by Patrick Bradley: Have a specific plan to celebrate temporary launch team members as you send them back to your supporting church. There’s a lot that is riding on it.

If you’re recruiting temporary launch team members from a supporting church, start with the end in mind. And that end is not getting people to come and serve your church.

There is a direct correlation between how well you celebrate them and:

how they feel about having served
the kind of leadership and initiative they take after they return to their sending church
the chances that they’d volunteer for another plant in the future
how likely the sending church will be to help another planter in the future
the health of your ongoing relationship with the sending church
to what degree your indigenous workers will step up to fill the gaps that are left
…and probably some other things, too

Whatever the agreed upon time frame, you need to publicly celebrate their contribution. Probably even if they decide not to stick it out for the whole term. They joined you on mission and they are heroes of the Church.

The great news is that it’s not difficult or necessarily expensive.

Celebrate Temporary Launch Team Members

Bless them as you release them back to the sending church. And if some stay on and make your church plant home, bless them publicly, too.

Here are some ideas to celebrate temporary launch team members:

acknowledge them from the platform during a worship gathering
call them forward and pray a blessing over them during a worship gathering
record a video of one of the above and send it to the supporting church or post it online
throw a dessert or party (a surprise party?); just don’t make it a potluck
give them each a gift card and thank you note
give them each a memento or trophy
contact their sending pastor and brag on them
post a picture of the whole group on social media

Pick several of these ways to celebrate temporary launch team members. Everyone wins when you do.

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Source: How to Celebrate Temporary Launch Team Members

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by Patrick Bradley: It can be scary for the sending church to send out temporary launch team members to help a church plant. But it can be a blessing to that church, the workers, and to the church plant.

The Kingdom Math

There are no guarantees in ministry. But I have seen this pattern: both the church plant and the sending church get blessed. The church plant because it gets the critical mass it needs to avoid low birth weight. The sending church because it re/connects with mission, and because it cycles its own leadership and volunteer pool:

I serve in church planting today, in part, because in 1999 others were recruited from my church to be temporary launch team members. My pastor announced that we’d be planting a church in the next city over and that we’d be sending some of our best and brightest out to serve. Which meant that those riding the bench would have to step up and fill the gaps they left. I decided that was something I could sink my teeth into, something I could give my life to.

Sending out temporary launch team members certainly is unpredictable, but you never know who you might activate when you do.

And I could give you several stories of churches that ended up with higher attendance after they send out temporary launch team members.

SWAP Team

Of course, some of the temporary launch team members may fall in love with the new church. They may get so interwoven into the fabric of the church plant that they decide to move from SWAT Team members to Servants Willing And Permanent.

In the end, this seems to work itself out, too. After 6 months, the sending church has back-filled their vacancy and feels the pressure less. Or the sending church doubles down on investing in church planting and figures out a way to make it work.

When the Church is openhanded enough to send out temporary launch team members to church plants, there’s opportunity for everyone to win.

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Source: Why Your Church Should Send Out Temporary Launch Team Members

The post Why Your Church Should Send Out Temporary Launch Team Members appeared first on Passion for Planting.

by Patrick Bradley: You may need to find some temporary launch team members if you find yourself short a few hands as you gear up for the launch of your worship gatherings.

Building a Launch Team is hard work. Some planters get a head start through several families coming with them from a sending church. Some convince friends or family to move across country to the new community.

But whether you have a head start or not, you still have to recruit plenty more from the community. Believers and not-yet-believers both.

You need somewhere in the neighborhood of at least 40-50 adults on your launch team to fully staff weekly worship gatherings. The ‘new normal’ weekend experience with excellent music, quality children’s ministry, hot coffee hospitality, video projection, etc. creates a serious demand for volunteers.

With fewer than 40 workers, you won’t be able to fully staff the various ministries. Or worse, you’ll use every volunteer every Sunday to pull of the gatherings and burn them out quickly.

About a month from your launch of weekly worship gatherings, you need to have most of the 40+ adults on the team. Every planter puts in lots of prayer, time on the ground, and hard work. Even so, some planters I’ve supported over the years found themselves with no more than 30 workers about a month out. Finding another 10 committed launch team members in the last few weeks is unusual. And it’s certainly not enough time for them to fully catch the vision and get adequate training in their ministry area.

Barrelling ahead with only 30 yields predictable results: volunteer shortages and burnout. One alternative to postponing launch is finding…

Temporary Launch Team Members

I’ve heard them called lots of things over the years:

short-term missionaries
scaffolding
SWAT Team (servants willing and temporary)

The basic idea is that you approach other churches in your region. The temporary launch team members commit to a fixed term, often 6 months, with the express understanding that they will return to the sending church at the end of their term. The sending church doesn’t feel threatened that you’re stealing anyone. And the workers don’t feel like they’re signing up for a life sentence.

Start with churches in your tribe or network. But God may very well have been preparing another congregation in your city and they’re just waiting to be asked. I’ve seen it.

You’d work with that church to provide already-trained workers for specific ministry roles, like:

playing in the band
teaching kids (make sure they’ve passed a background check)
ushering
hospitality

Though they come trained, you will need to brief them on your church plant’s mission and vision so that they can live it out while they’re with you. They also need a basic understanding of your church’s values, strategies and events calendar.

One question that you need to think through in advance is whether you’d be asking for their tithes, too. Work that out with the sending church. They may or may not be OK with the temporary launch team members transferring their giving for the 6 months.

Having them, especially for a fixed term, creates some stability and buys you time to grow your indigenous team.

But it’s not a viable solution for much more than 6 months. The workers will get tired, long for home or resent the situation. Your church will be addicted to the extra workers and hit crisis when they inevitably depart.

Instead, at the end of their term, find ways to celebrate their contribution and send them back with a blessing.

If you find yourself short of the number of launch team members you’ve been praying for, consider recruiting some temporary ones.

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Source: Do You Need Temporary Launch Team Members?

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