RECOMMENDED CARE PRACTICES FOR PASTORS

In addition to a pastor’s personal spiritual disciplines, we offer this model as standard practices for DCP churches and encourage the church to adopt it at the beginning.

For a detailed step by step guide for planting a church with Discover Church Planting click here.

Bless Every Home - A fantastic online tool to help you and your congregation map out your neighborhoods and pray for your neighbors.

The Exchange: A Blog by Ed Stetzer

Church Planting Supersite - a wealth of church resource links indexed by topic

"My Top Ten Church Planting Tips" by Aaron Damiante

iDisciple - Church resources, articles, videos, sermons from leaders such as Andy Stanley, Ravi Zacharias, Tony Evans, Louie Giglio. Accounts are free for pastors.

Preach2Engage - Free monthly sermon outlines with full media elements.

Relevant Magazine - Life, God, Culture & Current Events

YouVersion - an excellent Bible app which includes reading plans

Bible Gateway - Online Bible with virtually every translation in most languages

Life Journal - an excellent tool by Wayne Cordeiro for daily devotions

Outreach.com - Outreach products, banners, print materials, etc. 

The Arda (Association of Religious Data Archives): At your fingertips, a wealth of demographic information about church affiliation and more in your city.

American Values Atlas - Excellent Demographics information

How to design a proposal for Discover Church Planting

These will help walk the church planter through issues such as incorporation, Federal ID number, 501c3 status and reporting.

• Church Planting Administrative Steps (Simple) - DCP church
• Church Planting Administrative Steps (Simple) - Open Bible Church
• Church Planting Administrative Guide - Open Bible - detailed
• Reimbursement Request Form
• Church Planters' Monthly Report
  

• Developing Leaders - Tips on identifying & developing leaders
  
• Designing a Memorial Service
  
• How to Conduct a Wedding and Rehearsal
  
• Sample Budget Worksheet - How to draft a budget
• Funnel of Growth - A simple evaluative tool to get a clear picture of the makeup of your congregation and to consider the steps necessary to get to the next level. 
• Life Community Training Manual  - This is one church's training for transitioning from a quarterly/interest-based small groups model to a relational/missional community model. 
  
• Writing a Leadership Covenant - Questions to consider when helping to define expectations and communicate with church leaders.
• Top Ten Church Planting Mistakes - by Jim Griffith and Bill Easum. These are common mistakes made by church planters. Avoid these and you will avoid a lot of heartache! This is a synopsis of the book that you can find here. 

Click the book icon for a list of recommended church planting books