WHERE ARE THE FUTURE CHURCH PLANTERS?
They’re already in your church.
Pastors ask Jeff that question every week, and his answer never changes. It’s the reason the two of us started Multiply Project. We help churches call, equip, and send planters from within their own congregation. We’re not a program and we’re not a seminary — we’re two guys who’ve done this, gotten plenty of it wrong, and would rather walk it with you than hand you a binder.
THE TWO OF US
Two planters, a step ahead of you.
Craig Whitney
FOUNDER & PRESIDENT
Craig planted his first church at 26, back when there wasn’t much out there to tell you how — so he figured a lot of it out the hard way. For the last twenty-plus years he’s been on the other side of that, helping other people plant, through the Gateway Leadership Initiative, Stadia, and now Multiply Project.
Somewhere in there he got convinced of something he still can’t shake: the planters we keep looking for are already sitting in our churches — we’ve just stopped seeing them. He wrote The Antioch Way to put that conviction on paper, so the next pastor doesn’t have to guess his way through it like he did.
Craig will tell you he’s the least interesting person in the room, right up until you ask him about something he cares about. Ask him about this.
Craig lives in Sacramento with the cutest girl from his 4th-grade Sunday School class — who he’s now been married to for over 40 years. When he’s not reading, writing, or talking about church planting, he’s probably roasting coffee, cycling in the Sierra Foothills, or cheering on his favorite Formula 1 driver.
Jeff planted LifeBridge Church outside Atlanta 20 years ago, and he’s been involved in church planting ever since — in Las Vegas, then for years with Stadia. He’s the one pastors call with the question that started all of this: where are the future church planters? He’s answered it thousands of times, and the answer’s always the same — they’re in your church.
Craig puts it simplest: Jeff is the best connector in church planting he knows. So Jeff carries the relationships here — the churches, the networks, the denominations. We’re a booster rocket, not a replacement engine, and Jeff is the reason that stays true.
Jeff lives outside Atlanta with his wife Lisa and their 2 daughters, Madison and Macy, not far from where they planted. If he’s not talking with someone about how to plant more churches, he’s probably watching the Mets and rooting for them to win at least one more World Series in his lifetime.
Jeff Bennett
EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR
HOW WE WORK
We’re a partner, not a program.
Not a seminary, not a curriculum you work through and graduate from. The work happens inside your church, with your people, over real time — because that’s where leaders have always been made, and we think it’s where they need to be made again.
THIS WORKS IN A HEALTHY CHURCH
In a church that’s barely hanging on, the planters probably aren’t waiting inside to be found, and we won’t pretend otherwise — it turns out becoming a sending church and becoming a healthy church are the same project.
AND WE’RE EARLY
Calling and equipping a planter takes years, and the churches we’re walking with are still in the middle of it. So we measure what we can honestly measure — scouting reports built, developmental conversations happening, planters named and in development — not a number we haven’t earned yet. The sending is coming. We’d rather be true than impressive.
WHAT WE BELIEVE
Multiply Project has adopted the Lausanne Covenant as our Statement of Faith. Ratified at the International Congress on World Evangelization in Lausanne, Switzerland, in July 1974 — 2,300 leaders from 150 nations — it has since become a confession of faith for ministries around the world.
READ IT IN FULL AT THE LAUSANNE MOVEMENT WEBSITE →SCHEDULE THE CALL
Before you build anything, let’s talk it through.
Thirty minutes. No pitch, no slides. You bring your church and your questions — we’ll help you start to see who’s already there. Pick whoever you’d rather talk to.
Not sure who to start with? We’ll point you to the right one →