Wednesday, February 10, 2016

The Twelve Teams of Life Bridge (Part 4)

We’ve been examining twelve teams that we are putting in place at Life Bridge.  We’re putting these teams together to build a solid foundation and process for empowering one million to walk together with God.

We started by looking at four teams whose focus will be to engage, empower, equip, and encourage each person to move draw near to God, walk with God, and then empower one more to walk together with God.  These teams would exist even if Life Bridge wasn’t a church with a building, a budget, and worship services.  That’s because these four teams contain everything we see happening in Jesus’ evangelism, discipleship, and leadership training programs.  They contain the core of our mission-calling.

The next four we unpacked were the teams who help us all encounter God, make it (our faith) real, live it (our faith) out (in ministry), and take a step (in our walk together with God).  These teams match many of the healthy church models we see around the United States today.  They are similar to the vision we have had at Life Bridge since opening day.  They also create a weekly, even continual, process that helps engage people and then propel them down the path described in the first four teams.  These teams help us to be a healthy, dynamic, church.

The last four teams help us find people, bring them to the healthy church, and help them get going down the path.  These teams all fall in the “Engage” end of the path because this work is so important, resource heavy, and critical to building a growing church.  The teams have the following names:

Go OutThe Go Out Team does exactly what it name implies.  It goes out to find new people.  This team may physically go out to restaraunts, bars, shopping malls, workplaces, or more. They may equip us to engage the people in our lives so we can invite our family, friends, neighbors, and coworkers to begin their journey at Life Bridge.  The Go Out team may create invitable events for us to bring people to.  This team is all about finding and inviting one more.

Welcome InThe Welcome In Team focuses on helping new people have a great experience so they will want to come back for more.  This team may staff a Welcome Center, create welcome packets, and send out follow-up letters or emails.  They will care about the building, grounds, and anything else that will create a welcoming environment for people to enjoy.  The team’s focus will be in helping people return for a second time, a third time, and then making their attendance a habit.

InviteThe Invite Team will actually comprise of the Go Out Team and he Welcome In team.  The invite team will take a step back from the other two teams and get a wide angle lens view of how things are going. The team will do what is traditionally called marketing, whatever form that may take – analyzing the effectiveness of our outreach and our assimilation processes.  The Invite Team will work to ensure that the Go Out and Welcome In efforts are working seamlessly together.

InvolveThe Involve Team will be working as a complementary “peer” team to the Invite team.  Involve teams will focus on Encounter God, Make It Real, and Live It Out in the same way that Invite team focuses on Go Out and Welcome In.  The Involve Team will focus on individual levels of involvement in Life Bridge worship services, small groups, and ministry teams.  Their purpose will be to help people find a healthy level of involvement that will best propel them down the path in their walk together with God.

When these twelve teams function together as one big team, the Body of Christ will be accomplishing God’s mission for our lives.  We will be going out and making disciples of all nations.  We will be baptizing them, teaching them, and trusting that Christ is with us every step of the way.  We will be Christ’s Church.

He makes the whole body fit together perfectly. As each part does its own special work, it helps the other parts grow, so that the whole body is healthy and growing and full of love. (Ephesians 4:16 NLT)

Go Team!  Praise God!!!

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