Yearly Archives: 2013
“Bringing the gospel community presence of Jesus into a non-gospel community”
This is one of my favorite definitions of Church Planting and this is what Bridge Church will be doing today as we move our Worship Gathering to Oak Villa Mobile Home Park one of St. Tammany’s largest multi-housing communities. Worship, Fellowship, the Spirit’s gifts, the passions and skills of his people will be at work for some people to see for the very first time today. Praying for impact on our Faith in Action Sunday.
- 9:30am – Breakfast
- 10am – Worship, Devotion, Baptisms
- 10:30am-12noon – Faith in Action: Wheelchair ramps, tree trimming, kids club, food distribution
- 12noon – 2pm – Lunch & the Big Kahuna Water Slide
Definition is from the book Church Zero by Peyton Jones. Great read!
World Changers on the Northshore Is a Wrap for 2013
Over the last two weeks the Northshore was blessed to play host to World Changers in Tangipahoa & St. Tammany Parish. 35 home repair projects were completed and dozens of local churches as well as youth groups from around the country, who paid their own way, partnered to make real change happen for elderly, disabled, disadvantaged families in our region. Thanks to FBC Ponchatoula and FBC Covington for hosting. Couldn’t have happened without them. They mobilized dozens of volunteers to prepare meals and make 100’s of volunteers comfortable on their campuses. Also, dozens of local churches prepared and delivered lunches for crews serving in the community. Dennis Ellzey, Youth Pastor at FBC Ponch and Abe Haley, Student Ministry Associate at FBC Covington did great jobs as Project Coordinators. Also, couldn’t have done it without Agency Reps who raised money for materials and provided coordination: the Fuller Center for Housing in Hammond led by Tamara Danel and St. Tammany Parish Governments Social Services Dept led by John Tobin. Construction coordinators were Tom Rabalais in Hammond and Adam Martin with Kent Construction’s Faith Division in Covington.
World Changers is a great partner for community revitalization and for cultivating a region for gospel penetration and church multiplication. It’s also a great way to bring Associational churches together for good in the community. I think every association should see if World Changers would be a fit for its region. Our National Staff rep in Louisiana is Bill Kisner – bill.kisner@lifeway.com. Get in touch and find out more about World Changers.
Next year we’re hoping to pull off four World Changers sessions on the Northshore: Spring Break at Camp Living Waters and Summer sessions in Hammond/Ponchatoula, Covington, & Slidell. I’ve been saying it would be neat if World Changers could do 75-100 home repair projects on the Northshore and then our local churches could match it with 75-100. 150-200 home repair projects on the Northshore in 2014! Let’s do it!
Being On Mission Stinks
On of my favorite Proverbs is Proverbs 14:4, “Without oxen a stable stays clean, but you need a strong ox for a large harvest.”
In other words, if you don’t have livestock, you don’t have any poop that stinks up the place & has to be scooped, but you can’t expect to have a great farm without hardworking animals.
This is true of life on mission as well. Me centered Christianity has taught us that God wants us to be happy, to give us a peace-filled life, safe from danger, & being nice & making it to church to support the pastor, cause he’s working so hard for God, is our role in the kingdom. That attitude is just like being without livestock on a farm. Don’t expect fruit, don’t expect a harvest. When people get on mission for God together it will not always be neat, clean, or smell good. It will be messy.
Life on mission will be messy, because sin is messy. And if you’re in the business of rescuing sinners, expect a foul smell. Addictions, foolishness, pain, abuse, poverty, broken relationships, hopelessness. Those are the things you’ll find out there on mission for God. Stay away & you’ll have a cleaner, neater, smell good life, but don’t expect as much spiritual fruit.
Life on mission will be messy, because relationships are messy. We will have differences of opinion & awkward moments & bad days among us. “As iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another” and iron on iron creates sparks. If you avoid deep, gospel centered, mission driven relationships, you might have a cleaner, neater, smell good life, but don’t expect as much spiritual growth.
Life on mission will be messy, because of the cost. You will get taken advantage of. You will find yourself outside of comfort zones. You will have seasons of fruitlessness. You will experience rejection. “All those who live godly in Christ Jesus WILL BE persecuted.” Christianity that cost you nothing is a mission-less Christianity that doesn’t find its root in the way of Jesus & the Apostles. Stay away from spending yourself for Jesus & His mission & life may be cleaner, neater, & smell better.
If you want to pursue God’s mission & produce fruit for His kingdom, give up on having a clean, neat, smell good life all of the time. It may require a shovel, old clothes, lots of hand soap, etc. But you can expect the joy of the Lord, the provision of strength from His Spirit, the promise of hearing him say “well done,” the fruit of lives changed, growth & maturity, & the peace of knowing God is using you for His purposes.
What does your stable look like? Our communities desperately need On Mission Christians that don’t shy away from the messiness of sin, relationships, or sacrifice if we’re going to have a harvest of souls.
Faith in Action Weekend: Where is the Church Not?
In 2008, we were assessing the need for a potential new church in West St. Tammany Parish. One of my favorite questions in assessing the need for a new church is, “Where is the church not?” Meaning, is there places in this community where the Gospel & the body of Christ are not represented to a population segment or people group? And then, can sustainable ministry be developed through an existing or new church?
As part of this assessment, we came across Oak Villa Mobile Home Park in Covington. 150 lots, 450 people living there, 75-100 under the age of 18, 25% of the households are elderly, many with no local family, many in transition – lost job, recently divorced, just got out of jail. This became the first place of engagement for a Bible Study group that was meeting to form Bridge Church. We started by building a relationship with the management & meeting the immediate needs that she recognized, which was six households that needed food assistance. That led to ministering to one of those households in another practical way. A bed ridden elderly man was overrun with cock roaches. So our Bible Study group made the very spiritual decision to purchase him a year’s worth of pest control.
Since those first projects we’ve built porches, steps, handicap ramps, conducted regular kids activities, block parties, How to seminars, pressure washed trailers, etc. We’ve also served as Shepard to a shepard-less group of people – conducting funerals, counseling, benevolence, etc.
Then in 2010, with the help of Fairview Baptist Church, Coushatta, LA & the Louisiana Baptist Convention we were able to get our own Mobile Home in the park where today we have a Food Pantry, weekly Bible Studies, & we can call ourselves neighbors to the largest multi-housing community in West St. Tammany.
This weekend will be Bridge Church’s Faith in Action Sunday, where instead of gathering we scatter & serve our community in a variety of ways. We’ll be focusing on the needs of Oak Villa MHP. Projects will include building a couple of wheelchair ramps for elderly residents, trimming trees in the park that could damage trailers if we have a high wind event, activities & Bible stories for kids, Outdoor Worship & we’ll close out with the Big Kahuna water slide. We’ll also be baptizing several residents of the park who are ready to follow Christ.
Faith in Action Sunday is about going where the church is not. Less than 2% of multi-housing residents attend church & in low income areas like Oak Villa, many of them cannot due to lack of transportation. This is an opportunity for us to take church to them & show them the body of Christ in our area cares. And ongoing ministry demonstrates we love them because we care enough to come back.
Ask, “where is the church not?” about your community. Is there ministry that you, your small group, your church could do? You can also join Bridge Church for Faith in Action Sunday, June 30th, 9:30am at Oak Villa Mobile Home Park, 15455 Ronald Reagan Hwy., Covington.
Click here for a few shovel ready Multi-Housing Ministry Ideas. Click here for some info about starting Faith In Action as a ministry in your community.
Do We Need a Church Revitalization Plan?
Diagnosing the need for church revitalization is often the hardest step. And in my experience as a strategist, most seem to wait till it’s an emergency, stage four kind of diagnosis to make the call & begin to plan. I’ve mentioned a few great tools to use in diagnosis before (Here & Here). Like all health issues, the sooner you make the call & begin to address the problems, the better off you’ll be.
Here’s another great list for diagnosis to go over with a leadership team:
4 Types of Churches in Relation to Life:
1. Declining – Struggling to make budget, recruit leaders, & influence the community. Leaders are tired, frustrated, struggling to believe & dream.
2. Existing – Stable, Making Budget, celebrating each others milestones, harvesting low hanging fruit. Little passion for the lost & little knowledge of the church in the community.
3. Adding – Slight growth each year, a few passionate & fruitful leaders on a pedestal in the church & community. Growth rate probably below population growth rates. Inviting friends to church is easy. Some new people being reached, but transfer growth still a much greater %. Momentum is up and down with the calendar.
4. Multiplying – Growth at multiple levels – inside church & in the harvest fields, influence growing in the community, new leaders each year. A belief that something great is happening permeates the leadership. New people being reached in the community. New ministries springing up. Momentum makes work seem like play.
Questions:
- Which describes us?
- Which will describe us in 5 years?
- Where do we want to be?
- How can we get there?
DoWeNeedChurchRevi – PDF Download
_________________________________
If 80% of churches are declining, 98% probably are included in declining, existing, & adding. Few are multiplying.
In our Association, only 3.3% of the population attend a Southern Baptist Church, around 7% an evangelical church of any kind. We found that if we wanted to double that to 6.6% over the next 10 years, we would need to add over 16,000 worshippers to our current 11,000. Truly Multiplying churches are needed! But so few of us have ever seen it. We’re very content to add.
One of my fav books on this is Bob Roberts The Multiplying Church (My Summary Here).
“The highest demonstration of maturity for a local church is when it multiplies. Only something alive can reproduce, and it will do so only if it is healthy.” ~ Bob Roberts
Fatherhood Through Their Eyes
A few years ago my oldest son defined what Fatherhood looked like to him after 7 years with me:
- Fun
- Awesome
- Tall
- Holy
- Eats Alot
- Really Stinky
- Smart
He knows me pretty good! And I’m trying to live up to most of this list. But being aware of what’s seen through their eyes is so important as a Dad. They learn so much from what they see, and smell I guess. My to do list for my boys: Be intentional, listen, point them to God’s Word, accumulate experience & memories. And remember, he/she may be Just Like You.
How would your son or daughter define Fatherhood by what she sees in you?
147 Million Orphans Minus One
Excited to be a part of Evan & Angie McGinty’s adoption journey. Get one of these great t-shirts HERE. Follow the story at their ADOPTION BLOG. Other fundraising efforts HERE. Also, Bridge Church will be doing a BBQ luncheon on August 4th to raise money for them. More info soon. A baby boy from Ethiopia will be graced with an incredible family some time soon.
On Finding Friends
I went out to find a friend
but could not find one there;
I went out to be a friend
and friends were everywhere.
– Author Unknown
Dale Carnegie in How to Win Friends & Influence People:
“You can make more friends in two months by becoming interested in other people, than you can in two years by trying to get other people interested in you.”
The path to great relationships is to love others in obedience to God. To focus on the needs of others & not your own.
“A friend loves at all times…” Proverbs 17:17
Tools for Revitalization: Church Systems Analysis
I like this line of thinking. Just like the human body stays healthy because of healthy systems – respiratory, nervous, digestive, skeletal, etc., a church needs healthy systems to stay healthy. Here’s an Assessment tool we’ve developed to help a church leadership team assess its systems. Get Nelson Searcy’s book on systems here. 
ChurchSystemsAnalysis – PDF Download
Remembering D-Day: Personal Pics from the WWII Memorial in D.C.
“You will bring about the destruction of the German war machine, the elimination of Nazi tyranny over the oppressed peoples of Europe, and security for ourselves in a free world. Your task will not be an easy one. Your enemy is well trained, well equipped, and battle-hardened. He will fight savagely….The free men of the world are marching together to victory. I have full confidence in your courage, devotion to duty, and skill in battle. We will accept nothing less than full victory. Good luck, and let us all beseech the blessings of Almighty God upon this great and noble undertaking.” ~General Dwight D. Eisenhower giving the D-Day order on June 6, 1944.
Lane Corley 