By Brent Lacy

The Church That Decided to Give Itself Away

There is a moment in the life of a multiplying church that feels counterintuitive: the moment you deliberately give away your best people.

You have spent years discipling a group of mature believers. You have invested in their leadership. They serve on your worship team, teach your small groups, lead your outreach. They are the backbone of your congregation.

And then you send them away to start a new work that might fail. You release the small group leader who could have been your next executive pastor. You lose the couple who organized your most effective ministry. You watch your worship team suddenly have holes.

This is what it means to multiply. And it is the most painful, most faithful, most fruitful thing a healthy church can do.

Why Multiply Instead of Add?

The language shift from “addition” to “multiplication” is not just a metaphor. It describes fundamentally different ecclesial strategies.

Addition says: “How do we get more people to come to our church?”

Multiplication says: “How do we start more churches?”

Ed Stetzer, in his article “A New Church-Planting Era” in Outreach Magazine, puts it plainly: “Our ‘viral church’ idea is about falling in love with multiplication and abandoning what seems to be an addiction to addition” (Stetzer and Bird, Viral Churches, Jossey-Bass, 2010, summarizing the concept).

In Viral Churches, Stetzer and co-author Warren Bird identify five values that create a culture of multiplication in a church:

1. Replicability — strategies that do not require advanced degrees or elite qualifications. If only specially trained leaders can reproduce your approach, you will never multiply.

2. Teachability — a culture of humility and learning that follows the pattern of 2 Timothy 2.2: “What you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses, commit to faithful men who will be able to teach others also” (ESV).

3. Entrepreneurship — empowering innovation, accepting that not every attempt will succeed, and learning from failure.

4. Exposure — pushing leaders and potential leaders outside their comfort zones so they can see multiplication happening firsthand.

5. Celebration — “We replicate what we celebrate.” Every church plant needs to be celebrated as a move of the Spirit, regardless of its size or early struggles.

What Does a Sponsoring Church Actually Do?

Sponsoring a replant is not the same as donating money to a church planting agency and walking away. A sponsoring church enters into a relationship with a new or revitalizing congregation. That relationship looks different in every context, but typically involves:

Financial Support

The sponsoring church provides financial backing during the critical early years of the replant. This is not charity — it is investment in gospel advance. The sponsoring church recognizes that the replant will not be self-sunting in year one, and possibly not in year two or three.

Financial support may include:

• Direct funding for pastoral salary
• Facility costs (if the sponsoring church does not own the building)
• Ministry budgets for outreach and operations
• Benevolence needs in the community

People

The most valuable thing a sponsoring church gives is people. A replant’s launch team typically includes members from the sponsoring church who commit to serving in the new congregation for a defined period. These are not tourists. They are members, serving faithfully, using their gifts to build the new work.

This is where it costs something real. When the sponsoring church sends its small group leader, it needs a new small group leader. When it sends the worship team leader, the worship team has a hole. When it sends the best volunteer organizers, existing ministries feel the loss.

Mark Clifton notes in Reclaiming Glory that the replanter’s willingness to serve before leading is essential — and the same is true of the sending church. The sponsoring church serves the replant through sacrificial generosity before it ever leads anything.

Administrative Hosting

Many replants begin under the legal and financial umbrella of the sponsoring church. The sponsoring church may provide:

• 501(c)(3) status for tax-deductible giving
• Financial oversight and accountability
• Insurance coverage
• Background check systems and child protection policies

This is a critical and often overlooked aspect of sponsoring. A brand-new church does not need the additional burden of setting up legal and financial structures from scratch. The sponsoring church carries this weight.

Mentoring and Coaching

The sponsoring church’s pastor or leadership team provides mentoring for the replanting pastor. This is especially important because:

• Many replanting pastors are young or bi-vocational and have not navigated the challenges of revitalizing a dying church.
• The replanting pastor may be serving in isolation with no peer support.
• The sponsoring church’s experience with church governance, conflict management, and ministry operations can prevent costly mistakes.

The Three Church Model: Legacy, Sponsor, Plant

When you put these pieces together, you see a three-church dynamic:

The legacy church recognizes decline and chooses to replant faithfully. It typically transfers its building and any remaining financial resources to the new work.

The sponsoring church provides launch team members, financial backing, administrative support, and pastoral mentoring.

The planted (replanted) church receives these gifts and pursues its own mission under new (or renewed) leadership.

Each church plays a different role. Each church makes sacrifices. Each church shares in the fruit.

The North American Mission Board’s replanting framework at namb.net/church-replanting emphasizes that no single organization does this alone. It requires partnership. It requires trust. It requires the willingness to release control.

What Sponsoring Churches Need to Know Before They Start

1. This is a long-term commitment, not a short-term project.

Sponsoring churches that expect to see immediate results will be disappointed. The early years of a replant are hard. Attendance is small. Money is tight. Milestones come slowly. Clifton’s own replant work at Wornall Road Baptist Church in Kansas City took over a decade to come to fullness.

Commit for five years minimum. Expect the replant to take that long to reach viability. If God blesses it faster, give thanks. But do not set the sponsoring church up for disappointment by budgeting for two years of support with the expectation of a self-sunting church by year three.

2. You cannot control everything, and you should not try.

One of the hardest lessons for sponsoring churches is learning the difference between accountability and control. You are entrusting resources to the replanting pastor and team. You have the right and responsibility to ensure those resources are used well. But you do not have the right to micromanage the replant’s ministry decisions, worship style, or community approach.

A replant in a rural farming community will look different from a church plant in a college town. A bi-vocational pastor will operate differently from a fully funded church planting team. The sponsoring church must trust the replanting leader to make local decisions while maintaining accountability for resources.

3. The replant is not your church.

This sounds obvious, but it is one of the most common points of conflict in sponsoring relationships. The sponsoring church has its own worship style, its own theology of ministry, its own organizational culture. The replant will share the sponsoring church’s core convictions (this should be established clearly at the outset), but it will inevitably develop its own identity.

Sponsoring churches that demand that the smaller church look and feel like the sponsoring church will have smaller churches that feel like franchise operations and that naturally repel members. Let the replant be the replant.

4. Celebrate every victory, no matter how small.

Stetzer’s multiplication principle: “We replicate what we celebrate.” When the replant baptizes its first convert, celebrate. When the replant completes its first year, celebrate. When the replanting pastor makes it through a difficult month without quitting, celebrate.

These celebrations are not just good feelings. They reinforce the sponsoring church’s commitment to multiplication. They demonstrate that small replants are valued, not dismissed. They encourage other potential sponsoring churches to get involved.

The RHMA Model: Sending Churches, Sending Missionaries

The Rural Home Missionary Association represents a slightly different model of sponsoring. Rather than a single church sponsoring a single replant, RHMA serves as a connecting point between rural church planters and the sponsoring churches that support them.

RHMA missionaries — like John and Emily Brensinger in Crandon, Wisconsin, or Mark and Lauren Underkofler in Rapid City, South Dakota — are supported by church planting teams and sponsoring churches across the country. Each missionary must raise their own support, which means building relationships with multiple churches that share the vision for rural ministry (rhma.org, “Go”).

This model has strengths:

• The missionary is not dependent on a single sponsoring church
• Multiple churches share the financial burden
• The missionary has a built-in network of churches that are invested in their success

It also has challenges:

• The missionary spends significant time traveling and building relationships with supporting churches
• Supporting churches may feel disconnected from the specific work on the ground
• Communication gaps can lead to misunderstanding

The key for churches considering a sponsoring relationship with RHMA or any church multiplication agency is to ask clear questions upfront: What is the expected financial commitment? For how long? What kind of reporting and communication will be provided? What happens if the replant does not succeed?

A Note to Pastors Considering Sponsorship

If you are the pastor of a healthy, growing church looking at church multiplication for the first time, here is my advice:

Start with prayer, not planning. Ask God to break your heart for the communities without churches. Ask Him to show you the specific places and people He is calling you to invest in. Planning without prayer leads to programs. Prayer without planning leads to good intentions. Both together lead to mission.

Start with a conversation, not a contract. Before you commit to financially sponsoring a replant, build a relationship with the replanting pastor. Spend time with them. Understand their vision. Watch them in ministry. See how they interact with people. A sponsorship relationship built on relational trust will navigate difficulties that a contractual relationship cannot survive.

Start with what you have, not what you wish you had. You do not need a church planting budget line or a dedicated church multiplication staff member to begin sponsoring replants. You need a congregation willing to sacrifice, a budget willing to invest, and a pastor willing to lead the way.

The church that gave itself away and discovered something new is not a church that decreased. It is the church that understood what it means to follow a God who multiplies loaves and fishes, who brings life from death, and who builds His church through the faithful, sacrificial investment of His people.

Even so, come, Lord Jesus.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the difference between church replanting and revitalization?

Revitalization seeks to renew an existing congregation, while replanting involves a new church being established in the same location, often with new leadership and a fresh mission focus.

How long does a replanting process typically take?

Most replanting efforts take 2-5 years to reach stability, though this varies significantly based on community context, resources, and the health of the legacy congregation.

What role does the legacy congregation play?

Legacy members often provide historical knowledge, community relationships, and sometimes financial support. Their buy-in and blessing are critical for a successful replant.

How do we know if our church is a replanting candidate?

Key indicators include sustained attendance decline over 5+ years, inability to call qualified pastoral leadership, and financial patterns that cannot sustain basic operations.

What resources are available for churches considering replanting?

Denominational networks, the Church Planting Network, and organizations like the Replanting Network offer training, coaching, and financial support for replanting efforts.