Launch Team Meeting #3

Eleven of us Gathered in Room 203 for the 3rd Launch Team Meeting.

We started on time. Yes, folks we started on time.

We heard from Amy (regarding Kids Church) and Heather (regarding the "Connection Team") - both of these talented ladies are trying to form TEAMS of people to drive these necessary systems. So, please, please get involved.

I blasted through "defining the launch team" and basically said the following...

"The main purpose of this team is outward focused toward the future church. It is a team of committed individuals who will work together to prepare for and execute an effective launch.

The Launch team is a temporary team in existence only through the Launch Day."

Lastly we brainstormed what could/should happen "Between the Sundays".
To set up the brainstorming session, I mentioned some of the phrases that characterize our church.

• Church isn't a building
• Church isn't a meeting on Sundays.
  
• Church is people learning to love others and God
• We want to be/build authentic community
  

With that in mind, here are some of the things that came up in that session. Anything in BOLD came up multiple times in different small groups. Please comment, if you'd like to add to the list

• Game nights
• Dinners @ homes - weekly
• Bible studies: some specifics- video based ones, marriage (Love and Respect), a study that helps define "reasons to believe".
• Play Dates - moms with kids
• Theology Pub- poor some beer, pic a topic and discuss... can be done at homes or in bars/pubs
• Movies and theology nights
• Conferences and Seminars
• service projects - local missions
• Saturday breakfasts, studies
• Dinners for Six
• Community Activities like Sporting Games and Concerts

What else? what has been a rich experience for you in your past that's not on this list? You don't even have to be part of the infamous Launch Team to contribute here.

Launch Meeting TWO

Last Week 11 of us gathered into room 203 at THIS church building and 'pondered' church. Outoud.

As a Leader, I know that a certain amount of discussion and input goes a long way in building team cohesiveness, but what I didn't know that our 'pondering' would take up the entire meeting time!

Although, we won't have the same type of meeting this coming week, last weeks meeting was quite significant to many of us. To use the words in the video we saw that night, I'd say our meeting helped our "hearts to beat more and more like God's heart". Hearts beating more like God's heart will go a LONG WAY towards the success of a church-plant!

After watching the video in the NOOMA series titled, "Sunday" we asked the question, "When it comes to church, what do you think God had in mind?". Here's a very quick summary of a very long and rich conversation

• It's supposed to be personal, not just something to "watch" happen
• It's about being connected, like a body
• It's not about formal rituals, not about being "talked at", but "talked with"
• More like a team than a hierarchy
• Church should go out and do more things - show the way, not just talk about it!
• It should put Jesus first, 'lift' him up, and feature him, not a 'show'.
  
• It shouldn't just be about 'self-help' - we don't need church to learn about that, we need church to revolve around Jesus and his ways.
• The people at the meetings should be excited, not boring.
• There's a large group of people who are really interested in Jesus, but are really turned off by the church (I dream about a church that can actually affect our culture in such a way that people won't make the distinction between Jesus and the church).

See you Sunday at 6pm?

Love ya,

Joe

p.s. Below is a clip of the video that we watched. If you'd like to borrow my copy, I'd be more than willing to let you.

Join our Launch Team?
By 2020 our population in Fresno is projected to grow by 362,000 people. If we were to provide a church for only 10% of the new growth, we will need 72 new churches with 500 members.

No county in America has more Christians in it today than it did 10 years ago. Church planting is the most biblical way of evangelism. The Church is God’s plan for a broken and lost world.

Even though church planting is extremely important and significant, you don’t need any special skills to join this church planting team. We are looking to increase the size of this team every single day until we ‘launch’ in May.

Launch Team Meeting ONE

Among other things, 13 of us spent time dreaming out loud what church could/should be.

Some of the thoughts:

• A place where opinions/dialogue matters. Not simply told what to believe and blindly go with that.
• A place where there is teamwork... everybody, not just a few, moving toward the goals.
• A place where you know you're missed when you're not there. A place where you'll find people going through the same things as you. Imperfect people bringing what they DO have to offer and getting involved
• a place for reality and honesty
• Accountability... where someone will call you and ask you what you're doing.
• Church should be a place you act the same as you do when you're home. Not a place where you "get conservative" and "fake" to attend, only to be 'normal' the rest of the week.
• TRUTH. The message. The plain, uncompromising truth in the scriptures. Church should be a place for that.
• A place the values and emphasizes kids and family
• A place for creativity
• A safe place to not be perfect
• Community - a place to journey together as much as possible. People shouldn't feel alone in the church. A place to connect, to carry other peoples loads and to be carried at times.

The Church is Beautiful. I expect us to spend more time dreaming about what Church could/should be, because the above might only scratch the surface.

We desire to tap into the brainpower and life experiences of those who will be part of The Launch Team. So, we broke into small groups and spent a short time asking the question, "How do we increase the amount of people on our Launch Team?" Here are some of the ideas.

1. Every group put emphasis on the “personal invitation” including use of all normal communication… e-mail, friends at work, etc.

2. Dinners for Six (this idea comes up about as often as a drummer!)

3. Message Boards – online (Myspace, etc.) and physical places like Colleges or laundry rooms

4. Using the 5,000 gifts idea and tweaking it so that it’s something like “5,000 reasons church should be amazing”.

5. Hang out where people hang out.

6. Invite a person with Church Planting experience to come into our meetings and suggest ways to increase the Launch Team

7. Speak with Churches

8. Christian Colleges like Fresno Pacific.

Thoughts? Comments? Anything to add?