Five Things I’ve Learned About Residencies

I had the honor of planting The City Church in Fort Worth in 2009, then Salt & Light Community in 2021. I did not participate in a church planting residency before planting either, but was on various church staff for ten years before I first planted. So I learned church planting by doing various aspects of ministry. My “informal residency” was learning by doing in the context of my local church.

This experience shaped the past nine years, as I have led national church planting residencies for various organizations. In 2019 and again in 2023, we did a full-scale revision of our residency work. On one hand, The Equipping Group is collaborating with more organizations, churches, and planters than ever before. On the other hand, these revisions came from many lessons learned in training dozens of residents, from many states and beyond, who are now ministering in five countries.

As I reflect on the past eight years and look to the future, I wanted to capture and share five lessons we learned.