Greetings all,
Arguably the most stressful time in a church planting team's life will be the launch phase. The assembling of the right team members and the core support group, the months of planning leading up to the big day, the thousands of details associated with the event itself, the intense follow-up that follows…
Recently we received this email from the team over at Trinity South Coast in Victor Harbour, South Australia. They're currently celebrating their launch week:
It was a wonderful service. Around 190 were there in all, which is quite a lot different to our usual 40! Lots were visitors from other Trinity churches but many mentioned they were locals. Others said they were waiting for us to start up so they could come. Obviously our advertising & letterbox drops have helped … The core group has been kept extremely busy, and because several of us are not young, we have been praying for stamina & energy to get through it all!
You'll definitely have our prayers at Geneva central – and it's our intention to help guys like the Trinity South Coast team to have as successful and stress-free launch as possible. So this month we've been assembling a host of great launch resources for planters approaching that important day:
NEW Resources for Getting Started
- A fresh new resource, Andrew Heard discusses with Mark Hadley what he think are the absolute, basic ABCs of Launching
- Scott Sanders introduces to his 'top 5 resources areas' for planning a launch in Your One Stop Launch Shop
- And because knowing what you're getting into is a top priority, we introduce you to a new tool for getting Your City's Ethnic Snapshot
The Launch Team
- Who should you have by your side for that all important event? Andrew Heard descibes the process of Building The Best Launch Team
- Once you've assembled a team you have to get them ready for The Launch and Beyond – church planters Dan Godden and Toby Neal talk about developing a team's sense of mission and their spiritual maturity.
- And from the other side of the coin, church planter Pete Hughes shares with launch teams 10 Things A Church Planting Team Should KNow (but the planter won't tell you)
Becoming visible
- Andrew Heard talks about the importance of Getting Public Profile in order to have the privilege of spreading the Gospel
- In the age of the Internet, we share two great posts from other sites on successfully Defining Your Digital Presence
- And a cautionary tale from Mikey Lynch on What It Feels Like To Visit A Church For The First Time
Meeting those who are actually doing it
- Check in with Michael and Amy who are currently doing A Nhieu Thing In Rozelle
- Check in with Matt and Mel Crocker who are building up their new work in Newcastle
- Spend some time praying through all of the church planters currently moving towards their big launch day
And if that isn't enough for you, we'd encourage you to get along to one of the Ed Stetzer Masterclasses who will be doing a number of specialty workshops on engaging with the culture you hope to launch a church in – more on that in the coming weeks!
Happy clicking!
– Ed.
