New Series: Building a Launch Team (part 1)
by Doug Foltz
Recently a church 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. “The same as last month,” he said.
“I need to get some people around me.”As you probably already know, there are hundreds of tasks to complete when planting a church. I have seen church planters start churches with many of the “tasks” incomplete. I’ve seen churches start with limited budgets, no staff, borrow and beg for equipment, and have even heard of a church that started in a park because they had no facility. Many of these churches overcame these obstacles and became a healthy congregation.
However, I’ve never seen a church start without people. A church planter’s worst nightmare is that opening Sunday arrives, and the only people in the congregation are his spouse, kids and mom.Over the next four weeks in this series of blog posts, I’m focusing on priority No. 1 for every church planter regardless of the form of church you’re planting or the context in which you’re planting –building a launch team. Every church planter needs a team of people committed to helping start the church. Below are some vital launch team lessons I’ve learned firsthand and from talking to other planters.
Warm bodies do not count. Launch team members are not attendees or pew sitters. The best way to know if someone is part of your launch team is to ask yourself, What area of service is he or she responsible for? If the answer is none, they are not on your launch team.
Neither do kids. I’m often asked, “Do kids count?.” My answer is no. You launch team needs to be made up of people who can fill a ministry role. At times, you will have high-caliber teens who can and want to assist in key ministry roles. But even though kids might be moving chairs and preparing communion, I wouldn’t count them. Note: You don’t have to tell the kids that. I’d give them all titles and let them have responsibility as well. Just realize that they are kids.
Non-Christians can be on your launch team. In fact, you should encourage non-Christians to join the team. They will likely join the team not because of their love for the church, but rather their friendship with you.
Launch teams have a definitive end. The purpose of the team is to start the church. Once that mission is complete, disbanding the team is important. Otherwise, you quickly create an insider culture within the new church. I always encourage planters to set a time limit of approximately six months after opening Sunday. This lets them know when their job is complete. Some of your launch team might come from other churches. Officially disbanding will let them know it’s ok to return to their congregation. For non-Christians, disbanding lets 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. Of course, the ideal outcome is that they will come to know Jesus during the time they serve on the team. But, if they do not, release them at the end of their commitment. Guilting them into staying could potentially damage the relationship.
In the next post, we’ll talk about how big a launch team should be.
About Doug Foltz
A self-desribed “church planting junkie,” Doug Foltz serves as director of planter care for Stadia as
the Director of Planter Care, where he helps church planters clarify
and implement their vision. He stands alongside church planters
leveraging his 15-plus years of church planting experience with more
than 50 new churches. In 2004, Foltz moved to Charlotte, N.C., to help
plant LifePointe Christian Church. Currently, he lives in a rural town in Illinois and speaks nationwide about church planting. Doug blogs at plantingchurches.org.
Arron Chambers, author of six books, including Eats With Sinners and Devoted: Isn’t it time to fall more in love with Christ? (NavPress
October 2014), is also the pastor of Journey Christian Church in
Greeley, Colo., an inspirational speaker, a marriage coach, husband of a
lovely wife, and the father of four beautiful kids. For more
information, visit his 
Bill
Easum has a 30-year track record of growing congregations in two
denominations. His last church, which he pastored for 24 years, grew to
become the largest United Methodist Church in South Texas. Bill is the
recipient of the prestigious Donald McGavran award for outstanding
church leadership. Over the past 20 years, Bill has served as a
consultant to congregations and denominations. He is the author of
numerous best-selling books such as Church Growth Handbook, How to Reach Baby Boomers, Dancing With Dinosaurs, Sacred Cows Make Gourmet Burgers, Beyond the Box and many more. His latest book is Effective Staffing for Vital Churches: The Essential Guide to Finding and Keeping the Right People.
Beau Crosetto loves starting new things for God in difficult places. He is the Greater Los Angeles Director for 
James Choung
has been involved in campus ministries for over 18 years, empowering
rising generations of Kingdom world-changers. He currently serves as
InterVarsity’s 
We
all have dreams … dreams for our careers, our homes, our relationships,
and, of course, our children. What do you dream for your children? Do
you dream they will be academically gifted and graduate with highest
honors? Do you dream they'll find a spouse, be happily married and have
lots of grandchildren for you to love and spoil? If you're a Christian,
it's likely you have big dreams that God would do great things for His
kingdom through your children!
Perhaps
you're thinking, Of course we want God to use our children to do
whatever is needed to build His kingdom! What a privilege that would be!
But have you seriously considered the what-ifs? What if that meant they
were called into full-time ministry? That's no big deal, you say. What
if it meant that full-time ministry took them to a foreign land? What
about a hostile foreign land? What if it meant they have an incurable
disease but this disease would allow them an incredible platform through
which they could share the gospel? Does it still sound so great?
Remember, according to Psalm 127, children are like "arrows in the hand
of a warrior." For an arrow to be launched it must be released. So too
we must release our children to the perfect plans of God knowing He
cares for them far more than we do.
We
forget that the Christian life is about our fellowship with a living
Person, Jesus. When He's active in our lives and in the lives of others
we'll have endless things to talk, dream, and pray about. We'll have
fellowship, and fellowship will lead to joy. No fleeting pleasure
compares to the joy that comes from fellowship-even fellowship in the
midst of suffering. When Jesus is in our midst and we're joined together
with Him and with one another, the common bond of our Savior ignites
heart-bursting joy.
With
the advent of social media and the Internet we're in danger of
replacing fellowship for something that is merely a shadow of the real
thing. We can download a sermon instead of sitting next to someone on a
Sunday morning, we can email a prayer instead of physically enfolding
another hand in our own, tweets and posts can be our manna instead of
communing with God in His Word. Let's push out of our private worlds and
embrace the very gift John gives us as his reason for writing: the
glory of fellowship.