Introduction

This chapter will address the critical area of the place of the team and church in the ongoing transformation of character of a team member. This is related to the importance of teams so it appears here rather than after we have gone into how teams are formed and function.

Transformational ministry is a central responsibility of the church toward its members. Many activities of the church have this in view such as the Lord's supper (I Corinthians 10,11), shepherding/discipling (Acts 20:17-34) and church discipline (Matthew 18:15-21). Indeed the lack of understanding of this transforming ministry of the church is one of the major factors keeping the church impotent in our age. The team will need to have expertise in these areas as well.

Our experience is that we as team members are also being transformed in our pilgrimage through the community of the team. We are not perfect, but rather in process ourselves (Cf. 2 Corinthians 3:18, Philippians 3:12-14). Team members are at times engaged in being shepherded in the area of marriage, family, interpersonal conflict, areas of personal failing, etc. This includes the team leader who is not above these things. In fact, team leaders will be under more pressure from the responsibility of leadership and attacks from the evil one which are likely to unveil wounds and scars arising out of sin, either ones he committed, or ones committed against him, which may be hidden in many other contexts (Cf. Acts 20:28-31). Indeed, as someone has said "God is more interested in the work He is doing in you than the work He is doing through you". Being a leader of team should profoundly transform the leader. The team must see that one of its main tasks is being a community through which its members can be healed of the effects of sin and grow in deeper patterns of righteousness as the team members use the word to "teach, reprove, correct and train in righteousness" (2 Tim 3:16). If it is effective at this then it will likely be effective at passing this legacy on to the churches that it plants. The converse is also unfortunately true.

A careful study of II Corinthians 3 & 4 and Ephesians 4-6 reveals that one of the central plans of God for the Christian community is the transformation of the character of our individual members. The measurable product of transformation is unity as individuals put off the old, selfish man and put on the new man motivated by love (Cf. 1-3,17-24). Paul reveals practically how this is done in Ephesians 4-6: 1. 4:1-3 states God's desired walk for the believer. 2. 4:4-11 focuses on the provisions of God to bring about unity through love. 3. 4:12-16 on the central place of the Christian community in this process. 4. 4:17-24 gives an overview of the requirement for transformation, namely the putting off of the old man and the putting on of the new. 5. From 4:25 to 6:9 Paul focuses on the practical nuts and bolts of working this out. 6. The book closes with the a look at the opposition we can expect in the spiritual realm.

Everyone who is born again still has areas in their character which are deficient with respect to Godliness (Romans 5:3-5). These areas of carnality inhibit us from effectively serving others according to God's standards of love. Instead we often revert to serving ourselves at the expense of others (Galatians 5:13). These patterns of self love and self-protection go very deep, and are often hidden so that we often aren't even conscious of them (Cf. Romans 7:7-25). Therefore, we need a community which can bring these patterns to light. In the community we need mature believers (Galatians 6:1) who can show us how to crucify the flesh (repentance), that we might develop new life patterns which reflect God's perfect love. This community will need to hold us accountable for the difficult task of being trained in righteousness (new life patterns).

This process of renewal (Ephesians 4:20-24) is usually threatening and embarrassing because it reveals our ingrained fleshly responses (Galatians 5:16,17). It requires loving attention and often even pressure by mature believers as well as by a loving community (eg. Matthew 18:15-21, I Corinthians 5). The former, individual attention, we often call discipleship; the latter, community attention, we often call discipline. They are both necessary, loving provisions of God for His great reclamation plan for His church (Ephesians 5:25-27).

A church planting team must be conscious of God's purposes for it as a community in bringing about the transformation of its members. One might think that teams of church planters should be mature and beyond the need of ministering to itself this way. Yet even a cursory glance at Scripture (Cf. Phil 3, Romans 7, and verses below) will show that this transformational ministry goes on for the rest of our lives. There is no maturity short of going to glory which graduates us beyond this ministry (Romans 8:23). Even leaders are exhorted to shepherd each other, lest sinful character deficiencies lead to destruction (Cf. Acts 20:28-30, I Timothy 5:19,20).

The team will need to practice certain community activities which aid in this transformation such as the Lord's table, personal mentoring/discipling, discipline (Cf. I Timothy 1:20, I Corinthians 5:5). A team will likely need to be flexible and sensitive as to what aspects of community God desires it to be practicing in order to bring about the transformation of its members. This will be covered more in Chapter 4. But we have had times when the team life is minimal when working in our own culture (teams of Americans working in the USA). For instance, the team did not meet for worship as a team, or the Lord's table, or instruction from the word. These needs were met by the churches in which we were laboring. So team life in this situation was more meeting for prayer and training. There were times of conflict and confrontation which were essential to the transformation process. At other times, we met as a team for worship, the Lord's table, prayer, and instruction, basically doing all the essential elements that a church does in order to see its members transformed (Cf. Acts 2:42). The point is that the team life needs to match the needs of the moment.

In the case of a team working cross-culturally, the team will likely have the predominant role in transformational ministry to its members. Great opportunities will arise as workers living in a cross culture situation are guaranteed that all sorts of carnal, self-serving, survival attitudes and behavior (as opposed to loving one another) will be exposed. We will cover the dangers to this in Chapter 4.

If the team is working in an area where there is no church at all, the team itself will be the only community bringing transformation. Once a church comes into existence it will certainly contribute to the transformation of the church planter involved in planting the church. The body life of the church and the challenges inherent in discipling new believers and leaders will bring to light areas of character in church planters which need transformation. But it will likely be the more mature members of the team who will be the ones to bring these team members through the patterns of repentance and training in righteousness leading to that transformation. In a pioneer, cross-cultural situation, I think it likely that the team will always have the prominent place in transformational ministry to its members.

We are careful that the ministry of transformation which is intense, personal and often even intimate is done man to man and women to woman. The mature women on the team will shepherd and care for the wives and other single women on the team (Titus 2: 3ff) and the men will care for the men . This is a crucial role for women to play on the whole team since women are far better than men at recognizing interpersonal problems. Often on our teams the wives are the first to bring family, marital and community problems to the attention of the men.

If the team members are not helping one another "be perfect as your Father in heaven is perfect" I think it unlikely that an apostolic band exists in the Biblical sense. Instead it is something more akin to a church group (eg. Sunday School class, mission committee, soup kitchen), where people may be together but are not intimately involved in each others life. In this case the "team" should recognize that the spiritual growth of its members will be determined by its involvement in the church and be certain that the members are attached sufficiently to the church for the ministry of transformation to occur.

As teams receive new members in various stages of maturity, different ones will require different amounts of attention. Some may be so immature that they can disrupt the momentum of the team and prevent them from fulfilling their God-given call of planting the church. If such people are prematurely-maturely allowed to join the team, much disruption will occur. Problems affect other team members and often consume months. The fallout after releasing such a person from the team can last additional months as the team comes under scrutiny from the sending organization, the member's church, and the churches which are being planted. We have found that the result is that momentum toward church planting if often arrested from such trouble. For this reason we often use internships of from 6 months to a year as a trial for new ones on an already existing team. (One of our teams working cross culturally has a two year try out period.)

If a team is adding new members on a regular basis, the team leader can presume that they will come with differing levels of maturity. All will require some shepherding attention in order to become effective church planters. If the team is larger than 6-8 adults, almost all the team leaders time may be consumed merely keeping up with the community life of the team. Our experience is that a team with five or six couples demands most of the team leader's time. He will have little time left over to plant churches.

One way to alleviate this problem of adding of new members to a team (of say 4 couples) is to have the team divide into smaller sub-teams of two seasoned couples each. One of the members can serve as the sub-team leader. New church planters would be added to the sub team one person or couple at a time to minimize unnecessary disruption. Discipleship chains could be set up on the sub-team (man to man, woman to woman) so that the new member(s) could be observed in action. Problems can be dealt with by the mature believer as they are revealed. As problems are uncovered, they are not resolved in a "sterile" counseling environment, but rather in the daily life of serving the team members while carrying out church planting activities. If discipline becomes necessary, it is done in a loving context of relationship, affecting primarily the sub team and not disrupting the entire team.

Even with a team of 4 couples which has no new members on the horizon may pair up into "accountability partners" so that the necessary close-up care is available. The team leader can be summoned when problems come up where there is resistance to transformation. We have seen potential problems such as marital strife, lust, bitterness, child rearing and other family problems, etc. dealt with on a regular basis using such procedures. Needless-to-say many leaders are not cared for in this way and often pay a high price later in life, not to mention violating Acts 20:28!

Another advantage of the sub-team approach is that people other than the team leader are learning how to be effective in the ministry of transformation. These skills are essential for the church planter if they are going to be transferred into the churches. Since this is a fundamental ministry of the church, it needs to be a fundamental skill learned by church planters. Where better to learn it than on the team, especially if these skills were not mastered while in their sending churches. As sub-team leaders prove their effectiveness and new recruits are added this would be a normal way for teams to reproduce effectively. For us, ideal size teams are 6 adults.

In a chapter 6 we will talk about how teams who are accustomed to functioning in the above way can reproduce and form effective and flexible networks of teams. The different teams could each focus on a particular geographical area, or people group, or socio-economic group, or use different strategies and tactics to reach the same group of people. As such a network of teams would function much like several research teams trying to find the solution to how to plant reproducing churches. What one team learns can be shared with other teams.

1. What transformational ministry are you involved in with your team? Make a list of each team member or family on your team. Evaluate each one in their walk with the Lord. Where are they struggling? What steps are being taken to help those who are struggling? What progress is being made? How are you tracking their progress? If you cannot answer these questions, what do you need to do to get the answers?

2. What communities are involved in your members being transformed? Which responsibilities belong to the team (as a whole) and which belongs to an older man/woman discipler? Which belongs to the church (sending church, church which is being planted)? Which belongs in the family?

3. Who are your most mature team members in terms of being transformed? How are you using them with newer members of the team? How could you use them better?

4. Women are perhaps the most crucial element in bringing effective transformational ministry to the team and the church. Which women on your team are effective at this ministry? How are they being used in shepherding other women? What avenues of communication are available between the women and you (the TL) so that problems on the team or in marriages can come to light? If there are no clear avenues, then gossip will certainly fill the gap. For more help on this see Appendix 2: "Lines of Authority, Avenues of Appeal".