[0:00]
well here we are asking Andrew church planter extraordinaire oh no I'm just coming with a different adjective each week and instead of rounds on me but we're asking Andrew our church planning questions within the Geneva push Network and you have the opportunity to put your questions somebody is sending this question Andrew what are some of the key things you should work out before you plant yes what are the one of the things you really should knock on the head before you start planning yeah okay there's there's a whole list of things that you can you can actually give

[0:31]
yourself to to work out before you plant and there's some actually good literature around I actually haven't used it myself but I hear it's good there's a there's a a workable by a guy called Philip Philip Bryant he's a Baptist guy and I think he's in curse somewhere now but he wrote a book called church planting workbook and that takes you through you know within a couple of years of starting what do I do and he takes you through the three three stages of conception gestation I think

[1:04]
he calls it and then prenatal something like that and and that has quite a detailed list and that's that's a good thing to get hold of work out what you want to do there's another guy called Stuart Robinson and Anglican from Sydney who's written a book called starting mission minded churches that's I understand that's helpful as well but just a just for mine to pick up a couple of things I think before you start in that two-year period that's a kind of period we're talking about yes yeah they've run up to I guess to the Lord if you like yeah okay

[1:35]
okay I reckon just to emphasize the need to get yourself sorted out you church planning is a real test of who you are and what you think and that'll be a real challenge and it you need to actually have thought into an articulate your own mind on all kinds of things because you are the key human resource that will make or break the church plant you and your family your wife and so on so get yourself sort of that get trained make

[2:06]
sure you you have been trained you are being trained theologically any ministry and one of the previous questions I talked about some of those things you can do get to a church and get some ministry experience happening get yourself assessed make sure you've been assessed no just stop you there because we talk a lot about assessment but maybe people don't understand the necessary benefit of it I mean people planted churches before assessment came along yeah what would you why would you

[2:39]
say it's a must you're obviously fairly strong yeah the guys now experienced quite a number of assessment processes with guys who are interested in planting and it's quite powerful you it gives you know you can do it organically you can do the assessment through a mentor that you've been working with for 10 years in a church context somewhere and that's input that significant honor that'll not a younger writer that's powerful as well but even having had that to then try and put down on paper

[3:09]
who you are what you're about how your marriage works what you think theologically about a bunch of stuff how you think strategically what you think about that all of that to put that on paper and get it out of your own head onto paper and have two or three experienced people assess that you are outside of your context actually unearths things that you're closer mentor might not have picked up or ironically yeah and it really is I've

[3:39]
just seen it wonderfully unpack guys and unearth things that they haven't dealt with they need to and it's it's a context in where some hard words can be said to that friends might not be ready to say you saying that it's not necesarily they're avoiding areas just areas they might not have even considered thinking about yeah total total so that in my normal setting you know I can cruise past things we can

[4:11]
it's not that we deliberately avoid necessarily they just don't come up but when you're forced to go through a systematic process of assessment it helps you deal with a whole bunch of stuff yeah very assessment great that's something it's going to we talked about almost work experience if you like you know the idea of being around other church planters what about checking out other models I mean do you just go with what you know or is there a sense in which you try and match it with the area that you're in what sort of how

[4:43]
should you try and work out your model yeah what I think by the time you come to church plant if you haven't worked if you by that time you're into that two year period mooning moving up to a church plan much of your ministry Minds been formed and so I guess I'd be saying to guys at that point we want you to articulate a new ministry might get it out and that can help you resolve whether they're still our areas that

[5:15]
you're unformed in and then go and find other ministry models and discuss and engage with networks of church planters you know in the shoot conference is a fantastic opportunity to through all of that but I guess what I'm pointing to muck is that there's a lot of it's already formed in my mind and if I've not articulated if I've not if I actually don't know what I think when I do think a lot then it will trip me up in a year as I get a call launch group

[5:45]
around me and I'm beginning to talk ministry together will surprise each other if I haven't actually explained expressed where I'm at and what I think about all kinds of stuff and I think that's what often happens in a launch team conflict comes because we didn't know you were actually like that and the planter says well well I am like just didn't explain it very well so yeah I'd be encouraging guys to get a get all that out you know as you just finishing

[6:18]
up there you are talking about the core group what's one of them one of the things I guess you've got to do to prepare your core group firstly you're gonna have one I take it and secondly you know you've got to make it clear that you're all on the same page are there any other key things and running up to you know in regards to your core group or in regards to your family then you'd say hey from my experience I'd be making sure this was happening yeah first we're keen now to call them launch groups I think it's a helpful terminology already yeah yeah yeah

[6:49]
because otherwise you can build into the very beginning of a church a sense that this little group is always the hub and core of it and that will inhibit growth now it's a launch team which will grow and get bigger but I think one of the things you've got to do in your launch team is do what you'll be doing for the next 20 30 40 years if you're not in that very early phase even when you're smoothing one on one one amongst 10 one amongst 20 if you're not the guy who's seeking to express your Christian

[7:20]
convictions and teach the Bible and enthused people around the gospel and capture pivotal worldview of the crass person if you're not doing all of that in that context then you won't really be doing it when you're five years into a plant so for mine the launch group is just Christian ministry before you've gone public do what you're going to be doing for the next 20 years inspire people to capture the gospel and live for Christ so in doing that you will

[7:52]
work through doing more unified because as you work with you you're as you teach the Bible amongst your launch group you will be stirring each other up to think and unify a mind on the gospel and what we're about where we're going so you'll be doing exactly what you'll be doing for the next 10 20 30 years Andrew thanks for those of you listening in if this has sparked off some other questions for you that you'd like to ask Andrew well the email address is going to come over to come up on the screen in a moment use that send it in and we'll

[8:22]
see if we can't stump in with something to do with church planning the coming weeks thanks very much