You want to plant a healthy, vibrant, missional church that changes your community, yourself, and the lives of those you lead. But so many of the models we’ve learned don’t actually lead us toward flourishing but toward the destruction of community and personal burnout. The good news is that we can re-learn the historical, faithful and innovative seasons of starting new churches so that we can avoid replicating destructive patterns and instead promote the flourishing and health of the church we’re seeking to start.
Over the course of four weeks, you’ll transform the way you start new churches
from formula to formation,
from specialized to Spirit-led,
and from consumerism to communion, community and commission.
This is not a canned video library. Instead, you’ll have direct access to your professors, who will train you to think differently about church starting. Ask questions, interact over the material, and transform your approach to starting a new church.
There is more going on in your life and leadership than you could ever process in a class. We’ll pair you up with a church starting coach to help you unpack what this training means for your context.
The journey of starting a church can feel lonely. One of the best things you can do for yourself is to connect with other church starters in different contexts. In this course, you’ll learn in mutual relationships with others on our course platform.
None of us needs experts to craft theories in ivory towers. Church starters need models and practitioners who can share stories and frameworks from their experience on the ground, faithfully innovating new pathways forward. Each of our professors is someone you’ll want to learn from and model as you embark on the journey of starting a church.
In this four-week course, you’ll get live access from five professors who will form you as a missional church starter.
Mark Charles, author of Unsettling Truths: The Ongoing, Dehumanizing Legacy of the Doctrine of Discovery, will teach you how to engage the season of discernment. He’ll move you away from discernment as simply a private exercise, and instead show you how to immerse yourself in community to discern the Spirit’s mission. Mark will train you to notice the difference between power and authority, and show you how to operate in authority as you take the first steps of discerning a new church.
Carl Johnson, pastor of Faith to the Nations church, will teach you how to navigate the season of gathering a team. He will train you to create a missional culture and team long before you launch a public worship service or social enterprise. He’ll teach you to do community organizing, build a discipleship core, and create apostolic impulses in your team.
Ines Velasquez-McBryde and Jennifer Guerra Aldana will teach you how to enter the season of becoming a public expression of church. They will move you away from relying on set plans and elusive certainties, and train you in how to rely on Spirit-led communal rhythms of reflection and discernment. They will bust the biggest church starting myths around vision statements, social media, and worship teams, and they’ll show you how to establish “ritmos”, or communal rhythms that sustain thriving missional congregations.
Dr. Tamisha Tyler, church starter and professor, will teach you how to engage the season of adaptation. Invariably, every church starter realizes that the original vision is different from the lived reality. Tamisha will train you to lead your team in adapting to disruptive challenges and unexpected events. She will guide you through a simulation where you’ll have to adapt as a team, and then help you debrief to sharpen your skills at leading through disruption.
You don't need a formula or equation to start a church, but it is helpful to have healthy frameworks to keep you moving forward.
Each lesson will have tons of content, more than what your notepad will be able to hold. But on our course platform, you'll have lifetime access to all the course materials.
You'll probably want to go back and watch each lesson again. The course platform will store all the video replays so you can review the material weeks or months later.
You are on a unique journey in starting a church. Whether you're discerning or adapting an existing church start, we want to learn about your story and offer any guiding questions to help you take your next steps.
Get to know other church starters in different contexts on our community platform where you can post, chat and interact.
Get a certificate of completion when you finish the course that you can post on your profile or in a frame.
If, after participating in all four lessons, you regret registering for the course, you can request your money back, no questions asked.
Church starters tell us they have trouble understanding where they are in the journey and what they need to be focusing on in this season. By understanding the four seasons of starting a church, you can focus on making the most out of your current season.
More than tips and hacks, church starters need people to model and mirror. We designed this course to give you access to leaders who will influence your approach to innovation. You'll be able to ask questions and let their influence flip the way you approach your ministry.
We are constantly swimming in a sea of competing interests and influences. Sometimes it's hard to know if we're following the way of Jesus, or if we're just falling into the trap of power. In this course, you'll clarify your powers of discernment so that your leadership is based on authority rather than power.
Too often, church planters are the genius among minions, calling the shots and leading with their charisma and personality. This course will teach you to gather a trusted team with a culture of empowerment and ownership.
There are lots of myths floating around about what your church has to be or look like in order to be a "church". We'll help you bust these myths and discover the rhythms of church that the Spirit is bringing into your context.
Starting a church is never what we imagine it will be like. The early failures don't have to stop you and your team. We'll show you how to use these opportunities for growth and adaptation.
When you join the course, you get immediate access to the course platform. We packed as much as we could into this course so that you have everything you need, in a short period of time, to start a church on the right foot.
Training
Gain access to leading missional practitioners during weekly trainings. Ask your questions, share your stories, and get input from faithful innovators who can teach you new ways of approaching the calling to start a church.
You’ll get to schedule a 1-on-1 coaching appointment with a Cyclical church starting coach so that you can contextualize your learning and get the help you need to move forward.
On the course platform, you’ll meet other church starters from a diverse set of contexts as you chat, post, and interact in breakout groups. Learn from their stories as you share your own, and be reminded that you’re not the only one called to this!
If you miss a lesson for some reason, simply watch the replay later. You’ll have lifetime access, so these clips, as well as other supplementary lesson material, will always be available to you on the course platform.
Upon completion of the course, you’ll receive a certificate for church starting from Cyclical INC.