How to Find New-Church Leaders Right Where They Are
I’ve had one job outside of ministry. For about a year after stepping away from the church we started, I managed a truck accessory store.

If trucks aren’t your thing, just imagine everything you could bolt onto or into one—we sold it. And we sold a LOT of it. It was a high-volume, sales-driven business. The most valuable people? Salespeople.

Now imagine a 30-something with a ministry background (me), responsible for hiring and managing salespeople. I had the wisdom to ask the owner, “How do I find them?”

He told me: “I go shopping.”

Wait—what?

“Find a store with a similar product strategy. Go shopping. When someone makes you want to buy something you didn’t even come in for—hand them your business card.”

Brilliant. The best way to find a great salesperson? Catch them in the act of selling.

So how do you find new-church leaders?

The best way is the same: find someone doing the kind of work a new-church leader does—right now.

The problem is, we’re often unclear about what a church planter actually does. We know what pastors do: preach, counsel, lead meetings, visit the sick, officiate weddings and funerals. But all of that assumes there’s already a church to pastor.

A new-church leader doesn’t inherit a church—they build one. From scratch. Where no church exists yet.

What does that take?

• Vision – They see what isn’t there yet and believe it can be.
• Initiative – They gather people and share Jesus boldly and regularly.
• Inspiration – They rally others toward a new future worth giving their lives to.
• Discipleship – They lead people to Jesus and help them live like him.

These aren’t just pastoral skills. These are entrepreneurial, relational, missional instincts. And they often show up in the marketplace, the neighborhood, or the ballfield long before they ever show up in the church.

Look for planters in unexpected places:

• In the marketplace, among innovators and builders.
• In the community, among relational connectors and local missionaries.
• In your church, among disciple-makers who multiply themselves.

If you want to find new-church leaders, don’t look for people who fit the mold of a pastor.

Look for people who are already gathering and discipling—then equip and release them to do it in places where the church doesn’t exist yet.