The Premiere of the R9 Residency Program!

Over the last week, Next Level Church hosted 4 church planters for the 1st ever, R9 Church Planter’s Residency Intensive. Each of the Church Planters are in the pre-launch phase of their churches. In fact, they are all launching on the same day: February 8th, 2009. The R9 was designed around 1 primary theory: Church Planters don’t know the questions to ask before they launch. Therefore, we set out creating 9 Distinct Modules to Answer all of the questions that church planters don’t know to ask… yet.

I have to tell you, the response was outstanding! Each day you could see new light bulbs coming on in their faces. Not to mention the, “I would have never thought of that…” on each break.

I am firmly convinced that the R9 has the potential to change the success rate of church planting not only for the ARC, but in general as well.

Today and tomorrow, I want to share a few things I Learned from the R9 Residents.

#1: Everyone has something to give. I firmly believe that no matter what stage of leadership or church growth you find yourself in, you have something to give to someone else. I challenged the Residents all week long that the best way to learn is to teach (that’s the sub-title of this blog by the way). And I think they got it. Don’t just read an article, rip it out and give it to someone. Don’t just read a book, buy an extra one for someone else, or give it away when you finished reading it. Don’t just listen to a CD, pass it on. May we create a movement of Never Learning Alone!

#2: We have Learned a lot. In pouring into these church planters for a week, I was reminded of how much God has taught us in this church planting process. We have been teaching these concepts for a few years now, but they were all scattered. R9 allowed me to see it all in one place.