Common Questions About NAMS.
Real answers to the questions people most often ask about who we are, how we train and send pioneering church planters, and what it means to be part of this family. If you don't find what you're looking for here, we'd love to hear from you.
Who we are.
What does it mean to become a NAMS Companion?
A NAMS Companion is a missionary disciple serving with NAMS — someone who shares a common call and lives a common Rule. Becoming a Companion is more than agreeing with our mission; it means dedicating your life to following Jesus and being faithful to His teaching, alongside others under real accountability. Companions commit to abide daily in God's word, pray for the global mission, give generously, make retreats together, and remain accountable to those over them in the Lord. It is a serious, life-shaping decision — and one NAMS walks through with you rather than handing you a form to sign.
What does NAMS actually believe doctrinally?
NAMS holds to “the faith that was once for all delivered to the saints” (Jude 3) as the doctrine we contend for, with the Holy Scriptures of the Old and New Testament as our rule and ultimate standard of faith. We are a global religious society relating to the Anglican family within the one, holy, catholic, and apostolic church, and our ordained leaders are all canonically resident in an Anglican jurisdiction. We desire to work with, and be in unity with, the faithful church throughout the world, seeking always to serve the church that submits to Christ. This isn't a statement written for a website — it's the same Rule and Order our Companions live under.
What's the difference between a mission agency and a church planting training network?
A traditional mission agency recruits missionaries, raises their support, and sends and places them on the field. NAMS is not that. We are a family of works that trains, equips, and walks alongside leaders and congregations who are already called to pioneering church planting and disciple-making. We don't recruit individuals to send abroad or operate as a denominational placement network — through the 2820 Institute, NAMS GAP, and the NAMS Order, we come alongside a planter or congregation and stay with them until the new church stands on its own. If you're looking for sending support or a missionary placement, NAMS probably isn't the right fit — but if you're already called and want serious training and partnership in that calling, this is exactly what NAMS exists for.
How NAMS trains and sends.
What is disciple-making, and how is it different from just growing attendance?
Disciple-making is the work of forming a Disciple — someone learning to follow Jesus — into a Made Disciple who is making other disciples, and eventually a Missionary Disciple willing to go wherever the Lord sends. It doesn't stop with one person: a Great Commission Congregation is a community that makes disciples who make disciples, raises up disciple-making leaders, and plants disciple-making congregations that do the same again. Growing attendance can happen without any of that — a crowd can gather around a gifted speaker without a single person being formed into someone who reproduces their faith in others. NAMS measures fruitfulness by how many people are being made into disciple-makers who go on to make more, not by how many show up on a Sunday.
What is the 2820 Institute, and what does it teach?
The 2820 Institute is the training arm of NAMS Network, named for Matthew 28:20 — “teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you.” It exists to train people to go first: pioneering global church planters, and the churches and leaders around them, in the practical, biblical work of making missionary disciples. Training runs across three connected pieces — the Disciple-Making Journey, an eight-week entry point into disciple-making within your own congregation; the 52-Week Guide to Church Planting, a year-long cohort for those already called to plant; and ongoing coaching and mentoring from those who've done the work themselves. The specific curriculum is still growing, but the training is drawn from decades of church planting experience on five continents.
What is GAP, and how does someone apprentice with NAMS?
GAP — the Global Apprentice Program — raises disciple-making leaders through life-on-life discipleship with an experienced Companion inside a NAMS base community. Apprentices are mentored personally, immersed cross-culturally, and equipped through hands-on ministry, then sent out to plant churches, lead ministry on the field, or return home to bear fruit there. It's a single program you can enter at different depths — from a short-term Dunamis mission trip, to a multi-month RISE season of intentional discipleship, to a full year of deep formation for those called to pioneering ministry. No Bible college or prior leadership experience is required; teachability and openness to being challenged matter more than credentials.
What is a NAMS Base Community, and how does it help plant churches?
A NAMS Base Community is a community of Companions on mission together, building a base from which new Great Commission Congregations are launched in the surrounding region and beyond. Every base works through the same four movements: modeling a visible, ordinary disciple-making life under the Rule; incubating disciple-making leaders within Great Commission Cells; training those called to church planting alongside the 2820 Institute; and sending planters out as God commands. NAMS currently has base communities and priors serving in places like Georgetown, South Carolina; Temuco, Chile; the American Midwest; and across Asia and India. A base isn't a program that runs for a season — it's a lasting, rooted community that keeps helping launch new churches long after the first one is planted.
Living the Rule.
What is the NAMS Rule, and what does it actually ask of someone?
The NAMS Rule is the corporate rule of life every Companion commits to — not a list of religious performances, but a shared way of following Jesus together with real accountability. Every Companion agrees to lead or serve in a Great Commission Congregation and Cell, abide daily in the word of Jesus, pray daily for the global mission, give generously, make at least three personal retreats a year, and remain accountable to those over them in the Lord. Married Companions add a commitment to Spousal Discipleship, and the whole global society gathers for an annual regional retreat and a Global Novena roughly every four to five years. It is more than following a set of rules — it means dedicating your life to following Jesus, and NAMS walks that road with you rather than leaving you to walk it alone.
Partnering with NAMS.
How can my church partner with or give to NAMS?
There are several ways in. Individuals can give monthly — the backbone of the Order's ongoing work — or make a one-time gift toward the greatest need or a specific entity: GAP, the Order, the 2820 Institute, or a field such as Kenya, Ireland, or Spain. Congregations partner through budgeted missions giving, often paired with prayer and sending relationships, and if your church is already convinced that disciple-making is its central work, NAMS can also train and walk alongside your leaders directly. For international projects, approximately 90% of each designated gift reaches the field, with the remainder covering the real cost of moving and stewarding funds across borders — a ratio NAMS holds itself accountable to and is actively working to improve.
We'd love to talk it through with you.
Whether you're exploring a call to plant, considering a gift, or just curious about the family — write to us. A real person will answer.