Send Network Ohio – The Training Ground for Church Planters

In 2024-2025, 52 churches have been planted or replanted in Ohio, and each one was led by a church planter.

However, before Ohio church planters move from sensing the Lord’s call to starting a church, many seek the expertise and training available from Send Network Ohio.

Send Network Ohio is part of Send Network, the largest church planting organization in North America and a division of the North American Mission Board. (NAMB)

“We’re a family of churches, planting churches everywhere for everyone,” said Aaron Taylor, Send Network Ohio church planting catalyst and pastor of Living Hope Church, an eight-year-old church plant in northwest Columbus.
 
“Networks don’t plant churches. Conventions don’t plant churches,” he said. “We believe churches plant churches.”

From expressing interest to launching a church, Send Network Ohio guides hopeful church planters through “The Church Planting Pathway.”
 
The pathway includes a process known as “PACE,” which stands for Prepare, Assess, Care, and Equip.

In the Prepare component, church planter candidates are evaluated in nine characteristics or competencies.
 
“It centers on this idea of nine essentials for being a faithful and effective church planter,” Taylor explained. “We want to make sure that they have spent adequate time preparing for what they believe God has called them to.”

The Assess step is next and involves numerous online questionnaires.

“One of the things I really appreciate about Send Network is the robust nature of our assessment process,” Taylor commented. “We are really doing our best to spend adequate time making sure that all the right pieces are in place to set these guys up for not only their personal health, their marital health, and their family health, but also the health of the church they believe God has called them to.”

The assessment dives into all areas of a potential church planter’s life.

“We ask very specific questions in those realms,” he said. “We get to learn about their marriage and their family, and we dive into some of the dynamics of how they communicate, how they handle conflict with one another.”

Candidates also share about their calling, discipleship strategy, and engagement strategy for their community.
 
“One of the things we press huge with our guys is that your community doesn’t just need another worship service,” Taylor stated. “They need an army of disciples that are going to engage a city with the gospel, make disciples from those who choose to trust Christ, and then from that, we start churches.”

If candidates progress through the questionnaire phase, they are invited to a two-day in-person assessment with a Send Network Ohio assessment team.

“It’s an in-person retreat. We bring in expert practitioners in certain fields,” Taylor said.
The experts include experienced church planters, current and former church planters, as well as pastors’ wives and Christian counselors.

“Again, we want to make sure that we’re sending out healthy planters, healthy marriages, healthy families, and healthy churches,” he explained.
 
If the assessment team approves a candidate, the Care phase begins
“It’s one of the things Send Network does best,” Taylor noted.

Send Network Ohio catalysts come around church planters and their families, providing care and encouragement.

“It’s just that reminder that there’s a family of Southern Baptist churches all around North America that love you, that believe in you, that pray for you. We are cheering you on as you get this thing going,” he said.

In addition to ongoing care, church planters who complete the assessment move into the Equip phase.
 
“They go through several months of training just to help them clarify – bring clarity to their vision, bring clarity to their discipleship strategy – a variety of things,” Taylor said.

Send Network Ohio offers coaching to church planters for the first two years of their church planting. Planters are paired with another church leader in their region who is trained to be a listening ear and help draw out what the Lord has already put inside a church planter.
“So we offer a training piece; we offer that coaching piece, and then we just have a variety of resources available to equip our guys.”

For more information about church planting or becoming a church planter, visit Send Network at https://www.namb.net/send-network/church-planting/.