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Primary Recommendation — A National Ad Hoc Committee

The first-best path is a Sovereign Grace-wide ad hoc committee, formed at the national level, charged with exploring and advancing the development of a Mountain West region inside SG.

Why national-level

• The mission field crosses state lines and regional boundaries. The Mountain West cannot mature into a region without people, prayer, and partnership flowing in from Midwest, Southwest, Southeast, Mid-Atlantic, and West Coast SG churches. That kind of flow doesn't happen at the regional level.
• The most strategic levers — recruiting relocators, building plant-launch teams, mobilizing a national-campaign narrative — only operate when the national infrastructure is engaged. Joel Shorey (National Church Planting) and Ricky Alcantar (Editorial Director for Digital + Antioch Program) are the named partners; their work is national by definition.
• A national designation also signals to existing Mountain West pastors (Ron at Emmaus Road Bozeman, Jeff Palen at Center Church Star, Dave York at Covenant Fellowship Roseburg) that we see them. That is itself a pastoral act, not just a strategic one.

Who would serve

An ad hoc committee of 5–8 members. Suggested categories:

• An SG executive presence — Mark Prater or his designate; signals national sanction
• National Church Planting — Joel Shorey
• National Editorial / Digital — Ricky Alcantar (also Antioch Program)
• The MW/NW regional leader (incoming) — for handoff continuity
• A current Mountain West pastor — likely Ron Boomsma (Bozeman) or Dave York (Roseburg)
• A current Mountain West-adjacent pastor — possibly Jeff Palen (Center Church, Star)
• Chris Oswald — convener of this draft, RCPC, on the SGC Philippines Adhoc Ordination Committee precedent
• One or two pastors at-large with relevant gifts (relocator-recruitment, demographic analysis, fundraising)

The exact roster is for senior leadership to set. The point is the categories — executive presence, planting expertise, editorial reach, regional anchor.

What it actually does

Per the committee charter — five workstreams, none of which require any committee member to relocate to Bozeman:

1. Lead exploratory work in Kalispell
2. Strengthen Center Church (Star, ID)
3. Explore plant and adoption prospects across MT, ID, WY, UT
4. Cast vision across SG for the Mountain West
5. Discern when the Mountain West is ready to stand as its own region

How it would convene

• Quarterly video meetings (90 min each)
• One in-person gathering per year — ideally in the Mountain West itself (Boise or Bozeman) to ground the conversation in the field
• Continuous between-meeting work via async (email/shared docs)
• Initial term: 24 months, with formal review at month 12 and a go/no-go on the second year

What sanction looks like

• A short charter approval from Mark Prater (or the relevant SG executive body)
• A line item — even a small one — in the SG national budget for committee travel and the Mountain West-specific work that would otherwise sit on the regional budget alone
• A standing reference in SG-wide communication channels (Pastors & Leaders Conference, SG digital, regional reports) so the committee's findings can move

Why this is the primary recommendation, not the only one

If national leadership decides this isn't the moment to spotlight the Mountain West at the national level — for whatever good reasons of bandwidth, sequencing, or strategic restraint — the fallback regional path is workable. It just produces a slower, smaller, regionally-scoped version of the same outcome.