Building a launch team is the most critical aspect of planting a church.  You can have a dynamic worship service, top of the line equipment, a killer band, an edgy logo and website, but until you have people you aren’t a church.  A tool frequently utilized in building the launch team is a covenant.  A covenant is simply an agreement between one or more people.  This 4 part series will cover:

1. What to think through before writing the covenant.
2. Why should I have a launch team covenant?
3. What should I include in the covenant?
4. Should I include non-Christians?

Before writing a covenant you need to have already worked through your philosophy of ministry (mission statement, strategy, values and measures of a disciple).  For a good resource on developing a philosophy of ministry, read Church Unique, by Will Mancini.  The launch team covenant is a call to a way of life.  It’s an agreement as to how team members will participate in the life of the church.  It’s a list of agreed upon expectations.  Before you hammer out that list, you need to understand what the guiding principles of the church are.  What will this new church value?  How will it accomplish its mission to make disciples?  How do those disciples live and what are their characteristics?  The answers to these questions will largely shape the content of the covenant. Many church planters will answer these questions themselves.  For some, a team will already be in place.  If you already have people that you are planting the church with (ex. – taking a core from another church, people who moved with you, restarting a church, etc.), then you should include them in the process.  While this takes more time, it will lead to better ownership of the vision.

Second, before writing the launch team covenant, you should have a good understanding of what church is.  This may sound like a silly statement for church planters, but many of us have only experienced church with a worship service.  While most church planters will eventually start a worship service, it may be several months before one begins.  If your primary experience of church has been a worship service, it can be difficult to know what to do with your launch team.  Check my post “Are you planting a church or a worship service.”  Most launch team members will understand church through the lens of a worship service as well.  So it’s important to fully understand what church is and how you can be the church without a service.  Because this is a new concept for many, you need to be able to cast the vision for this and put it in writing through the launch team covenant.

Once you have worked through your philosophy of ministry and understand what the church is, you are ready to begin crafting your launch team covenant.