BRAVE Residency

Enculturation is massively important to BRAVE Global. Our ability to transfer the DNA, distinctive and values of a BRAVE Church is vital to us because they represent our core convictions. We will spend ourselves planting churches that are locked into Vertical values and that make Bold, Resolute, Authentic, Virtuous and Engaged disciples. Ultimately these values are Biblical ones that BRAVE has embraced.

• Planting a church requires prayer, faith and effort. Targeting your efforts to build a core group and launch a church is a critical skill set for success.
• The BRAVE Fellowship is our current best practices in planting churches over the last 15 years. It is a work in process. We download to our planters what we have learned regarding the kind of individuals needed to attract, grow and develop into a focused, cohesive Core Group. We teach in detail about the Vision Meeting, our primary engine for casting vision and calling people to join the work.
• We give our planters the Critical Success Factors for effective Vision Meetings as well as the tools necessary to effectively implement them.
• Additionally, we take the planter through the process of transitioning the Core Group into a Launch Team and the training necessary to launch the church.
• Project Management training and tools, setting up a legal organization, establishing a launch budget and a year one budget, establishing and training ministry teams, securing a faculty and purchasing equipment are all vital for launching a church and all are covered in the BRAVE Fellowship training.
• Our training process culminates in equipping the planter to put together his own Launch Playbook that is tailored to his circumstances and needs.

• Growing into a transformational servant leader is a lifelong process. At BRAVE Fellowship we are committed to accelerating the process by focused, hands-on training on vital leadership principles and skills.
• Leadership grows on a firm foundation of godly character and focus on identifying and building strengths. Great leaders are not defined by and absence of weakness but by great signature strengths. BRAVE training is devoted to helping the planter identify his signature strengths and his weaknesses. Our focused outcome is for our planter to develop and implement a personal leadership development plan that makes his weaknesses irrelevant and his signature strengths highly developed and robust.
• We also focus our training on developing a servant leadership culture in His church, identifying and growing leaders and building a high-performance organization.
• All of our training is built on the foundation of prayer. Teaching planters to be first and foremost men of prayer is so critical because Biblical leadership is dependent on God’s favor and in leading the church in prayer. A praying church starts with a praying pastor who actively and frequently leads God’s people to the throne of grace.

• A significant requirement for being a planter is having a primary gift of preaching and teaching. As with leadership skills, developing a preaching gift is a lifelong process. Paul tells Timothy regarding his preaching gift to “take pains with these things; be absorbed in them; so that your progress will be evident to all. Pay close attention to yourself and to your teaching; persevere in these things…” (1 Timothy 4:15,16)
• BRAVE is committed to helping planters grow deeply as preachers so that their progress would be evident to all. Explanation, demonstration, imitation, correction and repetition in a direct but emotionally healthy environment and the hallmarks of our preaching labs. Pastors with highly developed preaching gifts actively invest in our planters and sharpen them and their preaching.

• This stage is the foundational stage of personal and organizational preparation and development that allows for the launch of a healthy BRAVE Church.
• The foundational stage is approximately seven months in length and requires a highly-directive involvement by the coach. The focus is on the heart, the character traits of a Senior Pastor, and the hands and skills needed to grow the core group and launch the church. Accountability for use of time and activity lead measures are very helpful for the planter as he strives to focus on the vital.

This stage is the actual launching and establishing of the church plant. The planter transitions into the role of Senior Pastor of the church plant. In addition to the myriad of details that come with establishing a young church plant, comes the weight of executing a weekly high-impact service and assimilating people into the life of the church. Growing future leaders and launching a small group ministry are also essential in this stage. This is an exciting and highly demanding season for the Senior Pastor and his family and a good coach is an invaluable and essential resource for him. A good coach provides ballast, perspective, strategic thinking, prayer, and a sounding board to a frequently tired and harried Senior Pastor in the launch season. This stage is approximately nine months in length.

• The Advanced Launch Stage is the growth stage where the church plant builds upon its foundation with purposeful activities and development of leaders to set the stage for the next 3-5 years of ministry health and growth. Clear strategic evaluation, emphasis on right change and mobilization of leaders for program growth is essential.
• This stage lasts for approximately seven months and the coaching is much less directive and more consultative. Careful attention is given to the selection, development and installation of Elder candidates.