The need for a shift to Ministry Teams model for ministry at The Branch has been clear, as we have outgrown our original pastoral model. The change means that we can continue to be committed to fulfilling the church’s Vision Statement where the mandate is summarised: “By the grace of God we strive to equip people so that they reflect Christ’s love in the community.” Further-more, we want to align ourselves with a Vision 100 statement: “To see 10% of Launceston in gospel-centred, Bible-teaching, evangelical churches”(read more about Tasmania’s Vision 100)

Here is a quick chart of the responsibilities and focus areas for ministry teams as of April 2010:

Core Values

To support this new Ministry Model, we have the following core values:

• focusing on preaching and teaching the Word in and through prayer and strategic evangelism
• growing the church (spiritually and numerically) in and through planting new churches
• working with other gospel-centred churches in Launceston, Tasmania, Australia and internationally
• developing leadership, especially in preachers and overseers
• adopting an attitude of “all hands on deck” and getting everyone involved
• devotion to God and one another; serving others rather than serving ourselves
• sustaining strong unity yet acknowledging diversity.

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Aims & Objectives

The strength of any structure lies in its ability to hold together over long periods of time. In a church this will apply to its ability to arrange, organise and motivate team work. The church of Christ is no exception to this as the apostle Paul in 1 Corinthians 12 speaks about the church being a body in which all things need to work together for the glory of Christ. Session and its Ministry Team Leaders must therefore develop and sustain a good spirit of team work within this Ministry Model. They must always pray for ministries, oversee them with faithfulness and diligence ensuring a spiritual attitude of working together in harmony and honour to Jesus the King.

To achieve a well functioning, God honouring and strong and harmonious church structure, there must also be proper aims, objectives and strategies within. The long-term aims and objectives are usually embedded in the Vision and Core Values and the short-term aims and objectives in a set of strategies that needs regular refreshing. Session has therefore developed the following strategies to support the long-term aims and objectives of its Ministry Model:

• preparing for growth through the implementation of a well-organised church structure
• consolidating the Ministry Leaders and Teams
• keeping the congregation up to date through announcements, leaflets and public meetings
• providing the congregation with opportunity
• aiming at growing toward a membership of 400 people at The Branch
• starting second and third Sunday services
• having two or three preachers by employing new Trainee Minsters
• growing the leadership in church by appointing more elders and deacons
• developing our focus towards digital church through the church website

In addition to the leadership teams the Elders, Decons and Pastors meet regularly in Session. Session also has three members who form a Session Executive: