Frequently Asked Questions
Pre-Cohort
Your first step in joining a cohort after talking with your Senior pastor is to connect with a Catalyst for your region. You can find the Catalyst for your region here.
We would love to connect with you and talk with you about church planting! Feel free to connect with us at multiply@foursquare.org. You can also check out the Resource Tab on our website for articles and information about church planting topics as well.
We recognize that every planter journey is different. Some people plan on co-pastoring, which means equitably sharing the weight, responsibilities, and authority of pastoring. With co-planting, spouses or ministry partners may still share the leadership responsibility and building of the church plant, just without the equal responsibility and authority.
For planters looking to co-pastor in Multiply, all participants will be required to complete the Multiply intake process. If accepted, all participants will be required to complete assignments, pod calls, and retreats. All co-pastor participants are also required to complete Foursquare credentialing, if not already credentialed, within the first year of Multiply training. If you plan on co-pastoring with your spouse, you may fill out one application and include answers from both people. If you plan on co-pastoring alongside someone other than your spouse, we ask that each co-pastor fill out a separate application.
For planters looking to co-plant with a spouse or other individuals, only the participant that would be the primary planter will be required to complete the Multiply intake process. Only the primary planter will be required to complete Foursquare credentialing, if not already credentialed, within the first year of Multiply training. If accepted, only the primary planter will be required to participate in the online training and retreats (although we strongly encourage spouses that are co-planting to still both attend retreats).
For more information on co-pastoring within the Foursquare denomination please see this document: Co-Pastor Brochure
Online Training
The online portion of all of our Foursquare Multiply cohorts take place on our website! You’ll receive access to them at the start of each training from your training coordinator.
No! We function to help set adult learners up for success and complete the course work during times that work best for them. The only set times that you are required to participate in are monthly POD group discussions that take place over zoom. You’ll need to have the course work for the month completed prior to this call, but when it is completed is totally up to you!
Not at all! We realize that each couple has different responsibilities and schedule constraints. We wish to honor those and do not require both spouses to participate online, but welcome both spouses to participate if they wish to do so. If both spouses are not participating online we simply ask that they discuss together what is being learned online. Please let our team know what works best for you and your spouse so that we can ensure a timely enrollment.
The only distinction to this is if you are planning to co-pastor with your spouse. Planters co-pastoring are all required to complete assignments, pod calls, and retreats.
We realize that each of you have lives outside of this cohort and have therefore kept the course requirements smaller to serve that. The typical monthly time commitment should look for most participants around 9-15 hours a month. Again completion of course work, outside of the monthly POD calls, are based around what works best for your schedule. You will have quarterly advisory team calls and hand + heart rhythms to account for, but those also can be done around the optimal times for you)
Foursquare Multiply values the creation of life-long learners, as well as the building of relationships within the structure of the cohort. Participants will be required to complete this coursework each month (1 Twenty minute video, 1 Book, article, or reading assignment, 1 writing assignment or exercise correlated to materials, and 1 group Pod group zoom discussion.
In-Person Training
The in-person trainings take place in a different location across the United States. That information is made available at the start of each cohort.
The in-person trainings happen in November and April each year. As retreats are only open to those enrolled in training specific dates are made available at the start of each cohort.
Unfortunately, due to the constraints and restrictions of each location we are not able to provide childcare nor are you are able to bring your children to the in-person training. We do allow for babies under the age of two that need to remain with their mother to attend as long as they are not disruptive to the training. We encourage couples to talk about this at the start of the cohort as we ask both spouses to attend the in-person training and realize this may mean a bit of extra planning on the front end.
We ask that both spouses attend the in-person training.