One of the questions that is often asked in terms of church planting is about core teams. In some ways this is a strange concept for us in Ireland because some core teams from church plants in different locations would be a Mega Church in our context! What I wanted to do was not to go in depth about core teams, dynamics, numbers, skill sets etc. There are other great resources for that. What I want to look at are some of the pitfalls we might see as we are planting, and for us to consider not just a planting team, but the effect this might have on planting and the future of our plant. In many ways church planting never goes to plan, having a team isn’t always a guarantee of success, and it takes a lot of work. In biblical terms we can see partnership, teamwork, and the encouragement of being part of a group to see the Gospel planted in a new location. Teams can bring support, build excitement and give a boost to a new plant, but like everything we need to carefully consider how they can also affect our planting journey.
Teams Are Great - But We Are Planting Churches
Building teams is exciting. In planting, a lot of the time core teams are born out of a shared desire for a particular need or area. Friends are gathered and plans are made. This is one of the most wonderful parts of a church plant, chatting, dreaming and strategising. Yet, I’ve also seen quite a few church plants not make it past this stage. Why? Because planning things is fun, doing them can be less so. Some people like to be part of something new, something edgy, something different. On building a team we must ask ourselves if we want to build a team, or plant a team, rather than a church. It can be easy with a team to start a service, to get a bit of traction, to have people already there to serve and sing, lead and preach, look after kids and pack up chairs. Yet, we need to be careful if we are simply putting on another service in another location, or we are plugging into an area that we have a shared heart and vision for. Maybe those in your sending church are living in a location that has become a new plant, or maybe people are moving along with the plant, but this is an important conversation to have. What will this new thing look like? Will it be like the sending church only closer to our home, or will it look completely different? Do the people coming have a shared vision for what this planting of the Gospel will become, and the burden that fuels it? These are important things to consider before moving to plant because they can cause issues as desires are unmet, and things aren’t the way we thought they would be.
Teams Are Great - But We Are Making Disciples
This almost spills over from the last point; our desire for planting must be to see God’s glory shine into the place that we are planting. It is an important distinction, we are planting the Gospel which will, by God’s grace, become a church. One of the dangers of core teams is that we think we are planting a ready made congregation. We buy things because we have people. We invest in what we think our plant needs because we have a ready to go worshipping community. Yet, from day one we can fall into the gathering and not the going. We can quickly lose a missional edge because we have reached the stage of having a group of people who have become the church before we’ve really planted the Gospel. This can be the case in some places, and certainly in places where people are sent as missionaries. I’ve been in contexts where the church fellowship is made up entirely of missionaries, and although it is a wonderful experience, it can be easy to gather, sing and pray with professional Christians rather than reach out to see people come to know Christ and His Gospel. There is safety in team. Safety with parents and kids who see things like we do. We know the songs, we are culturally attuned to hospitality and “Christianese.” Yet, our role is not to establish our team, but to love beyond ourselves to the world around us. Mission and discipleship are the drivers in our churches, and we need to not simply replace ‘core team’ with ‘church plant’ and think that we have arrived.
Teams Are Great - But We Are To Equip Leaders
Again, following on, teams are great, but we must not block opportunities for service. A lot of church planters rely on external funds for their ministry. Quite a few churches have those sent on mission to do the work of ministry in those places. Of course there is expectation that ministry will be done by these people, roles will be filled, and prayer letters sent. A planting team can quickly become a de facto elder board that makes decisions, fills roles, and ‘does’ church. As a team, we must recognise that in most contexts our training and experience will enable us to fulfil most roles in a church body. We may be generalists, and so look at the list of gifts and areas of service in Romans 12 and think, “we can do all of these.” Yet, as new people come to faith and join the body of Christ, we must consider how they will serve, integrate and lead in our plants. If as a team we are a all singing, all dancing, ministry machine, then our bar might preclude people from taking responsibility and exercising the gifts they have for the good of the church. Equipping leaders might be stunted because of the culture of the church plant rather than the availability of ‘leaders’ to lead.
As always, I hope that there will be some push back, discussion and/or disagreement with some of this. I have seen teams work, and teams fall apart. Having a core team is no guarantee of success, and sometimes going alone presents an opportunity for vulnerability and dependence that creates gaps for people to fill. I don’t believe that there is a hard and fast rule here, but these are worthwhile elements to consider as we seek to plant the Gospel, and see Christ made known in our context.
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