Over the years, the Diocese of Christ Our Hope (DCH) has grown through church planting, church growth, and ministry expansion. We are deeply committed to sacrificial investment of our diocesan resources in Gospel expansion and church planting. Our clergy, diocesan staff, and Diocesan Council collaborate through an ordered process to seek the mind of the Lord together concerning where and how we invest funds for the sake of the Gospel. Our discernment process requires a well-constructed Ministry Partnership Proposal (MPP), and the information below is meant to guide your MPP preparation. If you eventually submit an MPP, keep in mind that we consistently receive more MPPs than we can fund. In the end, the Diocesan Council has to make choices, and we take this charge seriously and prayerfully. We ask you to pray with us as we work together for the Gospel in support of all the churches in the Diocese of Christ our Hope.
Prerequisites and Standards
Eligibility for mission funding is contingent on churches tithing faithfully to the diocese and being in compliance with the Child Protection Policy.
- Before considering the application, the Diocesan Council will verify with the Diocesan Treasurer that MPP applicants are consistently tithing to the diocese at least 10% of their undesignated offerings, or have an active plan to this level of tithing. If your church is not currently meeting these standards but still would like to apply, please contact Lee Hilts to create a plan for reaching the tithing requirement.
- NOTE: We understand that a nascent church plant that is seeking an MPP grant may be operating on a thin margin in terms of tithes, offerings, and expenses. Nevertheless, it is crucial to establish the principle of faithful 10% giving as early as possible in the life of a parish. Stories abound of God’s blessing to and through those who honor him with faithfulness in offerings. In addition, the Diocese of Christ our Hope gives 50% of its offerings to the work of the Gospel though granting MPPs and other missional efforts. We are only able to do that because the churches and church plants of the diocese are faithful and generous themselves.
- The Diocesan Council will verify with Canon Meg Greto that MPP applicants are in compliance with the implementation and training required by the diocesan Policy for the Protection of Children, or that there is a documented plan in place for compliance by the July 15, 2022 deadline.
Funding must be used only for the purpose for which it was requested and granted. Changes to the purpose of the funding must be requested in advance in writing to the Diocesan Council by contacting Canon Ben Bowman. Redirection of funding without permission from the Diocesan council will result in withdrawal of the grant.
Recipients are required to submit semi-annual reports to the Diocesan Council regarding the status of the project funded by the grant. Reports are due on January 31 and June 30 every year for the duration of the grant. Failure to submit a report in a timely manner may result in withdrawal of the grant.
Timelines and Deadlines
In order to properly evaluate and discern funding opportunities, all MPP applications must adhere to the following timeline and deadlines.
All documentation is to be submitted electronically to Canon Ben Bowman.
Deanery Gatherings Verbal Presentations (January - March, 2022)
All MPP applications should be shared with Rectors in your Deanery prior to your respective Deanery Gathering. At the Deanery Gathering you will be asked to present your proposal to the group to solicit feedback. Please make a video recording of all new MPP presentations to send to Canon Ben Bowman for review by the Diocesan Council.
March 31, 2022: Final submission of MPPs are due.
Incorporating feedback from the Deanery Gathering and/or Diocesan Council and Staff, all final applications are due to Canon Ben Bowman on this date, including the video recording. In April, May, and June, members of the Diocesan Council may be in touch with you to gather more information about your proposal.
June 30, 2022: Diocesan Council makes final decisions on funding.
July 30, 2022: All MPP submitters are notified.
If you have any questions, please contact Canon Ben Bowman.
Church Plant Proposals
Church Planting is the creation of a new DCH church that has an eye towards these three long term goals. Namely, that the church becomes:
- Self-governing: the congregation is led internally with a properly selected and confirmed rector in conformity with our diocesan Constitution and Canons, and naturally develops an elected, rotating vestry (leadership council) in conformity with our Constitution and Canons.
- Self-replicating: the congregation grows toward the capacity and vision to be able to participate actively in planting new Anglican churches in the Diocese through the normal deanery mission strategies and faithful 10% tithing to the diocese. Additionally, a self-replicating church will, by definition, expand its own Gospel mission in other strategic, creative, and prayerful ways in coordination with DCH leaders and clergy, other Anglican entities, etc.
- Self-sustaining: the congregation is able to fund its basic ministry operations, diocesan tithing, and the Rector’s full-time compensation from monies generated internally.
A Church Planting MPP is designed to contribute substantially to the creation of a new church plant by supporting a church planter directly, or by supporting the new plant itself for up to five years. In either case, the nascent plant and planter are working with the diocese and deanery leaders.
A Church Planting MPP can also be granted to an existing congregation to support a church planting resident who is actively being trained and supported to plant a daughter church out of their existing congregation. The development of the daughter church, (including the recruiting, training, empowering, and releasing of a church planter who has gathered and is leading a committed launch team) would happen in conjunction with the church planter assessment, training, and coaching process of the diocese. Such a process, after the identification of the planter, is assumed to be completed and a new church well-launched in no more than five years. In this case, the new plant would not be eligible for an additional church planting MPP once the 5 years of funding for the residency are completed.
Curacy Incubator Proposal
To provide consistent, quality training for newly (or soon-to-be) ordained deacons and priests, churches can apply for funds to support the creation of a 10-year Curacy Incubator Program (CIP). This program, built on the ACNA’s Made to Flourish model, will offer a DCH-designed curriculum for training curates and will be funded over the course of multiple years, tapering off year by year, with the expectation that the local church will make up the balance of costs each year until they are able to fully support curacies from within their own budget for years ahead.
While Made to Flourish already has a fully established curacy incubator program, the Diocese of Christ Our Hope is still in the process of finalizing our version of the curriculum which will not be complete until later in 2022. The Diocesan Council and Staff strongly encourage churches who feel called and equipped to mentor the next generation of clergy to begin working with their own congregations and staff during 2022 to prepare to make the 10-year commitment required by this MPP, and to apply for the funds in the 2023 MPP cycle.
Mission Program Expansion/Church Growth Project Proposal
Mission Program Expansion or Church Growth Projects include the following examples:
- Expanding or creating a particular program for focused mission and outreach (usually through staffing/resourcing), thereby presenting a catalytic option for a congregation to grow through evangelizing and discipling unreached people. In this regard, churches are especially encouraged to take a broad view of their communities to see if there are opportunities for ministry among unchurched, non-Christian neighbors who don’t match the church’s current socio-economic profile.
- Renovations of facilities, major new equipment, etc. that can be demonstrated to contribute to significantly expanding the evangelistic reach of an existing church.
- Down-payment support for land or building acquisition. This does not include support for periodic and/or recurring mortgage payments. Applicants should note that the DCH has only a small percentage of mission funds to designate toward building or land purchase assistance at this time, and thus any DCH support for these efforts will necessarily be only a token amount.
These funding projects will help kick-start new kinds of ministries that see gospel proclamation, discipleship, and growth of new people within your church. This process must have a sustainability component, as well as a rigorous development of the financial needs through your church to justify that ‘above and beyond’ funds are needed from the Diocese.
Multi-Church Cooperative Mission Proposal
At times, vision for large regional mission projects emerges through friendship and collaboration among DCH church leaders -- things like children, youth, or family camps, large-scale outreach events, ongoing collaborative efforts by DCH churches to reach a metropolitan area or region with the Gospel, etc. Multi-church Cooperative Mission initiatives are legitimate possibilities for Ministry Partnership Proposals. However, keep in mind the following:
- Before submitting this type of MPP, it is necessary to actually have a vision for such a project and to have multiple churches / leaders committed to working together in genuine partnership to fulfill this vision.
This type of MPP must have demonstrable impact on either reaching new people for Christ or building disciples in ways that are beyond the normal capacity of a particular local church.
