Podcast episode
Episode 364 – Church Planting Secrets Every Entrepreneur Needs | Dave Ferguson
What happens when you put a pastor and an entrepreneur in a room with a whiteboard? According to Dave Ferguson, you get real solutions that push back darkness with light. Join host Justin Forman as he sits down with Dave Ferguson—co-founder of Community Christian Church in Chicago and the New Thing Network, which has helped plant 30,000 churches across 69 countries—to explore what it really takes to build a movement, why church planters and entrepreneurs are more alike than they think, and how “missional imagination” could be the missing ingredient in both the church and the marketplace.
EPISODE NOTES
What if your pastor thinks more like an entrepreneur than you realize? Dave Ferguson—co-founder of Community Christian Church and the New Thing Network, which helped plant 30,000 churches across 69 countries—joins Justin Forman to unpack the surprising parallels between church planters and entrepreneurs, and why their collaboration might be the most powerful force for community transformation available today.
Dave shares the leadership framework from his upcoming book Multiplier, including four daily gauges that keep leaders healthy over decades (RPMS: Relational, Physical, Mental, Spiritual) and four external practices drawn directly from how Jesus built his movement. You’ll also hear the remarkable story of a salesman who planted a church for kids with special needs—and why there are now 50 micro-expressions of church meeting inside Amazon’s headquarters.
Whether you’re a founder, a faith leader, or both, this episode will stretch your missional imagination and give you practical tools to multiply your impact for the long haul.
Chapters:
00:00 Opening: Pastors + entrepreneurs can solve the world’s greatest problems
00:55 Introducing Dave Ferguson and the New Thing Network
01:41 Starting a church on the back of a napkin
02:39 From one church to 30,000: The network model that changed everything
03:39 Defining “movement”—when does something tip?
05:38 The “chaortic” principle: vision, values, and controlled chaos
06:34 Leadership, control, and the maturation of a movement
07:01 Inflection points: The first church plant and the multiplication breakthrough
10:22 Reproducing networks—the backbone of movement
12:26 Church planters and entrepreneurs: Same wiring?
13:26 What entrepreneurs and church planters share
14:53 The darkness that keeps pastors and entrepreneurs apart
16:03 Breaking down the intimidation factor on both sides
17:47 FDE Church Partnership announcement
18:35 Barna data: When pastors and entrepreneurs come together
19:28 Justice Deposits: A pastor-entrepreneur collaboration that made history
20:45 Is the church waking up to the entrepreneurial opportunity?
21:47 The “how moment”—entrepreneurs as the bridge to every domain
23:02 Flipping the door: Pastors entering the entrepreneur’s world
23:40 Going wide AND deep: The four Rs framework
25:41 Inside Multiplier: Dave’s new book and its framework
27:08 FDE Foundation Groups announcement
27:55 Making frameworks sticky—and why it matters
29:23 The Multiplier framework: “It’s in you”
30:33 The drift problem—and why healthy leaders finish strong
32:40 RPMS: The four daily gauges every leader needs
34:16 Entrepreneurs love a great dashboard—this is yours
35:04 Building faith-driven entrepreneurship that doesn’t repeat history
37:45 Four external practices: Make disciple-makers
38:27 73% of Jesus’ time was with a few—what that means for your leadership
39:36 Leadership development over HR programs
40:52 Establishing spiritual communities and mobilizing new leaders
41:52 Launching church expressions—simpler than you think
42:41 50 micro-expressions of church inside Amazon
43:17 Mission-first community: The nuclear power source
44:41 Rick’s story: A salesman plants an all-abilities church
47:09 Missional imagination vs. checklist Christianity
47:53 Closing: Pastors and entrepreneurs bringing redemptive imagination together
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