Church Planting 1: The Movement

Every year, there’s a movement of thousands of pastors starting new churches — they call them church plants. It’s a world remarkably parallel to the tech industry, with incubators, growth metrics and, well, angel investors. One of these pastors, Watson Jones III, has dreams of starting a bustling new church in North Philly. But first, he has to figure out how to get people to show up. Watson might have the most difficult task of any founder in America: Convincing people who don’t know -- or even believe -- in God to change their minds and join his church. Reporter Eric Mennel tells the story of this young church plant in a new multi-part series from StartUp. Listen now to the first episode. To find a list of our sponsors and show-related promo codes, go to gimlet.media/OurAdvertisers