Preparing to Launch (Part V)

Last week I shared the first four stages of our Launch Team development plan as we assemble and begin to prepare for our Opening Day - September 13th, 2009. We are committed to joining God in the renewing of all things through the proclamation and representation of the Kingdom of God on earth. This will happen most tangibly as we begin to love and serve our city and work for the common good. This will happen as we discover the gifts and talents within our church, organize to serve, listen to our community, and begin building a good reputation.

Today I’ll share the final two stages.

Partnering effectively with our community. The focus of this stage is to create a common vision for transformation along with the community and develop the leadership and skills required to design and manage appropriate initiatives.

This stage will involve training our Launch Team to identify, design, manage and evaluate sustainable initiatives in partnership with other churches, charities, and community organizations. The last thing we want to do is "re-create the wheel" on ministry. Our goal is to find out where God is already at work and join in.

The final product of this stage is an equipped Launch Team and organizational structure that will manage existing community initiatives and identify new ones.

Incarnating the mission of the church. The emphasis of this final stage is to institutionalize the mission of the church in the whole body. This stage will begin shortly after we have launched our public worship service in September 09 and will continue throughout the life of the church.

It is during this stage that the Launch Team is encouraged to communicate and celebrate what they have been doing with the new congregation and invite them to be a part of it. Our goal is to reach people who are far from God, but before we ask them to believe what we believe, we will invite them to do what we do.

We will identify and train new leaders, develop new ways of communicating our mission, vision and activities, and host church and community events to celebrate transformation within the city of Des Moines.

By the way - Last night we had twenty-four people gather in our home for the inaugural Launch Team meeting. Jessica and I shared our vision for The Gateway Church and its mission to join God in the renewal of all things and the journey has begun!

If you'd like to be a part, sign up HERE!