The 52-Week Guide to Church Planting
One year. Seven-week rhythms. A lifetime of church-planting wisdom — and a community of brothers walking the road with you. The Guide is free, and the next cohort is forming now.
Is your church thinking about planting?
Whether you’re discerning a plant or already in the process, the 52-Week Guide walks your planter through the calling, the cost, and the practical craft of planting a multiplying church — one year, seven-week rhythms, in a community of brothers. The Guide is free, and the next cohort is forming now.
“If I had a church planter living near me, and we met for just one hour a week for a year — what would I want to share with him?”
Jon Shuler · founder of NAMS
Not a curriculum to master. A road walked together.
Nearly fifty years of planting churches around the world — and pouring into the men who plant them — distilled into a year-long conversation. The Guide is as much about the life of the planter, his marriage, and his walk with God as it is about the mechanics of the plant. And it is built on a single conviction: what we learn together is meant to be given away.
Built for the church that’s ready to plant.
If your church is sending a planter — or sensing the call to — the Guide gives him nearly fifty years of church-planting wisdom, walked one year at a time. It tends to the whole planter: his marriage, his walk with God, and the practical craft of the plant — so the man your church sends out is formed, not merely informed. And it is built on a single conviction: what we learn together is meant to be given away.
Seven-week rhythms
The year unfolds in seven-week units, with built-in seasons of rest, retreat, and review. Long enough to form a planter, not merely inform one.
Conversation, not lecture
Each gathering pairs teaching with real conversation — because the questions you bring matter as much as the answers we share.
The whole planter
The calling and the cost, the marriage and family, the discipline of the work — and the resolve never to plant alone.
No one should plant alone.
Jesus sent his disciples out in twos — even to fetch a donkey. The only two times Scripture shows them alone are Judas's betrayal and Peter's denial. Planting was never meant to be done in isolation. The Guide exists to build the network of brothers who can stand beside you — some thriving, some weary, none of them on the road by themselves.
Where the first weeks lead.
The year begins where every church plant has to begin — not with a launch plan, but with the questions underneath it. A glimpse of the opening weeks:
Why Plant?
Calling, conviction, and the church you actually mean.
What Kind of Church?
Putting the ten-year picture into words.
Are You Sure It's God?
Discerning a true call from a good idea.
And forty-nine more
The rest of the year unfolds week by week within the cohort — from the foundations of the calling through the long, practical work of planting a multiplying church.
The waitlist is open.
We're walking through this first edition with a small group, refining it as we go. When the next cohort opens, we want you with us. The Guide is free; NAMS is sustained by partners who believe in raising up the next generation of church planters. Add your name, and we'll be the first to tell you when the next group begins.
The waitlist is open.
We're walking through this first edition with a small group, refining it as we go. When the next cohort opens, we'd love your planter with us. The Guide is free; NAMS is sustained by partners who believe in raising up the next generation of church planters. Add a name below, or email the team to talk it through first.