Church relaunch, planting and multi-site
A planter organizes everything around the people who are not there yet. An established church, without ever deciding to, organizes around the people who are. Olive Coaching & Consulting brings the disciplines of church planting to congregations at every stage: declining churches ready to relaunch, planters in their first years, and healthy churches opening a second campus.
A church in steady decline cannot improve its way out. It needs the leap that planting assumes and revitalization rarely attempts.
The method was built and tested inside a 3,000-member congregation that had declined for ten years and was three years from the point of no return. That church stopped its decline in the first year and began to grow.
“I have planted a church, led a declining one back to growth, and walked alongside more than a hundred pastors. What I learned is that the disciplines of church planting can renew any church. I started Olive Coaching to help pastors find that path, and to walk it with them.”Jeff Olive, D.Min. · Founder
How we help
Every engagement starts with the same questions a planter asks before the first service: Who is in the mission field? What do we do that nobody else here does? What happens to a first-time guest? What are we willing to give up to reach them?
A twelve-month engagement that ends with an adopted three-year plan, its cost and a path to fund it, a named owner for every part of the work, and ninety days of visible progress. Begins with a two-day on-site Assessment that stands on its own: a written report and a board debrief, with no commitment to the full engagement.
Two calls a month for the first two years of a new church, from someone who planted one, funded dozens, and has trained planters across the United States and Latin America.
Nine months from feasibility to launch day and the ninety days after: site study, campus pastor profile, launch team, budget, timeline, and the systems that keep a new campus from draining the first one.
A monthly retainer for the team responsible for planting and renewal in a region: planter assessment, pipeline and funding review, and an annual planning day.
Steady pastoral leadership while your search committee works, and a season that counts. I listen, help the congregation name what is true, and prepare a plan, so your next pastor arrives to a church that is ready rather than one that is waiting. For churches in decline, this can include the full Relaunch Method. Nine to twelve months, on site.
Half-day and full-day training for pastors, boards, and planters: mission field math, first-guest systems, the relaunch year, and campus launch.
The flagship engagement
The established church brings what a plant would give anything to have: a campus, a staff, a budget, and a century of relationships. The plant brings what the established church has lost: clarity of mission, urgency, and the willingness to organize everything around people who are not here yet. This year brings the best practices of a new church plant into your established church, so it can relaunch with a planter's clarity and urgency.
Before a church commits to a year, it deserves an honest look at where it stands. The Assessment is two days on site and a written report, and it is useful whether or not you go further.
If you continue, the Assessment fee is credited toward the full engagement, and the work becomes the foundation for the first three months.
Conversations with staff, leaders, members, and community leaders. Ten years of attendance, giving, and participation data. A mission field study. An audit of what happens to a first-time guest on Sunday morning.
Leadership sees the trajectory clearly, sets three-year targets grounded in the size of the mission field, and counts the cost in money, staffing, and people.
A Family Meeting where the whole church hears the truth, the hope, and the plan, followed by a board vote and a funding plan.
The first quarter of the plan goes into motion, so the year ends with visible progress rather than a document on a shelf.
Two things we will not promise. We will not promise growth; this is a disciplined process with good odds, run honestly. We will not promise comfort; the middle of this year is a wilderness. A church that does this work and does not grow still ends more focused, more welcoming, and healthier than it was.
Coaching
Coaching is about your agenda, not mine. Two sixty-minute calls a month, a twelve-month covenant, and a written set of next steps after every conversation. I will ask straightforward questions, hold you to the goals you set, keep confidence, and pray for you. When you want advice, ask, and you will get it plainly.
Planters get the tools I have used since 2012: a new-church checklist, a reading list, and a launch timeline. Pastors running a relaunch without the full engagement get the same structure aimed at their plan.
About
Jeff has spent twenty-eight years in ministry across every stage of congregational life. He planted a church that grew from a handful of people to five hundred in worship, directed new church development for an annual conference with a two-million-dollar budget, led a 3,000-member congregation back to growth after fifteen years of decline, supervised fifty churches and more than one hundred pastors as a district superintendent, and launched three campuses of a large Methodist congregation.
He holds a Doctor of Ministry in leadership and church planting, developed an online training academy for church planters, and has trained planters across the United States and Latin America. He and his wife Sharla live in The Woodlands, Texas.
How it starts
Sixty minutes by video with you, or your pastor and a few leaders. We talk through where you are and what you are hoping for, and I tell you honestly whether I am the right fit. Sometimes the answer is no, and that is worth knowing too.
I suggest the right starting point for your situation: planter coaching, a training day, a second campus study, an interim, or, for a church in decline, a two-day on-site Assessment of your data, your community, and your first-guest experience.
Scope, timeline, fee, and what we ask of each other, in writing. Coaching begins with a simple covenant. Larger engagements begin with a detailed proposal and fee schedule.
Let's talk
Where it is, roughly how many are in worship, and what you are hoping for. I read every message and answer within two business days.
Or write directly: hello@olivecoaching.com · 936-463-8090