How and Why Your Church Can Partner with Church Planters

The Nashville Baptist Association exists to cultivate and connect churches throughout the Greater Nashville Area to fulfill the Great Commission. We seek to accomplish this through four priority focus areas: Leaders, Connections, Church Revitalization, and Church Planting. In the Church Planting priority area, we are committed to reaching your community with the gospel, by walking alongside church planters and the churches who send them.

According to TBMB, approximately 80% of the population of most counties will not worship in any church this Sunday. In addition, more than 400,000 people of immigrant or refugee backgrounds live in Tennessee. 

According to Tennessee State Data Center, in 2023 Davidson County was the 2nd largest county in Tennessee. The county added 4,983 people since 2023, which is an increase of 0.7% and made it the 5th fastest growing county in the state. This is why we link arms with God and our Baptist churches to plant churches in new growing areas. 

With the population growth in Tennessee, we need new churches and church planters that are equipped, trained and sent by a mother church. As a church planter myself, I could not imagine planting without a mother church’s support, prayer, coaching and resources. 

How can your church partner with planting a church? Keep in mind, your church doesn’t have to have five hundred members. Your church can partner in other ways: 

  • Engage the church in intercessory prayer for the new church and church planter.

  • Contribute to the New Church’s Financial Needs.

  • Share Resources (bible study, VBS materials), Equipment, Teachers, Leadership Teams.

  • Share Campus Space

  • Pray for People and Families to walk alongside New Church 6-12 months.

  • Mentor Church Planting Leadership Teams.

One of the requirements for church planters at the Nashville Baptist Association is that they have a mother/sending church. If your church is interested in being a mother/sending church, please contact the Nashville Baptist Association Church Planting Team. We have resources and training for mother churches:

  • Seven Steps to Church Planting

  • MissionInsite

  • Churches Planting Churches Training

  • Disciples Making Disciples

  • Best Practices To Identifying a Planter from your church

Just a couple of reasons to be a mother/sending church in Tennessee. There are several models of church planting but one of the most effective and healthiest models is when a church is a mother/sending church that plants a church!

Churches that send:

  • Grow missionally

  • Grow leaders

  • Grow numerically

  • Are intentional connectors

  • Are knowledgeable missionaries

Join the Nashville Baptist Association for our Churches Planting Churches webinar. This takes place the fourth Tuesday each month at 11:00am (CST). In addition, join our Church Planters Cohort which will start in July 2024. During this cohort, we will journey together using monthly in-person gatherings and bi-weekly online interactions to strengthen our tribe to reach this culturally diverse world. There will be exercises and conversations to help planters reflect individually, relate to their teams, and practical steps to reaching their target areas. This cohort brings together pastors, planters, coaching, and practitioners from across our network, to encourage and help them stay focused on the mission to GO!

We believe that churches should plant churches, and the Nashville Baptist Association is here to “Help Churches, Help Churches and Help Churches, Plant Churches.” 


Dwayne Lewis
NBA Church Palnting Strategist
dlewis@nashvillebaptists.com