The Bay Area Church Planting Network has been supporting church plants in the Bay Area since 2013. After a pause for COVID, today marks the beginning of a new season of focus and energy stemming from several developments:

  • COVID effects diminished

  • New unity amongst Bay Area leaders

  • Extraordinary prayer throughout the churches

  • Broad ecosystem of church support established

  • Wider openness to the gospel throughout society

  • Unprecedented number of Bay Area church plants currently launching

“Though the Bay Area is home to fewer Christians and more atheists than the United States as a whole, it is teeming with opportunity. The majority of people in the younger generations are curious, open, and even wish they read the Bible more.”

2025 State of the Bible Report
American Bible Society

Team

Andrew Hoffman

Andrew Hoffman is Executive Director of the Bay Area Church Planting Network where he coaches planters and mobilizes multiplying churches. He’s a veteran pastor and planter with three decades of frontline and national leadership. In 2004 he planted Solano Community Church near Berkeley, California and subsequently helped launch churches across Northern California and Nevada. From 2017-2023, he led ReachNetwork, the church planting initiative of the Evangelical Free Church of America. Today he’s advancing a shared vision to reach 1% of the Bay Area with the gospel by 2050. Andrew and his wife, Jodie, have been married for 32 years and are the parents of four adult children.

Jim Applegate

Jim Applegate is a pastor, church planter, and entrepreneur, with more than three decades of experience developing leaders and organizations. Jim has planted churches in the Central Valley of California, serving as a lead pastor.  He has also served as an executive pastor in a large multisite church in the Bay Area. Jim holds an MDiv and a Doctor of Ministry in Leadership Development from Western Seminary and is a trained Paterson LifePlan Guide. Today, Jim serves as Multiplying Coach with the Bay Area Church Planting Network and leads Engage the Church, helping churches create healthy environments to engage people in meaningful ministry. Jim has worked with ministry leaders in the U.S. and internationally and has a particular passion for helping turn vision into healthy, multiplying ministry. Jim and his wife, Heather, have five adult children, and live in Newark, CA.

Advisory

Ryan Kwon

Ryan Kwon is the founding pastor of Resonate Movement, a multi-ethnic, multi-campus church in the Bay Area. The son of two Olympic athletes, Ryan grew up in Los Angeles and came to faith in his twenties. A decade later he sensed God calling him to plant in one of America's least-churched regions. He is committed to gospel-centered preaching and disciple-making, and he envisions a church planting movement that sees 1% of the Bay Area, about 72,000 people, come to faith by 2050. Ryan serves on the boards of The Gospel Coalition and Exponential.

Anemone Reuschel

Anemone Reuschel is Director of Church Planting and Faithful Innovation for the Northern California District of the Church of the Nazarene. She planted her first church at age 19, helped plant many more in Germany, and brings church planting and leadership experience from across Europe, Central Africa, and the Middle East. With academic training in psychology and design, she has started and led social enterprises in several industries and served as an elected local official. Now based in Northern California, she helps discern planting opportunities, walks alongside planters, and nurtures innovative, faithful expressions of church. She shares life and her husband Niklas and their two dogs.

Vance Roush

Vance Roush is the Founder and CEO of Overflow, and he’s on a mission to inspire the world to give. A visionary entrepreneur and ministry leader, Vance has pioneered innovative ways to unlock generosity by making it simple for people to give. Through Overflow, he’s helped shift how nonprofits, churches, and foundations think about fundraising, opening doors for generosity at unprecedented levels. Vance and Kim live in Silicon Valley with their four children –Lennox, Emerson, Tatum, and Wesleigh Dior, where they embrace the calling of entrepreneurship with their deep commitment to faith, family, and community.

Filipe Santos

Filipe Santos is the Lead Pastor of Echo.Church, a multisite church in the San Francisco Bay Area. In 2008, he and his family, along with three other families, moved across the country with a desire to help catalyze a gospel movement and be part of the Bay Area’s transformation. Filipe served as Executive Pastor for 14 years before becoming Lead Pastor in 2022. He’s passionate about church planting, empowering leaders, and unifying churches to see the region thrive. Originally from Brazil, he’s married to Mandy and they have five children."