Each year, a small group of church planters, some with launch teams already numbering dozens, others still praying over an apartment lease in another town, logs onto a Zoom call together for the first time. They don't know each other yet. But over the next several months, they will come to know each other quite well. That's the Genesis Cohort , a church planting training sponsored by Ascent and its church planting partner Ecclesia . Its defining conviction is evident from the very first session: this isn’t primarily an information-transfer course. As facilitator Dr. Bob Hyatt tells every new cohort, the goal is personal and spiritual formation, helping people become the kind of leaders God can actually use, not simply handing out a planting playbook. "You're not primarily a church planter," he tells them. "You're a disciple maker. Church planting is just an outgrowth of that." The format reflects that priority. Participants work through pre-recorded teaching from a rotating slate of experienced equippers, then gather every other week for a 90-minute live discussion that’s part debrief, part group coaching, and part support group. The topical arc moves from the inside out. Early sessions focus on the character and competencies of a planter: identity, patience, contentment, and the gap between the "church of the mind" and the "church of reality.” From there, participants turn to core team building, using a green-light/yellow-light/red-light framework to discern who belongs on a launch team, and when. The cohort then moves through missional mindset and strategy, discipleship, vision, mission and values, and the work of exegeting a city’s culture, needs and “dirty little secrets.” One deceptively simple question anchors the discipleship conversation: “What do you hear God saying, and what are you going to do about it?” Later sessions explore models and approaches (traditional, missional-community, and big-launch), examined with unusual honesty about each one's tradeoffs, plus worship as formation, apprenticeship culture, children's and youth ministry, and a closing session on pastoral health. The final session addresses burnout's typical years-five-to-seven onset and the difference between being responsible to people and being responsible for them. Guest equippers bring real stories to the table. Pastors who've planted in inner-city Indianapolis, suburban Denver, and post-Christian Portland share what actually worked and what they'd do differently. The thread running through nearly every session is the same one Hyatt keeps returning to: hold your plans with an open hand, because "while we overestimate what God might do within one year, we underestimate what He can do in 5-10!” Participants come away saying as much about the community as the content. "It was an incredibly helpful and encouraging experience," one wrote. "There was a great balance between strategic discussion and tending to our hearts. The opportunity to connect with church planters from around the country was exciting and edifying." Another described coming in "a little nervous and overwhelmed" and leaving "feeling extremely equipped and a lot more knowledgeable and encouraged," adding that "Genesis has done such a great job covering a multitude of topics." A third said the cohort left them "more equipped about how our team is going to make this idea of a church plant into a reality, and more excited about this mission that God has given to us." That's really the aim in a nutshell: not a finished blueprint, but planters who are a little more formed, a little less alone, and a little more ready to build something that will outlast their own effort. This year, sessions will run from late September through mid-March, with pre-work a month before the cohort starts and one-on-one coaching debriefs after it ends. Early bird pricing runs $299 for Ascent and Ecclesia Network members and $350 for non-members, rising to $350/$400 after September 8th. Register now at Ascentmovement.org/genesis-church-planters-training .

The Spring Church began with a clear sense of calling: to create a welcoming, modern worshiping community that could reach people often overlooked by traditional church models without losing sight of the generations who laid the foundation. For Israel Crawford, one of The Spring’s pastors , the heart of the church has always been about hospitality and belonging. “The Spring started from a group of people determined to offer a more modern worship experience in our small town,” he says, “something that would appeal to younger generations, yet honor our heritage and our elders.” That balance remains central to the church’s identity. From the beginning, leaders sensed a responsibility to meet a need in the community - a place where people who didn’t quite fit the traditional church mold could still encounter Jesus and feel genuinely at home. What has been most encouraging, Crawford notes, is the spirit of unity that has taken root across generations. Support from elders, both in age and spiritual maturity, has helped bridge gaps that often divide churches. “There’s no ‘us and them’ here,” he says. “We’re all trying to be the body and work together.” That shared posture has shaped a culture marked by prayer, encouragement, and mutual investment. The challenges, however, are real. The Spring regularly welcomes people with little or no church background, and Crawford describes the careful work of protecting space for grace to take hold. “It’s challenging protecting people from ‘religion’ long enough for them to experience the Lord,” he explains, emphasizing the importance of loving and ministering to people without requiring them to fit a predetermined mold. As an Ascent congregation, The Spring has found encouragement in relationships that value action over talk and vision over nostalgia. Crawford describes Ascent as a partner willing to step in, support multigenerational expressions of church, and invest in young leaders. For a congregation still taking root in new soil, that kind of partnership has proven both timely and sustaining. Learn more about Ascent’s Genesis Church Planters Cohort here .

Jesus described the work of God’s kingdom as seed scattered on many kinds of ground. Some soil is rich and ready. Other ground is rocky - harder to till, slower to yield fruit, yet no less worthy of faithful care. For many pastors today, that description feels less like metaphor and more like daily reality. For Todd Willard, Senior Pastor of First Church of Christ in Wethersfield, Connecticut, the concept of rocky soil hits home. A native New Englander serving a congregation nearing its 400th anniversary, Willard ministers in a region shaped by deep history, intellectual rigor, and a healthy measure of skepticism. “It takes time to build trust here,” he says. New Englanders value education, family legacy, and regional identity, and their assumptions about churches often run deep. First Church is woven into the fabric of the community. Many residents still consider it their spiritual home, even if faith no longer shapes their everyday lives. Willard notes that the idea of needing a savior can feel foreign when Christianity is understood primarily as cultural inheritance rather than lived commitment. Leading in that context requires patience, thoughtful engagement with difficult questions, and relational skills that can navigate subtle but persistent spiritual resistance. Willard’s own family roots in the congregation—stretching back to the mid-1600s—give him trust and credibility while also placing him at the center of the work of helping a historic church re-engage Jesus’ mission in fresh ways. Nearly 3,000 miles away, rocky soil takes a different form. Corey Laughary, Executive Minister of Mission Northwest, serves as a pastor to pastors across a largely unchurched and independent region. His leadership supports more than 130 churches across Washington, Idaho, Montana, and beyond. While the Northwest is known for its breathtaking beauty, that same culture of independence and busyness often leaves little space for church engagement. “The Northwest is stunning,” Laughary says. “God’s handiwork is on full display.” That beauty creates opportunities for reflection and awe, but it also shapes a context where many people are post-Christian—not wounded by faith, but unfamiliar with it. Effective evangelism, Laughary explains, often begins slowly, through healthy relationships built on trust rather than programs.  After more than 20 years pastoring a small-town church, Laughary has seen ministry change alongside broader cultural shifts like rising loneliness, anxiety, and division. His congregation responded by developing mental health and suicide-prevention ministries that serve both the church and the wider community. Though their settings differ, Willard and Laughary describe the same need: companions for ministry in difficult ground. For both these pastors, Ascent has provided relationships, perspective, and encouragement for leaders learning to plant faithfully where growth is slow. Rocky soil may demand more patience and deeper trust. But as these pastors affirm, it is often there that the roots of faithful ministry grow strongest.

For many churches, global mission has long followed a familiar pattern: identify an agency, send support, and trust the system to carry the work forward. John Upton, a member of the Ascent Council and Project Lead for Church Engagement, explains that today’s Church calls for something more collaborative—and more formational. Through the work of Ascent’s Global Mission Task Force, Upton and others have been asking a defining question: What unique contribution can Ascent offer churches engaging mission today? Rather than creating another sending agency, the task force envisioned a framework that connects churches to trusted partners while offering multiple, meaningful ways to participate. The result is Joined Horizon, a global mission initiative built around clearly defined pathways.  “At the heart of this,” Upton explains, “are three well-respected mission organizations who’ve come together within the Ascent network.” Each brings deep experience and a distinct approach. Restore Hope focuses on holistic restoration, TMS Global provides extensive infrastructure for missionary sending and care, and Canadian Baptist Ministries equips and empowers indigenous leaders to serve within their own cultural contexts. Pathway One is the most immersive. It invites churches into a three-year journey of formation and engagement. Participants begin with training designed to help congregations reach beyond themselves and cross-cultural boundaries in their own communities. In the second year, churches spend time in deeply secular contexts, learning firsthand what ministry looks like where Christian presence is minimal. The third year culminates in a hands-on mission experience alongside one of the partner organizations. This pathway is designed not only to send people, but to shape how a church understands mission itself. Pathway Two focuses on supporting and sending missionaries. Churches may come alongside missionaries already serving through one of the partner organizations, or support individuals raised up from within their own congregation who sense a call to cross-cultural mission. Through this pathway, churches remain relationally connected while benefiting from the training, infrastructure, and care provided by experienced mission partners. Pathway Three centers on supporting local nationals - leaders already embedded in their own cultural and linguistic contexts. Rather than sending outsiders, this pathway equips and sustains those best positioned to lead gospel work where they live, offering training, resources, and long-term partnership. For Upton, posture matters as much as structure. “Ascent is an opportunity to do ministry not from a place of certitude,” he says, “but from a place of learning.” Churches interested in Joined Horizon can learn more at the Ascent Summit directly from leaders and one or more breakout sessions, with additional information becoming available on the Ascent website soon.

A unique co-evolution of parallel technological developments in artificial intelligence, robotics (as embodiments of AI), and biotech has facilitated an epochal global revolution more rapid than anything heretofore known in human history. This transformation is so accelerated that humans in the developed world are unable to understand what is occurring or adapt quickly enough to changes they can only intuit. The natural social reaction to this shifting reality is collective fear and uncertainty, and its byproduct is a wicked stew of individualism, pragmatism, polarization, nationalism, authoritarianism, and the like. The typical ecclesial responses to AI and broader technological advancements seem to come in three forms: assimilation, rejection, and denial. Some churches and church leaders are rushing in with untempered enthusiasm, regarding AI as if it were like prior technologies - which it is not - and asking only how it might be used in the service of the gospel. Others regard AI as an attacking beast that must be vanquished, most of them unaware that they are already being discipled by AI through their interactions with media, social media, their phones, etc. The most common response is to pretend that any real changes are many years off and unlikely to result in major cultural upheavals. In varying degrees, each of these responses is inadequate at best, unproductive at least, and dangerous at worst. Instead, churches and church leaders should be seeking to understand the epochal shift that is well underway and adapt in Spirit-led ways that are hopeful, biblical, relevant, and healthy. As we seek to respond faithfully, there are a number of questions that can guide our inquiry, two of which have proven helpful to me, my church, and the various ecclesial and secular leaders and organizations with whom I have consulted on this matter. First and most generally: What does it mean now to be human and thus humane? This question matters both because the lines between human soul and effective intelligence are becoming fuzzy, and because the emerging cultural conversation is around “sentience” rather than being (or soulfulness). These questions naturally lead followers of Jesus to ask subsequently: Who is God, still, when technology can feel so divine? Second and more specifically: What can redeemed people be that AI can never be? Since AI will always exist within the limits of time and space and in the image of its fallen human creators, our answers to this question will carry us into the spheres of theology, revelation, and biblical truth. Taking cues from church leaders like Augustine at the time of the last epochal shift, I have begun to rephrase the question: What does it mean to be virtuous (godly) in a virtual world? I see some answers to these questions beginning to emerge, though exploring them in depth requires more space than this article provides. Suffice it to say here that the best of them lead quickly to non-anxious considerations of how the church will adapt faithfully and creatively as the world order we have known deconstructs, and the Western or Modern Epoch winds down. What I am hearing from a small-but-growing tribe of faithful church leaders inspires hope for such a time as this. Rev. Dr. Jim Baucom is a pastor and consultant who has served as pastor of Columbia Church in Falls Church, VA, for 24 years. He is one of the founding leaders of Ascent and currently serves as Vice Chair of the Ascent Council.