The Cornerstone Collective is a communion of churches partnering together in the gospel to advance the mission of God across Merseyside. One of the main focus areas of our partnership is to plant churches that go on to plant churches.

To this end, the Church Planter Residency exists to advance the gospel across Merseyside and beyond by equipping those whom God has called to be part of planting and multiplying gospel-centered churches for the glory of God, the advance of His Church and the good of our region.

The Cornerstone Collective Church Planter Residency will equip residents with the experience and resources necessary to plant churches across our region. Our hope and prayer is that we would spark a church planting movement that makes the Gospel of Jesus known across Merseyside. We desire to saturate every part of our region with churches made up of gospel-centered communities who live for, and speak of, our glorious saviour.

This church planter residency has been designed in light of the Acts 29 assessment process. We asked the question, “What are the key elements, characteristics and general areas of gifting that are often evident in a church planter?” Then we worked backwards, to create a residency that would train and help potential planters/church leaders to develop in these areas. In order to do this, we have integrated theological, missional and gospel-centered content, to run alongside ‘doing life’ with the covenant members of the Cornerstone Collective Churches.

The residency will provide the atmosphere and platform for the residents to prepare to plant and lead. It will also provide time and space to prepare his heart, marriage (if married) and family life, for planting churches that plant churches.

The workload of the church plant resident is estimated to be a minimum of 20 hours a week. The majority of the workload will consist of personal study, cohort meetings, staff training, coaching and hands-on participation in the life of a Cornerstone Collective Church.

Cornerstone Collective of Churches has an additional offer to its Church Plant Residents since 2024, which is a result of its partnership with Grimké Seminary to establish Grimké Europe.

Grimké Europe is a seminary programme that trains men to serve as faithful pastors and planters for God’s church. They are committed to gospel centrality, partnering with local churches, and pastor-led education and this provides a unique opportunity for Church Plant Residents at Cornerstone Collective as we can explore options for Residents to enrol in a Grimké programme alongside the Residency, providing unique and exceptionally high quality training for our Residents.

Leadership can often become about the function, the task, the meeting. However, the Bible shows us that healthy leadership communities are rooted in relational communion. The focus of this training will involve us walking through our philosophy of relational communion that enables friendship, transparency, clarity of roles/responsibilities as well as creating an atmosphere for ‘good’ conflict.

Delivery: in-person or online

Time: 2 hour session, full day or weekend

Cost: determined after initial enquiry

We believe Church Planting and Replanting/Revitalisation are actually two distinct approaches to bringing about church growth. In the book of Revelation we see Jesus pursuing churches, some of which required revitalisation, which would not have been obvious to others, and even us today.

This offering is for churches that need to think through moving forward in new/different ways to those which have been in place before (i.e. churches that need to revitalise), but this is also for churches that require replanting (a process of starting again with your church alongside others joining you). We will work though our ‘3C’s’ concept for vision, growth and change.

Delivery: in-person or online

Time: full day or weekend. A longer term arrangement is possible as well

Cost: determined after initial enquiry

What is a leadership pipeline for Eldership? What is an eldership training programme? In this training we share our leadership pipeline process for Eldership as well as our Eldership training programme which we use in our churches to ensure that strong, healthy Elderships are established and sustained.

Delivery: in-person or online

Time: 2 hour session, full day or weekend

Cost: determined after initial enquiry

How do you train leaders for every area of church leadership? In this training area we share details about our leadership foundation course. This can be done over a day, a weekend or weekly gatherings (depending on location).

Delivery: in-person or online

Time: 2 hour session, full day or weekend

Cost: determined after initial enquiry

Are you planting a church? Have you planted a church and now you feel you are stuck? Gospel coaching is a proven relationship that helps and encourages church planters in the task of planting and leadership within the church plant. All coaching is done by CMM trained gospel coaches and experienced Acts 29 church planter assessors.

Delivery: in-person or online

Time: 6 x 2 hour sessions with a view to extend for a further 6

Cost: £400 for 6 session £700 for 12 Sessions

Healthy leaders are essential to the church, but all too often the gospel health of a leader is the last thing that is considered. Our 1:1 Leadership coaching is essentially gospel coaching because we are convinced and believe that the gospel is the most important ingredient in a leaders life and ministry. In our 1:1 coaching we walk though an approach to leadership which incorporates gospel renewal dynamics in the coaching relationship. All of our coaches are CMM trained gospel coaches.

Delivery: in-person or online

Time: 6 x 2 hour sessions with a view to extend for a further 6

Cost: £400 for 6 session £700 for 12 Sessions

What does it look like to plant a church? What does it look like for a church to plant then plant again? Whether you are a large church looking to plant for the first time or a new church plant that wants to build of a culture of being a church planting church, this is the training for you. We will share the story of how we in the Cornerstone Collective have developed from being a church replant team of 13 people to a church planting church and from this, becoming a Collective of likeminded churches. We will consider the pros and cons of church planting models and share our philosophy for approaching church planting in our region and culture.

Delivery: in-person or online

Time: 2 hours, full day or weekend.

Cost: determined after initial enquiry

The Cornerstone Collective Church Planter Residency is designed to be like a “finishing school” for potential church planters. We have found that specific training and a specific role (e.g. not being an assistant pastor) for planting is the most effective way of training and preparing someone for church planting. We share our programme and our reasoning behind it, whilst also helping you to build your own residency.

Delivery: in-person or online

Time: 2 hours, full day or weekend.

Cost: determined after initial enquiry

The operational requirements for churches; the increasing requirements of the Charity Commission for trustee boards, the complex legislation to navigate related to HMRC, the high profile need for robust and effective safeguarding procedures, alongside all the other operational needs of a church/church plant, are at an all time high. Therefore, the need for greater understanding and high level operational management is required, especially in a growing church. We have also identified that these areas can become massive distractions to church leaders, and in particular church planters. In this training, we share how we have structured ourselves in order to ensure high level operational management and direction, whilst simultaneously preventing the operational arm of leading a church from distracting from church pastors and church planters within the Cornerstone Collective. The review can be designed to incorporate the Back Office Review approach taking by The Church Office as the Cornerstone Collective Operations Director is also a consultant for The Church Office in this area.

Delivery: in-person or online

Time: 2 hours, full day or weekend.

Cost: determined after initial enquiry

We love the local church. We believe the role of the local church is to showcase the glory and wisdom of God to the world, we do this by being a Jesus exalting, gospel proclaiming community that is engaged in our culture in a gospel distinctive way.

We believe that our internship programme gives men and women the space to grow in their love and understanding of Jesus and His church. It enables people to pursue training that is theological as well as practical, it helps interns to gain ministry experience, it tests calling and it creates the opportunity to serve God’s people and the church community for His glory.

Our hope is that interns within the Cornerstone Collective of Churches will experience how the gospel interacts with everyday life; seeing it affect and shape their lives as they interact with and learn from church leaders and the wider church body in all areas of life (e.g. marriage, family, jobs etc.)

The internship programme creates a great environment for this to happen through integrating theological, missional and gospel centred content, in the context of the relational unity that is experienced in doing life with the members of the churches in the Cornerstone Collective.

• The internship takes place over an academic year (September-July) on a fixed term basis.
• There is no charge from the Collective to take part in the internship, but you will be encouraged to raise financial support or find a part-time job to support your general living costs.
• Where a need for help with accommodation occurs, we will endeavour to find some options to help you.
• Training will be provided during the internship in all key areas of gospel ministry, with opportunities to deepen your theological understanding as well.
• There will be the option to focus on specific areas of church life in your training (e.g. Kids, Worship etc.)

You will grow and learn in a variety of ways. This will include:

• Collective staff meetings, congregational staff team meetings, 1:1's, weekly and monthly intern training and teaching from the Pastors of the Cornerstone Collective churches.
• All interns will have specific congregational responsibilities, input, and training (e.g. kids ministry, worship, youth, internationals, operations etc).
• You will experience the joys of participating in the life of the wider church by being part of one of the Gospel Communities within one of our churches where you will “do life” together with a diverse group of people. Your involvement in the Gospel Community will be a key area of growth and development during the internship.
• Outside training possibilities will be discussed during your interview.
• General duties and responsibilities for service within the church buildings.

The internship requires a commitment from interns to serve/train in the Collective and a specific local church for 3 days per week; Sundays, Mondays and Thursdays.

This equates to approximately 20 hours commitment per week.

The internship starts at the beginning of September and runs through to the end of the following July. Interns are entitled to take periods of leave during this time, but this needs to be agreed with their mentor. More details about this can be shared at interview and onboarding via the Internship Handbook.