Church Planting Post Launch
One Life has launched 3 churches in 3 ½ years. Those of us who participated in that movement fully bought into the identity of “church planters” and the strategy of church planting because it is the single most effective way to reach people far from God. We were on mission!
After we rest and get healthy, we’re going to gear up and go again, reaching into the surrounding communities where God leads us. That’s us: Church Planters.
But what about those of us who have been planted? We aren’t called to the next community over, we are called right here to this one. That is a large part of what got us so excited to be church planters in the first place—to reach the West Side, the East Side, Henderson—to reach the communities we live-work-play in.
So What Now?
How can we still be church planters post-launch? I believe the answer lies in exponential multiplication of One Life Mission Teams…big surprise to those who know me. While we may never launch another campus in Henderson, the opportunity to launch Mission Teams is limitless—or at least only limited by the entire population of the city itself, and wouldn’t that be something!!
What is Church Really?
Most fundamentally, ‘church’ means the people called out from the world to be with God. It carries the connotation of assembly, congregation, gathering of the people of God. In the New Testament ‘church’ is used to describe a household and an entire city. The unifying principle is that it’s always in reference to people. Whether it’s in the context of an extended family on mission or a network of believers spread throughout a city, it’s always about the people you find, being transformed by the Gospel, bearing witness to the Good News and sharing it with others they come into contact. If that’s our understanding of ‘church’ then we can launch churches in our communities today, tomorrow, three years and twenty years from now. We can continue to be church planters long after being planted.
What is the Opportunity?
Connection: 1 new team connects an average of 10 new people.
Transformation: People in teams pray more regularly, confess sins more frequently, share the Gospel more freely, give more generously, serve more often.
Movement: New Mission Teams (w/proper DNA) are more likely to multiply, be externally focused, renew and inspire old teams.
Margin: New Teams, connecting new people, growing them deeper in their relationship with Jesus who are making new believers in Jesus…who are then connected, grown, making new believers…will naturally create space to pursue God and His mission.
Mission: Exponential multiplication of Mission Teams means exponential multiplication of people helping people far from God experience Jesus!
* Above data pulled from the book Transformational Groups *
What do we do Now?
You might be thinking, “That sounds all well and good, but what do I do now?!” How do you make that happen? How do we go about launching more and more Mission Teams? Well there are plenty of multiplication strategies, and I have talked about it a ton over the years (here’s one example), but honestly at this point I’m tired of talking about multiplication directly. Instead I just want to give these three tips:
(1) Fall in love with God’s Story. Nothing will get you inspired to be on Mission than coming face-to-face with our God of Mission. If you need help falling in love with God’s story, here is the latest book I’ve read that’s helpful: Covenant and Kingdom.
(2) Go and Make Disciples. It was Jesus’ parting commands to his followers. If we try and grow teams we may or may not get more teams, if we grow disciples we will certainly get more Mission Teams.
(3) Pray. Seriously pray as Jesus taught his followers to do. Pray for the Kingdom to come and God’s will to be done. Then pray for the City. Then tell God that you will go where He sends you.