AOG Pastors Planting Multi-Racial Churches in the Suburbs

The purpose of this project was to examine the Assemblies of God (AOG) church planting strategies for building multiracial congregations in the suburbs of American cities. The project was conducted in the suburbs surrounding Columbus, Ohio, and involved input from an existing AOG pastoral network. The project sought to identify and evaluate current church planting methods used by AOG and the C-4 Pastors Network and identified requirements for a training program to better equip AOG pastors who
desire to build multiracial or multiethnic churches in their communities. Through the cooperation of the C-4 Pastors, it was determined that the AOG, a predominantly white denomination, provides pastors with adequate training to effectively plant and develop churches in predominantly white suburbs; however, this project found that there was little corporate training that assisted with church planting for multiracial and multiethnic churches in the suburbs. The study evaluated the existing AOG Basic Boot Camp seminar
at the Now Church in Baltimore, Ohio, as a model for multiracial/multiethnic church planting for the denomination to consider implementing. The Boot Camp training method is unique to the AOG Church and is currently being utilized to successfully plant a multiracial church in the Columbus suburb of Canal Winchester. The project results are intended to help pastors determine available assets in their communities. The proposed training will include strategies regarding how AOG pastors can successfully plant multiracial and multiethnic churches in suburbs across America and beyond.