What Should I Include in a Launch Team Covenant?

In case you’ve missed them, here are the first two parts of a series on launch team covenants. Launch Team Covenants Part 1 Why Should I Have a Launch Team Covenant? Since you’re reading this post, I’m assuming that you’ve made the decision to utilize a launch team covenant.  So, what do you include?  Well, here’s the answer that you never like to see, it’s...
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Why Should I Have a Launch Team Covenant?

Launch Team Covenants P.1 About half of the planters I work with utilize a launch team covenant.  The typical reason not to have a covenant is that people might find it strange and it could be a barrier to people joining the team.  Let me start by debunking that myth.  People sign agreements almost daily and most of them without even thinking about it let along reading what they are signing....
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7 Top Issues Church Planters Face: Evangelism and Discipleship

Back in January, Ed Stetzer blogged on research produced by Exponential about the 7 Top Issues Church Planters face.  The sixth issue is evangelism and discipleship. You can read Ed’s post here. One quote that stuck out to me in this post was: Evangelism and discipleship does not automatically happen in a new church. That is unfortunate for some aspiring planters. All of us struggle with our...
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7 Top Issues Church Planters Face: Team Development and Volunteer Mobilization

Back in January, Ed Stetzer blogged on research produced by Exponential about the 7 Top Issues Church Planters face.  The third issue is team development and volunteer mobilization. You can read Ed’s post here. My biggest takeaway from Ed’s post is that this is a universal problem.  Regardless of launch team size, how well the church is funded, or if the staff is bi-vocational,...
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7 Top Issues Church Planters Face: Leadership Development and Reproducing Culture

Back in January, Ed Stetzer blogged on research produced by Exponential about the 7 Top Issues Church Planters Face.  The conclusions of the research rang true to my experience.  So over the next few weeks I’m going to give you my thoughts on the 7 Top Issues Church Planters Face. The first issue is Leadership Development and Reproducing Culture.  You can read Ed’s post...
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Why Contextualization is Important to Church Planting and Missions

A few weeks ago Ed Stetzer started a discussion on missiology, centered on the essays in the book MissionShift. He gave away copies of the book to bloggers (me included) and decided to start a discussion. Two weeks ago, Ed published the first installment of David Hesselgrave’s “second thoughts” essay. He also shared some excerpts of the responses by other bloggers in two...
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