What are the critical training components for a team?

Training is definitely church and team specific….one size does not fit all.
The beauty to Sending Church…the church is taking an active role and part in the training.

Equipping

1. Spiritual Maturity  growing in community (Catholic, Islam, Christology, Personal Evangelism)
2. One Year together in community worship and study

This would allow us to grow together, learn together, serve together, get into arguments and resolve them, families get to know each other

FriendRaising

1. Kent Jones of To Every Nation (TX) www.toeverynation.net was our trainer
2. Books -
3. Getting Sent – Peter Sommer
4. People Raising – William Dillon
5. Friend Raising – Betty J. Barnett

Purpose to communicate the vision and need for a reproducing sending church in the countries we are sent to.

Team Building

1. StregnthFinders
2. Counseling (Marriage/Financial)
3. Serving Together (great team building)
4. Arguments/Resolutions
5. Team Traveled to Brussels together

If team/personnel issues are the #1 factor for people leaving the field…we wanted to spend lots of time working on our team dynamics. If we are a strong team we can work through the other stuff. Whatever it is…

Language Training

1. 5 months of basic language for orientation (local tutor)
2. Many purchased Rosetta Stone, used podcasts and other resources
3. Commitment to learning French while on the field

major value for our team…we are relational and if we cannot communicate it will be more difficult.

+++there is more that goes on in language learning than learning a language…the Lord shapes you..dependence, struggle, sufficiency found in Him

Outside Training Partner

1. Upstream Collective

Expertise in Western Europe Context to help us think through Strategy and make suggestions to our team
Our church thinks intentional, missional, strategic, but we knew we needed to have someone with the exper. on the field where we were going. Plus filling in the gaps and blind spots and challenging our thinking in many areas.

They visited with our team every 4 months and prepared us for our scouting trips as a team.

Pre-Field Training for Adults and Kids

1. Designed by church and training partner

So huge to have a partner that we could trust as we both designed the elements to our pre-field training.
Kids training was incredible – mk2mk.org

What are other essential trainings you would add for a team being sent by the local church?

In this new (old) model or paradigm called Sending Church it is easy for people and churches to fall into the faulty thinking of “going alone”. Just as Paul traveled with Barnabas, Luke, Silas and others on his journeys, the church and the one(s) being sent do not go alone.  Some people and some churches could look and think, “They (church x) have enough money to send people on their own.”  Others might say, “If our church was that big….”, still others might say, “They are so brave to leave all they have.”

When in reality there isn’t a church with enough money to accomplish the task.  There isn’t a church big enough to go alone and bravery will get you into trouble if that is all you are depending on to send or be sent. The Sending Church must have partners that work in concert with each other to accomplish the task given to them by God. The ones being sent must work together with others who are already sent to the same area to accomplish the task of seeing God’s glory made known to people who are far from Him. Organizations must share information, knowledge, wisdom and resources if the goal is to be reached.

In working with others we should hold true to the differences between our tribes (denoms), mobilizing organizations and fellow sent ones. But, we should also raise high the areas where we share commonality for the sake of the Gospel. We maximize our shared beliefs so the community will know we have a shared goal of seeing the gospel spread through a country.

I can not do it alone. I must partner with others.

Our church can not do it alone. We must partner with others.

I am so thankful for all the partners (US and International) that He has brought together to see His purposes accomplished.

Wow! I got on a plane in the United States and a few hours later I stepped into a whole new world.

We arrived in Western Europe exhausted after missing several flights and our luggage was somewhere we knew not of. We left with 20 something bags and arrived with 5. Thank God our luggage arrived yesterday and everything was intact. Our family is learning a new culture and a new way of accomplishing daily tasks. What seemed easy in the US is now more challenging due to language obstacles, no vehicles, little sleep and very cold weather.

But, God is incredible to bring us to a place we have prayed for and about for several years. He called us to follow Him and we have. He is the destination, not the country in which we now reside. This new country is just the avenue He is using to conform us into His image. He will use a new language, new customs, new people and cold weather as some of the things to teach us what it means to die to ourselves  daily.

In the process He will draw new people to Himself, build for Himself a people who will love Him deeply and reach others for His glory.

Right now though, it is cold, gray outside, I am walking way more than I thought I could and I am asking God for the gift of tongues interpretation.

The five families that have committed to move were involved as were our children. In total we had ten adults and ten children walking through age appropriate missions training that was designed to meet our varied needs. There was training for the adults, teen specific training and a learning track offered for our elementary and pre-school aged children.

The Upstream Collective has been our training partner for the past year and half as we have walked this long process of building our team and preparing for life in Brussels. The Collective designed our retreat to meet the specific needs of our team. They have given us valuable training  and support as individuals and as a church. I cannot say enough about this organization and their willingness to walk side by side with us in our journey.

We also had the privilege of partnering with MK2MK for the teen-aged members of our team. This organization offered great facilitators and leaders that really helped our students tremendously. Thanks Joe and Lilly for spending time with our families.

Please continue to pray for each of the families that are getting ready to launch out. We are all at varying places in our fundraising and preparation. We know that God will be glorified in what we are doing.

Yesterday was an incredible day for my family. We had the privilege of being commissioned by our church to go to Belgium and begin the process of planting our lives for the Gospel.

Another family, the Christensen’s, were also commissioned to go and live in Belgium for the Glory of God. We are glad to have others going with us as we live life in community.

We are so thankful for our church and our family who helped to make yesterday a day we will never forget.

To become one of our prayer partners please register here.

To be a part of our sending team please look here and here.

April 25, 2010 Sending Church Promo from LifePoint Church on Vimeo.

I will leave on this Sat. (3/20) with a team of 10 people for Brussels, Belgium. This trip is for the team members who are relocating in January to help start a work of LifePoint Church.  We are desiring to see French speakers come to know Christ and multiply churches that will multiply into more churches. Please pray for our team that we will have eyes and ears to see all that God wants us to see. This is the last time any of our team will travel to Brussels before we move there in January 2011. I am planning on updating as often as I can while I am in Brussels. Thanks for following along and for praying for the team and for LifePoint as we seek to follow what we know God has called us toward.

Team Belgium has started group French lessons each week. We are having a great time attempting to learn a new language since French is a vital part of our church planting process. I have to laugh sometimes thinking about a transplanted Texan living in Middle Tennessee trying to learn a European language. One of my ministry partners once said that I could “butcher the King’s English.”  He was probably right as evidenced by my blog post. But, it is so important that our team learn to speak the language of the people we are trying to reach and influence. Pray for us as we gather each week, laugh at each other and ourselves, as we learn to speak French with a southern accent and grow closer as a team for His glory.

Dear LifePoint Church,

I am sorry this has taken so long to get to you. We have been balancing reading, class time, ministry, and personal time with our Lord. That really isn’t an excuse though as you dropped everything to rise up and meet our needs. Team Bangkok was completely and totally amazed at the response from our church when we had to relocate to unfurnished apartments. The body went above and beyond by supplying all our needs right down to forks and spoons! This was a picture of how Biblical community is fleshed out as modeled in Acts 2. Since we don’t know who made all the donations, maybe this can be posted on the website. We truly want everyone to know how much we appreciate our Church and their heart for missions.

A special thanks to Pat, Tim, Leslie, Jason and Witt for their sacrifice of time and energy to make the trip to Atlanta and work tirelessly to get the furnishings from the truck to each apartment, then make the late night drive back to Smyrna. What a long day for them! As we are learning in our training, we are blessed to be a blessing and you have certainly been a blessing to us. We LOVE each of you and look forward to all the glory God is going to receive through our faithful body of believers. With sincere love, Team Bangkok

Team Bangkok

Bret and Susie Cox

Seth Hood

Brandon and Crystal Hathcock

Steve and Tiffany Van Dyke

Brett and Beth Clark

Kyle Tanner

The Sending Church Campaign is about to close. We have been in a very unique series for the past 3 weeks @LifePoint Church where Pat has challenged us to be active in the sending process as a church (corporately) and as individuals by giving financially above and beyond our tithe. People have responded overwhelmingly in a positive way with comments about finally realizing the importance of sending to international cities where Christ is not recognized Lord.

One question that continues to be asked and I want to help answer concerns financial partnership with individual missionarieschurch planters from our church. The question has been phrased like this, “If my family is giving to support/partner with a certain family will that money be counted toward the overall goal of $1.5 million dollars the church is raising?” This is a good question and I have a very short and easy answer.

YES!!

Any financial partnership that a LifePoint member/attender makes with one of our church planters on the Bangkok or Belgium teams will be counted as part of the overall goal of $1.5 million. Please make sure and write the family name and country on the commitment card so the financial office can make sure it is directed as desired. You also need to let the church planting family know of the partnership you are desiring with them.

The dollars that are committed to a LifePoint church planting family is designated to that family as salary support. Any dollars that are committed to The Sending Church Campaign that are not designated to a church planting family will go toward ministry budgets and the planting of future local and international churches/campuses.

I am looking forward to turning in our family’s commitment card and bringing an initial offering this Sunday. Join with us as Lifepoint “sends the church to be the church where there is no church.”