Season 1 Trailer: Why Church Residencies Matter

How can churches raise the next generation of pastors, church planters, missionaries, and ministry leaders?

In this Season 1 trailer, host Mark Warnock introduces The Church Residency Podcast and shares the conviction behind the show: leadership development belongs in the local church. As more churches establish residency programs to train and send future leaders, this podcast explores the practical strategies, lessons learned, and real-world experiences of churches investing in the next generation.

Throughout Season 1, you'll hear conversations with residency leaders from across the country about:

• How their residency programs got started
• The vision and philosophy driving their approach
• Curriculum and training structures
• Funding models and church-seminary partnerships
• Successes, failures, and lessons learned
• Practical advice for churches considering a residency program

Whether you're leading an established residency, exploring how to start one, or simply passionate about leadership development in the local church, this podcast is for you. Subscribe now and join the conversation.

Click here to access the FREE Church Residency Starter Kit.

--

Sign up to attend the Residency Builder Event in Jacksonville, Florida

September 29-30, 2026

https://www.sendnetwork.com/events/residency-builder-jacksonville-fl/

Transcript

Copy

SPEAKER_02 0:04

Churches everywhere are asking the question: how can we raise up the next generation of pastors, church planters, missionaries, and ministry leaders? More and more churches today are discovering that one of the best answers is through a residency in a local church. Welcome to the Church Residency Podcast, where we have conversations about training pastors, planters, missionaries, and ministry leaders through local church residencies. My name is Mark Warnock, and I'm the residency director for Family Church in South Florida. This podcast grew out of a conviction that the local church must take responsibility for developing new leaders. In this podcast, I sit down with leaders from churches across the country to talk about how their residency programs actually work, how they got started, what they've learned, what succeeded, what failed, and how they're developing leaders through the life and ministry of their local church.

SPEAKER_01 1:01

Always before you design this process, begin with the end in mind. Leadership development requires a destination and direction. You gotta first know the destination you're trying to take this leader. What kind of leader are you wanting to see produced through your apprenticeship or residency? Gain that clarity on the front end, and then also wrestle with your why. Like why do you want to develop leaders? Like build that theological, biblical foundation, that conviction of why this matters.

SPEAKER_02 1:27

For a long season, churches outsourced leadership development to seminaries or networks, but today we are seeing the heart of leadership development return to the local church. Some residency programs we talk with are large and established, and others are small, simple, and just getting started. But all over the country, more and more churches are building intentional pathways to train and send future leaders through hands-on ministry experience. In our upcoming episode, you'll hear conversations with residency leaders about how their residencies got going, what vision is driving them, what curriculum they're using, how they fund it, how churches and seminaries can partner together and lessons learned along the way. Whether you already lead a residency program, you're exploring starting one, or you simply want to think more intentionally about leadership development in your church, I hope this podcast will serve you. Subscribe now and watch for the first season of episodes coming soon. And if you're interested in building a residency in your church, we're creating a free church residency starter kit with curriculum and practical resources you'll be able to request once the first season releases. The Church Residency Podcast, season one, coming soon to podcast platforms everywhere.