About ten years ago, Watermark Resources started with two Watermark staff members, a complicated spreadsheet, and a heart to help other churches. Today, this arm of Watermark serves over 1000 churches globally through a team of twelve full-time staff members. How did it begin? It’s a story about growth we can’t explain apart from God’s faithfulness. Let’s dive in.
In 2008, Watermark launched re|engage, a marriage ministry that helps couples improve their marriages. One of our staff members, John McGee, wrote the curriculum and started this ministry from the ground up. Our marriage ministry also offers Merge, a pre-marital class, and Foundation Groups, which are curriculum-based, mentor-led community groups for couples who have been married for three years or less.
At the time, there weren’t many other curriculum-based marriage ministries available to churches. By 2010, churches nationwide were contacting John and the marriage team for our marriage ministry curriculum, materials, and resources. The marriage team wanted to help, so they started collecting church information on a massive spreadsheet and emailing out resources in bulk.
By 2012, Watermark was offering training conferences for churches to learn more about re|engage, Merge, and Foundation Groups. However, by 2013, so many churches were interested that it became clear this existing approach wasn’t sustainable.
John and Watermark’s leadership sensed God was giving us a unique opportunity to steward the ministries He had entrusted us with to strengthen His church more broadly. We started to ask ourselves the question: “How can we best serve churches who are asking for our ministry resources?”
This is how Watermark Resources came to be: a new ministry focused entirely on equipping other churches by providing them with curriculum, resources, and training materials developed by Watermark Community Church. John McGee pivoted from his marriage ministry duties and partnered with another Watermark staff member, Robert Green, to help build this new ministry.
In 2014, the first Watermark Resources website—marriagehelp.org (now reengage.org)—came online; a site for churches to have a place to learn more about our marriage ministry and receive resources to launch re|engage at their church. Now over 650 churches offer re|engage to their communities, and over 137,000 couples have gone through the curriculum in churches all over the nation. That’s enough people to fill three full AT&T stadiums!
From there, the Lord began to exponentially grow Watermark Resources.
In 2016, Watermark Resources hosted the first Church Leaders Conference. It has become an annual conference focused on encouraging, inspiring, and equipping ministry leaders to build healthy churches. Over the years, over 1,300 churches have attended CLC, 77 of which are from outside the United States. Altogether, we’ve hosted 14,000+ church leaders at the CLC, and it’s become a highlight of the year for Watermark’s staff team.
In 2017, Watermark Resources added re:generation recovery–Watermark’s 12-step biblically based discipleship program—to its ministry offering. Now, 180+ churches offer re:generation recovery for their local congregations.
In 2018, Watermark Resources officially launched its own website to house ministry content and tools that provide ongoing coaching and training, including the Church Leaders Podcast. Watermark Resources also hosts energizing events throughout the year for church leaders, like the re:generation and reIengage training conferences, in addition to the Church Leaders Conference.
Today, we’re prayerfully looking to grow Watermark Resources by providing our very first Young Leaders Cohort for church leaders aged 40 and younger. This cohort is designed to challenge leaders’ thinking, inspire new ideas, and cultivate peer relationships, all while keeping Christ at the center. We are also praying for new ways to expand our Church Leaders Conference after having to cap our attendance for the last two years.
The heart of Watermark Resources is to strengthen church leaders in order to strengthen churches everywhere. Thank you, Watermark, for your investment in Watermark Resources, allowing us to serve ministry leaders around the world.
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