Launch Team P.1: Building a Launch Team is Priority One
There are hundreds of tasks to complete when planting a church. Recently a planter told me, “I got so much done today, but then I looked at how much I had left and felt like I was eating the proverbial elephant.” Toward the end of the conversation I asked how many people were on his launch team. He replied, the same as last month. I need to get some people around me.
I have seen church planters start churches with many of the “tasks” incomplete. I’ve seen churches start with limited budgets, borrowed and begged for equipment, no staff, and even heard of a church that started in a park because they had no facility. Many of these churches overcome these obstacles and become a healthy congregation. However, I’ve never seen a church start without people. A church planter’s worst nightmare is opening Sunday arrives and the only people in the congregation are his spouse, 2 kids and mom.
Priority one for the church planter is to build and develop a launch team. So what constitutes a launch team? A launch team, is a group of people committed to helping start the church. These are not attendees or pew sitters. Warm bodies do not count. The best way to tell if someone is on the launch team is to ask yourself what area of service they are responsible for. If the answer is none, they are not on the launch team. This definition does not exclude non-Christians. You should encourage non-Christians to join the team. They will likely join the team not because of their love for the church, but because of their friendship with you. I’m often asked, do kids count? My answer is no. They need to be people who can fill a ministry role. At times you will have high caliber teens who will be able to assist in key ministry roles, but even though your kids will be moving chairs and preparing communion, I wouldn’t count them. Note: You don’t have to tell the kids that. In fact, I’d give them all titles and let them have responsibility as well. Just realize that they are kids.
Launch teams also have a definitive end. The purpose of the team is to start the church. Once that mission is complete, it is important for the team to disband. Otherwise, you quickly create an insider culture within the new church. I encourage church planters to set a time limit of approximately six months after opening Sunday. This let’s them know when they job is complete. Some of your launch team will come from other churches and this will let them know when its ok for them to return to their congregation. For non-Christians, it let’s them know when they can start sleeping in again on Sundays. Remember that many of them will come out of a relationship with you or someone else on the launch team. The ideal is that during the time they serve, they will come to know Jesus. But, if they do not, release them at the end of their commitment. Don’t guilt them into staying or you will damage the relationship.
I’ll continue this conversation on launch teams with a series of posts over the next couple of weeks. Here what’s coming:
Pt. 1 Building a Launch Team is Priority One
Pt. 2 How Big Should the Launch Team Be?
Pt. 3 Who Should Be Excluded from the Launch Team?
Pt. 4 Should I use a launch team covenant?
Pt. 5 How Do I Build Momentum with the Launch Team?
Pt. 6 What Do I Do at Launch Team Meetings?
photo credit: Yug_and_her via photopin cc
This couldn’t have come at a better time! We are launching a church in April of 2011, and we’re just about to start assembling our launch team out of our sending church.
My pastor is excited about sending us out, but wants to hand-select who are team will be that goes with us from our church. His reasoning is that he doesn’t want “sick” people to plant a healthy church. I’m hoping that these series of posts will give us common ground as we proceed in building a launch team.
Here are a few questions that have come up:
1. If someone says they have prayed and fasted and are excited to be part of the team, do we take them – even if we have doubts about their readiness and maturity?
2. If I, as the church planter want someone to go with me, and they too want to go with me, but my sending church doesn’t want them to go with me – what do we do?
3. Is there something more concrete we can use to determine who should go with us, such as ???per cent of sending church?
Our church has 150-180 people and we were thinking the launch team would be about 20-25, does that sound right?
Hopefully these things get sorted out in the next few days and weeks! I look forward to your posts!
Brian,
These are great questions. I’ll be sure to address them in upcoming posts. My post I’m planning for Monday will directly address all these questions. It will focus on who to include or exclude on the launch team. Where are you starting the church at?
Hey Doug,
Thanks for the response.
We are launching our church on Easter (April 24, 2011) in SE Portland OR in the historic Woodstock District near Reed College.
i love this blog and this article.
Wow, thanks for the generous comment.
Hi Doug!! Wow… what a blessing to find this blog!! My husband and I are in the very beginning stages of finding a launch team, and building The Rock Fellowship from scratch! YIKES!! This article and your others… are the “light bulbs” I’ve been looking for. We purchased a book about launching a church… but there were many items it didn’t cover. One of the questions we kept having was, “what does a launch team look like?”… thanks for helping with that!! Please keep us in your prayers as we proceed in this big adventure!!
Debi,
I’m glad you found it helpful. If you have any specific questions along the way comment in the blog and I’ll post a response.