"REAP" Church Planting Course

Antioch is preparing to launch a new cohort of the REAP Church Planting Course this coming Autumn. REAP is free, and is aimed at anyone who might sense a calling to either starting new churches or joining a church plant launch team.

The next REAP Course will be online over Zoom, and if you would like to be on our Mailing List for REAP 2025/26, please email us at the address below. You can unsubscribe at any time: .

To give you a flavour of REAP, here are some REAP Course highlights as described by people who were in our previous Cohorts:

"I enjoyed the Biblical Basis, discussions, meeting people and hearing their stories, examples that explain theory, honesty about what worked and what didn't..."

Daniel, 2024/25 Course Participant

"The "Animate" sessions are helpful and make the subject practical..."
Fran, 2025/26 Course Participant

"The session about accountability stuck with me the most. Hearing how... you [can] seek to "walk with people, call them out if needed but never walk out on them" moved and challenged me."
Christina, 2022/23 Course Participant

"Definitely 5 stars for relevance of content, honesty within testimonies, Biblical focus, encouraging everyone to consider church planting holistically"
Sarah, 2022/23 Course Participant

If you'd like to be on our 2025/26 REAP mailing list, please email our Ops Manager, Pete, on . We don't "spam" people at all, and you can unsubscribe at any time.

Introducing the Church Planting Loop

Antioch has developed an 11-stage Church Planting Loop which acts as a map to help new church planters track their progress through key milestones such as "Recruit a Team" and "Supporting Leaders". If you click on the image below, it will take you to our Loops page where you can select any particular area of interest...  

Identify Leaders

Train Leaders

Choose area

Recruit a team

Identify Evangelism Networks

Shape the Team

Find a Venue

Launch public worship

Reach the Area

Support Leaders

Train & refresh leaders and teams

As well as developing in-house content on each stage of the Loop, we have also compiled some great external links and resources relevant to each stage. 

Antioch YouTube Training Channel

Our Directors are beginning to develop new training content which should compliment our "REAP" course, and exploring issues such as "The Prayer Life of a Church Planter". If you would like to watch this content, or Subscribe to our Channel, please click here.

Why training new leaders really matters

What would happen if your church leader gave 4 weeks' notice before leaving the church and the country? How would the congregation, and the wider leadership cope? Would your church collapse, struggle or thrive?

This is exactly the dilemma faced in early 2021 by Francis Chan and his ministry in Hong Kong. The former US megachurch pastor recently moved to Hong Kong and had just started 2 small churches, each about 15-20 people in. Then out of the blue he was notified that his visa in Hong Kong was revoked, and he had to leave the country within 1 month. 

Not only that, the team he had come with also had their visas revoked. He explains more in in the video below.

Having to leave both church and country with just 4 weeks' notice sounds extreme, but it illustrates why it is so important that leaders identify and train up new leaders. No church or ministry should rest on 1 person or family, and we never know how long leaders can stay in 1 place, nor where God will move them. 

In Ephesians 4, Paul says the point of the Church's leadership is to "equip the saints for works of service", not to "do all the service". With this in mind, let's train new leaders up, helping them identify their spiritual gifts, and let's work as a team, rather than with 1 person trying to do it all.

This principle is integral to the objectives of Antioch, and our Directors have designed a Church Planting Loop to help equip new leaders. To find out more, see our Loop section, the intro to which is below.