Today we’d like to introduce you to Will Browning
Hi Will, it’s an honor to have you on the platform. Thanks for taking the time to share your story with us – to start maybe you can share some of your backstory with our readers?
I work for the largest church planting (church starting) organization in North America, called the Send Network. In 2007, my wife and I started a church in South Carolina. We might call this Faith-based entrepreneurship. Not only was our startup very successful, we started helping others who wanted to follow in our footsteps by supporting them in their new Faith-based startup. Over the course of the 14 years I lead my church, we helped start 9 other churches. Our unusual success led the Send Network to reach out and ask, “Would you be willing to help lead a movement of new church startups in America’s most influential city, Los Angeles California?” So in 2021, we left the church we started and moved to SoCal to help launch this movement. Over the last three years we have seen 80+ new churches started in the LA Metro Area. That success brought me to my latest position, Director of Church Planting for all of California.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
We are like the majority of Angelenos! Fifty-one percent of Angelenos are transplants into the city. Like many who have come before us it has taken us a while to make SoCal our home. Use to a slower pace of life, I have learned to make it in LA one must be prepared to hustle. The hustle I am speaking of the type of action that requires someone to put in full effort, all the time. Second, I come from a “front-porch” culture where houses are built with a welcoming front-porch which also describes the culture, welcoming. I have learned this is a “back-porch” culture, seen in the tens of thousands of dollars we spend on our back-porches. We are a welcoming city as well, as long as you have a personal invitation. This back-porch culture requires a lot more perseverance in relationship building. Yes, the traffic is bad and the taxes are high but friendship & pace-of-life are the real challenges.
Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
I spend most of my days coaching faith-based entrepreneurs who want to start new churches in LA Metro Area. The rest of my time is spent discovering and assessing new leaders considering starting a new church. Besides the large number of new churches we have started, the thing I am most proud of is our diversity of churches we have started in LA. Of the 80+ churches collectively, they conduct weekend services in 14 different languages when they gather together. Secondly, we have focused on the health of the families who are starting these new ventures. The health of the church is typically directly correlated to the health of the leaders home. So we focus a lot of attention on the leader’s family by providing support and care as they launch their new church.
So maybe we end on discussing what matters most to you and why?
Legacy matters most to me. I am 47 years old and recently I have recognized that I have more days in my “rear-view mirror” than I do in the “front windshield,” meaning unless I live to be 94 years old it is likely that I have fewer days left to make an impact on my world than I have already lived. My work gives people true community, helps the hurting, and gives people hope in the midst of their challenges, those are premiums in our community so I can’t waste a day. A phrase that has guided me my entire ministry, “Attempt something so great for God, that it is doomed to failure unless God is in it!”
Contact Info:
- Website: http://www.willbrowning.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/willsjourney/
- Twitter: https://x.com/Willbrowning
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@sendlosangeles
- Other: https://www.namb.net/send-network/send-city/los-angeles/
