Last week I taught a session at a church planting roundtable on how to put together a church planting launch team. The main premise of my talk was “Church Planting is best done in community (as a team), through community (relationships), to a community (a ministry focus).” Over the next few days I’ll be posting my notes that answer the questions of What, Who, & How? Here’s the first one: What?

The first step for any church planter should be to identify their community and target.

• This is a combination of assessing your passions & giftings with God’s callings and promptings for your ministry.

In identifying the target community, decide what the problem your team is called to serve.

• As Andy Stanley states, “What problem has God called your team to solve?”
  • Gives a team a reason to be
  • Creates the context for passion
    • Pat McMillan: “A clear, common, compelling task that is important to individual team members is the single best factor to a team’s success.
  • Teams are dissolved when the problem is solved.
• Don’t start with position, start with your goal.
  • Once you’ve identified the problem, establish what key roles are necessary to solve that problem.
  • Most church plants will begin with at least these three:
    • Lead Pastor/Teaching Pastor
    • Worship Leader
    • Children’s Ministry Leader
  • Other possibilities
    • Admin
    • Outreach
    • Assimilation
    • Tech/Design

Once you’ve identified the key roles you need to fill…

• Establish clear expectations for these roles. Your ability to establish clear expectations will determine your team’s ability to function effectively.
  • Pay (full-time, part-time, volunteer)
  • Titles (be careful not to throw around titles without purpose and the right timing)
  • Responsibilities (what will they be doing?)

Tomorrow, I will post notes on Who to Recruit?