ALPHARETTA, Ga. – Today, the North American Mission Board’s Send Network relaunched a website dedicated to resourcing pastors and church planters to fuel the multiplication of new congregations. The site, NewChurches.com, features articles, a podcast and free web courses from experienced ministry leaders.
NewChurches.com began several years ago as an initiative of Lifeway, designed and led by Ed Stetzer who was then with Lifeway but now heads the Billy Graham Center at Wheaton College and serves as dean of their School of Mission, Ministry and Leadership. Trevin Wax, NAMB’s vice president for resources and research, has spearheaded the development of the site’s redesign and relaunch, and moving forward, the site will be powered by Send Network.
“My heart beats for the local church,” said Wax. “One of the reasons I was excited to step into this new role at NAMB was because it would provide me with more opportunities to lead a team dedicated to serving pastors and planters with good resources that help them fulfill the Great Commission.”
The site is free for anyone to use. The revamped articles and podcasts are open to everyone. The web courses—which includes a church planting masterclass, courses on bivocational ministry, and developing a core team, among many others—are free to anyone, with a simple registration.
The list of teachers includes renowned church planting and ministry leaders like Matt Chandler, J.D. Greear, Ed Stetzer and Dhati Lewis. Each course features teaching from practitioners who have served in churches and on the mission field. New courses will routinely be developed and added to the list of options, including courses conducted in Spanish for the Hispanic context.
“Send Network has long brought the best church planters and thought leaders to the table,” Wax said. “We want to be open-handed with what God has blessed us with. We designed New Churches to be a one-stop shop for Christians everywhere to find reliable resources to start new churches well.”
One of the primary goals of NewChurches.com is to inspire, equip and mobilize more church planting missionaries to reach underreached communities, those that do not have many strong, gospel proclaiming churches. These resources will support both church planting missionaries on the field as well as established churches that are looking to engage the mission of planting churches.
“Over the last decade, Send Network has become a leader in church planting across North America,” said Send Network president Dhati Lewis. “Now, through NewChurches.com, we have the opportunity for our leaders to share what they’ve learned and help mobilize more church planters to plant churches everywhere for everyone.”
Wax joined NAMB’s team at the beginning of August of 2021 to create and cultivate more resources that serve pastors and church planters, helping to enable them to launch churches and ministries that multiply and reach more people with the gospel.
“It’s our hope,” Wax said, “that God will use this site and these resources to inspire and mobilize the next wave of church planters, senders and supporters — resulting in new churches across North America and beyond.”