Roadmap for Incubator Congregations

Initiative Affiliated Mission Communities (AMC)

In an effort to touch more lives with the gift of life offered by a closer relationship with God through the love of Jesus, the Metropolitan Chicago Synod,ELCA,is challenging existing congregations to consider the development of a reproducing network of faith communities.

These communities may be small or large, traditional or non-traditional, urban or suburban. They will probably not own property and they will share professional leadership resources. But in some fashion, they will be growing and producing fruit, which includes touching new lives, raising new leaders, and giving birth to new communities.

These mission communities will be built on three intersecting circles of mission activity that together represent the fullness of Christian Mission: Proclamation, Service, and Justice.

These are the steps a congregation takes to become an incubator congregation:

  1. Identification of an Incubator Congregation or Incubator Clusters (IC)
  • Self-identified
  • Identified by the Outreach Team
  • Identified by the Director for Evangelical Mission (DEM)

Bishop and DEM will conduct forums at different locations. The dates are:

October 2013

November 2013

December 2013

  1. Readiness assessment
  • The assessment can be done by synod Outreach Team and/or the congregation
  • Assessment can be found at
  • If congregation is not ready, the synod will work with congregation to prepare a plan for readiness
  • If the congregation is ready the process continues
  1. Leadership Audit
  • A leadership audit will be conducted to determine the areas of ministry that need to be strengthened as a preamble to becoming an IC
  • The cost for the audit will be covered by congregation and the synod in partnership
  1. Mission Plan
  • A three-year mission plan for the AMC will be prepared by the congregation in partnership with the missionary and the synod (DEM – Outreach Team)
  • The mission plan will be reviewed by the synod’s Outreach Team
  • Synod Council approves the mission project
  • Grants will be awarded for a three-year project subject to a yearly assessment
  1. Missionary
  • A missionary might be already identified by the IC or the DEM
  • Missionaries will go through an assessment for church planting and leadership using the Church Planter Profile assessment and the Leadership Tool (Evangelical Covenant Church)
  • The missionary position will begin as a part-time position.
  1. Intentional Impact process
  • The pastor of the IC and the missionary will enroll in the Intentional Impact process (cost will be covered by congregations and synod)
  1. Covenant
  • A covenant, between the missionary and the congregation, will be signed
  • A covenant, between the congregation and the Metropolitan Chicago Synod, will be signed
  1. Forming an Accompaniment team
  • The Outreach Team will assist the IC and missionary in putting together an accompaniment team. (This is not a supervisory team.)
  1. Assigning a coach
  • A coach will be assigned to either/both the IC’s pastor or/and the missionary according to the context and the nature of the project