by Patrick Bradley: A church plant Management Team plays several crucial roles in supporting the planter during the early stages of the new church. Go without a Management Team and you’ll be at risk for the following reasons.

If you’re starting a legally autonomous church congregation, you should not be flying solo until the someday that you can install and Eldership. You need a temporary church plant Management Team to fill that role. Because…

You Need Spiritual Covering

Planting a church is not an easy task. And the forces of darkness do not want to see you succeed. You will be opposed by outside forces and sometimes by people on your own team.

Your Management Team fulfills the role of Elders in being the spiritual authority of your congregation.

You Need Wise Counsel

Those that serve on your church plant Management Team will have life experience, wisdom, and spiritual gifts different than yours.  You’re going to encounter situations that you feel unprepared for. The wise counsel your Management Team brings will help you make better decisions.

You Need Accountability

Absolute power corrupts absolutely. Planting a church will put pressure on all your cracks. It will tempt you to compromise the vision God entrusted you with and settle for some lesser or counterfeit version.

Install a Management Team that has authority and permission to ask you the hard questions and call you on the carpet. You’ll be healthier, stronger and eternally grateful that you did.

You Need a Corporate Board

On a very practical level, if you’ve incorporated as a nonprofit in your state, you need a Board of Directors. Depending on your Bylaws, that could be a separate body, but why? Your Management Team will already be meeting regularly during the first few years after incorporation. They’re already charged with the important, weighty things. Have them wear this hat, too, and you’ll save yourself a whole nutha round of meetings.

Don’t fly solo. Bring yourself under authority somehow. Especially if you’re starting an autonomous congregation, you need a church plant Management Team.

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Source: 4 Reasons You Need a Church Plant Management Team

The post 4 Reasons You Need a Church Plant Management Team appeared first on Passion for Planting.

By Patrick Bradley: Autonomous church planters should come under the authority of a church plant Management Team. Here’s what a Management Team is:

The New Testament makes a strong case for congregations being overseen by a plurality of Elders. But when you’re starting a new church from scratch, you won’t have Elders (and typically shouldn’t – more on that below).

There are different models of planting churches, but from a leadership structure standpoint, planters in my circles are starting new, legally autonomous congregations. So all of the leadership systems and structures they experienced in past ministries must be recreated for the new church.

A Management Team will function as your temporary Eldership. I’ll explore those roles in my next post; we’ll stick with form for today.

It Should Be External

Those installed on your church plant Management Team should meet the Biblical qualifications of being Elders. Even if you have a candidate or two that meet that criteria on your initial Launch Team, you should still have an external Management Team.

Ultimately, your ideal local Elders will be people who came to faith as adults at your church plant. They will own your mission & DNA like no other. But it’s important not to install your local Eldership too soon in the church plant for two reasons:

You’re creating a new church culture; transfer Elders will come with another church’s DNA
Promoting new believers to positions of spiritual authority too quickly can be destructive to all parties

Where to Find Them

There are different ways of going about assembling an external Management Team:

If you have strong ties with a local mother/sending church, staff or Elders from that church could serve
If several churches have formed a network to birth your church, a rep from each church could serve
Your mentors and former ministry colleagues could serve

One thing to be sure of, though, is that the team you assemble is able to govern you. You need people who are willing to speak the hard truth to you and call you to account. Don’t assemble a toothless advisory board of yes-men.

Another thing you should strive for is diversity of age, wiring, background, race, etc. We were first called Christians in Antioch, where the leadership was diverse [Acts 13].

How Many Should Serve?

Your Bylaws will spell out how many should be on the team, but it should be no fewer than 3 (especially if it’s you and 2 others). You’re submitting to their collective authority, so you shouldn’t be able to out-vote them.

And especially for a church just getting started that has to move fast and make lots of decisions, I’d suggest not making the team too large. The 11-man squad pictured above would not be ideal.

Long Distance is OK

Though there may be some advantages to your church plant Management Team being local, today’s technology makes virtual meetings incredibly viable. So don’t let geography limit your pool of candidates.

How Often Should They Meet?

Again, this should be outlined in your Bylaws, but at the very beginning, your church plant Management Team will probably need to meet every month for an hour or two. This church plant thing is a moving target and there will be lots of decisions that need to be made quickly.

Up Next:

4 Reasons You Need a Church Plant Management Team
When Does a Management Team Win?

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Source: What is a Church Plant Management Team?

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