Your Core Team is like Scaffolding

That's what's been quoted to me by dozens of people who planted churches. Meaning, a core team is there, right at the beginning to help you get started, but for various reasons, they leave by the end of the first year. Our district leader warned us of it, and other church planters told me it had happened to them. Usually, you lose half of your core team during the first few years.

So, I'm on the lookout, and I see evidence of this coming true. First, although we're great friends w/the core team members, they haven't completely "bought" the whole vision. Dh wants to use the LIFE groups as the accountability/discipleship arm of our church. That means, everyone, especially leadership needs to be a part of it. Yet, only a couple from our core team are actually a part of a life group.

Second, a core team member who tends to blurt out anything and everything reminded me that she only committed to 3 mths. She told me this for the first time AFTER she spent a whole evening w/a bunch of the core team that had decided to visit another church on Saturday evenings to get "fed." Of course, first, that tells me they don't feel fed by my dh. Second, it also tells me they'll continue to compare him to another larger church's pastor, which is definitely frustrating on our part. Anyway, I just feel that THEY are talking about when they leave, but not to our faces. I get the sense that they are just "biding their time."

Do I have any problems with this core team? No way. They are ALL such hard workers, and when they say, they'll be somewhere, they are. They also work hard at finding creative ways to help the church grow. BUT, they themselves are not interested in making friends with the new regulars. I see them be nice, but not really friendly. I really sense that this is not where they plan to put down their roots.

I'm trying to deal with all of this. It's been growing, and becoming more of a certainty that what I sense is truly the case. Dh feels the same way. And he's not a feelings person. He's very objective, and he has often been able to analyze a situation and tell me exactly what the outcome will be. I don't remember a time he was wrong.

This is really hard for me to face. I'm trying to not feel hurt about it. People WARNED me that the whole core team doesn't stay! I also know that God takes care of us, so I shouldn't worry that they'll leave before we're able to handle the loss. But, we'll have to let them go, peaceably - send them out with love, and grow, right here, where God placed us, with the vision He gave us. Why are there so many goodbyes in ministry? Only Heaven is perfect.