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Evangelism Team Charter

MAYFLOWER CHURCH

Evangelism Team Charter

Streamline System 06 — Team Charters

DRAFT for consideration by the Servants Council at its meeting on July 11, 2026. Not yet ratified. Upon ratification this becomes a standing charter, reviewed at each August Leadership Summit and re-ratified on material change.

Governing Principle

This team carries the gospel itself, and it trains the whole body to carry it too.

The gospel is not the trade of a specialist squad; it overflows from the whole body. So this team evangelizes with its own hands and equips the congregation to do the same, never the squad that witnesses so the church does not have to. It also cares for those the Lord brings in.

1. Oversight (the home)

Overseeing board: Elders (Bylaws Art. II §B 1.c.2, outreach explicitly under the elders). Day-to-day point person: Senior Pastor. Every team has a home; this team works first with the elders.

2. Purpose

Mayflower's outward calling is not one ministry among many. It is the overflow of the five priorities the church guards. This team exists to do two co-equal things: to engage in gospel witness and run evangelistic outreach itself, and to equip, mobilize, and catalyze the whole congregation for personal and corporate gospel witness. It also shepherds new believers and gospel contacts into the life of the church. The team carries the gospel with its own hands and trains the body to do the same. It is never the church's substitute for evangelizing; the calling stays the whole church's.

3. Priority-ministry link

This team serves the church's outward calling, which overflows from all five of the Five Priority Ministries We Guard (System 01) and is bound most closely to Disciple-Making Pathways and Gospel-Driven Prayer.

4. The Commission

The elders commission this team to keep Mayflower a witnessing congregation, and to be a witnessing team within it. The work has four parts and a steady scale. First, do: engage in gospel witness and run evangelistic outreach as a working team, carrying the gospel into Kingston and the surrounding area with its own hands. Second, equip: provide ongoing training and encouragement so ordinary members are ready to share the gospel in their own circles, offered on a regular rhythm through the year rather than once. Third, mobilize: organize a small number of corporate outreach occasions each year that give the body shared opportunities to bear witness together. Fourth, follow up: coordinate the personal follow-up and early discipleship of new believers and gospel contacts, handing them into the church's assimilation and discipleship pathways. The team both bears witness itself and trains the body to bear witness; it never carries the congregation's calling so the congregation does not have to.

5. In scope / Out of scope

In scope:

  • The team's own direct gospel witness and evangelistic outreach in Kingston and the surrounding area, carried out by the team itself.
  • Training and equipping the congregation for personal evangelism on a regular rhythm.
  • Organizing corporate local and regional gospel-outreach occasions through the year.
  • Coordinating one-on-one follow-up and early discipleship of new believers and gospel contacts.
  • Tracking gospel conversations and professions of faith as a pastoral record for the elders, not as a performance scoreboard.

Out of scope:

  • Supporting and sending global and regional missionaries, and standing up the ad hoc teams for larger outreach events. That is the Missions Team's charge (see Coordination).
  • Owning the long-term discipleship curriculum and membership pathway. That belongs to EQUIP Discipleship and the church's assimilation process; this team hands contacts into it.
  • The full first-Sunday welcome and guest connection at the gathering. That belongs to First Impressions; this team receives the handoff of new believers and contacts from it.
  • Becoming the church's substitute for evangelizing. The team witnesses with its own hands, but the calling stays the whole congregation's; the team's witness never replaces the body's.
  • Setting numerical conversion goals as the measure of faithfulness. Fruit is the Lord's to give.

6. Scale

Shape: a small permanent core team that expands with volunteers for specific outreach occasions, drawing commitment categories from the Volunteer Chapter (System 06). The core team carries two charges at once: it goes out and bears witness itself, and it recruits, trains, and mobilizes the wider body to do the same. It is a working evangelism team, not only an organizing one, and it does this without becoming the only ones who evangelize. Leadership is two appointed co-leaders, Jacob Bennette and Joanna Bennette (System 07).

7. Key responsibilities

  • Go out and bear witness as a team, engaging in direct gospel outreach in Kingston and the surrounding area on a steady rhythm.
  • Provide ongoing equipping and encouragement for personal evangelism across the congregation.
  • Plan and run the year's corporate outreach occasions, recruiting volunteers as needed rather than staffing every occasion from the core team.
  • Coordinate personal follow-up and early discipleship of new believers and contacts.
  • Keep a pastoral record of gospel conversations and professions of faith for the elders.
  • Communicate regularly with the elders on plans, encouragements, and needs.

8. Coordination

  • Missions Team (Elders): clean boundary. Missions carries global and regional missionary support and the larger ad hoc outreach event teams. Evangelism carries the local field: its own direct gospel witness here, the body's everyday readiness and equipping, and new-believer follow-up. The dividing line is reach, not who does the work. Local and near-regional outreach is Evangelism's to run and to do; sending and supporting workers beyond it is Missions'. Where a local-and-regional occasion touches both, the two plan it together so neither overlaps the other nor leaves a gap.
  • First Impressions (Deacons): receives the handoff of new believers and gospel contacts from the gathering into follow-up.
  • EQUIP Discipleship (Elders) and the assimilation pathway: receives followed-up new believers into ongoing discipleship and the membership process.

9. Resources

Budget line: "Discipleship and Evangelism supplies," administered by the Elder Chair (Purchasing Policy). Facilities needs for outreach occasions are coordinated with the Trustees. Outreach scheduling and volunteer requests run through Planning Center.

10. Health indicators

Faithfulness-shaped signs the team is alive, not a conversion scoreboard. The year's specific targets live in the System 11 annual goals, set with the elders each August.

  • The team is itself out bearing witness on a steady rhythm, not only planning for others to do so.
  • The congregation is being equipped on a regular rhythm, not occasionally.
  • Members report gospel conversations happening in their ordinary circles.
  • New believers and contacts are followed up promptly and handed into discipleship, with few falling through.
  • The team is doing the work and multiplying it, bearing witness itself while recruiting and mobilizing the wider body rather than carrying the calling alone.

11. Review and approval

Standing charter, reviewed annually at the August Leadership Summit. Re-ratified by the Servants Council on material change. Escalation beyond the team's or elders' authority follows the Decision-Making Framework (System 09). Leadership succession follows the Leadership Handoff Guidelines (System 12). Review note: the team is led by two appointed co-leaders, Jacob Bennette and Joanna Bennette. The System 07 position description, currently written for a single Evangelism Team Leader, should be updated to reflect a co-leader arrangement.

Commissioned by: Elder Chair ____________________________ Date __________

Ratified into the operations documentation by: Servants Council ____________________________ Date __________

Sources

  • Mayflower Church Constitution and Bylaws, Art. II §B 1.c.2 (outreach under the elders); Art. II §B 4.c.7 (Servants Council receives and approves Ministry Team charters).
  • Streamline System 01 — The Five Priority Ministries We Guard; Missions and Outreach ("the gospel overflows from the five priority ministries").
  • Streamline System 06 — Team-to-Board Oversight Map; Volunteer Chapter.
  • Streamline System 07 — Role Clarity, "28 — Evangelism Team Leader."
  • Streamline System 09 — Decision-Making Framework; System 11 — Annual Goals; System 12 — Leadership Handoff Guidelines.
  • Purchasing Policy (Discipleship and Evangelism supplies, Elder Chair).
  • Missions Team Charter (sibling form for parallelism); Team Charter Standard, this folder.
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