About Us
Dr. John Worcester
John, founder of Church Planting Leadership (CPL), www.ChurchPlanting.net, focuses on planting churches that reach the unreached and equipping churches to discover, develop, and deploy leaders in order to fill the earth with healthy, reproducing churches. John is working are a Church Planting Specialist for CNBC which partners with NAMB. John is also currently consulting with Saddleback Church to develop their church planting training curriculum. John and his invaluable church planting teammate wife, Diane, have been planting churches and equipping church planting leaders for 33 years. They have raised two sets of twin sons who are all planting college ministries or churches.
SEQUENTIAL CHURCH PLANTING
John and Diane have sought to follow the example of the Apostle Paul by intentionally planting one church after another. The result has been over 20 church-like expressions of God’s kingdom, and apprenticed planters who have started another 20 churches. These churches and their offspring have over 20,000 regularly attending. Seven times they have planted mid-sized churches that grew to over 100-200 regular attendees in the first couple of years, and several of these churches have grown much larger. Most of these mid-sized churches have reproduced daughter churches. Typically these plants have been in older suburban areas of major cities. This planting strategy has been conducive for research and development, as well as “on the job” apprenticeships.
COACHING AND TRAINING CHURCH PLANTERS
In addition to the church plants mentioned above John has personally coached scores of other successful church planters. In the USA he has trained a couple of thousand church planters from over 30 countries, and 42 denominations. While on Saddleback staff he created a Purpose Driven Church Planting Basic Training curriculum that contextualizes and practically applies the Biblical principles of church planting practiced by Jesus and Paul.
INTERNATIONAL TRAINING
John has traveled to about 20 counties and trained all levels of church planting leaders. While serving as missionaries in Moscow, Russia, for two years (1993-1995), John was responsible for the development of a two-year church planter training curriculum. He was also the lead trainer that implemented this training process that resulted in starting over 600 new churches and another 600 preaching points in the Former Soviet Union. He has also trained over 4000 other planters in India, China, Ukraine, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Moldova, Belarus, Latvia, Japan, Mongolia, Nepal, Philippians, Myanmar, Thailand, Brazil, Uruguay, Paraguay, Canada, and New Zealand. In 2000 and 2001 he trained all the International Mission Board missionaries in Eastern South America.
EDUCATIONAL BACKGROUND
- High School, 1969, Wellington, Ohio. Honor Society, State Champion Pole Vault
- University of Florida. 1974, BA Psychology, track scholarship
- Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, Masters of Divinity, 1978
- Doctor of Ministry at Golden Gate Baptist Theological Seminary, 2000
INNOVATIONS IN CHURCH PLANTING
CHURCH PLANTER APPRENTICESHIPS, 1982-2011
John and Diane have been apprenticing church planters as they planted churches. Typically an apprentice lived with or near the Worcester’s and were trained through relational, on the job training. Two examples: Ron Johnson, apprenticed in San Francisco during the Bay Marin plant and since then has planted a reproducing church in Denver which is now over 1000, and Ron is currently planting again in Denver. Bob Johnson (not related to Ron) apprenticed in one of the Huntington Beach plants and has now planted a church of 900 in San Diego.
MID-SIZED, MULTI-CAMPUS NEIGHBORHOOD CHURCHES, 2008-2011
This strategy was used in San Diego and yielded three churches and three student ministries in three years. It focuses on reaching spiritually ripe lost people in neighborhoods of about 20,000 homes through a series of launch services. After planting Mission Trails Church in 2008, John’s church planter apprentice was sent to plant the second church in 2009. Then in 2010, a second campus of first Mission Trails was launched. These three churches, along with the three student ministry starts have about 800 regular attendees worshipping. All three churches now have long-term pastors, and are making plans to reproduce. It is also worth noting that during the same time period the main sponsor church of these efforts (Pathways Church) grew by more than 400 regular attendees after being plateaued for five years. The net gain this orchard of churches was 1200+.
UNIVERSITY MINISTRY START-UPS, 2009-2011
John and Diane enjoy helping equip and coach their four sons start evangelistic campus ministries. Six have been started in three years, three in San Diego, one in Chico, Ca, and two in China.
San Diego Church Planting Alliance, www.SDCPAlliance.com, 2011
John catalyzed a network of evangelical planters, pastors and visionary leaders with the purpose of filling San Diego County with healthy churches.
TURNING A DYING CHURCH INTO CHURCH PLANTING CENTER, 2007
John and Diane spent a year in Burbank restarting and rehabbing an old downtown church. This church now has six congregations meeting in the building and the original church is now growing.
TEAM CHUCH, 2002-2006
This new model of a church planting church in Fort Worth started ten churches in four years. John recruited, assessed, coached, and trained, and supervised the church planters who became part of the Team Church orchard of churches. Team Church met on Sunday PM and sent out teams on Sunday AM to serve their planters. They went on weekly “mini-mission trips” and helped with children’s ministry, evangelism, and worship in the community church plants. Now over 6000 people are attending these church plants or their offspring.
ACTS STRATEGY, 1996-2001
While contracting with Tarrant Baptist Association, Fort Worth, and then while working on Saddleback Church staff, John pioneered a comprehensive church planting equipping strategy called the ACTS Strategy that Assesses, Coaches, Trains, and Serves church planters. Over 5000 planters have been better equipped to plant through various aspects of ACTS.
CONTEMPORARY CHURCH PLANTING STRATEGIES, 1978-20011
John and Diane started purpose driven type churches, with contemporary music and style, cell groups, and neutral church names since as far back as 1978. They were some of early pioneers of monthly preview services and approaches to starting with a small launch team and a strongly marketed launch.
REFERENCES
“John knows as much about the realities of church planting as anyone I know. I’ve watched him plant church after church for 30 years. John has trained ordinary, imperfect people to plant churches with great results! He provides the distilled wisdom of a seasoned veteran and to ignore his advice would be foolish.”” Rick Warren, Saddleback Church
“John Worcester is a rare breed. He combines a heart for pastors with the latest research in church planting. Since his experience is both national and international, there are few persons as equipped as John to train planters.” Ed Stetzer, Lifeway
“People come and go – but some stay and sow seeds and are busy harvesting their whole life – that’s John Worcester. John is a great, teacher, trainer, mentor, consultant for church planting and church planters. He has a breadth of experience that started in the US but has taken him around the world. I commend him to you and believe in him. I’m always excited when young planters I know are connecting with him.” Bob Roberts, Northwood Church, Glocal Net
“John and Diane have a genuine heart for those without Christ. They live simply, sacrificially, and strategically…focusing resources on raising up future leaders and planters, while seeking out local, national and international opportunities to spread the Gospel. For 25 years, we have seen them consistently launch, influence and encourage the multiplication of Kingdom effort.” Phil & Anne Herrington, Pathways Church, Santee, CA
“Over the thirty years I have known John Worcester, he has shown himself to be a man of integrity and of a sincere walk with the Lord. His training is extremely practical yet applicable to a wide array of church planting situations.” Harold Bullock, Hope Church, Ft. Worth, Texas
“No one understands complexities and challenges of church planting better than John Worcester. I mean no one! He is a practitioner with experience in both attractional and missional models of church planting. He’s done it, so he actually knows what he’s talking about.”
Shawn Lovejoy, Lead Pastor, MountainLakeChurch.org, ChurchPlanters.com
“It is my privilege to write about the recently concluded church planting training conducted in our region among our missionaries. Last year John Worcester taught all of the missionaries in our region Church Planting from a Purpose-Driven perspective. Due to the enthusiastic response from our missionary church-planting practitioners, I invited John to write a new course for this year. Purpose-Driven Church Planting II was a huge success. The evaluations this year were even better than last year (and they were wonderful last year). Missionary after missionary wrote that this training helped them with the practical, “how to” aspects of starting multiple churches. Many said that this training was the best church planting training they had received in their careers. I agree.” Robin Hadaway, Former Regional Leader for Eastern South America of the International Mission Board (IMB)