Dear CNC Leaders,
Whether your church celebrates the Lenten season or not, this time of year has us all looking forward to and making plans for Easter. You might be leading your church to pray for neighbors who need to hear about Jesus or inviting focused study, reflection, and spiritual emphasis on our preparation for an upcoming Holy week. No matter what you are planning, I know from years of local church pastoral ministry that this time of year tends to be a time of ramping up rather than slowing down.
At Converge North Central, we are passionate about serving leaders and churches who are reaching more people with the Gospel of Jesus. One vital part of a healthy and sustainable ministry that is effectively reaching new believers is the spiritual health of our pastors. Let me encourage and challenge you to make sure that in the sometime frenzied time leading up to Easter, that you are also taking time with God. You are getting ready to preach Jesus, have you spent time with Jesus? You are getting ready to lead others to the cross on Good Friday, have you sat at the foot of the cross recently? You are getting ready to proclaim forgiveness of sins and new life through the resurrection, have you confessed your sins to your Lord?
Our team at CNC are cheering for you! We are here for support or prayer or encouragement or whatever else you might need as you press on to share the gospel with those who God is drawing by the power of His Spirit. May God lead you as you prepare your own heart for this Easter season.
In Christ,
Andy Kumpel
Regional President
Camping
Making the Most of Winter
Here’s what people had to say about our winter retreats:
- “I have grown more connected to God and my church. I have grown more comfortable with prayer.”
- “I found healing in my life and got to recenter my life to be around Jesus.”
- “Had another great relationship boost with God.”
Opportunities to share with your congregation.
- Family time: Registration is now open for spring retreats and family camp. There are multiple options—Mother & Daughter Retreat (April 24-26), Father & Son Retreat (May 1-3), and family camp (June 28-July 3 or September 4-7). These fill up fast, so tell your families now.
- Summer staff: Got students looking for summer work? How about an adventure that’s more than just another summer job? Tell them they can work at Trout.
- Volunteer: Every spring, teams of volunteers help us get ready for summer camp. If your church has volunteers looking for opportunities, point them to Serve Team.
We love teaming up with local churches. Thanks for your ongoing partnership.
Starting
Church Planting And Apple Trees
What does an apple tree produce? Apples of course! But that’s an incomplete answer. Apple trees also produce more apple trees. That Honeycrisp that you enjoyed at lunch is not the end goal for the tree. It’s what inside of the apple…the seeds. The apple is a package, a container for the seeds. And what do these seeds become? Not just apples, but apple trees. Within each apple are seeds designed to produce more apple trees. Apple trees exist to produce more apple trees.
What does a church produce? More and better disciples of course! But that’s an incomplete answer. Churches also are to produce more churches. Like the apple tree, every church contains seeds to produce more churches. Healthy, multiplying churches which in turn produce more disciple and better disciples and healthier, multiplying churches, and so on and so on! There has never been a greater need and opportunity to plant more churches. Every year, more churches are closing in America than are being started. Add into this an increase in the population and a decrease in those who identify themselves as having no relationship with any church, and it’s even more obvious of the opportunities and challenges that are before us.
There’s many reasons why the ongoing planting of new congregations is important. The first being the effectiveness of new churches in reaching the lost. Tim Keller has written the best way to reach non-Christians is to start new churches. He goes on to say it is “…the single most crucial strategy for the numerical growth of the body of Christ and the continued corporate renewal and revival of the church in a city.”[1] The planting of new churches is also crucial to reaching under-served ethnic communities through our urban, suburban, and rural cities and towns.
Second, the ongoing multiplication of new churches is in alignment with the Biblical pattern found in the New Testament. Paul was the first church planter. He and the other disciples spread out and began new churches. Most of the churches recorded in the New Testament were involved in sending people or resources in some form or another to start new churches.
Also, new churches benefit the whole body. “It’s a great mistake to think that we have to choose between church planting and church renewal. Strange as it may seem, the planting of new churches in a city is one of the best ways to revitalize older churches in the vicinity and renew the whole body of Christ.”[2]
A final benefit to mention is the role church planting has in the thriving of our larger movement. Ed Stetzer writes that for a denomination or movement to thrive; it has to plant churches. To break even it needs to plant at a 3% level. To grow? That requires 5%. For a movement of churches to thrive, a 10% church planting rate is needed. Currently, Converge North Central (CNC) consists of approximately 250 churches. To continue at this level, we would need to see between 7 and 8 new churches annually. To thrive as a movement means 25 new churches a year.[3]
CNC, in coordination with the 10 other districts that make up Converge, have an audacious goal to have 100% of our churches involved in a 5-year church planting surge. We believe every church can do something with church planting. This may be the most important point of this post. Your church may not be in a season to play a significant role on a team that is parenting a new church. But every church can support a church planter through intentional prayer and financial support. Every church can help identify potential church planters and communities in need of additional Gospel witness. Every church can be an encouragement to a new church or a church planter family.
Did you know Johnny Appleseed was a real person? His real name was John Chapman and was an “evangelist” for apples. He wanted everyone to enjoy apples as much as he did. But he didn’t go across the eastern and central states of America passing out apples. No, he planted apple trees.
Believing in the importance of seeing new churches started means that church planting is more than just an activity for one segment of CNC churches to participate in. It’s something every one of our churches should be involved in at some level. Like Johnny Appleseed, every church should view the sharing of the Good News of Jesus Christ as not just passing out apples but also includes the planting of trees so even greater numbers of people who can share the Good News and plant even more trees!
For more information or question on about church planting in CNC, contact Joel Nelson.
[1]Why Plant Churches https://download.redeemer.com/pdf/learn/resources/Why_Plant_Churches-Keller.pdf
[2]Keller, Why Plant Churches
[3] Ed Stetzer, https://www.christianitytoday.com/edstetzer/2016/june/need-for-more-church-planting.html
Strategic Partners
Chemistry Staffing is a partner of CNC that has helped many of our churches find pastors and pastors find churches!
They regularly put together a Church Staff Health Assessment and the 2025 edition is available for free! 1,200 church staff members took the assessment this year.
After reviewing every response, crunching the numbers and gathering additional data, the result is a 200-page report that reveals what’s really happening on church staff teams across America.
A few key discoveries you’ll find in the report:
- 51% of church staff have thought seriously about leaving in the past year
- Staff at the 3-5 year mark are the most at-risk (and the most valuable)
- One survey question scored lower than all the rest—and it’s fixable
- The gap between senior pastors and their teams is wider than you’d expect
- Church staff health has declined three years in a row
The full report unpacks ten major discoveries, breaks down scores by role, tenure, church size, and more—and includes the unfiltered voices of staff members themselves explaining what’s working and what’s broken.
You can download the full report here. Or, for more information about Chemistry Staffing, as well as downloading the report, visit their website at chemistrystaffing.com.
National Office
It’s not too late to sign up! Converge has officially announced our the Together 2026 Speakers. Get away, get connected, and get inspired. Bring the whole family, and join friends from across the world for three days of worship, learning, and celebration. Register here!
Events & Opportunities
January – June 24, 2026 170 Days of Prayer Online
March 11, 2026 Pastor Prayer & Coffee Event Bethel University
March 13, 2026 The Timothy Initiative Impact Dinner Hillside Church
April 8, 2026 Retired Pastors and Missionaries luncheon Calvary church – Roseville
June 23-25, 2026 Converge Together 2026 Washington, D.C.
Community of Nations Lead Pastor Roseville MN (job opening)
Prairie Lakes Church Campus Pastor Cedar Falls, IA (job opening)
Prayer
Father in Heaven,
We praise You for the hope we have because of Your resurrection and the gift of new life through Jesus Christ. As we enter this Easter season, we thank You that salvation is by faith alone in Christ. Thank You for the empty tomb, for the victory over sin, and for the promise that all who repent and believe are new creations.
Lord, we lift up Converge churches across our region and beyond. Strengthen our pastors with courage and conviction. Fill them with Your Spirit that they would boldly and clearly proclaim the gospel of Jesus Christ without hesitation or fear. Guard their hearts, renew their joy, and let their preaching be faithful to Your Word.
We also pray for every church member. Stir in us a deep love for the lost. Make us intentional and invitational, eager to welcome friends, neighbors, and coworkers to hear the good news this Easter. May many come to know Jesus as Savior and Lord.
In His powerful name we pray, Amen.
