EMERGE: A Venture Capital Fund Accelerating the Multiplication of Churches & Leaders

The Steering Committee for a new nationwide multiplication initiative met recently to organize, establish purpose & values, and set direction.  It was an invigorating meeting that energized the spirits of each person present!  This is an incredible partnership between local churches and regional ministries intended to produce lasting Kingdom advancement.  The involvement of any church and state ministry – any individual for that matter – is welcome.  You will hear more about this as soon as some financial details are in place.

The initiative is called EMERGE.  The tag line is “We help the daring advance the Kingdom.” 

Emerge is a venture capital fund accelerating the multiplication of churches and leaders. The name reflects the basic investment strategy of the fund. To determine where Emerge will invest resources the Steering Committee is asking the following questions:

• Where do we see the kingdom emerging?
• Where do we see a compelling, forward-focused, strategic vision emerging?
• Where do we see daring leadership emerging?

When there is a convergence of those three things (along with other more specific criteria that will be established), Emerge will invest to accelerate the Kingdom impact.

EMERGE will provide financial grants in four areas.

1)  New church plants.

2)  The reclamation and re-start of churches that have come to the end of their

lifecycle.

3)  The launching of new campuses connected to an existing church.

4)  The development of emerging leadership pipelines.

Clear criteria will be established for each of these four areas and will be communicated in the grant application process.

The process will primarily be three-fold:

• IDENTIFY where God is already at work to multiply the church, raise up new

leaders, advance the kingdom, and make Jesus the subject.

• EVALUATE specific opportunities to determine viability of the strategy, strength of local leadership, unique kingdom impact, and long-term viability.
• RESOURCE qualifying initiatives to accelerate the planting of new

churches, the launching of new campuses, the reclamation of churches being made new, and the raising up of daring new leaders.

This approach relies on trusted clusters who apply for the grants, develop the strategy, identify and raise up leadership, oversee the initiative and, if needed, secure outside consulting. These trusted clusters could be a group of local churches, a state/region partnership with a local church, a large multi-staff church, state/regions partnering together or a number of other possible configurations.  As you can see from this description, Emerge will not lead or manage local initiatives.

As you may already know, the EMERGE Steering Committee currently consists of six pastors (Matt Anderson, David Colp, Robbie Davis, Geremy Dixon, Marty Grubbs & Rod Stafford) and four regional pastors (Don Doe, Ken Love, Steve Rennick & Doug Talley). Rod is serving as the facilitator of the group. In an attempt to maintain the grassroots feel of this initiative, the national office is not on the Steering Committee.  However, the desire is to maintain a close and transparent relationship. Toward this end, the Steering Committee has asked Matt Anderson to serve as the liaison to Church of God Ministries. This has already been communicated to the national office, and Bob Moss has already communicated his openness to providing whatever support is needed in this important Kingdom work. The supportive and collaborative attitude of CHOG Ministries is deeply appreciated.

As soon as the appropriate paperwork is completed and the bank account is set up, information will be communicated so contributions can be received for this venture capital fund.

The basic timeline for the next three years is this:

2017 – Raise first round of funding.

2018 – Identify, evaluate & resource first round of church-multiplying initiatives.

– Raise second round of funding.

2019 – Evaluate progress of previously funded initiatives.

– Identify, evaluate & resource second round of initiatives.

– Raise third round of funding.

There are so many exciting things happening in the Church of God right now! More and more churches and states are trying to find new and innovative ways to make Jesus the subject. This initiative is just another effort to accomplish that vision, specifically in the area of church multiplication.

The timing for this has never been more crucial. Only 7% of Lead Pastors in the CHOG are under the age of 40. That’s not a Movement issue. It’s a Kingdom issue. Where is the next-generation of culture-restoring, kingdom-advancing, world-changing leaders coming from? Who are the ones positioned to change the trajectory of this kingdom-limiting trend? It’s folks like us who God has uniquely positioned to empower the next generation of daring leaders. Sacred stuff!

Let me know if you have any questions. Would love to connect!

Blessings,

Doug Talley and Rod Stafford

EMERGE:  “We help the daring advance the kingdom.”