There were several new ideas discussed at the recent ARC Lead Team meeting in Orlando. As many of you know. In the past we have had several of our churches launch video campuses that we never claimed as church plants. But after examining the issue we realized that there is no difference except that the message is on video at the campuses. As a matter of fact, many churches are using video at the main campus more often than ever. There are pastors, worship teams, small groups, children and youth ministries, counseling and other similarities that would  qualify a multi-site campus as a church plant. ARC already worked with Chris Surratt to do a Seacoast plant in Greenville, SC that is a video venue and now we will expand to other churches. We are not yet sure of what it will take for a church outside of ARC to qualify to plant campuses  through ARC, but partnership will probably one of the requirements as well as agreement on beliefs and DNA issues. But we will see. It opens many new doors for the ever growing church planting movement.

Re-launch your church! Another church planting strategy is to help existing churches of less than 2-3 years old that did not get a good start re-launch. So if you want to re-launch your church, contact us for more information at www.relatedchurches.com.

We also discussed a 9 Day Residency program that we will use for more in depth training for church planters. We will run one later this fall and see how effective and workable it is. Another idea discussed was a DNA weekend for existing churches to refresh or learn for the first time what it takes to employ the successful ARC model.

Thanks to a great team and staff that made the Lead Team retreat a great success.