Recently a friend of mine, whose church is a partner of Stadia, told me about how their search for church planting residents was going. He then asked for any ideas or suggestions I might have for finding catalytic leaders. After responding to him, my team and I realized there may be more folks like him that are asking the same question. So, with that in mind, here are a few practical things to try:

1. PRAY! PRAY! PRAY! Make it a regular prayer item in leadership/staff meetings. Include it in “prayer needs” that go to a prayer team or even the congregation. Use Matthew 9:38 to challenge people to set an alarm and pray every day at 9:38 AM or PM (or both).

2. Partner with a great church planting organization called Stadia who loves you, knows what you are looking for, and will help get the word out around the country (and who can feature you on their website as an official Stadia Residency – or maybe even write a blog about you).

3. Have a friend named Bob Carlton (who happens to be the Director of Recruiting for Stadia) that loves you and knows what you are looking for and will help direct folks that are considering a residency your way. I’ve heard that he likes BBQ and black flat brim hats (just sayin’).

4. Use your staff. Have all your staff and leaders scour their spheres of influence and their contact list for possible leads or connections to places where there may be leads. Tell them to look through their Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter friends list.

5. Start blowing up social media. Ask your whole team to participate in the campaign. Don’t be afraid to pay for extra “sponsored”  ad placements. Give your team members content to copy and paste to make it easier for them. Make sure to use graphics and make it short.

6. Build your website. If you haven’t already, build out your website with residency specific pages that point to it well – especially on your front page. Make sure it has the why, who, and what laid out well, is very clear, and directs them to a simple way to apply.

7. Ask other pastors and friends if they have any leads. This will let them know you are looking AND that you are serious about your vision. Side benefit: It may initiate some fruitful partnership opportunities with them or even cause them to look at their own leadership development in a new way. A rising tide raises many ships.

8. Find large platforms to talk about your opportunities. If you or any of your staff have the chance to speak or lead in influential places or speak at conferences, make sure that your residency is worked into their talks.

9. Get your congregation talking about it to help you recruit. Take every opportunity possible (services, sermons, hosting, programs, e-news, special emails, signage, etc) to tell them the vision and how you plan to accomplish it by building out your pipeline and cultivatng your future planters/pastors/missionaries/etc.