Nearly 400 church planters from the Church of the Nazarene gathered at Exponential 2022 in Orlando, Florida from 7-10 March. More than half of those attendees were under the age of 40.

Exponential is an annual conference for church planters from all denominations. Attendees hear from speakers and exhibitors about the many ways that church planting can be conducted. 

Workshops and resources are also available to assist attendees as they explore a possible call to plant churches.

“When districts bring groups to the event, it changes the trajectory and the future of that district,” said Mark Bane, director of New Church Development for the USA/Canada Region. “When districts come regularly to Exponential, we see an increase in church planting on that district.”

During the event, there is a day of meetings and meals for the Nazarene contingent in attendance. Highlighted speakers for 2022 were General Superintendent Carla Sunberg, USA/Canada Regional Director Stan Reeder, and Dave Ferguson, who pastors Community Christian Church in Chicago, Illinois.

Nazarene leaders were pleased to see the number of young Nazarene ministers interested in church planting.

“It’s so exciting when young people start getting engaged with church planting,” Bane said. 

Ellis Benton is the lead pastor at Just Church, a Nazarene church plant in Brandon, Florida. The 27-year-old felt called to church planting while attending his first district assembly when another pastor gave a report about planting a church in the Portland area.

“There was nothing around that was like, ‘Hey everyone should plant churches,’” Benton recalled. “It was literally this pastor telling us about how he was trying to plant a church in Portland, and it got me so excited. The same way I felt called to the church, I felt called to church planting.”

Soon after the assembly, he attended a regional Exponential conference. Although the event was smaller, the impact was the same.

“That’s when I realized that I might actually be able to do this thing,” Benton said.

A little over a year ago, Benton received a call from Dale Schaeffer, a former pastor of the Oregon Pacific District, who had hired Benton to his first pastoral position. Schaeffer, now superintendent of the Florida District, was looking to bring in more church planters to his district, and Benton answered the call. Just Church opened its doors in January 2022 for its first service with over 100 people in attendance. 

This time at Exponential, Benton was interested in building a community with other church planters or interested parties. He’s started a podcast called the Nazarene Church Planting Podcast and a Facebook group to continue to support and resource others as the church planting movement continues to grow within the Nazarene denomination.

“I believe that God has positioned the Church of the Nazarene for such a time as this,” Benton said. “The holiness message is a message of hope that our world desperately needs and is ready for. I think that if we continue the hard work, the hard Kingdom work of church planting, I think we will see harvest from the field.”