by Stephen Tan
"Hi, my name is Stephen and I want to be a church planter." That was how I introduced myself to my former pastor and trainer, Murray Campbell, back in 2013. I had a burning desire to plant a church and was looking for someone to train me and a church to send me out. Today, I have the privilege of training and sending church planters just like me from Regeneration Church Monash.
How can we saturate our city with the gospel?
This is a burning question that Christians have sought to answer in different ways. Is it reaching our universities for Jesus? Is it holding seeker-sensitive services? Is it returning to the evangelistic rally à la Billy Graham? Is it running Alpha? Timothy Keller says, “A vigorous and continuous approach to church planting is the only way to guarantee an increase in the number of believers and is one of the best ways to renew the whole body of Christ.”1
Saturation church planting
Following Keller and others, I believe that saturation church planting is the essential strategy to reach our cities with the gospel.2 I am not against other missional approaches but church planting ought to have pride of place. But planting churches is easier said than done. According to Massimo Gei, the Executive Director of Gospel City Network Malaysia, Kuala Lumpur is growing by 87,000 people a year excluding migration and to even maintain 3% evangelicals in the population, we need to be planting 3 new churches a month with each church baptising 20 new believers a year.3
Seminary is not enough
To radically increase the rate of church planting in Malaysia, it is my conviction that seminary is not enough. James Harding, the founding principal of St Paul’s Theological College Malaysia shared honestly that despite the seminary’s focus on church planting by making it a mandatory subject, it has not borne the fruit that he envisaged.4
Church planting residency
I am thankful to God for the work of Gospel City Network that provides church planter assessment, training, and coaching. But I would like to suggest church planting residency as another crucial part of the church planting strategy.
What is a church planting residency?
A church planting residency is a 1-to-2-year immersive finishing school for church planters to gain relevant and practical on-the-job ministry experience apprenticing under an experienced planter before being sent out to plant.
A church planting residency can be compared to a medical residency or internship program that allows doctors in training to gain practical hands-on experience under the tutelage of an attending physician before being approved to be registered physicians.5 Experienced trainer of church planting residents Clint Clifton advocates the 90/10 rule—that 90% of a resident’s time is spent doing hands-on ministry relevant to planting and only 10% is spent in weekly discussions helping residents make sense of the ministry they are experiencing.6 As a Baptist who studied in an Anglican Bible College, I found the Anglican model of a curacy a helpful comparison. When Anglican pastors graduate from Bible College, they are required to do 2-3 years of ministry experience under a seasoned pastor before they are allowed to be a “pastor in charge” of a church.7
Regeneration Church Monash (Regen) residency as a case study
On Easter Sunday in 2025, The Way Church Pakenham formally launched as a new gospel-centred Baptist church in one of the fastest growing corridors of Melbourne.8 When church planter Jared Williams approached me in 2022, he was about to graduate with a Bachelor of Theology from Ridley College Melbourne but was looking to be trained and sent out by a Baptist church. He had previously been worshipping in an Anglican church and was looking to return to his Baptist roots.
Jared commenced as a church planting resident at Regen and served on staff as a part time Associate Pastor while doing so. For a church planting resident, Regen took a larger responsibility as the sending church, and so theological alignment and shared philosophy of ministry was important. Even though Jared had completed his theological training, there were clear gaps that we needed to address over a 3-year period before we were confident to commission him as a church planter. At the same time, as he preached and ministered within Regen, Jared was able to gather a core team organically. Jared also received training as part of a City to City Australia planter cohort (Incubator program) and funding and support from our denomination, the Baptist Union of Victoria. Residency is a costly investment as you must create a staff position that is ultimately not for the benefit of your own local church but the extension of God’s kingdom through planting. Nevertheless, this investment of time and money is worth it.
Pakenham is a 30-minute drive from Monash, so it was far enough that it made sense to plant there but near enough that we were able to support them. We were able to send preachers, worship leaders, and kids’ ministry leaders, and still do so a year later albeit to a lesser extent. While gaining valuable ministry experience in Regen, Jared was also tasked with planting a Missional Community in his home in Pakenham which was simultaneously a way for him to gather a church planting core team.9
When the time was right, we were pleased to commission Jared Williams and his team to plant The Way Church in Pakenham. Buoyed by this experience, we are planning to raise up more church planters through our planting residency program (Regen Collective) should the Lord allow us to.
Do you want to see your city saturated with the gospel? Do you want to see Kuala Lumpur, Singapore, Bangkok, Jakarta, Phnom Penh and beyond won for Christ? Can I challenge all church planters and pastors of established churches to consider starting a church planting residency in your church? If you would like to connect, I would love to chat.
1. Tim Keller, “Why Plant Churches?” Redeemer City to City, January 1, 2002 https://redeemercitytocity.com/articles-stories/why-plant-churches.↑
2. Saturation Church Planting: A Call to Collaboration,” Lausanne Occasional Paper, https://lausanne.org/occasional-paper/saturation-church-planting-a-call-to-collaboration.↑
3. Massimo Gei, “On Healthy Resources in Malaysia (Missions Talk Episode 61)” Missions Talk podcast, streamed live on January 8, 2026, YouTube video, 30:58, https://youtu.be/Bg_VfTXXsJE?si=H_S0O-_2DOnmSzQ3.↑
4. James Harding, "The seminary as incubator: The role of theological education in church planting," in The City Not Forsaken, ed. Michael Crane and Teh Yong Yuan (Kuala Lumpur: Greenhouse Publishing, 2023), 195-215.↑
5. Clint Clifton, How to Start a Residency (New Churches powered by Send Network, 2023), 14.↑
6. Clifton, How to Start a Residency, 15.↑
7. “Curacy,” Formation, The Church of England Ministry development, https://www.churchofengland.org/resources/diocesan-resources/ministry-development/formation/curacy.↑
8. “Journey of a Church Plant in Pakenham,” Baptist Union of Victoria, last modified June 11, 2025, https://www.buv.com.au/stories/journey-of-a-church-plant-in-pakenham/. ↑
9. Todd Engstrom, “What Makes a Missional Community Different?” The Gospel Coalition, June 5, 2013, https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/article/what-makes-a-missional-community-different/.↑
Author
Stephen Tan serves as Senior Pastor of Regeneration Church Monash (Melbourne, Australia) and leads the Regen Collective family of churches. He is also an Adjunct Lecturer in New Testament and Preaching for Morling College (Australian University of Theology). He previously trained church planters with City to City Australia. He has written for The Gospel Coalition and Christianity Today. He is currently pursuing doctoral studies in missiology with a focus on transcultural ecclesiology. Stephen is married to Kallie and father to Austin, Kieran and Rose. Stephen was born and raised in Malaysia, thinks char kuey teow is the best food on earth and is an avid Liverpool FC supporter.
