Launch: Starting a New Church from Scratch

Starting a church from scratch? Start here! Launch offers specific strategies for beginning a church with no members, no money, and no staff. Readers get clear, practical how-to strategies for quickly raising funds, creating a team, planning services, effective evangelism, and rapidly developing a growing membership. Specific advice is included for reaching that often difficult-to-target demographic, the 20- to 40-year-old. Now thoroughly revised and expanded to keep up with the ever-changing landscape of church planting.

Nelson Searcy is the founding and lead pastor of The Journey Church. Started in 2002 in New York City, this groundbreaking church sees the majority of its growth coming from new believers and currently meets in locations in Manhattan, Queens, and Staten Island, as well as additional locations in San Francisco and Boca Raton. Nelson is the recipient of the prestigious 2013 Donald A. McGavran Award for Outstanding Leadership in Great Commission Research. He is the author of more than seventy-five church growth resources and twelve books, including The Generosity Ladder, Maximize, Connect, and Ignite. Nelson is also an experienced church planter, coach, and church-growth strategist. Before founding The Journey, he served as the director of the Purpose Driven Community at Saddleback Church. He is also the founder of ChurchLeaderInsights.com and the Renegade Pastors Network.

Kerrick Thomas is a teaching pastor at The Journey Church and regularly co-leads training events with Nelson Searcy. Prior to his move to New York to plant The Journey, he received a Masters of Divinity from Princeton Theological Seminary.

Jennifer Dykes Henson is a writer, wife, and mom to two young girls. She has coauthored several bestselling books, including The Generosity Ladder and Tongue Pierced. Previously, Jennifer worked with Dr. Charles Stanley as the marketing communications manager for In Touch Ministries. She lives with her family in Atlanta, Georgia.