Explaining the SNC Church Planting Process

For our SALT Network of Churches (SNC), everything goes back to the Great Commission. In Matthew 28:18-20, Jesus gives the church our marching orders, as it were. He tells us to go and make disciples of all nations.

We understand this phrase all nations to be all peoples, or all people groups. 

However, to "go and make disciples of all nations," we need a plan.

Yes, the Holy Spirit is leading (Rom. 8:14), and we desire to be sensitive to His movement. But if we are to multiply what God has entrusted to us (2 Tim. 1:14)—the forming and multiplying of healthy churches—then we need a plan.

Here is Our Simple SNC 4-Step Process:

ONE: Recruit

• We recruit potential planters through our events that we host, and resources that we produce, both in Eastern Europe and in North America.

• The train lane of our strategy (train, plant, serve) also functions as the “tip of the spear” when recruiting potential church planters.

• Our events expose pastors and leaders to our work and the missiological culture we are creating.

• The very best arena for recruiting church planters is the training and developing of potential planters in the local churches that are already in SNC.

TWO: Assess

• Once a planter is recruited, we provide a robust assessment of this potential planter.

• We assess in three areas — head, heart, and hands

  • Head = Knowledge of the Bible and theological imagination for contextualizing biblical theology to their context

  • Heart = Your gospel identity, gospel fluency, and gospel motivations for doing the work of church planting

  • Hands = The leadership experience in your past, your current leadership opportunities, and the ability to create reproducible and simple strategy for effective multiplication

• After our assessment, every potential church planter gets a detailed Assessment Report.

THREE: Coach

• Once onboarded into SNC as a SALT Network Church Planter, every planter receives a church planting coach.

• These coaches provide customized head, heart, and hands coaching, based on the assessment report and place in the current church planting process.

• Each planter receives a Personal Development Plan (PDP), and the planting coach walks with the planter through this plan.

• Coaches meet with planters at least once a month for 1.5 hours.

FOUR: Resource

• When planters are onboarded into SNC, they are given resources based on need, context, and scalability. 
• What is more, each planter has access to further grant requests for projects and specific needs.
• The goal (if able) is for planters to work towards sustainability. Sometimes context does not allow this.