Exponential and Stadia to lead church multiplication pre-conference at Spire 2026

Exponential and Stadia Church Planting will host a full-day Church Multiplication Pre-Conference on Sept. 29, 2026, at Northview Church’s Carmel campus in Indiana. The event is built to help church leaders move more U.S. congregations toward multiplication at a time when researchers say only 7% of Protestant churches are reproducing and multiplying.

Why it matters: - Researchers say only 7% of America’s roughly 356,000 Protestant churches are reproducing and multiplying, up from 4% in 2019. - Exponential identifies 16% as the tipping point for a self-sustaining church multiplication movement. - Population growth and church closures mean thousands of new churches are needed every year just to keep pace. - The pre-conference is meant to help pastors and church leadership teams turn multiplication into a practical strategy, not just a goal.

What happened: - Stadia Church Planting and Exponential are partnering to lead the Church Multiplication Pre-Conference at Spire Conference on Tuesday, Sept. 29, 2026. - The event will take place at Northview Church’s Carmel Campus in Carmel, Indiana. - The full-day gathering runs from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. - The pre-conference is open to any church leader, with leadership teams especially encouraged to attend together. - Registration is available at spire.network, and attendees can use the code Stadia2026 for 50% off both the pre-conference and SpireConference registration. - SpireConference runs Sept. 29–Oct. 1, 2026.

The details: - Greg Nettle, president of Stadia Church Planting, said the need for more churches is urgent because communities are growing faster than churches are being planted. - The pre-conference is especially aimed at churches in the Restoration Movement, including Independent Christian Churches. - The gathering is intended to carry the Stone-Campbell Movement’s church-planting DNA to the next generation of leaders. - The day will include four working sessions led by Nettle, Jon Ferguson, Patrick O’Connell, Will Blanchard and others. - Ferguson is co-founder of Community Christian Church and City Movements Catalyst with Exponential. - O’Connell is executive director of Practice with Exponential and co-author of The End of Leading Alone with Ferguson. - Blanchard works with The Training Center at Fellowship Bible Church of Northwest Arkansas. - Sessions will move from vision to pipeline to practice to commitment. - The goal is for every participating leader to leave with an action plan focused on next steps in multiplication.

Between the lines: - The event points to a broader push inside the Restoration Movement to preserve a church-planting culture that has produced groups such as Stadia, Exponential, Orchard Group, Nexus and Waypoint Church Partners. - Ferguson framed the 16% target as a movement threshold that requires collaboration, not isolated local effort. - The emphasis on teams, apprenticeship and next steps suggests the pre-conference is designed as a working session, not a general inspiration event. - The message also reflects a shift from asking how to grow one church to asking how to multiply the wider church network.

What's next: - Church leaders can register now for the pre-conference and SpireConference. - Exponential and Stadia will use the gathering to press churches toward building pipelines for multiplying leaders and reproducing congregations. - The event is positioned as part of a longer effort to move U.S. Protestant churches toward the 16% multiplication threshold.

The bottom line: - Exponential and Stadia are betting that a focused pre-conference can help more churches move from addition to multiplication, at a time when U.S. church growth is lagging population change.