Ripe for Harvest

P REFACE • 17

A third way the book might be used is in a “one-on-one” context. A church planter and a church plant coach may decide to work through this book together doing the exercises in a one-on-one format. The one-on-one format still assumes that the church planter has a core team that participates in the process, but it allows the church planter and church plant coach to work through the team exercises and the PLANT process on a timeline that works best for their individual team. Ultimately, it is the church planter who is responsible for leading the church plant team through the guidebook exercises. Yet our work with hundreds of urban church plants has convinced us that every Timothy needs a Paul. We encourage you to invite a trusted person to serve as a Coach throughout your planning process. A Coach can provide you with ongoing encouragement and challenge, giving you objective advice, assisting you when you get stuck, and holding you answerable for your target dates, as God leads. Even if using this book in the one-on-one format, we suggest that you as a church planter and/or church plant team prepare presentations periodically for your coach to review and comment upon. You naturally could prepare such an overview presentation for each stage of your church planting, providing a clear snapshot of your planning for the upcoming phase. Presentations are a good way to ensure you are making your plans concrete enough to be executed. Listed below is a representative sample of the kinds of questions that a Coach might consider in his/her coaching activities and process with a church planter and his/her team: • How are the team members doing in their relationship with God? Are they regularly practicing their core spiritual disciplines? • How are the team members’ relationships with each other? • How is their communication? Do they listen to each other? Is everyone being heard?

• Is there sufficient consensus within the team? • Are they able to resolve issues as they come up?

• Do they understand the PWR (prepare/work/review) process? Are they showing indication that they will be able to flex and adjust their plan at a later time?

• Have they considered all the relevant points? • Will they be able to implement their plans?