What kind of churches is ELI trying to help plant and how will it ensure the success of these efforts?
ELI was formed by a partnership of next-generation churches each of which has a tremendous
passion for church planting. It was created for the sole purpose of reaching America's lost
generations through evangelically-focused, high-impact local churches. Our church planters
must have a passion for reaching the next generation as a first priority. We
believe the greatest need in this generation is the ability to reach out to lost people and
"re-present" the message of Christ in culturally relevant ways. This does not mean ELI is
not focused on forming churches that teach people to worship and become mature disciples of
Christ. Without "seeking and saving that which is lost" first, however, a local church cannot possibly embody Christ's purposes. ELI helps ensure a successful evangelistic focus in
the churches it serves through the following:
- Candidates are thoroughly screened to make sure they have a gift and a passion for evangelism.
- Partnered Training Churches are required to be evangelistically effective so the Emerging Leaders they train can see it modeled in a real world environment.
- Emerging Leaders are required to adopt a strategy that involves every believer and reflects evangelism as a top priority in both their church mission and in their budget.
- All Training Churches and planted churches will be required to conduct a yearly survey to help measure their effectiveness at reaching this lost generation and their health in becoming a fully-functioning body of growing Christ followers.
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Will a potential church planter have any say in where he plants?
Yes! History indicates that personal networks and cultural understanding of a location greatly increases the success for church planters. As a result, ELI works with the potential planters to determine where each individual feels called and best equipped to reach emerging generations. We encourage planters to go to places where they are culturally suited, where the need is greatest, and where they may have an advantageous foothold on establishing a core support network and team.
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How does the ELI curriculum work?
ELI believes the next generation of church leaders must be trained not just for teaching
but also for leading. ELI is determined to move away from the old model of primarily
training pastors in theology with little time spent on in-depth spiritual formation issues
or leadership training. Thus as a part of its services, ELI administers a complete
"residency style" training which includes a three-part curriculum path of leadership
skills, spiritual formation, and theological education all on-site at a Partnered Training
Church that is currently reaching emerging generations for Christ. This system provides unique
hands-on training opportunities such as a "new ministry development practicum" (starting a
new ministry within an existing church) in order to further prepare individuals for the
rigors of a start-up effort.
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What type of opportunities will there be for centralized or group training?
Once a year, ELI will host a conference designed to further shared-learning and relationship-building among all those involved in the ELI program including Pastors-in-Training, Training Church Point Leaders, Training Coordinators, and ELI Staff & Business Partners.
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Do the Pastors-in-Training have to raise support?
Yes. Prior to entering the program, the Emerging Leader will be required to raise support
dollars equal to three years of financial needs of approximately $50,000 each
year. These support dollars are used to provide for the individuals' expenses during their
training period as well as to help fund their salary during the start-up phase of their
church planting effort. ELI will then provide the remaining start-up funds. Stipulating
that individuals who join the ELI training program must raise support dollars serves the
overall program efforts by preparing them for vision casting, strategy planning, and core
and prayer mobilization. It also serves to weed out the unsuitable applicants who lack the
necessary leadership and initiative that church leaders must possess.
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How much money is given to a new church plant effort?
ELI has set out to plant high-impact, evangelically-minded churches. As research shows,
the average church in America is around 100 in size and if a church remains at that level
for too long, those who attend become accustomed to the smallness of it and are not
motivated to reach out to lost people and help it grow. If a church gets over the 200
barrier and keeps growing, however, many groups of people are then able to find their
niche and keep inviting lost people without feeling threatened. Research also shows
that churches which do break through the 200 barrier in the first few years do so because
they are adequately resourced and empowered to achieve this. Studies conducted internally
were used to determine the minimum funding amount needed to plant and empower a high-impact
church. This amount is currently set at a guaranteed $50,000 of seed money with the option
of further funding as needed (determined by ELI) up to a maximum of $200,000 (over a 3 year
period). This amount does not include the Emerging Leaders' salary, which they raise prior
to entering the ELI program.
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What will determine if a new church plant effort needs the maximum funding amount?
ELI asks all planted churches to provide monthly financial statements. It reserves the right to adjust or redirect the funding when appropriate after the initial $50,000 amount. If it is determined by ELI that a new church has reached break-even or an adequate level of self-funding and is on a solid growth track sooner than anticipated the dollars may be put to work elsewhere. This allows for a faster expansion of new churches.
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When does a new church become a Training Church?
Typically, ELI will look for a new church to become a Training Church 12-24 months after its official launch of weekly services. At that time, ELI will evaluate whether the values it has established as a requirement for previous Training Churches have been put in place (recognizing that a new church will not have each value fully fleshed out) and, if so, will consider the church to be a fully functioning Training Church. As a matter of putting into place the habit of contributing back to the "Missions in America" effort, it will ask all new plants to budget for this endeavor from the very start.
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What is a Partner Church?
A group of previously established, progressive churches that share a vision for reaching this lost generation have already banded together to help shape this endeavor and to put in place the foundations for a long-term church multiplication effort. These Partner Churches are looking for other churches who wish to seize this opportunity and would like to play a significant role in helping to shape the program in the early years. These churches are asked to contribute ideas and strategies concerning the characteristics which they feel should be included. What can be developed with this approach is the most practical, all-inclusive option for allowing local churches to continually reproduce and truly influence the un-churched American culture.
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Why is there a need for Partner Churches?
ELI has found through its experience that providing the start-up funding for Emerging Leaders who have spent 18-24 months in training and are ready to plant their own churches quickly becomes too much for one church to provide. The ongoing funding needs of churches that are ready to be planted cannot be supported by contributions from just one established church and a network of newly planted churches. This is exactly why ELI found it necessary to "kick-start" this type of needed organization with several, already established Partner Churches which desire to do church planting in an ongoing manner. The Partner Churches make it possible for newly planted churches to grow into significant members of the collaboration and they provide the initial training sites for Emerging Leaders. Thus, having a initial collaboration of established churches, each committed to fulfilling their desire to do church planting through an organization like ELI, makes the funding challenge obtainable.
Overall, the more Partner Churches involved the broader the movement and the greater the critical mass resulting in a more influential impact on this nation and its culture.
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How can your church participate in creating a Church Planting Movement in America?
ELI can best be defined as a support organization to help churches multiply. Still, the bigger goal is to spawn a "Missions in America" church planting movement to significantly impact the spiritual foundation of future generations. At the core of this venture lies a partnership of like-minded churches banded together to influence and reach more of the next generation than they could independently. ELI has determined, however, in order to expedite and enlarge this undertaking it is imperative to "kick-start" the model with already established churches that share a vision for reaching this lost generation. These will be churches who wish to come together to generate a bigger effort than just periodic, linear expansion.
As a result, ELI is seeking other progressive church bodies to help pioneer and shape this effort in conjunction with Gateway in Austin, Rooftop in St. Louis, and Meadow Spring in Denver. ELI is open to exploring this further with churches that embrace a desire to mobilize leaders to reach postmodern America and who see the value of partnering in a common strategy to pioneer a church planting movement in America.
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Will the Partnered Training Churches have a say in who completes the ELI training program at their church?
Yes. ELI desires for the Training Church to see this as "their" church plant. For that reason, the final stage of assessment screening will involve making sure the right chemistry exists between the future church planter and the Training Church leadership. If the candidate is qualified but does not match up well with a particular Training Church, ELI looks for an alternate training site for the church planter.
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What if a church wishes to partner but feels it already has a strong calling towards specific church planting desires?
ELI feels that it is very important for its Partnered Churches to follow the specific calling God has placed on their hearts for church planting and spreading the gospel. This is exactly why we created ELI - to serve local churches so they can pursue their Church Planting Strategies today! ELI is simply one vehicle for pursuing those plans. We feel, however, that ELI is a very viable option for pursuing numerous types of church planting desires. Partner Churches also get the added benefit of doing church planting with a group of impassioned people and like-minded churches seeking to make a significant national impact. ELI is very focused on bringing together churches that are already strategizing about reproducing in order to reach greater numbers of America's next generation. The result will be that these combined strategies will have a bigger impact than if everyone did it on their own and it will help "kick-start" a true church-planting movement.
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What will be expected of Partnered Training Churches in order to participate?
It is necessary to ensure that the collaboration can support all the leaders which it trains and sends out to plant new churches. Thus, the Partnered Training Churches must be contributing to the church multiplication effort in some form. If a church is training a church planter it would be necessary to set aside funds for the future church plant regardless of whether this was done individually or through a collaborative effort such as ELI’s. Banding together with this type of collaborative effort however, allows churches to participate in church planting in an ongoing way rather than just a linear fashion. In addition, the Training Church Partners in particular will be expected to meet a set of criteria designed to ensure that all church planters are properly prepared for postmodern evangelism.
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How can a church with a heart for church planting have a greater impact through ELI than it could on its own?
What ELI has determined since its inception in 1998 is that there are several pieces involved in creating an organization capable of
handling the rapid multiplication of high-impact churches, especially those which are
focused on reaching the un-churched. This organization must be focused on recruiting
Emerging Leaders and be able to assess potential church planters. It must provide coaching
and materials to help them raise support dollars as well as provide back-office and
accounting services for tracking the status of individual support accounts. Also needed
are a complete training system, coaching and monitoring for the startup and early growth
activities of new church plants, and continued support to insure multigenerational church
planting occurs. ELI has found that the internal staffing, administrative, and management
needs of an organization capable of providing all of the above items is a significant
operation in and of itself. Essentially, if an organization undertook this effort
internally and committed itself and the churches it planted to each multiplying one church
every 2 years then by year 10 it would need to create an organization that was capable of
training 18 new leaders, supporting 14 planted churches, and planting at least 3 new
churches each year. If an organization were committed to planting one church every single
year from each church in its network by year 10 it would need an organization capable of
training 29 new leaders, supporting 22 planted churches, and planting at least 5 new
churches each year. ELI is actually committed to providing an organization capable of
doing much more than that. Our desire is to gather together a number of progressive,
like-minded churches each of which could enable the launch of up to 40 to 80 next-generation
churches over a 20-year period. The goal is to implement a national church planting
movement where all participants are able to participate in church planting as soon as
possible after their own launch and on an ongoing basis when a Pastor-in-Training is ready
rather than waiting for when the funds have been built up within one church.
For more information on ELI's Expanding function click here.
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What keeps a church from undertaking the same multiplication strategy on its own?
The simple answer is nothing! Churches can and do undertake a number of different
multiplication strategies in order to reproduce and plant new churches. If they wanted to,
they could also create a collaborative partnership out of those churches that they do plant
in order to pool resources or create economies of scale. Ultimately, any church could
recreate an underlying infrastructure similar to that of ELI in order to provide for the
needs of a church planting collaboration. However, ELI feels that while this is possible,
it is not the primary mission of any single church. Evangelical churches, as a part of
their desire to reach lost people, should and often do have a heart for participating in
church planting but maintaining an organization to serve the needs of a continually growing
collaboration of churches is a full time undertaking in itself. This is exactly why ELI
was created! ELI is dedicated to providing the underlying infrastructure as well as the
funding needs for an ever-growing collaboration of churches each of which has a heart for
church planting. ELI handles the details of generating, mobilizing, and equipping new
leaders to enable rapid and consistent multiplication. In addition, ELI also manages the
shared resources platform necessary to maintain the cycle of growth.
For more information on ELI's Expanding function click here.
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