This is what my team came up with for our core group members I hope this helps. Peace be with you . .

Core Group Qualifications, Responsibilities, and Job Description

The church must be recreated new in each generation not through procreation but rather through baptism. This means, as a core group member, you must embrace the missional nature of the church by becoming an abiding presence in the local culture.

Mission Statement

Cultivating Christian community – stimulating radical discipleship – rousing innovative mission

Qualifications

• An imitator of Christ.

• Sincere, worthy of respect, and of a good reputation.

• Give regularly to the church.

• Have a genuine desire to serve others.

• Able to lead, motivate, and teach other people.

• Able to create positive group dynamics and deal with conflict resolution within the group.

Responsibilities

• Being a tangible expression of the church’s vision.

• Attend leadership training meetings as scheduled.

• Pray for and coordinate weekly small group meetings.

• Pray for everyone involved in the ministry.

• Provide a supportive atmosphere in which members are able to develop their spiritual gifts.

• Serve a supportive role to parents who are the primary disciplers of their children.

• Identify and mentor leaders in order to enable them in their ministries.

• Live an exemplary Christian lifestyle as stated in the Honor Code.

Honor Code

As an essential part of our leadership family, you have a responsibility to develop and exhibit mature Christian behavior. This should be the basic premise of your desire to work in a servant-leader position. While serving the Body of Christ as a leader, you should strive to demonstrate Biblical standards in all situations. As Christians, the way we present ourselves to others is of vital importance to the way others perceive Christ. Our conduct should never be an embarrassment to Christ, but should exemplify the best qualities of a mature believer and servant-leader. Exemplifying the highest moral commitment, a core group member is expected to maintain a disciplined life of Bible reading, prayer, and fasting. You must also refrain from such things as profanity, gambling, indulging in alcoholic beverages, dishonest gain, illegal drugs, pornography, sexual immorality, and all behaviors which might cause Christ to grieve and others to stumble. By providing an example in speech and action, we encourage others to grow in Christ and to become servant-leaders themselves. This is a way of life measured by the heart and commitment of each leader in our family. Furthermore, all of our servant-leaders are held accountable to each other which invites all leaders to be frank and open about their feelings and receive the encouragement to continue shaping their lives to the will of God. We should regard this as an essential part of our development, not as an imposition or restriction.

Job Description

The kind of Christian that speaks to the new generations and will speak effectively to a postmodern world is the one that emphasizes primary truths and an authentic embodiment of those truths. The emerging generations are more interested in broad strokes than in detail, more attracted to an inclusive view of faith than an exclusive view, more open to a dynamic, growing faith than a static, fixed system. A core group member, therefore, should give life to . . .

• a view that missions is every Christian being a missionary to their local culture.

• holding no position of influence but gaining influence by serving the common good.

• being a radical follower of Jesus who serves His mission in the local culture.

• church as a counterculture with a kingdom-focused way of life.

• a faith that is lived publicly and includes all by practicing hospitality.

• converting people to the church before they are converted to Christ.

• serving as a missiologist who equips others as missionaries to the local culture.

In short, Christians today can no longer see themselves as simply as volunteers at their church. They must become missionaries to a post-Christian culture. The fact that all members of a community of faith are missionaries has been known for a long time in theory, but in this postmodern world it must become the primary definition. As a core group member, you must bleed missionary blood, dream missionary dreams, and pray missionary prayers in order to equip others as missionaries to the local culture.

Conclusion

Having read and understood this document, I believe that I meet the qualifications for serving as a core group member. I have read and agree to the following . . .
(please write your initials beside each statement)

_____ to fulfill the responsibilities outlined on the Job Description

_____ to abide by the Honor Code

_____ to help fulfill the mantra of this church

_____ to embrace and teach the missional nature of the Church.

Great input, Michael.

Anyone else.

I do not come form a Lutheran background but attended Concordia University in Ann Arbor and loved it - so like Ed I love Lutherans.

I am now the lead planter of a church in SE Michigan but was a full time missionary for the previous 3 years prior focusing on leadership training (with EQUIP) and helping church plants. So here's my input & I pray it is beneficial:

CORE GROUP (CG): For Biblical marks of maturity I use the standard set for deacons (1 Timothy 3) except for gender - in addition the CG help with decision-making in certain areas and are devoted to the vision God has uniquely given us. They are also where I invest much of my time as they must be able to carry the vision & reproduce it at the level of their giftedness.

LAUNCH TEAM (LT): out LT is made up of our CG plus those who believe in what we are doing and want to actively help. Attending Launch Team meetings and serving in some capacity (set-up,greeter etc...) at our Pre-Launch Gatherings is the function of those on this team. There is no directional decision-making power with our LT & maturity standards are basic. The LT in essence becomes a discipling process in itself (just as the CG is a leadership training process).

It's important to remember that although many of your post-launch leaders will come out of the CG & LT - both are temporary. The people involved are precious but the function of each is a means to an end: Launching a healthy vibrant church. Remind people of this so they don't fall in love with the pre-launch status quo and turn inward. This is also why it's so important to imbed a missional DNA into your CG & LT (which Michael's comment above lays out well)

The last thing I will mention is how important it is that the CG & LT should compliment the giftings of the lead planter (that is after determining you have the right guy for lead planter - another important aspect you'll want to cover).

God Bless your church planting endeavors!

Ed,

I always like blogs that speak to the planting of new churches home and abroad. We too are planting churches….and our goal is to plant 10 churches in the Nashville, TN in the next 10 years.

With probably somewhere below 20% of the surrounding population of Nashville part of a church family, it is vitally important to speak the gospel in our communities where close to 85% have rejected the gospel. We started a church in Hermitage (Grace Church at Hermitage) a little over a year ago and we are praying for God to allow us to grow leadership that can provide biblically sound doctrine as move along with the commission of our Lord.

Core disciplines as Christ forms His church:

Prayer – Psalm 5:3
Qualified Leadership – 1 Timothy 3:1-7
Qualified Deacons – 1 Timothy 3:8-15
A Heart for Worship – Romans 12:1
A Mouth for the Gospel – 1 Thessalonians 2:2
A Love for God’s Law – Psalm 119:161-168
A Love for Unity of the Spirit – Ephesians 4:1-5
A Passion to Follow Christ – Matthew 28:18-20

These would be the absolute minimum job descriptions as the gospel is shared and churches spring up throughout the community.

Blessings,
Chris

I was a volunteer with a core group for a satellite campus and served in many functions required for a mobile church in a school cafeteria. The campus is no longer there, but I don't consider it a failure because I learned so much.

Here's my advice - you'll have to figure how to put it into a job description. I learned that the more control the overseeing pastor tries to exert over every detail, the less interested people are in participating in the ministry, and the less life will be inherant in the church, which will result in low attendance and potentially death.

On the other hand, I've seen pastors that empower people to own whatever service they are providing and the results are completely different.

So I would say it is very important for a leader or core group member be able to release control, trust the Holy Spirit, and be able to equip, encourage and empower fellow believers as servant leaders.

Your quote from the Cheers episode reminds me of the old Emo Phillips routine:

Once I saw this guy on a bridge about to jump. I said, "Don't do it!" He said, "Nobody loves me." I said, "God loves you. Do you believe in God?"

He said, "Yes." I said, "Are you a Christian or a Jew?" He said, "A Christian." I said, "Me, too! Protestant or Catholic?" He said, "Protestant." I said, "Me, too! What franchise?" He said, "Baptist." I said, "Me, too! Northern Baptist or Southern Baptist?" He said, "Northern Baptist." I said, "Me, too! Northern Conservative Baptist or Northern Liberal Baptist?"

He said, "Northern Conservative Baptist." I said, "Me, too! Northern Conservative Baptist Great Lakes Region, or Northern Conservative Baptist Eastern Region?" He said, "Northern Conservative Baptist Great Lakes Region." I said, "Me, too!"

Northern Conservative†Baptist Great Lakes Region Council of 1879, or Northern Conservative Baptist Great Lakes Region Council of 1912?" He said, "Northern Conservative Baptist Great Lakes Region Council of 1912." I said, "Die, heretic!" And I pushed him over.

Hi Ed,

Just saw this blog post, and though I don't have much of an on-topic response at this point (though the topic of church planting always intrigues me, and I've been following your blog for a while), I just wanted to give a shout-out as an LCMS Lutheran to say I'm glad you're connecting with some of us. We can be a bit of an odd bunch, definitely out of many mainstream evangelical (I use the small "e" intentionally) conversations, but I think we can learn a lot from one another! Blessings as you prepare to enter this brave new world (for you). :)

I want to thank you Ed for putting my e-mail on your blog. I also want to thank all those that provided comments. They were most helpful. As Michael Schutz said, we LCMS Lutherans can learn a bit from one another. Many thanks again to all.