Western Church Planting Network (WCPN)

Forestgate Presbyterian Church is a member of the Western Church Planting Network. We are partnering with Village Seven and other churches in our Presbytery to pool resources and ideas together to plant churches all across the Front-Range.

We are living in one of the most unchurched regions in America. So we all asked the question, “how do we reach the west with the Gospel?” We do it together. Training church planters and strategically sending them out. See this video below by Village Seven:

What is the Network?

While the WCPN is its own separate 501(3)c, it functions within the bounds of our presbytery and any new church planting is approved by our Presbytery. The network is made up of churches who voluntarily joined and contribute financially to fund church planting all over Colorado, Wyoming, and Montana. The network is there to think strategically about where to plant next, to develop church planting residencies, and to help train up residents to potentially take on planting in these new areas.

Why does the network exist?

The west is hard ground to till and has, in the past, seen higher rates of failure in church planting. And a group of churches said “We’ve got to do better then this” and they put together some lessons learned and made sure to test candidates better to ensure they were good fits for the west before launching them out. This is what led to the creation of 2-3 year long residencies for church planters. We can now pool finances, experience, and a better understanding about planting in the Western US together to develop and evaluate new church planters. The network is there to think strategically about where to plant next and the goal is to plant 2 churches per year, which over 10 years would nearly double the size of our presbytery.

Why did we join?

We want to see the expansion of God’s kingdom in our backyard, in the west and we believe church planting is one of the best ways to do that. We now have a huge knowledge base and support system to pull from when we start planting. They can help us assess and select potential candidates, aid in the development of a residency for church planters, and provide mentoring and development of that planter.