Residency Labs > Sponsor Church

Host Church Resources

Thank you for helping us get to know your candidate for an Equipping Group residency! Yours is a vital role in this process, and your involvement matters deeply.

Your Next Steps

Step 1:
Read an overview of your sponsor church’s involvement below.

Step 2:
Complete the Sponsor Church Application.

Overview

It’s our honor to come alongside your church and candidate in this step in their ministry journey. In addition to candidates themselves discovering their fit for ministry or becoming ready to plant/lead a church, it is our joy to serve sponsor churches, as you host, train, and potentially send your resident into a new ministry assignment for the sake of God's kingdom. As our residency comes alongside you, as the host/sending church, in your discernment and preparation. To that end, we want to be clear about the residency’s requirements of residents’ spouses. After reviewing this sheet, please complete the Sponsor Application (link below) to help us get to know your candidate and help you prepare for our training partnership in the coming months.

Sponsor Church Health

It’s helpful to note that not every church is in a place where it should rightly host a residency. Capacity, leadership, focus, general church heath, finances, season of church life, etc. are all factors that church leaders must consider before committing to host a resident couple. So the list below involves some marks of a healthy church on mission. No church fully ticks 100% of the boxes, but consistent trajectory of general health in the following areas sets up your church, leaders, and resident couple well:

  • • Founded on Christ and the apostles’ teaching and growing in Spirit-dependence and prayer

  • • Consistently reinforcing a clear theological vision, and always pursuing greater faithfulness and fruitfulness for growing in the gospel, living in community, and being on mission

  • • Equipped, accountable, and fervent in reaching not-yet-believers through corporate and personal evangelism

  • • Contextualized and diverse, reflecting the community where it’s planted

  • • Loving one another as family, and equipping everyday disciples to help each other mature

  • • Exalting Christ & equipping the saints in regular worship gatherings built on gospel liturgies

  • • Equipping parents, and creating environments for children and youth discipleship

  • • Doing justice and remembering the poor

  • • Led well by a team of biblically-qualified servants, and prioritizing the development of others

  • • Financially sustained, responsible, and generous

Sponsor Church Commitment

For a sponsor church to equip your resident well, and so that they glean as much as possible from their time with you, we ask that sponsor churches...…

• …create a culture that celebrates sending, and casts church-wide vision for church planting: whether in a Discernment or Church Planting Residency, the internship cannot happen in a vacuum; the whole church must celebrate, promote, publicize, and come around the process.

• …“own” your resident couple. Churches plant churches. A Residency comes alongside you with some training/best practices/etc., but the couple is primarily the host church’s responsibility. SPONSOR CHURCH INFORMATION EQUIPPING GROUP & PLANT FORT WORTH RESIDENCIES

• …create a clear role description, which includes time for both Personal Development Plan (described below) and unified Residency work (these elements require ~6-8 hrs/wk total)

• …commit a specific church leader to serve as point person for the resident’s internship: this person does not need to do/lead everything with the resident couple, but prioritizes them as part of his own leadership role within the church.

• …meaningfully involve your resident couple in dedicated coaching and leadership, to watch and grow, and to participate and even fail at times, to promote their hands-on preparation.

• …meaningfully involve your resident (and spouse if married) in the life of your church and relationships with church leaders who understand their calling and have walked similar paths.

• …creates space for residents to carry out assignments in appropriate venues within your church body at the right time in the Residency process (ex: preaching, vision-casting, fund-raising, shepherding, leadership, recruiting core team/leaders, mission field analysis, etc.)

And regarding finances and logistics, we recommend that sponsor churches...…

• …fund your resident’s travel to/from Lab Weeks (and spouse’s travel to applicable Lab Weeks too).

• …determine whether you can pay a resident (full-time/part-time) or not. While some churches financially support residents (part-/full-time), this isn’t guaranteed. The Residency should consume <8 hrs/wk (incl. internship work), so hiring a resident is NOT a requirement. Additionally, host churches are not required to have housing/etc. for a resident couple. But if things like this are possible, anything you do will serve them well as they receive their training.

• …provide your resident a monthly stipend, for materials, resources, meetings, etc.

• …save as much money as possible, to bless/send your resident out well when they’re ready *.

•…help provide feedback on assignments, papers, etc. your resident produces for Lab Weeks.

  • * A goal of our funding model is that host churches won’t fund Residency tuition/fees, other than getting them (& their spouse) to/from Lab Weeks. We’d rather you save as much as you can during the months a resident interns with you, to send the family and team out with as healthy a financial starting point as possible.

Equipping You to Sponsor Well

Knowing that many sponsor churches have a strong desire to serve your resident well, we wants t equip you to host your resident as well as possible. Once your candidate is accepted, ...…

• …we will send you a “Host Church Playbook,” with various competencies and exercises associated with each, for you and your team to implement as you help develop your resident.

• …we meet with sponsor church representatives a couple times during each residency, for updates and progress reports, to ensure alignment and unified steps, and come alongside you in any way we can.

• …we will share best practices, for developing, equipping, assessing, approving, funding, and (if applicable) sending your resident, throughout the residency.

• …your resident will meet with you to set up a Personal Development Plan, and establish a regular meeting rhythm Our hope in all this is that this experience is a true partnership: The Equipping Group and Plant Fort Worth want to support you and your resident, and serve you in any way we can, as you help them take this step in ministry.

Now that you read all the details, let’s fill out the Sponsor Church Application!

Let’s work together.

This application should require ~20 minutes to complete. Unfortunately, you cannot save midway and return to it. You can download a .pdf version here, and (a) think through questions, then submit the online version, or (b) complete, scan, and email hi@equippinggroup.com instead (see instructions on the .pdf).

Have questions?

Contact us if you have any questions.