Church Planting Together

We can't plant a church alone, so our focus was on building a launch team in the early days. With the launch team came many challenges, blessings, and bitter-sweet changes. In this episode, Loren and Carrie discuss the good, bad, and difficult things about leading and working with your launch team.

From working out details of what you will need, to putting together an advisory board instead of elders, Carrie and Loren talk about their journey with their amazing launch team. They also recommend doing some things differently.  Loren shares the challenges you may face with people who want to join your team with their own agenda, and Carrie shares the best idea in the history of church planting that allowed her to feel like part of the community again.

Loren and Carrie also share what software they used for worship and children's ministry check-in, as well as different children's ministry curriculum ideas for when you first launch your church.

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Growing your launch team can be difficult in those early days if you are a parachute drop church plant. In this episode, Loren and Carrie talk about different things they did to reach out to the community, serve, and ultimately build up their launch team. They talk about Using mailers, having a booth at the fair with a booklet giving more information than you could ever need to know, and hosting a dessert at a neutral location. All of this was to make inroads into the community and find those willing to join their cause and become part of the church plant.

As the team grew, they could no longer fit in their house. A church's generosity in a neighboring city allowed them to meet on Saturday night and have a permanent sign.  This brought them to a place where they could start having launch team meetings to prepare to launch.

In the early phase, the entire church does everything together. Loren and Carrie talk about the importance of strategy to say yes to the right things so that you don't burn out your team.  It's important that you approach everything experimentally and only continue if it is effective. Loren shares that this was an area that he did not do well at in the beginning and has since improved to protect the church's vision and mission.

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Getting ready to launch as a church officially requires lots of steps and people. In this episode, Loren and Carrie talk about their 18-month prelaunch phase. They had the goal of 10 family units and set out to build that team. Loren set out to make some inroads in the community by reaching out to the local police department and the Mayor, ultimately serving on the Parks and Rec committee. He also spent some time taking care of all of the necessary paperwork.
In Utah, this consisted of:
501c3
Articles of Incorporation
Business License
State Sales Tax Exemption
Non Profit Mailing Status

The couple also talks about how great it was to have men's and women's bible studies in those early days. It helped them learn the culture and build relationships with people who may not come on Sunday.

Loren and Carrie suggest that you plan a vacation. This is something that they recommend doing every year from year one. They feel like they waited too long for this, and their marriage suffered because of it. Also, they share how writing a monthly newsletter helped them focus on the "wins" and see what God was doing. Finally, they wrap up the episode by talking about the importance of having coaches to keep you accountable and love on you during this difficult phase.

Follow us on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/churchplantingtogether/
Follow us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/lorenandcarrie

In this episode, Loren and Carrie discuss what it was like when they finally arrived in Utah with two toddlers and a couple of friends. They shared some of the first steps when they got on the ground in Utah, as well as the struggles they faced both personally and in their relationship. Carrie shares that this was probably the most difficult phase of the church plant and the time where she experienced the most spiritual growth. They shared their objectives for the first few months and talked a bit about their marriage, offering advice on coming up with a plan ahead of time for nurturing the launch team.

Follow us on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/churchplantingtogether/
Follow us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/lorenandcarrie

Right before you leave to plant a church, you might experience the tension of still being at your church and knowing you are leaving. In this episode, Loren and Carrie discuss leaving your home church well and bringing along a team when you go. Some of the topics discussed are having clear expectations from your pastor, Learning to trust God when there are so many unknowns and new things to learn, having difficult conversations before you go, and challenges with having people live with you.  Loren also shares something he wishes his wife would have known at the time. There is a tremendous learning curve when you go from being "pastoral" to being a church planter. 

Fundraising for the church plant is the terrifying part that nobody likes. Since you may not have a congregation to support you in the first few years, it might be necessary. In this episode, Loren and Carrie share that fundraising turned out to be faith-building and convicting as God showed up through the generosity of others.  Loren recommended that every church planter do some form of fundraising as his fundraising coach told him,  "The people who are writing the checks every month are the ones who are continuing to pray for you" Loren shares his low-pressure strategy that fits with his personality and ended up being a huge blessing.

Before you begin fundraising for your church plant, there are some things you need to think through. In this episode, Loren and Carrie talk about taking a trip to talk to church planters in the area. They discuss the importance of learning who you are going to serve, what they value, what they struggle with, and what needs are not being met. Loren speaks of the importance of understanding the theology of the area so you can preach the gospel in a way that they will understand.

Carrie shares that she loved this stage because she was involved in all of it and suggested that it got much harder when they were on the ground in Utah.  Being able to meet with another church planter's wife in the area was huge in preparing her for the life that was to come.

Resources mentioned

Planting Missional Churches https://www.amazon.com/Planting-Missional-Churches-Ed-Stetzer/dp/0805443703/ref=tmm_hrd_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=&sr=

Knowing that God is calling you to plant a church is one thing, having others affirm that call is another important step. In this episode,  Loren and Carrie talk about their assessment process through the Converge Church Planting Assessment Center, how they benefitted from the wise counsel of others,  and how that springboarded them into the next season of their church plant.

Loren and Carrie share many things that they learned in this experience.  They learned practical church planting skills, met a fundraising coach, and made friends with other like-minded church planters from all over the world.  It prepared them for difficulties they would face in their ministry and in their relationship. It was an important part of their church planting journey that they strongly recommend to anyone planning to plant a church.

Converge Church Planting Assessment https://converge.org/church-planting/assessment

This is the story of how God used two average (who sometimes feel below average) people to plant a church in a challenging place. Loren and Carrie didn't set out to be church planters, but God changed their hearts, and they had to trust Him completely to work it all out. 

For Loren and Carrie,  church planting was always a family affair.  In this episode, they talk about the call to plant a church and how God did not just call a planter, but he called both of them to embark on this mission. While it was not an audible voice or big supernatural event that helped them recognize God's will for them, God showed them individually that this was his plan. He has clearly called every believer to advance the kingdom, and this was how they felt that they could use their gifts in an area that desperately needed it.

Resources mentioned in the podcast:

Stand to Reason https://www.str.org/
Maven Truth https://maventruth.com/