment team” is able, with God’s help, to pay careful attention for the presence of leading indicators that consistently contribute to fruitful church planters.   Our aim is to offer discernment.  

The 7 men and their wives who participated in the weekender, did preparatory homework ahead of time.  Over the course of two days, they each told their “story” – an exercise designed to evaluate self-awareness, self-preservation, resilience, critical shaping influences, as well as their comfort level with who and how God has made them to be.  Each couple completed a marriage “check-up” inventory.  Each of the individuals had the opportunity to communicate the essentials of the Gospel.  Each of the men preached a mini sermon.  Each couple took turns “envisioning” us (as if we were potential launch team members) with the distinctives, location, target demographic, and burden for their respective and potential church plants.   Our matrix was essentially “The Planter, The Place, and Sovereign Grace.”  We looked for alignment between the man, the couple, the location they were considering, their relationship to their local Sovereign Grace Church, as well as their commitment to Sovereign Grace values and embodiment of Sovereign Grace culture.

We ended by sharing with them our observations and one of three possible recommendations.  1) "Move ahead in taking next steps with your local eldership and regional church planting committee."  2) "Move ahead with taking next steps, but with conditions to address certain “risk factors” before entering the church planting "pipeline." 3) "We do not recommend moving forward at this time, and for the following reasons . . . " These observations and recommendations were then forwarded in a summary report to the pastors and elderships who had sent the couples to the assessment weekender.  

It is with eager and joyful anticipation that we anticipate hearing about specific plans for new Sovereign Grace church plants emerging in the future. It is the prayerful desire of the National Church Planting Group that the “assessment weekender” might serve Sovereign Grace Churches in the coming years for planting healthy, fruitful, enduring churches to the praise of God’s glorious grace.

We will be talking about this program and other church planting initiatives in SGC during this year’s Pastors Conference. The meeting will be on Wednesday, November 6 from 3-4 pm.
Registration for the 2025 event. is open. If you are interested in participating in a future event, let us know.

Greg serves on the National Church Planting Group, leading Assessment events .
He is the church planter and a pastor at Emmaus Road Church in Sioux Falls, SD.

Church Planting in Sovereign Grace Churches

We are looking forward to gathering again at this year’s Pastors Conference, and we hope you can join us as the Church Planting Group talks about some of the ways Sovereign Grace Churches seeks to serve both church planting candidates and local churches. We will cover a number of programs we offer – the Church Planting Pipeline, National Assessments, Antioch program, Cohorts, etc…We will gather Wednesday, November 15 from 3-4 pm at the conference hotel.

Jeremy Hetrick, Lead Pastor of Redeeming Grace Church that just launched in Mechanicsburg, PA, shared at the Pastors Conference last year. We trust you will be encouraged by his testimony.

See you in Florida!

The Antioch Program

Watch this overview video above to get an idea of the Antioch Program.

For the last two years I’ve had the privilege of sitting in a room with other Sovereign Grace pastors as we studied Scripture, prayed, and strategized about how to advance the gospel beyond our own local churches. And as I’ve done this something powerful often happens. 

One retreat in particular I was fighting some persistent health issues and discouragement about mission in our local church. Spending three days thinking and praying about mission felt like it might only add to a sense of frustration or burden. But in fact, the opposite happened.

• As we spent time around God’s Word and as brothers in Sovereign Grace led us in teaching and discussion the mission that might feel vague and overwhelming began to feel much more specific and concrete. 

• As we spent time in prayer and ministry to one another my sense of excitement for God’s mission and faith for playing a part in it grew. 

• As we spent time around good meals (many of them!) I no longer felt isolated or alone in pursuing the mission, but felt I was linking arms with other brothers and churches. 

The Antioch program was created exactly for these reasons. 

The main piece of the Antioch program is a retreat for pastors in Sovereign Grace focused on equipping churches at the intersection of ecclesiology and missiology to be sending churches. It’s called “Antioch” because we want to see our churches become Antioch churches in the model of Acts 11-13. The retreat is followed and supported by coaching from a trained church planting coach in Sovereign Grace and the project will wrap up with a meeting just before the 2024 Sovereign Grace Pastors Conference. 

Our hope is to see Sovereign Grace churches intentionally, effectively, sacrificially, and consistently pursuing church planting and mission work. We believe every church regardless of its size, location, and resources can participate in this work. It will not look the same in every context but should be marked by the same consistent faithful pursuit. 

As we gathered in 2022 and 2023 God met us and we’re seeing God do some amazing and encouraging things in churches as a result. That only builds our anticipation for what God could do in the future. 

Find out more at our Church Planting Info Mtg. at the Pastors Conference - Wednesday, Nov. 15th from 3-4 pm.

Our next planned Antioch retreat is March 2024. Please let us know if you’re interested, and we’d love to get you more information. 

Also, I just wrote an article in the recent SGC Journal on the church in Antioch and what we can learn from it.

Ricky serves on the National Church Planting Group with Sovereign Grace Churches, leading the Antioch Program, and is the lead pastor at Cross of Grace Church in El Paso, TX.

Assessment for Church Planters

On January 20-21, 2023, the National Church Planting Group offered a Church Planter Assessment Weekender in Irvine, CA.  The purpose of the “weekender” was to come alongside potential church planting couples, to serve them and care for them, by offering discernment regarding their next steps in ministry.  

The Church Planter Assessment Weekender rose from the burden of the National Church Planting Group to serve local elderships and regional church planting committees that might not have the same "in house" resources for evaluating potential church planting couples that some other Sovereign Grace churches have.  To this end, the National Church Planting Group assembled an “assessment team” of experienced church planting couples, each of whom also serve in extra-local capacities for Sovereign Grace Churches.

 To be sure, the “assessment team” does not possess the ability to determine, infallibly, whether or a not a potential church planting couple can or will effectively plant a church.  The ultimate determining factor in that regard is God.  Nor does the “assessment team” possess the authority to decide if a potential church planting couple should, or should not, be deployed to plant a church.  That authority resides in their local elderships, together with their regional church planting committees.  However, the “assessment team” is able, with God’s help, to pay careful attention for the presence of leading indicators that consistently contribute to fruitful church planters.   Our aim is to offer discernment.  

 The 4 men who participated in the weekender, did preparatory homework ahead of time.  Over the course of two days, they each told their “story” – an exercise designed to evaluate self-awareness, self-preservation, resilience, critical shaping influences, as well as their comfort level with who and how God has made them to be.  Each couple completed a marriage “check-up” inventory.  Each of the individuals had the opportunity to communicate the essentials of the Gospel.  Each of the men preached a mini sermon.  Each couple took turns “envisioning” us (as if we were potential launch team members) with the distinctives, location, target demographic, and burden for their respective and potential church plants.   Our matrix was essentially “The Planter, The Place, and Sovereign Grace.”  We looked for alignment between the man, the couple, the location they were considering, their relationship to their local Sovereign Grace Church, as well as their commitment to Sovereign Grace values and embodiment of Sovereign Grace culture.

 We ended by sharing with them our observations and one of three possible recommendations.  1) "Move ahead in taking next steps with local eldership and regional church planting committee."  2) "Move ahead with taking next steps, but with conditions to address certain “risk factors” before entering the church planting "pipeline." 3) "We do not recommend moving forward at this time, and for the following reasons . . . " These observations and recommendations were then forwarded in a summary report to the pastor’s and elderships who had sent the couples to the assessment weekender.  

 It is with eager and joyful anticipation that we anticipate hearing about specific plans for new Sovereign Grace church plants emerging in the future. It is the prayerful desire of the National Church Planting Group that the “assessment weekender” might serve Sovereign Grace Churches in the coming years for planting healthy, fruitful, enduring churches to the praise of God’s glorious grace.

We will be talking about this program and other church planting initiatives in SGC during this year’s Pastors Conference. The meeting will be on Wednesday, November 15 from 3-4 pm.
We are thrilled to have 8 couples join us for the 2024 event. If you are interested in participating in a future event, let us know.

Greg serves on the National Church Planting Group, leading Assessment events .
He is the church planter and a pastor at Emmaus Road Church in Sioux Falls, SD.

Small Towns Initiative

Two years ago, a small group of men and their wives from various parts of the country were brought together for a few days of fellowship and encouragement. Led by Eric Turbedsky, the group included both pastors who were relatively new to pastoral ministry, as well as those who had been pastors for decades. Some attendees were from the eastern U.S. while others were from the midwest and the west. What specifically brought these couples together and what they had in common was their love for Sovereign Grace Churches and their heart for small town, rural ministry. Stories were shared, relational connections were made, and friendships were formed and strengthened. All left grateful for the opportunity to meet with others who, like them, were also investing their lives to spread the gospel and to build churches “off the beaten path” of rural America.

Sovereign Grace Churches is committed to planting, adopting and supporting local, gospel-centered churches.   That means Sovereign Grace is not only an urban movement, it is rural as well! Whether churches are located in city centers, such as the church Eric leads in Orange County, California or are located in rural areas of the U.S. and abroad, Sovereign Grace wants to see churches and their pastors thrive.

To that end, the Small-Towns Initiative was formed specifically with small town churches in view. 

The purposes of the Small-Towns Initiative are three-fold: 

  1) To provide care and support for Sovereign Grace small town pastors.

  2)  To provide help and support for Sovereign Grace small
town church plants.

  3)  To reach out beyond Sovereign Grace to build relationally with other rural pastors
for encouragement, networking, and even potential adoption into Sovereign Grace Churches.

Over the past year, several rural Sovereign Grace pastors around the country have begun meeting regularly via zoom.  At this year’s Pastors Conference there will be a Small-Towns Initiative Pastor’s Gathering on Wednesday afternoon from 2:00 – 3:00 pm. This gathering is for all pastors in small towns as well as those interested in rural/small town ministry. If you minister in a small town, we’d love to see you there.

What a joy to serve the Lord who is building His church throughout the world and what a privilege we have to plant and build gospel-centered churches not only in cities, but in towns and villages all over the world!

Steve Teter serves as the Senior Pastor of Living Faith Church in Franklin, WV, and has been in full-time ministry since 1989. Steve Teter, along with David York in Roseburg OR, provides leadership for the Small Towns Initiative.

Upcoming Church Planting Events

After the Pastors Conference and Jared's excellent closing session on church planting, you may be wondering, "How can I participate in that vision for church planting?" There are two key opportunities coming up that we believe can serve our pastors and churches as we seek to take up the work of church planting in Sovereign Grace.

Church Planter Assessment Weekend

Greg Dirnberger is leading a church planter assessment weekend in January for men who are seeking to discern whether there is a call on their life to plant a church. It's a two day intensive for the prospective planter and his wife where they'll have the opportunity to be assessed by some of our most experienced pastors in Sovereign Grace. This doesn't replace the local assessment or regional assessment, instead it aims to provide an additional layer of assessment to help both the local team and region as they walk with a man through this process. That weekend is coming up soon in January, so please contact us soon with your interest.

Antioch Project

The entire Church Planting Group will be hosting a retreat in March for pastoral teams desiring to more fully participate in our mission to plant churches in Sovereign Grace. While every church is in a different local situation, we desire all our churches to have the heart of the Antioch church in Acts 11-13 as they are committed to mission beyond their church. See the this flyer for more information. This retreat will be March 20-23 and space is limited so please contact us soon with your interest.

May our next 40 years be marked by a commitment to plant and strengthen churches across our regions and around the world!

2022 Pastors Conference Interest Meetings

For those of you who are coming to our upcoming Pastors Conference, there are a number of interest meetings available for you to attend, all held at the conference hotel. As you begin to plan and schedule out your time there, we wanted to highlight a few meetings and provide you with more information about them.

For a complete list of meetings, click the link below:
https://www.sovereigngrace.com/interest-meetings-2022

We hope you can join us! Let us know if you have any questions. See you in Orlando!

- The Church Planting Group

1. Church Planting Interest Meeting
11/2 - 3:00pm-4:00pm

An overview of the ways Sovereign Grace seeks to serve both church planting candidates and local churches, we will cover a number of programs we offer (church planting pipeline, national assessments, Antioch program, cohorts, etc.).

2. Small Towns Reception
11/2 - 2:00pm-3:00pm

For those who either minister in a small town or are interested in planting in a small town in the US. We will use this time to meet each other, hear about what God is doing in small towns across America, and make some plans for working together in the future.

3. Church Planting for Spanish Speaking areas
11/2 - 2:00pm-3:00pm

For those who have a desire to plant a Spanish-speaking SG church in the United States, those who have a number of Spanish speaking members, or those interested in our future Spanish-speaking church plants.