An idea in progress · Request for input

A quieter kind of help for church plants.

A peer community, a library of design templates, an AI assistant that lives in your Slack, and capped consulting time. Built to complement existing networks, not replace them.

Church planter speaking
The problem

Church plants are squeezed between two extremes.

On one side, denominational networks provide world-class theological vision, training, and coaching. On the other, established marketing agencies build great work for $2,000 to $3,000 a month. The gap in the middle is where most plants live.

60%

of church planters live below the national average household income.

Barna Group · 769-planter study

21%

earn under $35,000 a year.

Barna Group

~⅓

have considered quitting ministry over financial strain.

Barna Group

$60K

typical first-year operating budget for a smaller plant.

ECFA · Christianity Today

If you can only afford to give a planter one thing, give them other planters to talk to. Everything else compounds from there.

A 10-year Lilly Endowment study of 60+ organizations found peer community to be the single most important factor in sustaining excellence in pastoral ministry.

The offering

Four pillars, one membership.

Built for the operational realities a small-team plant carries every week. Designed to take weight off, not pile more on.

01 · Community

Peer Slack workspace

Shared channels for sermon prep, kids ministry, tech help, planters' spouses. City-specific cohorts. Cross-pollination is part of the value.

02 · Templates

Design + policy library

Sermon series graphics packs refreshed monthly. Brand starter kits, websites, social templates, kids ministry materials, and policy documents — bylaws, child safety, volunteer handbook.

03 · AI assistant

A teammate in your Slack

One-time church profile, then sermon prep briefs, sermon-to-social packs, newsletter drafts, and first-time guest follow-up — all in your church's voice. Data stays private to your church.

04 · Consulting

Capped time with our team

Sporadic group office hours when there's something worth gathering around. Quarterly 1:1s. One-business-day async support. Higher tiers add monthly 1:1s and design hours.

Why now

AI changed what's possible at the low end.

A lot of what an agency communications director does in a week — drafting newsletters, writing social copy, prepping sermon graphics, following up with first-time guests — can now be assisted (not replaced) by AI tools that cost pennies per use.

That doesn't make agencies obsolete. It makes a $29-a-month membership realistic where it wasn't before. The math finally works for the people who needed help most and could afford it least.

Slack AI assistant in action
Membership

Three tiers. One conversation to find the right fit.

Pricing is being shaped through conversations with planters and networks. Reach out and we'll talk through what works for your context.

Seed
Foundation
  • Slack community access
  • Full template library
  • AI assistant in your workspace
  • Occasional group office hours
  • Quarterly all-member webinar
Best fit for most plants
Plant
Growing
  • Everything in Seed
  • Quarterly 1:1 strategy call
  • One automation install per quarter
  • Priority Slack support
  • Discount on Sidestreet a la carte
Branch
Scaling
  • Everything in Plant
  • Monthly 1:1 strategy call
  • Two design hours per month
  • Custom branding setup at start
  • Quarterly business review

For reference: typical church-marketing agencies start at $1,997 to $2,997 per month, with branding fees from $5,000. Most plants are priced out before the first call. Sidestreet Church is built to fit the budgets of plants in their first three years.

Launch Cities

Two worlds. One mission.

Greenville, SC
Greenville, SC

Over-churched, underreached.

A Bible-Belt context with abundant healthy churches, active networks, and a planter-mentoring culture. Cohort meets in person monthly.

New York, NY
New York, NY

A different planet, same callings.

Brutal real estate, transient congregations, often co-vocational planters, multi-ethnic and multi-lingual plants. Cohort meets virtually with one annual in-person summit.

Frequently asked

What network leaders are asking.

Is this another church marketing agency?

No. Existing church-marketing agencies start at around $2,000 a month and price most plants out before the first call. Sidestreet Church is built around the constraint that real plants have $0 to $150 a month, not $3,000. Our other client work makes the math sustainable. The plants aren't the business; they're the ministry.

How does this complement what our network already does?

Networks handle theological vision, training, coaching, and community of faith. Sidestreet Church handles the operational layer — websites, graphics, social, follow-up, sermon prep tools, weekly admin. A planter under your network keeps their primary identity and accountability with you. Sidestreet Church is the scaffolding underneath.

Can a network sponsor access for its plants?

Yes. We're designing this to work both ways — directly with individual plants, and at the network level where an association or convention sponsors access for its member churches. The price points and onboarding paths differ. We'd want to understand what would actually be useful before committing to a structure.

What about church data privacy?

Each church owns its conversations and outputs. We don't train on member content. Profile data, sermon material, and member follow-ups stay private to that church by default. The only content shared between churches is what a church elects to share — for example, posting a sermon outline to a community channel or contributing a template to a shared library. That sharing is revocable at any time, though we can't reach out and pull back anything already downloaded or saved by another member. This is a non-negotiable, especially for the plants we'd serve in NYC.

What's the founder's background?

Josh Kuhn — founder of Sidestreet, a digital agency in Spartanburg, SC. Previously on staff at First Baptist Spartanburg, New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary, Vintage Church New Orleans, and Awaken Church Charleston. Today a layperson back at FBC Spartanburg.

Get in touch

Honest pushback welcome.

If you're a network leader, association director, or established planter — we'd value 30 minutes of your time. Tell us what we're missing, what's wrong, or what would actually help. A written response is just as welcome.