What do you get when you combine someone with a love for church planting and yet skills and calling for second chair leadership? You get Second Chair Church Planting.

​

Flowing out of a desire to strengthen church plants and expand Gospel impact, Second Chair was founded to serve church planters as they begin planting. The germ of the idea started over ten years ago as I was in a church planting coaching triad. The two church planters I gathered with did an amazing job of leading their church plants. We used to kid each other though of what it would look like if I could come alongside them for administration, leadership development, and disciple-making support.

​

As I look over my life, I could divide it into 3 twenty year chunks or phases. The first was the Education Foundation phase (1957-1977). The next I call the Engineering Phase (1978-1998). Then came the call to Gospel Ministry Phase (1998-present). As I have been asking the Lord what the next twenty years would hold (God willing) and the desire to begin a new adventure I call Second Chair Church Planting.

​

One inspiration for Second Chair is the apostle Paul’s description of ministry in Corinth.

​

I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth. So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God who gives the growth.

He who plants and he who waters are one, and each will receive his wages according to his labor.

​

Paul and Apollos had complementary roles in Corinth, a pattern followed by Paul with Barnabas, Silas, and Timothy.

​

Yet most church planters, though they have a good core group, often are planting alone. What if? What if I could come alongside them to raise up a ministry partner while fulfilling a second chair role. I would need to be supported myself through my own support raising team, so that I would not initially add any burden to the already financially lean church plant.

​

Hence, Second Chair Church Planting was born.

​

​

​

​

​

​