Building a Thriving Church Health Ecosystem Part 6: RESOURCE CHURCHES TO PLANT AND REPLANT CHURCHES

THRIVING TOGETHER BLOG INTRO

For many years, I have shared both the pain and joys of those who work with churches. Like many of you, I have often wondered if there are better ways to thrive together and make a missional impact on our world. It’s not about trying harder; it’s about doing different things in new ways. This involves interrupting our routines and reflecting on our practices.

As a pastoral supervisor, trainer, lecturer, and consultant for churches and non-profits, I strive to provide valuable insights. I hope my posts serve as refreshing water for those planted in churches and leading denominations so we can thrive together.

Please let me know your thoughts in the comments. Or you can reach out to me through my website: www.ianduncum.com.au.

Building a Thriving Church Health Ecosystem Part 6: RESOURCE CHURCHES TO PLANT and REPLANT CHURCHES

dr Ian Duncum

Why resource churches are important

Around 80% of Australians, or approximately 22 million people out of an estimated population of 28 million, do not attend a church at least monthly (NCLS Research). New plants are a key way to reach them with the Gospel.

While the gap between church closures and new church plants appears to be narrowing, plants seem to still lag closures.

Resource churches are one of the most strategic levers you have if you want a genuinely healthy denominational ecosystem rather than a handful of star congregations surrounded by decline. They are God’s gift to planting new churches, adopting and re‑planting dying ones, and raising the next generation of planters.

Resource Churches: Catalysts for Planting, Replanting and Multiplying

In every denomination there are a small number of churches with enough people, leaders and finance to do more than survive: they can resource others. The question is not whether those churches exist; the question is whether those strengths are being deployed for multiplication or absorbed in maintaining one successful local ministry.

This is where the idea of a resource church comes in. In the Church of England, Bishop Ric Thorpe has done a huge amount of work on city‑centre resource churches and their role in enabling church planting across dioceses. His doctoral research on “City Centre Resource Churches: Training to Enable Church Planting” explores how larger, strategic churches can become planting bases rather than destinations. In his wider teaching and practice on church planting, he consistently returns to the same conviction: healthy churches are called to reproduce.^[1][2][3][4]

If we want a healthy denominational ecosystem, we must intentionally cultivate resource churches that plant, replant and raise planters.

What is a Resource Church?

A resource church is a larger, relatively healthy congregation that intentionally uses its capacity to bless and multiply other churches, not simply to grow itself. It has at least three characteristics:

1. Strategic location and visibility (often city‑centre or regional hub).

2. Surplus capacity – in leaders, money, ministries and infrastructure.

3. A planting and sending mandate agreed with denominational leaders.

Ric Thorpe’s story in the Church of England is instructive. Tasked as the first Bishop of Islington to support church planting, he helped dioceses designate specific churches as resource churches and trained bishops and senior teams to think in those terms. These churches became bases for multiple plants and revitalisations, sometimes sending dozens of people and staff into struggling parishes or new communities.^[5][4][6]

Translated into your context, a resource church is any church that:

• can send a core team to plant or replant;

• can host and train interns and residents with planting callings;

• can offer coaching and practical help (systems, kids ministry, worship, governance) to revitalisation projects;

• and is willing to have its best people leave for the sake of the Kingdom.

Without that last point, you do not yet have a resource church. You have a large church.

Planting and Re‑Planting: Adoption Merger as Mission

When people hear “church planting”, they often imagine a brand‑new congregation starting in a school hall. But in a post‑Christendom environment, a massive part of multiplication will come through replanting – especially through adoption merger models.

Why adoption mergerS matter

Across the Western world, more churches are closing their doors each year. The end of one congregation’s life does not have to mean the end of gospel witness in that community. In adoption/merger language, a healthier church adopts a struggling church; the struggling church’s building and assets become a campus or location of the adopting church.^[7][8]

This can look like:

• a resource church sending a new leadership team and core volunteers into a declining congregation;

• the two churches agreeing to a new shared identity, with fresh vision and governance;

• the original church’s building becoming a new site of the resource church, but with deep honour for its history and people.

Done badly, this feels like a takeover. Done well, it is an act of resurrection.

A healthy denominational ecosystem needs clear frameworks for:

• when a church should seek adoption;

• how mergers are discerned and negotiated;

• and how resource churches are chosen and supported for this work.

You can read about a church I consulted with that went from 10 attenders to 120 attenders in two years through an adoption merger with Manly Life Church. More importantly, it is now reaching its local community effectively for Jesus!

www.ianduncum.com.au

CHURCH REVITALIZATION MULTISITE CHURCH

Dr Ian Duncum, 1 July 2023I have consulted with over 150 churches and I am the author of The Impact of Church Consultancy [1], so I have both practical and academic experience in working for church renewal and growth. Some of those consultancies have been church mergers of different types. Having just orchestrated an adoption merger between a church I have been consulting with (Haberfield Baptist Church) and a larger, healthy church (Manly Life Church) I would like to reflect on four things: •

Funding Church Planting Interns in Larger Churches

None of this works unless we have an ongoing pipeline of planters and teams. One of the most effective, scalable tools your denomination can adopt is funded church planting internships in larger churches.

Why internships?

Church planting movements around the world have learned that the key to more plants is more trained planters. Exponential and others argue that denominations must prioritise leadership pipelines and training centres that raise planters, not just pastors.^[9][10]

A planting internship within a resource church can:

• Identify and test calling – giving emerging leaders 12–24 months to explore whether church planting is really for them.

• Embed multiplication DNA – interns immerse in a church where planting is normal, not exceptional.

• Provide hands‑on experience – they lead groups, preach, run outreach, recruit volunteers, and learn how systems actually work.

• Build relational trust – between the intern, the resource church leadership, and denominational leaders who may later send and support them.

How to structure it

A basic template:

• 1–2 year placement in a recognised resource church (or very healthy larger church).

• A clear curriculum: theology of mission, leadership, fundraising, systems, contextualisation (here books like Ric Thorpe’s practical guides to planting are excellent anchors).^[2][4]

• Supervised ministry: interns lead ministries with coaching and regular feedback.

• Discernment and deployment: year 1 focuses on structured learning; year 2 on designing a specific planting or replanting project.

Crucially, this requires denominational and local investment. Exponential notes that financial assistance to assess, train and coach planters is critical – internships are one of the most direct uses of that money.^[9]

Churches Over 150: From “Big Enough” to “Sent Enough”

In many traditions, a church with 150+ weekly attenders is considered “big enough” to stop worrying about survival. (Stetzer notes that churches over 400 attenders tend not to plant). Bills can be paid, staff hired, programs run. But from a Kingdom perspective, that size is precisely when a congregation should be activated for multiplication.

Why the 150 threshold matters

Sociologically, 150 is often cited as a rough threshold at which relational dynamics change – you move from everyone knowing everyone to more structured leadership and systems. Once those systems exist, a church can either:

• use them to consolidate internal life, or

• use them to send teams and resources beyond itself.

A healthy denominational ecosystem cannot afford for churches over 150 to settle into maintenance. Rather, they need to:

1. Adopt a multiplication mindset – success is not just attendance growth but sending people, money and leaders to new works. Exponential calls this shift “changing the goalposts from growth to multiplication.”^[10][9]

2. Develop a planting vision – a concrete picture of the kinds of communities they will plant or re‑plant over the next decade.

3. Create planting plans – timelines, budgets, leadership development, and partnership agreements with their denomination.

Practically activating churches over 150

Denominational leaders can:

• Name and commission specific churches over 150 as emerging resource churches.

• Invite them into a learning cohort focused on planting and adoption/replanting models (drawing on frameworks like Ric Thorpe’s resource church model and multi‑site/merger learnings).^[3][8][5]

• Require each such church to develop a 5‑ to 10‑year multiplication plan: “When, where, and with whom will we plant or replant?”

• Tie some forms of grant funding or strategic support to clear multiplication commitments (e.g., “We will send a planting intern every two years”).

Building a Denominational Ecosystem, Not Just Isolated Success

Resource churches, adoption/replanting, internships and multiplication‑minded larger churches are all pieces of one puzzle: ecosystem health.

What a healthy ecosystem looks like

In a healthy denominational ecosystem:

• Bishops/denominational leaders:

  • identify and coach resource churches;

  • broker adoption/merger conversations;

  • secure funding for internships and training;

  • and keep the macro vision clear – churches planting churches that plant churches.^[3][9]

• Resource churches:

  • host interns and training;

  • send planting teams and revitalisation teams;

  • model generous, outward‑focused culture;

  • and act as hubs for regional collaboration.^[4][5]

• Churches over 150:

  • see themselves as potential senders, not stable endpoints;

  • invest in leadership pipelines;

  • and commit to a realistic, faith‑filled planting schedule.^[10][9]

• Smaller or struggling churches:

  • are not left to decline quietly;

  • are invited into honest conversations about adoption, merger or revitalisation;

  • and receive concrete help when they seek it.^[8][7]

The role of teaching and theology

This is not just strategy; it’s discipleship. Ric Thorpe and others stress that church planting grows out of prayer, vision and obedience. Teaching on the missional nature of the church, the sending life of God, and the New Testament pattern of planting and strengthening communities is essential. If your people see multiplication as “optional extra ministry” rather than basic obedience, you will never see an ecosystem shift.^[2][4]

Concrete Steps for Denominations

To land this practically, here are steps a denomination or network can take in the next 2–3 years:

1. Name 3–10 current or potential resource churches. Meet with their leaders, share the vision, and ask whether they are willing to become planting and replanting hubs.

2. Launch a planting internship pathway.

   • Develop a one‑page profile of a planting intern.

   • Offer partial funding to 5–10 larger churches to host interns for 12–24 months.

   • Build a simple curriculum drawing on existing planting courses and books (including Ric Thorpe’s material).^[4][2]

3. Create an adoption/replant playbook. Using available resources on mergers and adoptions, outline the theological basis, process steps, legal considerations, and pastoral guidelines.^[7][8]

4. Gather all churches over 150 for a multiplication forum. Facilitate a day where they hear stories of planting and replanting, reflect on Exponential’s call to value multiplication over mere growth, and workshop first‑step planting visions.^[9][10]

5. Align funding with multiplication. Adjust grant criteria so that funds increasingly support training planters, planting teams, and replant initiatives, not just building maintenance and internal programs.

6. Encourage all churches to make disciples who make other disciples, and develop leaders who reproduce leaders. This is the engine room of planting.

A Call to Courage

Every element of this ecosystem requires courage:

• for larger churches to let go of beloved leaders and members (in my experience they are quickly replaced by new people);

• for struggling churches to face their reality and consider adoption;

• for interns to walk away from safer roles into risky pioneering work;

• for denominational leaders to redirect funds and focus away from preservation and revitalisation toward multiplication.

Resource churches are not a silver bullet. But they are a proven, scalable tool for catalysing planting and replanting, especially when combined with funded internships and a clear expectation that churches over 150 will live as sending, multiplying congregations.

In a time when many are predicting the slow decline of denominational churches, a different future is possible: a network of churches that are small or large, urban or rural, historic or new – but all bound together by the conviction that healthy churches plant and replant churches.

The question for your denomination is simple: Which of your churches will choose to become resource churches, and when will you start funding the people who will plant from them?

SOURCES

1. https://place.asburyseminary.edu/ecommonsatsdissertations/1467/

2. https://plantanglican.org/resource/how-to-plant-a-church-ric-thorpes-essential-guide-for-new-worship-communities/

3. https://cte.org.uk/app/uploads/2021/06/Resource-Churches-Ric-Thorpe.pdf

4. https://www.benefacttrust.co.uk/support/advice-and-resources/top-tips-for-church-planting/

5. https://ccx.org.uk/resource/resource-churches/

6. https://www.linkedin.com/in/ricthorpe

7. https://churchrenew.org/comparing-five-church-planting-models/

8. https://converge.org/multisite-merger-fostering-adopting-whats-in-your-churchs-future/

9. https://exponential.org.au/we-need-more-church-planters/

10. https://evangelisminaustralia.com/ignitingacultureofmultiplication/

© 2026 Ian Duncum. All rights reserved. No reproduction without written permission.

The content provided on Ian Duncum Consulting is for educational and informational purposes only and does not constitute professional advice for your own situation. Please consult with the relevant certified medical/financial/legal professional in your country and state before making any decisions based on this information. Reliance on any information provided by us is solely at your own risk.

I sometimes use AI tools to support my ideas and writing.

Rev Dr Ian Duncum is a trained and accredited church consultant with over 20 years of experience with non-profit enterprises and churches across several denominations. This includes denominational leadership in church health, church planting, consultancy training, and adjunct lecturing & research in the tertiary education sector. An accredited minister with a track record of growing churches, Ian trains church consultants, facilitates training for ministers and leaders, and supervises pastors and other leaders. Ian can be contacted at ian@ianduncum.com.au.