Church Planting: Launch Team Versus Core Group
One of the proven “contrarian” principles for starting a new church is assembling a launch team rather than a core group. The difference is much more than just what you choose to call this essential group of early adopters. Let’s take a look at the differences between a Launch Team versus a Core Group.
To start with some basics, a Launch Team is: A team of committed individuals who will assist you in preparing for and executing an effective launch. This is a team of people currently living in the area where your new church will meet – a team that you will build from scratch. The launch team is in existence only through the first weekly service.
Your launch team has one singular purpose: to assist you in launching the church. When the launch service is over, the team dissipates. (Of course, hopefully the people won’t go away, but their service in the church will shift to weekly volunteering.)
You may have heard the term “core group” applied to this initial team, but there is a big difference between a launch team and a core group. It’s interesting to see how many churches have sabotaged their launch by treating their launch team like a core group.
The basic idea behind a core group is that you find 12 to 15 spiritually committed individuals in your area and convince them to help you start the church. Your team then comes together in private or semi-private meetings for three to six months to pray over and prepare for the new church.
Undeniably, the team professes to be working together to start the church. However, core groups are built in such a way that their attention and intentions are often misguided.
Churches that only use the core-group process tend to start small and stay small. The reason has nothing to do with spiritual depth but rather with psychological laws: Individuals who meet together and work closely with each other for more than a couple of months will develop deep relationships and work to protect those relationships.
Here’s what happens: the core group turns inward. This is not necessarily bad, unless you are trying to launch a church!
In my experience with core groups, I’ve seen many solidify to the ultimate detriment of the church.
Now you can see why so many church plants fail in the first two years!
Your partner in ministry,
Nelson
P.S. If you’re planting a church and you’re ready to learn all you can about a successful church launch, click here to access my FREE resources for church planters!
The FREE resources include: The Call of a Church Planter, Funding Your Church Plant, Launching Large, Starting Small Groups, and Starting a Worship Arts Ministry from Scratch ($149.00 total value)
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Nelson Searcy is the Founding and Lead Pastor of The Journey Church, with locations across New York City and in Boca Raton, FL. By God’s grace, he identified and developed the Eight Systems of a Healthy Church® that he has used to coach over 5,000 churches in the US and around the world to adapt those eight systems to their unique ministry fields, resulting in great health and growth.
Nelson regularly coaches pastors online and in-person through the Church Leader Insights and Renegade Pastors Network ministries that he founded. He also leads several annual pastor in-person conferences and online training events. In ministry for more than 25 years, Nelson and his church routinely appear on lists such as “The 50 Most Influential Churches” and “The 25 Most Innovative Leaders.”
