Church PLANT Manual

Session 1: Prepare • 21

VI. Authorized and Apostolic Now there were in the church at Antioch prophets and teachers, Barnabas, Simeon who was called Niger, Lucius of Cyrene, Manaen a lifelong friend of Herod the tetrarch, and Saul. While they were worshiping the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said, “Set apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them.” Then after fasting and praying they laid their hands on them and sent them off (Acts 13:1-3). These are characteristics that are unique to church planting teams. While many teams are focused on a variety of purposes and goals, a church plant team is Christ centered and focused on the work of making disciples of Jesus. Not just anyone engages in this work, but rather those that have been authorized by the larger church and have a heart to be sent out to teach others to obey all that Jesus commanded. Successful church plant teams are led by the Holy Spirit to the work that they engage in. VII. Evaluation And after some days Paul said to Barnabas, “Let us return and visit the brothers in every city where we proclaimed the word of the Lord, and see how they are” (Acts 15:36). Paul clearly shows the need for assessment and evaluation. Every successful team evaluates if they accomplished what they set out to do. If they have, they should celebrate and decide what can be done to build upon that success. If there is more to be done to reach their goals, then they decide the next steps to take to ultimately reach their goal. Likewise, your team will need to determine how you are doing as a team, how you can improve, and how you can be even more effective in the next endeavor.