Church Plant Resident

Southwest Bible Church (SWBC) and the Association of Hill Country Churches is looking to assess, train, and send future church planters to start healthy, reproducing churches across Greater Austin. The churches within our movement have established a 24-month paid residency for future planters. In addition, every church planting resident is required to raise funds to support their church plant. The residency is divided into two equal parts:

• 12 months as 80% staff member / 20% church planter (YEAR 1)
• 12 months as 20% staff member / 80% church planter. (YEAR 2)

Full-time ministry often requires more than 40 hours a week. However, the resident will be careful to not allow ministry to encroach upon the most important areas of his life. A personal devotional life is expected to be vibrant. Commitment to prayer, Scripture, and other spiritual disciplines are expected to be done throughout the week. Along with this, sacrifice, care for, and full commitment to one’s family must remain a high priority.

Here is a high-level overview of weekly responsibilities while in residency:

Year 1

• Personal Development 8-12 hrs
• New Church Plant Development 4-8 hrs
• Staff Responsibilities 25-30 hrs
• Administrative & Organizational Tasks 3-8 hrs
• TOTAL: 40 – 55 hrs

Year 2

• Personal Development 8-12 hrs
• New Church Plant Development 25-30 hrs
• Staff Responsibilities 4-8 hrs
• Administrative & Organizational Tasks 3-8 hrs
• TOTAL: 40 – 55 hrs

Final details related to compensation, start date, ministry responsibilities, and launch timeline will be determined by the SWBC senior pastor and elder council.

During residency, church planters will be given leadership of important ministries and asked to start new initiatives for the sending church. In order to receive final approval to launch, planters are required to hit certain metrics lined out by SWBC church in the areas of (1) building prayer support, (2) recruiting a missional core team, (3) active evangelistic outreach, (4) leadership development, and (5) raising financial support.

SWBC is looking for church planters with a clear call from God, the character of Christ, and the necessary competencies for the work.  To help us assess the compatibility of the potential resident they will be asked to fill out a form modified from our own elder candidate survey.  This will help us identify areas that need deeper discussion and will help the potential resident and the elders/staff of SWBC ensure that we have vision and doctrinal alignment.  In addition, if the applicant proves to be aligned, SWBC will request a series of additional personality, giftings, and strengths assessments to help in developing a custom residency experience and help to know how best to prepare the resident for planting. 

Our belief statements are available online at https://southwestbible.org/what-we-believe