The residency provides prospective planters the opportunity to learn how to plant a new church from experienced pastors and leaders. The leaders of our churches have experience in church planting, preaching, leadership development and spiritual formation. These are the four areas the residency will focus on over the course of eight months.  

Although church-planting is extremely rewarding, it is also demanding. For this reason, this residency is designed to be full-time. Residents will be given a stipend from Reach Chicago and asked to raise funds over and above what Reach Chicago provides in order to support themselves and their families during the residency. Some planters choose to be bi-vocational. This is also possible, but will be more demanding on the planter.

The calling of a church planter is critically important. If you are wondering if God is calling you to plant a church, I encourage you to pray about it. Does your heart break for those who don’t know Christ? Do you love to disciple others? Do you like to start new things? Are you willing to go through hardship and toil on behalf of the Kingdom of God? These are some of the questions you might ask the Holy Spirit to reveal to you.

It is God who places a desire in our hearts to plant churches. The concept of Reach Chicago is that we are planting church-planting churches. After a church is planted it can join the work of planting other churches. This is simply an extension of Jesus’ command to make disciples in Matthew 28:18-20. Is God is asking you to join Him in this work?

If you believe that God is calling you to plant, here are the steps:

Application Process

Step 1: Contact us to set up an initial conversation

Step 2: Submit Reach Chicago Application

Step 3: Assessment Interview

Residency

Step 4: Orientation of Residents

Step 5: Summer Pre-Assignments

Step 6: Residency Proper

Post-Residency

Step 7: Ongoing Coaching

Step 8: Post-Residency Cohorts

Step 9: Join as a Reach Chicago Church