What is an IBC LEAD Team?

No one should plant a church alone! The challenges, struggles, ups and downs, the need for input and feedback, and the joys, all make networking with others that are doing similar ministry vital and necessary.

One of the essential elements for equipping church planters and seeing successful church plants is LEAD teams. A LEAD team is a gathering of relationally and missionally committed leaders from a geographical region. Teams typically consist of 6 to 12 pastors and other leaders from our churches (male and female). Teams meet together regularly to build meaningful relationships, focus on spiritual growth, and work together to see mission accomplished through multiplying (planting) new churches. “LEAD” refers to the four key elements of the meetings:

• Learning: Team members are committed to learning new things related to ministry enhancement. For example, the team might agree to read a certain book and be prepared to discuss it when they gather together. Or they might study church planting principles and strategies together.
• Encouraging: Team members are personally encouraged in a number of ways. There are also times of fun, mutual coaching, and intercessory prayer, so each member should go away feeling the encouragement of the body of Christ.
• Achieving: The team is about doing mission. Each team endeavors to plant new churches together…identifying feasible locations (cities), recruiting church planters, and matching the right planter to the right location.  Meetings involve team members reporting on assignments they’ve had, relative to their corporate mission.
• Dreaming: We’re about seeing God’s Kingdom advance, so time is allotted at each meeting to dream with God about the future: WHO might God be raising up to participate? WHERE might He be leading us to make a difference together? HOW might God be leading us to make a difference together?

Practical Implications

Participating pastors/leaders challenge each other, learn together, and resource one another in a caring environment to stimulate the mobilization, health, and impact of each church involved in the team as they work to multiply churches in their region. Typically, teams meet about five times each year. Some meetings are corporate, with other LEAD teams at IBC events. Other meetings can be in person or via videoconferencing or other means.

Every CATALYST church planter is connected with other planters and leaders through LEAD teams.  This meansno one planter plants a church alone. The benefits of this include:

• meaningful relationships are built,
• spiritual health is enhanced,
• disciple-making churches are started!

The IBC currently has four LEAD teams: Northern Europe, Central Europe, Southern Europe, and Latin America. We want, and need, more members on each team. We want, and need, to form more LEAD teams. We want, and need, every IBC church engaged in planting more disciple-making churches in strategic locations around the world.

For more information about our LEAD teams, contact Darryl Evetts at churchplanting@ibc-churches.org.  Learn more about IBC Church Multiplication at our website:  http://www.internationalchurchplanting.com. Follow IBC Church Multiplication on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/catalystinternationalchurchplanting/ or on Instagram at https://www.instagram.com/internationalchurchplanting/.

Darryl Evetts, Church Multiplication Director