Plants move at different speeds. A house church in a restricted setting, a parish sent by a diocese, a rural congregation, a migrant church, and a large public launch will not share one calendar. Pace proves little. Whatever the setting, the team still has to finish the work whose absence would leave people exposed or the church's public promise false.
Phase 0: Discern and Submit
Purpose: establish whether a new congregation should exist and whether these people should lead it.
Complete the received-life rule, doctrinal and polity direction, planter and household assessment, sending relationship, external care and correction, initial place listening, and explicit stop conditions. Observe the candidate in ordinary ministry. Meet existing churches. Consider revitalization, partnership, replanting, a new service, or no new institution.
Exit evidence: a written sending finding; no unresolved critical character or doctrine concern; a credible answer to why a congregation is needed; and a team authorized to enter formation, not yet authorized to launch.
Phase 1: Listen and Form
Purpose: become a truthful local core before inviting a crowd.
Live a small rule of Scripture, prayer, meals, care, service, confession, and mission. Complete the place-and-people map, contextualization review, function- first team map, household agreements, group and child boundaries, and first budget scenarios. Practice shared leadership and correction.
Exit evidence: the team has remained through real disagreement and ordinary work; local Christians outside the team have reviewed its assumptions; critical functions have owners and backups; and hidden labor is visible.
Phase 2: Constitute and Protect
Purpose: create the minimum accountable body capable of receiving people and resources.
Finalize legal or ecclesial form, governing document, authority map, financial accounts and controls, insurance, safeguarding system, complaint and appeal routes, data custody, property due diligence, worker status, emergency paths, and continuity. Train and exercise the systems. Do not wait for the first child, gift, complaint, or crisis.
Exit evidence: qualified local advisers have reviewed relevant fields; accounts reconcile; access is controlled; a disclosure and emergency exercise has occurred; no leader controls both a concern and its appeal.
Phase 3: Rehearse the Received Life
Purpose: test worship, Word, sacrament, care, welcome, formation, and operations before public promises grow.
Hold representative gatherings with invited reviewers and actual intended participants. Practice child check-in, accessible arrival, Scripture and preaching, song and prayer, baptismal or Eucharistic logistics as applicable, care response, giving, post-service conversation, cleanup, records, and incident response. Review what happened, not what was planned.
Exit evidence: several rehearsals across normal and difficult conditions; errors corrected; worship not dependent on one person; no critical safety, sacramental, financial, or access path untested.
Phase 4: Gather Publicly and Narrow the Promise
Purpose: begin stable public worship without pretending full maturity.
Communicate what the church is and what it is still building. Limit ministries to what can be governed. Follow every new person and care request without turning them into recruitment. Reconcile money and records immediately. Review weekly for the first eight weeks, then monthly.
Exit evidence: the church can repeat worship and care without emergency labor; public claims remain truthful; no unresolved incident or promise has disappeared under launch momentum.
Phase 5: Stabilize and Constitute Local Belonging
Purpose: move from launch team to accountable congregation.
Complete baptism, catechesis, membership or local covenant, leader recognition, regular Table practice, groups, mercy, mission, governing voice, budget, annual review, and sending-body transition according to polity. Rewrite any founder-era process that no longer fits the body.
Exit evidence: members can discover how authority works; local leaders meet qualifications; the church can operate during founder absence; care and complaint paths are used; finances and safeguards receive independent review.
Phase 6: Endure, Send, and Revise
Purpose: become a church able to give life away without replicating corruption.
Develop leaders, deepen catechesis, share resources, partner locally and globally, consider multiplication only through the same gates, and maintain succession and closure readiness. Return annually to DDF, Scripture, early witness, and embodied fruit.
Exit evidence: there is no final exit. A mature church remains revisable under Christ.
Before you move on. A phase record naming current phase, completed evidence, open risks, authorized next step, and the body that made the gate decision.
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