Church planting is central to the PCA’s commitment to be “obedient to the Great Commission” in the North American context. Though presbyteries formally start church plants, the last two decades have seen a rise in church planting networks. Usually, these networks pool resources to fuel the growth of church plants and provide ongoing support in a particular geography or setting. 

Since its founding, the PCA Foundation has facilitated gifts for churches and ministries, from simple cash donations to more complex non-cash gifts. Now, the Foundation is helping church-planting networks expand the types of donations they can accept to fuel their growth. 

The PCA Foundation partners with church-planting movements like Manifold Vision, whose mission is to plant confessional PCA churches in America’s urban communities. By coming alongside Manifold Vision, the PCA Foundation is able to open doors to generosity beyond the zip codes Manifold Vision serves. 

“Our community isn’t able to fund our local church alone. We need the whole of the denomination to support the work, and the PCA Foundation gives us a way to easily accept donations from brothers and sisters in Christ across the country,” said Phaye Wilson, Director of Development at Manifold Vision.

Because the Foundation allows donors to give a range of assets in ways that provide tax advantages to donors, movements like Manifold Vision can encourage interested donors to consider non-cash gifts to support their mission.

Pastor Alton Hardy, Executive Director of Manifold Vision remarked that, “The Foundation was so helpful in teaching us how we can accept different donations and what our options were. They were kind and clearly cared about helping Manifold Vision expand beyond a single church plant. Our hope is to train more future pastors to go out and plant churches in underserved urban neighborhoods.”

For Reverend Dan Millward, director of The Detroit Project, the words of Acts 2:47 hum daily in his mind, as conversion stories multiply week after week, fueling the organization’s vision of 35 churches planted by 2035. Using a missionary model, The Detroit Project places pastors and their families directly in the communities they intend to serve. With nine churches planted, they are on track to achieve their goal. Partnering with the Foundation has been the ideal next step for the Detroit Project as they seek ways to involve the whole Church in their mission and generate excitement about church planting.

“We’re just excited to begin a partnership with the PCA Foundation and excited to learn exactly what that might mean over time,” said Dan, “especially with respect to people catching the vision for what the Lord is doing here and wanting to invest in it with whatever—money, property, stock, whatever. We’ll take anything!”

“We are a ministry of the church and for the church,” said Tim Townsend, president of the PCA Foundation. “Our mission is to facilitate generosity that advances the mission of Christ and his church. We are honored to come alongside those who are laboring to multiply churches and serve them in this way.”

The Foundation introduces and facilitates tax-efficient giving strategies, and then invites the givers’ advice to make grants to churches and other kinds of charities like church planting networks that proclaim the Word of God.  The Foundation also assists donors to significantly reduce their tax burdens for greater giving by making complex gifts – gifts of highly-appreciated non-cash property – and gifts into charitable trusts.