Trey and Sarah Gilmore will begin a church-planting residency this fall in Ohio.

Trey and Sarah Gilmore will be joining the pastoral staff of Movement Church, Hilliard, Ohio, in a one-year, self-supporting church-planting resident roles.

The Gilmores come to Movement Church from Tucson, Ariz., where they were recently on staff at Vail Christian Church serving in student ministry. Trey is originally from Pennsylvania and is a graduate of Judson University. He is currently finishing up a Master of Arts degree in ministry with a concentration in church planting from Indiana Wesleyan University. Sarah is originally from Austin, Tex., and has a background in staffing and office administration. Most recently, she worked for the American Board of Radiology and will be looking for a new job as they transition.

“Our elders and staff have spent the last few months getting to know the Gilmores through visits and interviews to talk about the future,” says Mark Artrip, senior pastor at Movement Church. “Trey and Sarah have a passion for church planting and for seeing lost people come to know Jesus. We are excited to fuel their passion and help sharpen their gifts by providing a launch pad. They wanted to complete a residency where they could find the best combination of becoming equipped, gaining financial support, and having a location that not only felt right but also a planting culture to gather a launch team.”

The vision of the residency is to provide experience in church planting, portable church, local church ministry, teaching, administration, leading teams, casting vision, and fund-raising. “No program can perfectly equip and prepare an individual for planting a church, but we desire to impart to them everything we have and know,” says Artrip.

The goal of this residency is that after one year, Movement Church, in partnership with Three Creeks Church, will be able to confidently commission the Gilmores and a launch team on a three-year plan in the greater Columbus area. The Gilmores are currently raising funds for their residency with the goal of joining the team on September 3, 2019.

Movement Church started in 2012 with a vision to be a movement of people finding their way back to God. In their short history, they have seen that vision happen in the lives of individuals and families as God has built a new church in Hilliard, Ohio.

One consistent, foundational prayer among the leadership team at Movement Church is to create a wake of church plants; not just a one-time event, but a continuous rhythm of planting churches that then plant others. From its beginning, the church has set aside five percent of collected funds along with additional, privately-raised money, for church planting initiatives.

In 2016, they welcomed Joel and Morgan Trainer as their first church-planting residents. After their residency in 2017, they were sent, with a launch team of people they had gathered from in and out of Movement Church, to Gahanna, Ohio, to plant Three Creeks Church. In July, Three Creeks Church will be entirely self-supporting, so Movement Church is ready to bring in their next church planting resident in partnership together, according to Artrip.