New Church Leadership Institute Church Planter Boot Camp Day 2

Today we spent a good amount of time processing the important steps that we will need to make as we move towards officially launching as a new church.

We talked about the importance of our launch team and how essential it is to plan ahead by listing out every significant (and seemingly insignificant) event that will need to happen prior to launch.

At the end of the day we were given a large sheet of paper and some post-it notes. In the upper left hand corner of the paper we put a post-it with today’s date. In the upper right hand corner we put a post-it with the date of our anticipated launch: February 5, 2012 (this date was arrived at by adding on-site transition time which we determined to be 4 weeks beginning May 8 and ending May 29 plus our networking time which we determined to be 13 weeks beginning May 30 and ending August 28 plus our Preview Season which we determined to be 3 months with one service per month: September 11, October 8, and November 13 plus our Exhibition Season which would be weekly services for 4 weeks in December: 4,11,18 and 24 plus a 4 week launch window: January 8, 15, 22 and 29). In between the two dates we were told to write down as many action steps as we could think of that we would need to accomplish between now and Celebration Sunday.

Here are a few of the action steps that we came up with:
- Secure the downtown space (which we plan to call The Launch Pad)
- Renovate The Launch Pad (May 14th workday)
- Design and create t-shirts
- Design and create brochures and business cards
- Hold at least three more informational meetings (one at SUMC and two more in Crestview)
- Become a member of Crestview Chamber
- Do prayer walks throughout the city
- Begin to form small groups
- Have a presence at downtown art events throughout summer
- Offer dinner, music and art night for those interested in the church
- Begin to form band for preview services
- Secure school beginning in September for preview services
- Focus on connecting with those in the community who are searching (Jim Griffith says that church planting is a contact sport – we need to be making contacts and inviting people to events and activities all the time)
- Coordinate with the city for a potential Christmas Eve Service downtown.

These are just a few of the things we brainstormed today; we plan to meet with our launch team on May 28th in Crestview for a mini boot camp to cover some of the things we learned this week and to brainstorm and dream together about other ideas.
This time-line and strategy are of course preliminary and subject to change, but it is our attempt to put on paper some strategic first steps as we move towards the official launch of The Journey Church in Crestview, FL.

Tomorrow is our final day and we are going to be focusing on first impressions and fundraising.

I will try and write some thoughts on this important issue tomorrow night once we get back home. Please make sure you read this entry and have a checkbook handy so that you can be one of the first to support The Journey financially :).

All in all this has been a very informative and fun week. The idea of starting this new church is becoming more of a reality, and I am more excited than ever about serving the community and helping those searching for answers in life to encounter and fall in love with the Jesus who loves them and gave his life for them.

Be praying for The Journey as we begin this nine month process leading to the birth of a new church.