[0:00]
Music G'day, I'm Derek Hanna. And I'm Scott Sanders. Oh, it was good to have you start that off for the first time today. Yeah, yeah, no, I feel like I've really stepped up in the world. Welcome to One Thing Podcast. Podcast designed to give you one solid practical tip for gospel-centered ministry every week. Scott, what's the most exciting thing that you've done between now and our last podcast? Well, look, you've just thrown me.

[0:32]
I was going to talk about Green Fever and you've just asked me this question. This is the first time I've ever seen you start. I was going to talk about Green Fever, the music that's playing. People are going to have to wait until the next podcast. They are. Sorry about that. This podcast is brought to you by Geneva Push, the Australian church planting nip-book. And you have pressed play on episode six. Episode seven will feature the Green Fever. But this one, this one, Scott, what are we talking about? The four L's that lead to launch. So you want to plan a new church or maybe a new congregation in an existing church.

[1:03]
It amounts to the same thing. A new ministry, presumably to reach new people for Jesus. What are the absolute essential things you have to do, practically speaking, to get started on the right footing? Okay. So it is new church or new congregation. Four L's that lead to launch. That's what we're thinking about today. All right. Now, look, Scott has spent the last six years. No, eight years. Eight years. You just lose two years of my life there, Derek. Well, but were you concentrating for those two years? All right. Eight years. Eight years heading up the Geneva Push, the Australian church planting network.

[1:34]
That brings you the one thing. And I want to say it hasn't all been long lunches and trips to the United States for Scott with his American cousin. One of our American cousins describes Scott as an American in disguise, actually. An American in disguise. Yeah, yeah. Well, not actually not in disguise. Just an American with an Australian accent. Truth be told, I do enjoy going to America. Yeah, yeah. We've got lots to learn from our brothers and sisters over there. Absolutely. But we've also got lots to learn from Australians. Yeah. And that's really been the genius of Geneva Push, actually getting Australians on platforms talking about church planting.

[2:05]
Absolutely. And look, you've had the front seat of seeing 85 churches planted to date. You've been deeply involved in the most comprehensive study of what makes a successful church plant in Australia, what helps and what hinders, which means you're in a good position to talk about. When we're thinking about launch, what we do. So you've mentioned four L's. What are they? What are these four L's? Well, they came from a mate of mine, Wade, in the States, who leads a network called Multi-Site Solutions.

[2:37]
And so the four L's really simply are, whenever you're starting a new church or a new congregation, you need to think about the leader, the location, the launch team, and you need to think about having lots of money. That was just really trying to get the L in there somehow. But the reality is you need resources to actually get a church plant off the ground. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And you say you need it for church planting, you need it for new congregations, these things as well. Sometimes they're maybe easier to decide for location than others, but the four L's, leader, location, launch team, lots of money. And it's just a helpful tool just to get people thinking about actually what's needed.

[3:10]
Because a lot of people, I've seen lots over the years, not a lot of people actually having the right plans in place, not even thinking through the steps that need to take place. Here's just a real simple way to get started on that process of thinking into a new church plant. Yep. All right. So talk us through the first one, leader. Well, in our context, we talk a lot about the three C's, character, conviction, and competency. And so character and conviction, I think we're very strong in our networks, thinking into what actually makes a leader.

[3:41]
Titus, one Timothy have some helpful things to say, the ability to teach, the ability to care for one's household. They're great places to be heading to as you think about what are you looking for in a leader. And when we think about a leader for starting a new thing, we want to have someone who's got a high capacity. So they've got a high workload. In those first few years of just getting something off the ground, you need to be working longer and harder than perhaps working in an established ministry. Just the energy it takes to get something off the ground.

[4:11]
Yeah. Like launch velocity. That's right. Launch velocity or launch speed. They need to be entrepreneurial. Now, the level of risk, though, and your risk aversion depends on the type of launch and the type of church plant that you're going for. But you do need to be a self-starter, be willing to take some risks. That's trying new things. That's just getting the thing started. The other thing that's really important as you're thinking about the leader is someone who's happy with ambiguity. So they've got learning agility.

[4:41]
They've got a high tolerance for actually not knowing what's going on. Learning agility. Why is that important? Why is dealing with having a high tolerance for ambiguity important then? Well, things are always changing. And what you plan and set out to do doesn't necessarily happen. In our last podcast, we talked about the relational context, the dynamic that you're actually planning. Well, that often changes. And it changes through things that are completely out of your control. And then if you are planning with a network of churches or perhaps doing a campus plant, you need to find someone who's actually sold out on the vision of the church, the one church in many locations.

[5:19]
Not necessarily as important if you're going to be planning your own church. But if you're going to be sent out from a network church, then you need to be sold out for the vision of that church. And so the reason for that is if you're doing a parachute plant yourself, you get to set the vision. If you're within a multi-site, you're implementing the same vision in a different context. And so you don't want there to be that tension there. That's right. All right. So that's leader. What have you got to say about location? Well, next week, we're actually going to spend some more time talking to Wade Burnett about location.

[5:51]
Just a few things. I like to think of a 15 to 30 minute rule. Now, that's going to vary depending on your location. But generally, if you're sending out a mother-daughter church plant, you want to be doing that within sort of an arc of 15 to 30 minutes from your mother church campus. If you want to send out an independent church planner, that's often better to do in a lengthier distance from your church. So over 30 minutes. Now, say if you're in Brisbane where you're from, Derek, that arc decreases. It's probably 10 to 20, 20 or 25 minutes.

[6:24]
Oh, 30 minutes during Cairns. Yeah, that's it. 30 minutes during Cairns. In a city like Sydney, the 15 to 30 minute rule is actually quite appropriate just because of all the traffic and the density of the city as well. I think a lot of people, when they think about location, they just think about venue. We've got this great venue, this great location, and that's where we're going to plant a church. Now, the reality is I've seen loads of church plants go through sort of 20 to 30 venue choices. So think more about where your people are. So do the analysis and do the research.

[6:55]
Map it using Google Maps and find out where your people are, where you've got a cluster or a group of people from your church. They might be meeting in a couple of community groups. Think into how you might reach that group or think into who you're trying to reach. If there's a target demographic that you're trying to reach and you know that they're clustered in higher numbers in a certain area, then aim to reach that location or that grouping. And Grace Bible Church at Logan, just in Brisbane, did exactly that. They worked out where people were and they thought that's where we need to plant a church. It was brilliant. And then the final thing to think about with location is look at your geographic boundaries.

[7:27]
Often there's a road, there's a river. If you're in Brisbane like that, that river just makes it hard to go anywhere. If you're in Gold Coast, it's the highway. Think about those geographic blockers. That mean people just don't even think about going over there. Yep. All right. Okay. You need to take a breath. I'm going to take a breather. But I'm going to let you, though, crack open the one thing toolbox. All right. Here it is. That's right. There might be a bronze statue of him in the front offices of Geneva one day. But look, Scott is not the first person to put a lot of thought into what church plants do.

[8:01]
If you're interested in thinking through these kind of things a little bit more, here are the top three resources. First one is a great video by Andrew Hurd on our website called What Makes a Church Planner? The link to that will be in the show notes. Secondly, Ed Stetzer and Daniel Im's book, Planting Missional Churches. There is an excellent chapter there on the launch team. You want to be thinking launch team, not core team. There's good reasons for that. Anyway, that's the one, Planting Missional Churches. The third one is churchstarter.com.au. This is a website that we've put together to help people launching ministries, launching churches, take the stress out of raising resources.

[8:40]
Great crowdfunding resource, churchstarter.com.au. All right. Back to Scott. Our 15-minute topic for today is the four L's that lead to launch. We've powered through number one, leader, and number two, your location. Now, Scott, let's talk number three, launch team. Well, I reckon the launch team is probably the hardest phase. So getting those zero to 20, launching out of the land room, getting out of your land room is probably the hardest phase in a church plant.

[9:12]
And so you want to be thinking in this phase about who are the key people that we actually need on our launch team. We've got someone who's gifted in thinking through systems and operations. We've got someone who could start a number of our small groups and lead those. Is there someone who's particularly good at thinking about marketing and communications who can help put together the website or think into the emails that we need to put together? Is there someone who's gifted at finance? Having a great treasurer from the start who can help you put together a helpful stewardship plan.

[9:45]
So I am saying be picky, be careful about who you pick in that launch team at the start. Yeah. And one of the things we do say to our planners when they're building that launch team is you have to be willing to say no to people. So you want to ask people, but you want to be clear. And sometimes you have to be willing for the sake of getting this thing off the ground and for their good to say no to them. And so it's really helpful to have a launch strategy. You know, that'll help you think through, well, why are you planning?

[10:16]
Who are you actually trying to reach? Where the church is going to be located? And who's going to do it with you? So as you're sitting down having those conversations with people, you've got a prospectus document. We've got a few pages that can helpfully articulate who it is you're seeking. And you can say to someone, well, are you ready to do more than just pray and give to this? Are you ready to actually go? And if you are, you know, here's what it's going to look like. We're a church that's going to be on mission to this place. That document as well, I think, is really important to prepare because it'll force you to think about, well, how much will it cost?

[10:49]
How are we going to fund it? And what sort of church is it going to be? So you want to be thinking about your mission strategy in that. You want to be thinking about your discipleship strategy. So if you do have Christians joining your group, how are you actually going to grow them? And then what does it look like as this, you know, church, you know, grows over the next few years? So I'm always encouraging guys to be thinking about planning pregnant. So on your launch team, you might want to have a couple of potential future church planners. You know, the best training, the best experience is got just from actually being a part of it.

[11:22]
But also thinking through, well, where's our next church plant going to be? So we're planning here with a view to being a sending base for loads of other churches. Yep. All right. That is the launch team. You've mentioned money a number of times, cost, and the last L is that, lots of money. Define lots for us. We know what money is, but define lots for us. Well, again, it depends on your context. So if you're in a regional context, it's potentially going to cost you less in terms of ongoing costs, you know,

[11:52]
for having a church ministry. If you're in a city context, it's going to cost a great deal more. Just the reality of inner city housing in Sydney, in Brisbane, in Melbourne, it's a lot more expensive than it is in a regional area. So I sort of talk on average, you're going to be needing between $100,000 to $160,000, depending on the context. Yep. So $160,000 if you're in a city context. Now, the important thing, though, is really to have a stewardship plan or have a plan for your budget of costs for the first two to three years.

[12:26]
Anything past that, and, you know, you really are just sort of guessing. You want to be realistic with your funding sources, though. So you want to start with, well, how much do we need and who can we get it off? They're going to come from three sources. You're going to have your internal members. You're going to have external people who are going to be praying for you and giving to this. Then you're going to be having potentially a seed funding resource, which could come from a grant body or a denomination. Now, they're all different asks. You need to think about, you know, what's required for reaching each of those people.

[12:56]
But on average from your members, you want to be thinking that they'll be giving you about $2,500 per person, which is twice the sort of average of a general congregant giving about $1,200 a year. You want to be thinking as well about, well, how are you going to do that? And that's where Churchstarter comes in. Churchstarter is a great resource for helping put together your communication plan, your support raising plan, and how you might, you know, hit each of those different funding sources. And then the final one, and probably the most important, is to be thinking about,

[13:27]
well, how can you inspire generosity amongst your core team or your launch team? You want to be talking about money regularly with them. Why? Because it's a discipleship issue. But two, because they will be the ones who continue to fund and grow this church as it grows, God willing, over time. Yep. They're not giving to you. They're giving to the gospel. Look, that brings us to the end of the show. So, Scott, what's the one thing people should be taking away when it comes to the four L's? Well, the one thing is actually probably four things. The four key things that you need to think through as you launch a church, you need to think about the leader, the location, the launch team, and lots of money.

[14:00]
That does feel a little bit like cheating in four things. Anyway, the one thing, it is all about giving practical, one practical, or one split into four, practical Bible-centered ministry tips that you can put straight to work. Just at least what we can get in 15 minutes. So, if you've got a burning question that you would like us to have a go at, or pull an expert in to have a go at, then look, head over to the Geneva Push Facebook page, post it up there. You'll not only be starting a healthy online discussion. You'll be seeing the topic for The One Thing in the weeks to come. Well, thanks for joining us for another episode of The One Thing.

[14:31]
Coming up in our next episode. Scott promised it, and next week we'll be delivering on that promise. What is it? Well, tune back in for a no-holds-barred discussion with Wade Burnett on location, location, location. I'm not going to be talking about the latest property going for sale in Sydney. We're actually going to be talking about location for your church. Oh, good clarification there. That's really helpful. Wade is always worth listening to as well. Everything you know in just 15 minutes. I'm Derek Hanna. And I'm Scott Sanders. Chat then. We'll be right back.