Better Together

Saturate believes that God’s people are better as we labor alongside and serve together. Every follower of Jesus has some strengths and some needs, and God designed each church to thrive as we mutually give and receive from each other.

The same is true of churches, organizations, and denominations. We’re each one small piece of the pie in any city or region… and we’re at our best when we can lay aside secondary differences and come together in unity for mission, ministry, and collaborative training.

To that end, one of the greatest joys of Saturate’s residencies is the truly collaborative nature. One region’s 2020-21 residency, for example, involves residents from Lutheran, Acts 29, two different Baptist networks, and Soma churches. Trainers span various denominations, each able to bring their organization’s strengths for residents to glean from, without any one organization having to be experts in every pastoral competency.

Further, it is a beautiful thing when a local church—who knows a resident couple best, and sees them most regularly —has the help of a residency—where specific conversations are had and specific competencies are trained and affirmed—in training up and sending out their church planting/pastoral resident.

Jon Bricker, an Acts 29 pastor in Illinois, shares his experience of sending a resident through Saturate’s collaborative Regional Residency. Jon discusses how both the multi-organization reality of the residency and the partnership with his local church, have served him and his church in their desire to send out church planters.

As a sending church, we have found the Saturate Residency to be exactly what we were looking for. We did not have the experience and resources to feel confident in launching our own residency program, but partnering with Saturate has allowed us to offer what we can—church-based experience, pastoral care and coaching—while Saturate has provided additional coaching, gospel-centered content, peer-based community through the cohort, and very practical assignments.

Saturate has served our church as true “partners” through regular conversation and input, sharing our resident’s assignments with our church leadership, and through guiding us in creating an individualized development plan for our resident according to his particular growth areas. All of the coaching, input, and content Saturate has provided us has led to significant “breakthroughs” and growth opportunities in our resident.

During one of our “Host Church” Zoom calls, I was able to compare what I was seeing in our resident with what other leaders in the Saturate Residency saw in his assignments and as he interacted with his cohort. That time of “comparing notes” led to the first of several crucial coaching conversations I was able to have with our resident as he was becoming increasingly aware of some significant areas of unbelief in his life.

As a church committed to identifying, developing, and sending out leaders for the glory of God, Saturate affords us the opportunity to train and equip these emerging church leaders and planters even as we lack the resources to host a residency on our own. In Saturate, we have found the perfect residency partner.

–> Check out a few other blogs and resources:

• How Every Church Can Plant Churches
• Church Planting for Gospel Saturation
• Pitfalls to Avoid When Planting