“Mobilizing Your Launch Team To Invite Their Friends”
Church Planter, As you are planning your Monthly Services and your Launch Team is growing your next goal is to spread the word about your services through word of mouth marketing and personal evangelism.
If you are going to attract a crowd to your Monthly Services you must get the troops moving in the right direction.
Here are several keys to making this happen:
1) Constantly teach on the importance of personal evangelism…
Every time your Launch Team gathers, you should be putting heat under the value of personal evangelism.
You can do this through sharing stories of people you are meeting (pretty important!!), teaching key passages that focus on God’s heart for the lost, and casting the vision of what it will look like when the whole group is focused on people who are far from God.
2) Give the team tools and train them…
We created what we called, “Impact Cards.” They were the size of a bookmark and each card had 10 empty slots for the names of people who individual Launch Team members would invest in and invite to the Monthly Services.
We asked our Launch Team to write these names down on two different cards, one to remind them to pray and one for our staff to pray. It was amazing to eventually meet some of the people I prayed for at our Monthly Services.
We also gave our Launch Team 10-4×6 invite cards with all the info about our services, a list of 10 creative ways to spread the message and invite their friends, and a “life saver” candy to remind them that God was using them to impact eternity.
3) Refuse to cater to inwardly-focused Christians…
It seems like this is a no brainer, but every church planter I know faces this temptation.
You will have people who want to be a part of your Launch Team that have previous church experience. Some will have selfish expectations that you will acquiesce your vision to meet their needs.
Don’t do it! Stay focused on reaching those who are far from God. Move with the movers. Spend your time on those who want to make an impact and those who are far from God. Your launch will be much healthier. I promise!
Remember, during these earlier days your job is that of a team leader. You are a quarterback trying to get the ball in the end zone.
You get a touchdown when you successfully launch the church.
You’ve got to get your team moving in the right direction.
Show them the end zone and get everybody focused on the goal: LAUNCH!
Tune in next week, when I’ll be sharing about how to get the word out in your community about your brand new church!
