The role

Thousand Churches exists to launch 1,000 new, self-sustaining Christian churches across the United States.

As Executive Director, you’ll be our first hire, responsible for turning a bold mission and a $1M founding commitment into a working, scalable organization. You’ll own everything: raising money, finding and vetting church partners, deploying capital, supporting new plants, and building the systems that let all of this scale to 1,000 churches.

In the early days you’ll be the fundraiser, the partnerships lead, the analyst, the operator and the recruiter. As you prove what works, you’ll write the playbooks and hire the team to run them.

What you’ll do

Raise capital

• Build and manage a donor pipeline of high-net-worth Christians and large churches.
• Tell a compelling story of the mission, backed by clear data on cost, survival and impact.
• Report to donors on how their money is deployed and what it produces.

Find and fund church partners

• Source healthy sending churches and church planters, and build a repeatable way to find more.
• Design and run the assessment process for planters and sending churches.
• Set and enforce the rules for deploying capital: matching requirements, milestone-based funding, reporting and accountability.
• Track the health of every plant: attendance, baptisms, giving and progress toward self-sufficiency.

Equip new churches

• Assemble the training, coaching, playbooks and peer network each plant needs.
• Partner with existing church-planting networks and denominations instead of rebuilding what already works.

Build the organization

• Set strategy and annual goals with Ben.
• Own the budget and financial reporting.
• Stand up legal, finance, data and operating systems, using AI and modern tools to do more with less.
• Write the playbooks for each function, then hire and lead the team that runs them.

Team

You’ll be the first hire and will run the organization yourself through launch. That means you’re self-sufficient, comfortable with a high degree of ambiguity and autonomy, and still hold yourself to a high standard.

You’ll report to Ben Doherty, who founded Thousand Churches and funds and leads it. You’ll work hand in hand with Ben, with support from a small group of advisors on hiring and strategy. Once you’ve proven the model and written the playbook for each role, you’ll build a team around you.

Who you are

• Energized for Jesus. You want to see more people come to know Him through the local church.
• Abundance mindset. You believe there are enough donors, churches and planters to reach this big mission.
• Systems thinker. You naturally turn one-off wins into repeatable, scalable processes.
• Resourceful. You do more with less and find a way when there isn’t an obvious one.
• Entrepreneurial. You’ve built something from zero and like the speed and ownership that come with it.
• Technical and analytical. You’re comfortable with data, spreadsheets and modern software.
• An engaging communicator who can sell. You can win over a donor, a pastor or a job candidate.

Experience that will help

• You’ve been a general manager or executive at a scalable organization, either a nonprofit or a startup.
• You’ve been part of something that scaled and made a large impact.
• You’ve managed a large budget and owned a profit and loss statement.
• You’ve written playbooks and operating procedures, and helped set strategy.
• You’ve hired people and built teams.
• You’ve worked closely with technology and you’re eager to use AI and the latest tools.

Experience in church planting, ministry leadership, fundraising or grantmaking is a plus, but not required.

Compensation

$125,000 to $250,000 per year, depending on experience and milestones achieved.

Apply

Tell us a bit about yourself and share your resume.

Prefer email? Send your resume and a short note to Ben at bsdohert@gmail.com, copying zachary.maurais@gmail.com.