Every church planting conversation starts with the pastor. But what if the real engine of a healthy church plant is a group of ordinary, unpaid people who reorient their entire lives around a mission?
To be clear, finding the right pastor to lead a new church is critical. We need God to raise up and set apart leaders to preach and shepherd, but the paid staff leaders aren’t the only critical leaders needed. How radical would it be if 50-70 people would pack up and move to a new city to reach a new group of people? If a sending church is looking to sustain a church planting movement year after year, where would you find that never-ending pool of goers?
Church Planting Movements Need The Goers
Every sustainable, repeatable church planting system, especially in a large launch model, has to find the goers. The pastor and other staff members are critical, the startup funding is integral, but getting the goers is essential for the life and the health of the church plant. When a pastor moves to a new city to plant a church, residents may be intrigued but they also know that pastor has a paycheck and a stake in whether they join the church. When a 23-year-old decides what city to move to and what job to take simply based on helping a new church get launched, people in the city take notice. When God’s will for their life isn’t just the job offer with the most zeroes at the end but rather includes Kingdom investment and Kingdom return, the world sees that. They wonder, “What would compel someone to do that?” That’s a perfect setup to share the beauty of the gospel and the reality that they too can have purpose and meaning and mission worth leveraging their whole life for.
It is often said that the first 50 people in the door of a new church will set the culture, meaning it is critically important to get the right 50 in the door first. Who better to set and shape the culture of your church than people who were willing to move across the city or the country to help start it? Those committed goers who relocate their lives for the sake of a church plant will give generously, serve faithfully, invite regularly, and live boldly on mission for the sake of the Kingdom and for the health of the church.
The big question: Where do you find them? And more importantly for sending churches looking to regularly send out church plants: Where do you find them repeatedly? I tell church planters regularly that they should ask 40 and 50-year-olds to go on their church plant because if they say yes, they will bring maturity and stability, and immeasurable health to the plant.
But those families have stable careers, decades-long friendships, and kids involved in every activity imaginable. The barrier for that demographic is not insurmountable, but it is high. If only there was a demographic of people who moved to your city for a defined period of time with the expressed intent of leaving and going somewhere else – well equipped and well prepared to make an impact elsewhere!
Ministry Through College Students
The story of Salt Network has been a strategic evolution from a ministry to college students to a ministry through college students. Born out of a desire to see college students reached and discipled inside the context of a local church, now by the grace of God our network has found a strategy that is fueling church planting sustainably, even as our church planting numbers grow and accelerate. Why? Because God allowed us to see that not only are college students in the most critical decision-making phase of their life, but they are in the most mobile and flexible stage of life as well.
They will typically decide who to marry, what to do for a career, and where to live – all within a few years between the ages of 18-22. Many will also make the most important decision in life of whether or not to walk with Jesus and give their life for His vision and His Kingdom. For those students who say yes to Jesus, when they finish school, receive that diploma, and their apartment lease expires at the end of the month, they become one of the most powerful, mobile forces for Kingdom expansion and church planting.
Someone in their forties might move if you can convince them. The majority of college graduates will move regardless of what you do.
Recent college graduates don’t just automatically become gospel-centered laborers in the harvest field; however, it is the result of work done over years of intentional discipleship. From the moment a student gives their life to Christ, our discipleship pathway helps them see how God wants to grow and refine them but also use them to help others see the beauty of the gospel. They are invited into leading others in small group discipleship, reaching their peers who don’t know Jesus, and are constantly presented a vision for their life of what it would look like to say “yes” to Jesus with every aspect of their life.
By the time college students are getting ready to graduate, the idea of moving to join a church plant doesn’t feel radical – for many it feels like a natural next step in living on mission for Jesus. Over 1,000 students attended interest meetings at the 2026 Salt Company Conference as they considered joining one of our 12 upcoming church plants. The opportunity to help start a church and college ministry like the one God used to reach them was compelling – they couldn’t wait to learn, pray, and discern where God might send them. For our network and our church planting strategy, soon-to-be college graduates are the goers that fuel the movement.
For churches near college campuses that want to be about church planting and multiplication, reaching that campus is critical. College students are the most reachable, trainable, and sendable demographic in our country. It’s eternally significant for them personally that they are reached with the gospel, but also for the potential Kingdom impact and expansion. The campus may be the most strategic mission field your church has access to. Start a college ministry to both reach and send college students!
If Not College Students, Who?
Not every church, however, has an abundance of college students at their doorstep. That doesn’t change or reduce the need for a steady pipeline of goers to help sustain church planting momentum. Who is it in your church or community that is already at a natural transition stage in life that would be open to moving? Who could you cast a compelling vision for to carry the culture and impact of your sending church to the next plant? It could be college students, young professionals, retirees, or another demographic entirely. That group needs intentional discipleship, a compelling vision, and a clear pathway to know how to leverage their lives for the sake of the Kingdom.
The next generation of churches will be built by the next generation of goers. We need to send pastors and paid staff leaders – but just as critical is sending an army of ordinary people eager to engage their new city with the gospel. Find your goers, disciple them well, and send them. The church planting movement depends on it!
