The Multiply Project Podcast

The Multiply Project
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Most pastors want to multiply, but few know where to find the leaders to do it. The Multiply Project Podcast is for pastors who are ready to move from addition to multiplication. We believe you don't need to import talent; you need to uncover it. There are church planters in your church right now. Join us for honest, peer-to-peer conversations about calling, equipping, and sending from within. We sit down with practitioners, planters, and network leaders to share the actual tools and "trenches" stories you need to build a pipeline. Stop waiting for a superhero to show up. Be the church that sends.

  1. Sep 29

    Sent from the Seats: Groundbreakers, Not Lifers Christine Sepulveda | Season 2 Episode 6

    The planters you're looking for are already in your church. The Church Planter Scouting Guide shows you how to spot the one: https://multiplyproject.org/church-planter-scouting-guide/?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=description&utm_campaign=s02e13_sepulveda Christine Sepulveda was on track to run a multi-million-dollar company's U.S. operations. She walked away at the peak — not out the back door, but off the top of the ladder. Here's the line that took her there: "If I only have this one life, what am I gonna do with it? I'd rather exhaust my life for kingdom than for an ROI that'll only last on the side of heaven." For twelve years Christine helped scale her family's bakery business — Los Udrinas / Sedrina's — from one regional client into a nationwide operation, baking alongside store workers at 4 a.m. and negotiating with Walmart, Kroger, HEB, and Publix. She won sales awards. She was the primary breadwinner. And the whole time, she was planting churches on the side — until "on the side" stopped making sense. This is a conversation for two kinds of leaders. If you're a pastor who keeps looking past the entrepreneurs in your church — the driven, restless, high-capacity people who don't fit your volunteer slots — Christine names what you're missing. "You're either gonna express your gifts in the church or out of it. If leaders aren't willing to get creative, you are wasting a lot of potential." The doors-and-greeting jobs aren't the ceiling for these people. They're the insult. And if you're the marketplace leader wondering whether the restlessness you feel is a calling — she's been exactly where you are. She names the fear, the financial reckoning, the slow death of self-sufficiency, and the surprising truth on the other side: "There is nothing more entrepreneurial than starting churches." Christine also hands the church world a category it's been missing. Not every planter is a senior pastor. Some are groundbreakers — pioneers who start something, hand it off, and go again. "We plant a church, become the senior pastor, and die at that church. No — there are other ways. We need groundbreakers." Paul didn't stay. He went wide. So does she. Craig and Jeff sit in the tension with her: the drive that gets rewarded in the marketplace and reined in by a healthy church, the burnout, the boundaries, the difference between a lens of readiness and a lens of potential. If you've ever looked across your church and wondered where the next planter is — start here. Grab the Church Planter Scouting Guide — it shows you how to spot the one God already planted in your church. Name and email, and it's yours: https://multiplyproject.org/church-planter-scouting-guide/?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=description&utm_campaign=s02e13_sepulveda Not sure your church is ready to multiply yet? Take ten minutes and find out the honest truth — the Readiness Assessment: https://multiplyproject.org/readiness-assessment/?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=description&utm_campaign=s02e13_sepulveda Know a marketplace leader who can't sit still in their volunteer slot? Send them this episode before the day ends. 00:00 — "I'd rather exhaust my life for kingdom" 00:20 — Meet Christine: disciple-maker, wife, former executive 01:32 — Scaling a family bakery from one client to nationwide 04:18 — Business and church planting, side by side since 2013 05:30 — Bivocation vs. co-vocation: the integrated life 07:10 — Winning in the marketplace — and leaving at the peak 09:43 — The itch you can't ignore: how she knew it was time 11:41 — Who saw the potential in her first 13:08 — The conversation at home, and the slow letting-go 16:13 — Burnout, the hospital, and learning boundaries 19:24 — Why the drive that gets rewarded has to get reined in 22:03 — What she had to unlearn from corporate 23:28 — The marketplace superpower ministry needed 24:53 — Baking multiplication into the DNA 27:05 — Immersion: how it got in her 28:57 — The stories that made it worth it: Justin and Allie 31:40 — Seeing your congregation's professional lives differently 34:20 — The "what" vs. the "who": some people plug in, some get sent 38:11 — What to say to a pastor wondering who's in their church 40:39 — What to say to the marketplace leader who's afraid to leave 44:18 — Groundbreakers, not lifers: a category the church is missing 46:42 — The ten-year vision: saturating Florida, sending to the nations 49:55 — Under-the-radar faithfulness and the church that won't give up

    Sent from the Seats: Groundbreakers, Not Lifers Christine Sepulveda | Season 2 Episode 6

  2. Sep 22

    Sent from the Seats: Stop Looking for Another You Scott & Tami Free | Season 2 Episode 5

    Grab the Church Planter Scouting Guide — it shows you how to spot the one already in your church: https://multiplyproject.org/church-pl... Most pastors looking for a church planter are secretly looking for a younger version of themselves — same gifts, same style, same playbook. And that's exactly why they never find one. Scott and Tammy Free planted Crossover Church ATL on the west side of Atlanta — a church for the marginalized, the imprisoned, and the people living on the fringes. But here's what almost nobody expected, including them: Scott spent years in the car business — sales, finance, general manager — while doing inner-city ministry on nights and weekends. Tammy was a felony prosecutor for six years, on the track to become a judge. Neither of them planned to plant a church. For years they resisted the word "church" altogether. What they discovered is the thing every sending pastor needs to hear: the planters you're looking for almost never look like you. Scott says it plainly — "I had to get out of the mindset of 'I'm looking for another Scott Free.'" Almost every leader they've sent out looks a little different from the one who sent them. In this conversation, Craig and Jeff — who both walked with the Frees through their assessment and planting journey — dig into how a car salesman and a prosecutor became one of the most fruitful sending stories in Atlanta. You'll hear why Scott believes God formed him at his secular job, not in spite of it. Why Tammy had to grieve position, finances, and status to step into calling — and why that grief was normal, not a lack of faith. And how City Takers grew from a Friday-night gathering of 700-plus into a movement of street churches and prison churches long before anyone called it a "church plant." This is the "lens of potential vs. lens of readiness" made flesh.  Scott and Tammy didn't fit the profile. That was the point. If you've been scanning your church for someone who reminds you of you, this episode reframes the whole search. The person God has for your city might be sitting in a seat you've already walked past — because you were looking for the wrong face. Start with one. Grab the Church Planter Scouting Guide — it shows you how to spot the planter already in your church, even when they look nothing like you: https://multiplyproject.org/church-pl... Ready to go deeper? Take ten minutes and find out if your church is ready to multiply yet — the Readiness Assessment tells you the honest truth: https://multiplyproject.org/readiness... Know a pastor who keeps looking outside his own church? Send them this episode. CHAPTERS:  00:00 — "I'm Looking for Another Scott Free" 01:00 — Meet Scott & Tammy: Crossover Church ATL 02:30 — "We're Not Church Planters" (The Years of Resisting) 04:00 — From the Car Business to the Inner City 06:00 — Tammy the Prosecutor: On Track to Be a Judge 08:30 — Why God Used the "Secular" Job 11:00 — The Homicide Prosecutor Who Chose the Fringes  13:00 — City Takers: 900 People on a Friday Night 16:00 — Grieving Status, Money, and Independence 20:00 — Why That Grief Is Normal, Not Faithless 22:30 — Owning the Word "Church" 24:00 — The Exponential Assessment That Changed Everything 27:00 — Stop Looking for Another You: Who to Send Next

    Sent from the Seats: Stop Looking for Another You Scott & Tami Free | Season 2 Episode 5

  3. Sep 15

    Sent from the Seats: Get Ready While You're Not Ready

    The planters you're looking for are already in your church. The Church Planter Scouting Guide shows you how to spot the one: https://multiplyproject.org/church-planter-scouting-guide/?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=description&utm_campaign=s02e11_vogel Nobody is ever ready. Aaron Vogel waited 24 years from the day God first put a church on his heart to the day he actually planted one — and he'd tell you that's not a failure of timing. It's the whole point. Aaron is the lead pastor of Grace Church in New Orleans, a church he planted in September 2025 at age 43 — in the city where five generations of his family have lived, within five miles of where he sits today. But before the pulpit came the marketplace: bivocational restaurant server, then general manager of a $1.2 million operation, then co-founder of District, a New Orleans restaurant group that opened a new location nearly every year until 2020. He knows what it costs to build something. He also knows what it costs to lose one — his group poured over half a million dollars into an upscale vegan restaurant two months before the pandemic and lost nearly a million before closing it. Here's what makes this conversation land for any pastor who thinks the clock has run out: Aaron isn't a 26-year-old with a great voice and a launch team. He's a 44-year-old who spent two decades getting ready while he wasn't ready — and arrived a better planter for it. Craig names the stereotype directly: church planter as young, gifted, thirty. Aaron dismantles it with wisdom you only get from failure, hurricanes, and 17-hour days. And then he does something most pastors never do — he tells you exactly how he scouts. Aaron walks into a room looking for potential, not readiness. The kid who couldn't carry plates without soaking the floor became a general manager in five years, because Aaron saw something and gave it time. Now he's running the same play at Grace: give a guy the microphone to host on Sunday, let him bomb, watch who leans in. "I don't think he's that guy — but he could be the one right beneath that guy." That's the lens. That's the work. This is an episode about the long game — for the marketplace leader wondering if it's too late, and for the pastor who's stopped seeing the potential already sitting in his own rows.   Start with one. Grab the Church Planter Scouting Guide — it shows you how to spot the planter already in your church. Name and email, and it's yours: https://multiplyproject.org/church-planter-scouting-guide/?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=description&utm_campaign=s02e11_vogel Not sure your church is ready to multiply yet? Take ten minutes and find out the honest truth with the Readiness Assessment: https://multiplyproject.org/readiness-assessment/?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=description&utm_campaign=s02e11_vogel Know a marketplace leader who thinks he's missed his window? Send him this episode before the day ends. Stop looking somewhere else. Become the church that sends. Church planting · church multiplication · bivocational ministry · marketplace to ministry · New Orleans church plant · disciple-making · sending churches

  4. Sep 8

    Sent from the Seats: Anybody's Capable of Anything Wes Lynch | Season 2 Episode 3

    Free Church Planter Scouting Guide → the one you're looking for is already in your seats: https://multiplyproject.org/church-planter-scouting-guide/?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=description&utm_campaign=s02e10_lynch A former sheriff's deputy who arrested people in his own hometown now pastors some of them. If God can reroute a heart, He can reroute a calling. Wes Lynch spent years in law enforcement — 911 dispatch, county jail, the road — chasing a dream of becoming a state trooper. Then his son Lucas was born with half a working heart and had open-heart surgery at three days old. In a dim ICU in Indianapolis, Wes stopped surrendering his son and started surrendering his life. Within a year he'd traded a secure salary, insurance, and a 401k for odd jobs and a free youth-pastor role. Six years ago he planted Radiant Lighthouse in Greenville, Ohio — a town of 11,000 in a county where 30,000 people are dechurched. He planted where everyone knew him: the vice principal who remembers his high school years, the people he once arrested, the neighbors who now leave steak on his porch. And out of that church, three more have already been sent. In this conversation, Wes, Craig, and Jeff get into the conviction that runs under all of it: anybody's capable of anything. The danger a cop learns to see in everyone — and the redemption a pastor learns to see in everyone. It's the same lens. Most pastors have stopped using it on the people in their own rows. If you've been waiting to "find" a church planter, Wes will tell you plainly: that's an excuse, and he's all about solutions.  The planter is already there. You've just stopped seeing the potential. Start with one. Grab the free Church Planter Scouting Guide — it shows you how to spot the one already sitting in your seats: https://multiplyproject.org/church-planter-scouting-guide/?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=description&utm_campaign=s02e10_lynch  Not sure your church is ready yet? Take ten minutes and find out the honest truth — the Church Multiplication Readiness Assessment: https://multiplyproject.org/readiness-assessment/?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=description&utm_campaign=s02e10_lynch Know a marketplace leader who can't shake the feeling God's calling them out? Send them this episode before the day ends.

    Sent from the Seats: Anybody's Capable of Anything Wes Lynch | Season 2 Episode 3

  5. Sep 1

    Nobody's Disqualified Andrew F. Carter | Season 2 Episode 2

    "The pain you've walked through isn't your disqualification. It might be the platform." Andrew was, running a successful CrossFit gym with 200 members, and chasing the American dream—until he served 18 months in prison before ever stepping behind a pulpit. Most pastors would look at a story like Andrew Carter's and quietly file it under "disqualified." In this episode, Craig and Jeff sit down with Andrew F. Carter, who planted Royal City Church in Inglewood, California, just three months after feeling the call—with no seminary, no network, and zero fundraising. Andrew reveals how he develops leaders exclusively from within his congregation, the 14-week cohort model he uses, and why the future planters you are looking for might already be sitting in your pews. FREE RESOURCES & LINKS Church Planter Scouting Guide: Spot the leader God already planted in your seats https://multiplyproject.org/church-planter-scouting-guide/?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=description&utm_campaign=s02e09_carter Church Multiplication Readiness Assessment: Find out if your church is ready to multiply https://multiplyproject.org/readiness-assessment/?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=description&utm_campaign=s02e09_carter KEY TAKEAWAYS IN THIS EPISODE Redefining Disqualification: Why a complicated past can serve as your greatest ministry platform rather than a barrier. In-House Leadership Pipeline: How Andrew uses a 14-week discipleship cohort and his "Five Cs" framework to raise up local preachers without hiring outsiders. The Counterintuitive Sabbath: Why stepping out of the pulpit one Sunday a month actually accelerated his church's growth. Marketplace to Ministry: Why business success doesn't equal a pastoral calling—and why you need spiritual confirmation before quitting your day job. TIMESTAMPS 00:00 — From Marketplace to Ministry 02:52 — Foster Care, Drugs, and the First Yes 04:54 — The Prophetic Word That Made Him Run 06:09 — Building a 200-Member Gym 07:53 — The House of Cards Comes Down 09:30 — Rock Bottom and 18 Months in Prison 11:30 — The Viral TikTok That Woke Him Up 12:58 — Who's Stuck in the In-Between? 14:41 — "If You Build It, They Will Come" 17:25 — Planting With Zero Idea 19:16 — How CrossFit Got Him Fit to Carry His Cross 20:41 — The Hardest Thing to Unlearn 22:17 — Why He Stopped Preaching One Sunday a Month 23:04 — When the Opposition Comes From Christians 26:48 — Developing People From Within 27:21 — The Five Cs and the 14-Week Cohort 30:28 — The Woman Who Yelled From the Street 33:37 — Where Are the Planters in Your Church? 35:06 — Before You Leave Your Job 36:22 — Nobody's Disqualified CONNECT & SUBSCRIBE Know a pastor who's written someone off—or written themselves off? Share this episode with them today! Don't forget to like, subscribe, and hit the notification bell for more episodes on church multiplication. #ChurchPlanting #MultiplyProject #AndrewFCarter #MinistryLeadership #Discipleship #ChurchLeadership

    Nobody's Disqualified Andrew F. Carter | Season 2 Episode 2

  6. Aug 26

    Pathway to Planting: The Yes Outweighs the Risk with JT Riley | Episode 1

    Grab the Church Planter Scouting Guide — it shows you how to spot the one already in your church: https://multiplyproject.org/church-planter-scouting-guide/?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=description&utm_campaign=s02e08_jt He walked into a recruiter's office with piercings, tattoos, and a chip on his shoulder. Nine years later he walked out of the Marine Corps to plant churches near every Marine base on the planet. JT didn't wait for a voice from heaven. He said yes — and kept saying it. In this episode, Craig and Jeff sit down with JT, lead planter of Local Point Church near Cherry Point, North Carolina — 132 baptisms since launching in September 2024, and already working to send their first plant to Camp Lejeune in 2028. Before any of that, JT was an aircrewman flying C-130s, a self-described troublemaker whose marriage nearly ended in 2007 before he grabbed an usher by the jacket in a Texas church and said, "I'm all jacked up. I need Jesus." Here's what makes his story more than a testimony: five elders saw something in JT before he saw it himself. They didn't wait for him to announce a calling. They said, "We've been praying — we think God has a hand on your life, and we want to disciple you." That's the whole model. Calling in the New Testament comes through someone sitting across a table saying "I see this in you" — not a lightning bolt. You'll hear JT on the superpower the Marines gave him without knowing it (the government trained a preacher and didn't realize it), why the mission decides what you say no to, and the plain answer he gives pastors asking where the planters are: look at who's already carrying the gospel into the marketplace. They're already there. You've just stopped seeing them. This one is for the pastor who keeps looking outside his walls for a planter who's already sitting in his seats. Timestamps: 00:00 — The yes outweighs the risk 00:20 — Meet JT: Local Point, Cherry Point, 132 baptisms 04:07 — Planting a church near every Marine base on earth 05:28 — Piercings, tattoos, and the day the towers fell 07:54 — "I don't want a divorce — I just don't like who I am" 09:40 — "I'm all jacked up. I need Jesus." 11:10 — The Golden Corral moment: called to go tell people 16:33 — The mission is the Marines, not the church 17:02 — The first man who saw potential in JT 19:34 — What five elders did that made a planter 29:37 — The superpower the Marines built without knowing it 31:53 — Why the mission decides what you say no to 36:31 — The Marine he's discipling right now 39:19 — "Where are the planters?" JT's plain answer 42:04 — Just say yes 43:33 — Stop looking somewhere else Start with one. Grab the Church Planter Scouting Guide — it shows you the nine things to look for: https://multiplyproject.org/church-planter-scouting-guide/?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=description&utm_campaign=s02e08_jt Not sure your church is ready to send yet? Take ten minutes and find out the honest truth — the Church Multiplication Readiness Assessment: https://multiplyproject.org/readiness-assessment/?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=description&utm_campaign=s02e08_jt Know a pastor sitting on a planter he can't see? Send him this episode before the day ends.

    Pathway to Planting: The Yes Outweighs the Risk with JT Riley | Episode 1

  7. Apr 1

    The Marketplace Multiplier: Engineering a Movement with Ali Roohi | Episode 7

    If you only look for church planters in seminaries, you are missing the majority of the workforce God has already provided. Your next planter might be an engineer, a business owner, or a manager sitting in your pews right now. In this season finale, Ali Roohi (Pastor of Bold Church in Silicon Valley) joins Craig and Jeff to share his journey from high-level software engineer to church planter. Ali is the "proof of concept" for the Antioch Way—a high-capacity marketplace leader who just needed a pastor to see his potential. We discuss how marketplace skills like Agile methodology and ROI thinking actually accelerate Gospel movement and why every pastor must become a talent scout. Whether you are a Champion Pastor looking for new recruitment lanes or an Explorer wondering where to find leaders, this conversation proves that God's next great move often starts with a tap on the shoulder in the marketplace. The Takeaway One Actionable Step: Be a talent scout. This week, identify one marketplace leader in your church who is already taking initiative in their job. Send them this episode with a text that says: "I See In You the grit and leadership of a church planter. Let's grab coffee." Links & Resources Free Resource: Marketplace Leader Scouting Guide Connect with Ali: BoldChurch.org Join the Movement: MultiplyProject.org

  8. Mar 17

    Making Sending the Default with Randy Deal | Episode 6

    Most pastors fear that sending their best leaders will kill their church. At Rock Point, they've proven that sending isn't a sacrifice. It's your greatest strength. In this episode, Randy Deal (Executive Pastor at Rock Point Church) joins Craig and Jeff to discuss how to move past multiplication as a "project" and turn it into your church's heartbeat. Randy shares the story of how Rock Point embedded a "Beyond" vision from day one, leading to 17 daughter churches and a leadership pipeline that spans from middle school to master's degrees. We explore why the whole church must "own" every plant and how to shift your default setting from gathering to sending. Whether you are a Champion Pastor looking to scale or a Skeptic worried about losing resources, this conversation provides the blueprint for a culture that thrives by giving itself away. The Takeaway One Actionable Step: Audit your default. This week, review your last three staff or leadership meetings. How much time was spent on internal management versus external sending? Shift the first 10 minutes of your next meeting to exclusively discuss "Who is next?" Links & Resources Free Resource: Multiplication Readiness Assessment Connect with Randy: RockPointChurch.com Join the Movement: MultiplyProject.org

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Most pastors want to multiply, but few know where to find the leaders to do it. The Multiply Project Podcast is for pastors who are ready to move from addition to multiplication. We believe you don't need to import talent; you need to uncover it. There are church planters in your church right now. Join us for honest, peer-to-peer conversations about calling, equipping, and sending from within. We sit down with practitioners, planters, and network leaders to share the actual tools and "trenches" stories you need to build a pipeline. Stop waiting for a superhero to show up. Be the church that sends.

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