If You’re Planting a Church, You Need a Team

Church Planting is hard. Unfortunately, we often make it even harder by planting alone. Think about the most common reasons planters quit, and they all trace back to pressures that are insurmountable in isolation:

• Overworked
• Bivocational
• Stressed
• Family implodes
• Insufficient finances
• Shrinking church

At the end of the day…

Nobody can be expected to KNOW everything

Nobody can be expected to DO everything

And nobody can be expected to WISELY HANDLE everything

In short, if you’re planting a church, then you need a team.

In Ephesians 4, Paul lays out five functions of Jesus’ ministry that Christians embody, which help them build up the church.

Apostles – church-planting, frontline missionaries committed to taking the people of God back out to the front lines

Prophets – concerned with hearing from God, collectively or individually

Evangelists – compels the lost to come in

Shepherds – consumed with discipleship, development, counseling, and relationships

Teachers – convey revelation from scripture that will reshape the thinking of disciples

Not only do we need a team of people with us, we need different types of people who see things that we miss. People who think differently about ministry. People gifted in ways that we are not. Balancing these functions will help you plant a church that looks like Jesus.

Here’s how you might break down leadership roles on a team that balances these five functions: