Our Story
BUILDING PLANT FORT WORTH
The first-ever Plant Fort Worth lunch was held in August 2017. Twenty local pastors, of various creed, age, ethnicity, and ministry tenure gathered around a table to ask what God might do in our cities if we worked together for gospel saturation and church planting. Since that initial lunch, hundreds of local leaders have been involved, to varying degrees.
After fifteen lunches, countless hours of prayer and discussion, and our first collaborative church planted in July 2019, it was time for Plant Fort Worth to take next step in its mission and ministry. Over 2019-2020, we worked together to build Plant Fort Worth. Building on the foundation laid over the previous 24 months, we began to take three big steps:
October 2019: Build a Lead Team
Plant Fort Worth has always been, and will always be, a collaborative effort, of local leaders choosing to come together to saturate the Fort Worth area with the gospel through the multiplication of churches. It is not owned by any individual, church, or organization. To that end, the first building phase of Plant Fort Worth was to establish a diverse, unified Lead Team of leaders who have been involved, to help guide Plant Fort Worth’s future, together.
January 2020: Build a Partnership Commitment
Anyone will always be welcome at Plant Fort Worth events. But to truly “multiply churches to saturate the Fort Worth area with the gospel —together,” leaders must commit to a level of partnership. A partnership commitment was introduced in Fall 2019, with clarity around the participation, contribution, missional endeavors, and of course, church planting to which Plant Fort Worth partners commit, for the sake of our shared vision. Leaders of local churches, networks, denominations, and organizations committed as partners, leading the charge for gospel saturation in and around Fort Worth.
August 2020: Build a Shared Residency
While Plant Fort Worth came together to support its first church plant, we can now say we’ve seen over 15 new churches planted since 2019. Facilitated by future Plant Fort Worth partners and serving planters from multiple networks and denominations, the residency trains planters to start churches in the Fort Worth area, and train current area residents to plant churches across the US and beyond.
August 2022: Build A Discernment Residency
We found a gray area when it came to see planters through the Church Planting Residency. What came from questions and elongated timelines were new avenues to raise up leaders who were still uncertain if planting a church was their next step and the Ministry Discernment Residency was born.
November 2023: Build A Church Planting Conference
Leader Lunches each month became a brief touch point for our planters and partnering churches, but we continued to face the question of how to collaborate and rally churches to catch the vision outside of the network. We needed greater tools and experienced voices to speak into the raising up of leaders if we want to see fifty churches planted by 2050.
What’s Next?
Where do we go from here? Our hope is to grow our partnerships with churches, host our second Church Planting Conference in 2025, and equip our current planters in a Planting Cohort.
There is much work to be done, together. There are many conversations to be had, together. And please, pray and jump in over the course of 2024-25: bring your gifts to the table, and be involved as we take these next vital steps in building Plant Fort Worth!