Ascent College is excited to announce the launch of its new Church Planting and Multiplication Certificate Program beginning Fall 2026.
Designed for emerging church planters, ministry builders, pastors, and missions-minded leaders, this new certificate program provides practical training for those called to establish healthy, multiplying ministry works in communities across the nation and around the world.
The Church Planting and Multiplication Certificate was created in response to a growing need expressed by churches and ministry networks for leaders who are equipped not only to launch churches, but to cultivate sustainable, disciple-making movements that reproduce healthy leadership and Kingdom impact.
“Church planting requires more than passion,” said Ascent College President Dr. Rob Rhoden. “It requires wisdom, strategy, spiritual formation, leadership development, and the ability to build healthy ministry cultures from the ground up. This program is designed to equip leaders for that reality.”
The yearlong certificate combines biblical foundations with real-world ministry application, helping students develop practical competencies in leadership, outreach, discipleship, organizational systems, and mission strategy.
Program developer and Ascent College faculty, Dr. Patrick Grach, breaks down each course in detail in the video below:
Program Focus Areas
Students enrolled in the Church Planting and Multiplication Certificate will explore topics including:
- Vision casting and leadership development
- Evangelism and community engagement
- Building healthy ministry teams
- Organizational systems and sustainability
- Discipleship and multiplication strategies
- Missional leadership in changing cultural contexts
The program is intentionally designed for immediate ministry application, allowing students to integrate classroom learning directly into their local church or ministry setting as they complete four 8-week courses, totaling only 12 credits.
Featured Courses
CPM105 From Acts to Action: The Theology and DNA of Church Planting Multiplication (3 Credits)
This course grounds students in the biblical, theological, and historical foundations of church planting, emphasizing multiplication as God’s design for the church rather than a ministry option. Students will explore the missio Dei, New Testament paradigms, and the mandate to multiply (Genesis 1:28, Matthew 28:19-20, Acts 8:1-4). The course will draw on extensive research, including your dissertation’s findings, to help students articulate a personal theology of church planting and multiplication. A core focus will be understanding and facilitating a “multiplication conversion” – the catalytic moment or process when a leader or church shifts from an addition mindset to a multiplication paradigm. Lessons from history, such as the Anabaptist movement’s neglect of leadership development, will highlight the importance of investing in multiplying leaders for sustainable growth.
CPM205 From Vision to Movement: Leadership Essentials for Leading from Church Planting to Church Multiplication (3 Credits)
This course develops the practical leadership skills essential for effective church planting and multiplication, fostering a “multiplier mindset” from the start. Emphasis is placed on preaching to the unchurched, entrepreneurial ministry development, vision casting for Kingdom-minded growth (going beyond individual church success), team building, fundraising, and evangelism. Students will learn to develop these skills in others, fostering a multiplying leadership culture from the outset. It will explore how church culture determines multiplication success.
PRA111 Multiplying Multipliers: Becoming a Church Planter Who Multiplies (3 Credits)
This practicum-based course deeply immerses students in the practices and mindset of church planters who multiply. Each student is paired with a multiplying mentor (or the professor/director will serve in this role). A key finding is that 100% of multiplying leaders had multiplying mentors, demonstrating that multiplication conversion is rarely self-generated; it’s catalyzed by relationship. Through interviews, field observations, and reflective assignments, students will examine the “multiplication conversion” more deeply, identify and assess the “7 Reproductive Markers” (or qualities) of multiplying planters, and develop a personal plan for generational multiplication, including how to assess for multiplication in others. Students will understand what multiplying mentors actually do over years: modeling, challenging, releasing, and sustaining.
PRA211 Movement Makers: Designing and Deploying Church Planting and Multiplication Systems (3 Credits)
This hands-on, practicum-based course explores the primary models and methods of church planting, with an emphasis on practical application, contextualization, and designing reproducible systems. Students will engage in fieldwork, develop a comprehensive church planting proposal that prioritizes multiplication, and receive ongoing feedback from both faculty and mentors. The course culminates in a capstone project: designing a church plant plan that explicitly prioritizes multiplication and aims to build an “Apostolic Pipeline” for sustained growth. It will challenge prevailing metrics of church success by proposing a new scorecard based on “generational dashboards” rather than mere attendance, and demonstrate how to invest for multiplication through financial reallocation.
*NOTE: All Ascent College students pursuing the Church Planting and Multiplication certificate program for credit must complete GEN102 Orientation and Library Resources (0 credits).
Designed for Today’s Ministry Leaders
The Church Planting and Multiplication Certificate is ideal for:
- Aspiring church planters
- Campus pastors
- Ministry builders
- Missions leaders
- Existing pastors exploring new ministry expressions
- Lay leaders sensing a call to launch new works
As with all Ascent certificate programs, the Church Planting and Multiplication Certificate is intentionally accessible and affordable. Students receive a 25% scholarship and can complete the program in a short-term, yearlong cycle without committing to a full degree pathway.
The program also serves as an excellent starting point for students considering future degree studies while wanting focused, hands-on ministry training first.
Classes are offered cyclically in Spring and Fall semesters, and Ascent offers year-round open enrollment. Auditors are also welcome.
For more information about the Church Planting and Multiplication Certificate Program or to begin the enrollment process, contact Amy Barney, Director of Admissions, at abarney@ascent.edu.