Mark Batterson has a great blog called “Evotional.” In a post last year, he challenged other churches to add a “church planter in residence” to their staff. I hope you will seriously consider this approach.

Mark has identified a significant “supply and demand” issue in the church planting world. There is no shortage of places and people who need a “gospel bridge” built to them. The supply of resources and systems to support church planters is growing daily (although we still have a long way to go, the support systems are better than ever before).  So we’ve got plenty of places and a decent supply of resources. The real shortage is “called” and “equipped” planters. Churches that are willing to bring on a “church planter in residence” will do a great service by providing a place for called planters to be prepared and equipped. This is something we must do if we hope to reach the millions of currently unreached Americans with a vigorous local church.