What is a Mission Team?

A Mission Team begins with a leadership team of at least two people from Circle of Hope who share a common vision for building up the body and extending the mission of the church. Mission Teams primarily focus on church planting or capacity building. Our other set of teams, our compassion teams, form a network of their own.

Helping One Another Express Our Faith, Hope, and Love

Our “proverbs” are full of conviction about being partners in the gospel and helping one another to express our faith, hope and love as well as we can. You don’t join our church, you join our team! So we are all about getting together to express our dreams and help one another grow.

Here are a few of the thoughts that express what we think about doing that:

  • Our compassion teams and mission teams have the “right to die,” that is, they are not obligated to create a permanent program with interchangeable participants.
  • Forming cells and teams is a basic way we keep learning how to express who we are and what we do as people called into a new community in Christ.
  • We learn best person to person, not program to person.
  • Our basic mission is to build cells and our primary leaders are deployed and trained for that work. We wait for people to take the lead in further enterprises, or we don’t do them.
  • Passionate leaders who discipline themselves according to their hard-won mutual agreements are key to accomplishing great things.

We want you to be supported in what God calls you to do! So we will do what we can to help you organize, find resources and connect to everyone who may share your dreams. If your passion connects to the mission of our Church Planting or Capacity Building efforts, attach your team to those at the heart of our part of the Lord’s redemption project by contacting your pastor.

Why Start a Mission Team?

Guidance

The Pastors and Church Planting Core can help make your dream a reality by providing structural support. We offer guidance in areas such as developing your vision, mission and goals, teambuilding, connections to resources, and access to practical items such as an office and supplies.

Recognition

Circle of Hope is a growing network. As a recognized Mission Team, your vision will also be communicated to hundreds of people through our communications, website, and meetings.

Connections

Circle of Hope can help connect you to other people within and outside of the Circle of Hope. This allows you to connect with the Church on a larger scale.

Financial Support

We have limited funds available for Mission Teams. We can also apply for grants for your Mission Team’s projects and connect you with potential donors who have an interest in your ministry.

Non-profit Status

As a church we are a non-profit organization. As a Circle of Hope Mission Team, you have the same benefits. This includes providing tax-deductible letters to individual donors.

Community and Emotional Support

Starting a ministry based on your dreams can be scary. By adopting you as a Mission Team, the Cell Leader Coordinators, Pastors and Cell Leaders of Circle of Hope make a commitment to support and love you, and empower you to succeed. You will have dedicated partners in helping to make your vision a reality.

Suggested Steps for Starting a Mission Team

1. Test your vision.

Share a brief written description of what you have in mind. When you share it with your Cell Leader, Pastor, or one of the Cell Leader Coordinators, they will help you take further steps.

2. Call forth the gifts.

Spend an appropriate amount of time sharing your plans and announcing a meeting date for others called, gifted, or interested. Our pastors will help you get your voice heard, especially in our public meetings.

3. Have your meeting.

Set a meeting time for the interested people to attend. If people vote with their feet by showing up, a mission team can be formed. We suggest you collect a core team of three to six people, more is fine.

4. Form a proposal.

Your new team will refine a proposal for one of the Pastors to review. The Pastor, as a main connector, will send a recommendation (or not) to the Church Planting Core team, who will provide approval and equipping. The more specific you are, the better, but don’t get bogged down in paperwork and detail if it’s holding you up. Answer: What do we want to do and how do we plan to do it? Also—How does our team help meet the purpose and goals of Circle of Hope?

5. Act on a response.

You will get a response as to whether your plans can be supported. You’ll be told to, “Go for it,” or “Please stop,” or “Come back after some further refinement or recruitment.” We will help you figure out how to think it through some more if you need to. We love for people to use their gifts to express the work of the Holy Spirit in our body, so we will do our best to make your initiative bear fruit. We believe God wants his people to be united in spirit and purpose, so we will help you knit your plans into the work of our body.