Download the Opening a new church? Start strong with pre-launch church gatherings
Fill out the form below to schedule a demo or call our sales team at
469-564-3922
If you’re planning a church launch, don’t forget to add this important item to your church launch checklist: the pre-launch church gathering! Hosting pre-launch church gatherings can be the difference between a smooth launch and a chaotic one.
When opening a new church, starting a new church checklist is crucial. Yet amid the busyness of church launch prep, it’s easy to overlook critical items on your checklist in the rush to launch—but the last thing you want is to make a bad first impression. And that’s exactly what pre-launch church meetings help prevent.
Pre-launch church gatherings are meetings your team holds before opening a new church. These include meetings with leadership, volunteers, individual staff members, or even prayer meetings
The most common pre-launch church gathering is when churches host a “rehearsal” to smooth out any issues before your church is officially open to the public. Those invited typically include staff, volunteers, parent church members, prayer warriors, family, and friends.
Check out all the ways pre-launch church gatherings can take your church launch to the next level, help your church avoid common pitfalls and mistakes, and set your church launch up for the greatest success possible!
Building momentum before launch day is important. Hosting a pre-launch church gathering helps build excitement and innovation even before your doors are open to the public.
By hosting a pre-launch church gathering, you can:
Prayer is one of the most important aspects of a church launch. By hosting pre-launch church meetings, you can encourage your staff, volunteers, supporters, and more to pray over the coming weeks and months.
Make prayer a priority before launch day to ensure that prayer is a foundation of your church’s culture. Prayer meetings also give people an opportunity to speak words of encouragement over your entire team and the future of your church.
Philippians 4:6 says, “Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.” Prayer helps your church team put the focus on God’s activity throughout your church launch rather than on human efforts alone.
Your church launch wouldn’t be possible without supporters, volunteers, financial givers, elders, parent church or launch team advisors, and prayer warriors.
Pre-launch church gatherings offer an amazing opportunity for your church to honor your supporters—those who walk beside you in this challenging journey, share your vision, financially support, pray, encourage, offer wise advice, volunteer hours of their time, and believe in your church!
Taking a moment to honor your supporters helps them know how valued they are at your church and the impact they play in turning your dream into a reality. These will likely be the people you will continue to lean on in the months and years to come after opening a new church.
Building community amongst the supporters, staff, and team members is key. If your worship team doesn’t know your administrative team, or your prayer team doesn’t know your staff, how can your church lean on each other in the challenging and exciting days ahead?
Sharing the gospel, transforming lives, and building community are what church launches are all about. Encourage your staff and volunteers to get to know each other. For your pre-launch church events and meetings, make it a priority to build synergy amongst your staff, volunteers, and supporters.
Consider hosting the following:
Make the most of this opportunity to build a community and church family before your prospective members even walk through the door on launch day.
In the past, launching a new church was often seen as a singular, high-stakes event—one shot to get everything right. With a brand-new congregation, unfamiliar equipment, a new facility (or perhaps a pop-up church), and a team still finding its footing, the pressure feels immense.
That’s why a pre-launch church gathering is so valuable and beneficial. Use these pre-launch gatherings to test drive your launch day, resolve any issues, and prevent bad first impressions.
At your pre-launch church gatherings, you can:
By previewing your launch day, you create intentional opportunities for your team to gain invaluable experience, refine their roles, and grow in confidence.
It’s through these gatherings that your team doesn’t just practice—they grow, unify, and become fully equipped to lead with excellence when launch day arrives.
When strategizing for your church launch, technology is one of the most common sources of stress—and one of the most visible if it goes wrong. A pre-launch church gathering gives your team the opportunity to test all your tech in a live environment without the pressure of a full public service.
From testing your first church app to livestreams and slides, pre-launch gatherings allow your team to experiment, troubleshoot, and gain confidence with your tech systems. Whether it’s testing microphones, online giving, running your service planning software, ensuring your livestream setup is reliable, or confirming your worship lyrics are synced—this is the time to work out any bugs.
These gatherings allow your worship and production teams to find their rhythm together and create a smoother, distraction-free experience when your visitors arrive on launch day.
While some churches open their rehearsal to the public, the point of the pre-launch church gathering is really to gather together in a low-pressure environment and understand what needs improvement.
These strategic gatherings are a training ground where volunteers can troubleshoot tech systems, worship teams can find their rhythm, greeters can develop a natural flow of hospitality, and leaders can fine-tune logistics and communication.
It’s recommended that your gathering not be open to the public just yet, as the point is to iron out any flaws before the launch day and help your team refine your service as much as possible.
It’s important to determine your goals for your pre-launch gatherings. Ideally, how many people do you want there? How will people provide feedback? What’s your measure of success for these gatherings? How many pre-launch church gatherings will you plan in advance of launch day?
While these early gatherings may be viewed as “rehearsals,” these meetings are just as important as your launch day and should be taken with the utmost care and respect when opening a new church.
These “rehearsals” are not really rehearsals at all. Instead, they provide an opportunity for your church to experience launch day before your church officially opens—helping you smooth out any issues, prevent launch day problems, build team synergy, and make an amazing impression on your launch day.
As you launch your church, there are so many people in your corner, helping to set up your church launch for the greatest success possible. Which is why you want to make the greatest impression when new community members walk through your doors for the first time.
Planning pre-launch church gatherings is a vital part of your new church checklist. By planning these gatherings in advance, you give yourself room to make crucial adjustments before launch day. And by hosting pre-launch church gatherings, your church is setting itself up for the best chance at success when launch day arrives!
© 2025 Subsplash
.webp)
.webp)
