| Attended the ARC OC15 Conference this past week in Anaheim & it was great.I learned a lot of different things regarding their methods of church planting & the vetting system of the church planters themselves.Over 550 church plants since they began almost 15 years ago.Largest churches in Alabama & Arkansas belong to ARC pastors.Rigorous vetting system including extensive explanation of one's call to plant a new church, watch multiple videos, make application to ARC; once cleared to proceed a target date is set for the launch, $30,000.00 has to be raised in cash by launch date, 35 adult attenders must become part of your planning sessions & be willing to commit to your ministry launch. (Interesting fact: the 35 adults names & pictures have to be turned in as proof that they exist & the pics should be of them involved in planning sessions.) One must secure a large church to act as a covering or mother church for the purpose of accountability & of course a location needs to be worked out for worship events. Once the launch has begun ARC will deposit $50,000.00 in the bank to help with ministry expense & they prefer the planter not work a secular job. After the church has grown & become financially independent the $50,000.00 is paid back to ARC in payments in order to help other future church plants. For the life of the new church ARC requires 2% of the operational budget to be sent back to ARC for missions work.I met some really interesting people from ARC while there & I also had lunch with a visiting AB from another state who was there checking out the ARC way of church planting. Also enjoyed the company of 3 other CoG pastors who I did not know would be there. Over 1,000 attended this event & the energy in the place was amazing. Worship, teaching, preaching & program were awesome for an event that last 11 hours each day. We got a 45 minute lunch where food trucks provided the meal options, 2 breaks about 20 min each w/snacks & beverages & the evening service was about 2 hrs long.No suits, ties, coats or fancy titles. Found it to be refreshing Empty nest syndrome is for the birds!Email me at: [email protected] planters are focused on just one thing ...introducing people to Jesus! |