Author Archives: Lane Corley
8 Things You’ll Never Hear an On Mission Christian Say
There’s a marked difference between living the Christian life ON MISSION, & just going to church on Sunday’s. You can tell which side of this equation you’re living on by what comes out of your mouth (Matthew 12:34). Here’s some things I’ve said & heard others say when NOT on mission for God as a Christian:
1. “Christianity is boring.” Anybody that says Christianity is boring has never done a backyard bible club in a dangerous neighborhood, gave away food to someone in desperate need, watched a disabled person use a handicap ramp you just built for the first time, led someone to put their faith in Christ, ate something they weren’t sure of b/c to not do so would offend their foreign host, prayed with a coworker experiencing a storm in their life, etc., etc., etc. Life on mission is an adventure.
2. “I don’t know my spiritual gifts.” The On Mission Christian has either through trial & error or careful study & prayer discovered what God has gifted & called them to do. They do this b/c they understand that God has gifted & empowered every believer to do something. And to do nothing is not an option when we see the needs of the world & the great sacrifice of Christ.
3. “I would love to help, but nobody invited me.” Not that we shouldn’t make sure that everyone feels invited, but On Mission Christians tend to find a way to get in the middle of meeting needs for the good of others & glory of God. They’re not waiting around for an invitation.
4. “I would love to help, but I don’t know any people in need.” Being On Mission is a way of seeing the world. An On Mission Christian lives with a constant awareness of the needs around him/her. Wherever they are, they will find needs to be concerned about or met. The harder thing may be saying no to needs because it’s physically impossible to meet every one.
5. “I don’t feel like I’m being stretched in my faith.” If you live life on mission, you will regularly come to the end of yourself. That’s why Jesus promised His presence (Matthew 28:19-20) & power (Acts 1:8-10) to those who will take up his mission. Being on mission will take you out of your comfort zone & out of the limitations of your own ability. Hello FAITH, hello HOLY SPIRIT, hello SUPERNATURAL LIFE.
6. “You didn’t hear me say this but…” Gossip is one thing that threatens the mission of the church. The On Mission Christian is usually both too concerned about others & the unity of their church to engage in it, or just too busy to waste time with it. As one person said, “Those rowing the boat, do not have time to rock it.”
7. “The carpet/chairs/coffee/preacher/singing is too…” Little time or energy for criticism when you’re on mission either. The On Mission Christian will struggle to be concerned about small issues of esthetics around the building when there are people in need.
8. “My church isn’t meeting my needs.” The assumption here is that church & Christianity is about “my needs.” We do receive so much personal reward & benefit from being a Christian & the church should certainly consider the needs of people as it strategizes & plans its ministries. But the On Mission Christian does not live with these assumptions at the forefront of their lives. Paul was clear in Philippians 2:3-8. The Christian life, patterned after Jesus, is about the needs of others & sacrificing ourselves for the need of others.
If your Christian life is boring, faithless, about you, filled with criticism of others, etc. Let me challenge you to get involved in the next ministry or mission opportunity you hear about & get to know true Christianity which is about life on mission with God in the world.
What else would you add to this list?
Ethical Guidelines for Church Planters
The Northshore Baptist Association has set some guidelines for church planting through the association that will help to focus church planting efforts on reaching the unchurched. Here’s a few of the statements within the guidelines:
- we will plant churches where there is the greatest need.
- our strategy will involve the use of church planting methods that are easily reproducible.
- Biblical Church planting is evangelism that results in a new church designed to develop new believers and not existing church members…
- our priority will be to develop new believers.
- we will seek to have a plan by which we can respond to any transfers who may desire to become involved with the new church plant.
Is this necessary? I think its a great move. With the rise of the nones, even in the south, & fewer & fewer people even considering church as a part of the solution for their lives, it’s so important that our church planting be done with intentionality & focused design on reaching unchurched people. We need to break our satisfaction on transfer growth & mimicking successful models & do the hard work of contextualized evangelism & evangelism in hard to reach areas. What we are learning is there is a lost population out there that’s beyond what worship style we practice & how clever our sermon series are. Listening, imagination, cultivation, & patience will be required to plant these kind of churches. And I appreciate the willingness of this association to define the kind of focused church planting through this set of guidelines.
Thoughts?
Dr. J.D. Payne first presented the idea for these guidelines. See his original doc here. I’ve mentioned his work in my post on The Great Transfer Growth Boogie Monster.
5 Ways to Have Fun and Reach Out this Fall
Fall is a favorite time of year for all of us in the South as weather cools & Football season kicks off. Fall also offers some great open doors for reaching out to the community through your church or small group. Here’s a few ideas for getting on the “Go…” (Matthew 28:19-20) this Fall:
1) Serve the Local School – No matter how open that your local schools are to church involvement, there are ways for you to serve them. And no better time to start then right at the beginning of the school year. Here are a few ideas:
- Pray. Host a prayer meeting for school officials & teachers & send notes letting them know you’re praying for them. And of course, have special prayer for teachers & administrators that attend your church. Recognize them as missionaries to the next generation.
- Lead a school supply drive for teachers or kids in low income school districts. Most teachers will have a list of needs or wants for their classroom & will know the kids that may need help buying school clothes & supplies.
- Stock the teachers lounges of local schools with baked goods & notes of encouragement from your church for the first two weeks or so of school.
- Get involved in the schools mentoring or tutoring program.
- And of course, encourage members to volunteer, get involved in PTA, & add salt & light to one of the most influentials places in your community (like it or not).
2) Fall Festivals – Whether it’s a Halloween alternative event like Trunk or Treats or just a Fall Harvest Party, Fall Festival type events have proven to be great cultivative and seed planting opportunities for many churches. During the summer, new people relocate to our communities & a special event that invites EVERYONE to your church can give them an opportunity to connect with the body of Christ. Don’t forget to plan for follow-up & celebrate the work of volunteers who plan & implement.
3) Outdoor Movie Nights – With weather getting milder & days getting shorter, outdoor movie nights make for a great fall outreach event. Our church has done these in local parks, in subdivision common spaces, or front & back yards. All you need is a projector, outdoor movie screen or large white sheet, & a popcorn machine. If you’re trying to cultivate relationships you can show a newer kid flick or classic movie. If you’d like to be a little more evangelistic & harvest oriented, you can choose a more evangelistic or directly Christian film. Another lesson learned, made for TV kids movies work great, b/c they are shorter & keep short attention spans engaged.
4) Tailgate Party – With Football season kicking off in the Fall, the words Tailgate Party will be plastered in every store & commercial coming our way. Redeem this seasonal phenomenon by hosting a Tailgate party at your church with great food & a big screen & speakers blaring the pre-game show &/or game. There is also a variety of Christian sports personality testimonies on sites like Sports Spectrum & I am Second that can be shown during half time or at a certain point during the game to make the event a little more evangelistic.
5) Hands on Service Project – Cooler weather also makes for a great time to get your hands dirty with a hands on Missions Project. In every community there is elderly & needy residents living in substandard housing. Connect with local relief agencies like the Council on Aging, Volunteers of America, or Parish Housing Authority about needs for wheelchair ramps, weatherization projects, etc. Or poll church members about widows & elderly living around them or in your congregation that may have needs. Wheelchair ramps are one of my favorite Fall projects.
What Fall Outreach ideas have worked in your area?
Conversational Discipleship Tools
Here’s a few tools that have worked well for me over coffee with other growing believers over the past few years:
- How to START or Re-START the Christian Life – PDF
- How to Get a Grip on the Bible – PDF, Issuu
- Allowing the Teachings of Jesus to Go Deep. How to use HERE.
- 25 Training Objectives for Disciples by David Platt
What tools have worked for you in growing in your faith & making disciples?
“The size of a church does not determine its health, but…”
Small churches don’t get a lot of airtime, even though they are the rule & not the exception across the globe (90% of churches have less than 100 adults in attendance on any given weekend), so I enjoyed Outreach Magazine‘s annual trek into Small Church America in their July/August 2014 issue. Check out a few of my big takeaways that may surprise or encourage you. And make you think.
- “The size of a church does not determine its health, but a church’s health can determine its size.” – Ed Stetzer, Lifeway Research, EdStetzer.com.
- “A small church measures success by how faithful they have been with what God has given them.” Dave Jacobs, SmallChurchPastor.com.
- “The average church attracts fewer than 90 adults on a typical weekend. 60% of protestant churches have 100 or adults on a typical weekend. Just 2% of churches attract more than 1,000 adults on a typical weekend.” – Barna
- “We need to be content with who we are, but never content with staying where we are.” Karl Vaters in the Grasshopper Myth: Big Churches, Small Churches and the Small Thinking that Divides Us (New Small Church, 2012).
- “Bloom where you’re planted. Instead of trying to be what you are not, know what you do well and do it well.” – Jim Thomas, SmallChurch.com.
- “What drives us? Spotlight and recognition? Influence over 1,000’s? Power that comes with a title? Or would we be content with a downward movement of faithful servanthood, even if it meant obscurity?” – JR Briggs in Fail: Finding Hope & Grace in the Midst of Ministry Failure, IVP, 2014.
- “Churches of 200 or less are four times more likely to plant a daughter church than churches of 1,000 or more. The smaller the size of the church the more fertile they are in planting churches.” – Lifeway
- “The number of evangelicals has not boomed. We have just become more centralized in fewer, larger churches that produce better Sunday performances.” – John S. Dickerson in The Great Evangelical Recession, Baker Books, 2013.
- “Since the Day of Pentecost, innovative small churches have been the way the majority of Christians have done church.” – Karl Vater, NewSmallChurch.com.
- “local engagement – the engagement with our local neighborhoods, villages, towns is harder and harder the bigger and bigger you get.” – David Fitch
- “The growth rate of churches decreased with increasing size…” – Christian Schwartz in Natural Church Development.
Biggest takeaway – “No matter the size, age or denomination of our churches, there’s one question we should all be asking… Where do we grow from here?” Bobby Gruenwald.
I personally believe that small church or big church should not be our motive or goal or badge of honor. God’s glory & the soul’s of men should be the goal. Be encouraged where you are & work hard for God’s glory & the souls of men.
The Recipe for On Mission Living
Heart + Eyes + Imagination + Action
Heart – Desire for God & Others
We are on mission for something. Often it’s for ourselves. Getting our heart set on God’s purposes is always the first step in life on mission. Get started with 1 Peter 3:10-12.
What issues of the heart are keeping you from being on mission for God & others?
Eyes – Awareness of the Needs Around Us
The Bible says Jesus “saw the crowds” & then “felt compassion” Matthew 9:36. Are you aware of the many needs around you? If you think you have to travel to a distant place to find human need, then your eyes are not open. Look around.
Imagination – Ideas to Engage the Needs Around Us
Many of our failures in mission as churches are failures of imagination. We can’t imagine ourselves being a solution for our communities. I pray for the innovation & courage of the men who so wanted their crippled friend to see Jesus, that they climbed on top of the roof, ripped a hole in the roof, & lowered him down at Jesus’ feet. Mark 2:1-12.
“Where there’s a will, there’s a way.” May we not be bound by weak excuses & lack of imagination in reaching our communities.
Action – Implement & Execute Outreach Strategies
Many have a heart for God, are aware of the needs, even have the ideas, but never launch & take action to reach out. Take out your calendar & write down the next date you intend on inviting a neighbor for dinner or coffee. When is your church’s next outreach event? When is your unchurched friend having surgery? Who is in transition that you can bless? Mission needs a calendar & a plan of action!
Write down these symbols in a prominent place & use them to pursue life on mission, for others.
The Importance of Sharing Your Life With Others
Captured these powerful images on the importance of Small Groups earlier this year at FBC Orlando. So many in our generation isolate ourselves & find ourselves on our own when life happens. And it will happen, i.e marital problems, financial problems, transitions, parenting issues, seasons of doubt & discouragement, etc. Who do you share life with when you have questions? when you need a hand? When you’re expecting change? Find a church, get connected with others. Share your life. You need them AND they need you!
Successful? In Ministry?
Success in ministry can be a tough thing to pin down. If you say success means a big church, then 82% of churches in American are unsuccessful because they have less than 100 people. And the lives of some of those with “big churches” are wrought with frustration & burnout & worse. Shawn Lovejoy’s book The Measure of our Success is a helpful tool to remind us about what really matters in ministry & church life. And the questions at the end of each chapter are a great way to recalibrate your current health as a leader & what you’re measuring in your ministry. Adding this one to my annual review list. Here’s a few of my favorite quotes.
- the greatest temptation that I face is substituting what I do for God, with who I am with God.
- If our attendance growth comes at the expense of our ability to disciple people, we have not been successful.
- Jesus didn’t say, “Go and grow large,” he said, “Go and make disciples.”
- Your responsibility is to be faithful. Not to be God.
- is your family on your schedule? You will schedule what’s important to you.
- We don’t use people to get tasks or ministry done; we use tasks and ministry to get people done
- TEAM: Together Everyone Accomplishes More
- The only way we can escape criticism is to say nothing, do nothing, & be nothing.
- Jesus experienced highs & lows. So will we.
- Do you trust God enough to take him at his word when he says resting every six days is best for you?
- Filling our auditoriums is good. Filling heaven is better.
- Christian community that is not reaching unchurched people is not Christian community; it’s consumerism.
- The Church is not the hope of the world. Jesus is the hope of the world. He has simply chosen to extend hope through his people, the church.
Here’s a few of the questions at the end of each chapter that I haven’t been able to forget:
- What would it look like for your church to measure more by the story than by the number? How could you express this shift in your church?
- Is there a specific courageous conversation you need to have or decision you need to make? If so, what do you need to do?
- What are some ways your church could heighten your capacity for making disciples?
- How do you think your church could make Jesus and his gospel more central to everything you are and do?
Pick up The Measure of Our Success for someone you know in ministry. We’ll be giving this book away at our Basic Trainings for Church Planters in Louisiana over the next year.
You Might Be a Church Planter if…
Church planters are seen as a rare breed in the body of Christ, but I don’t think they’re as rare as we think. God still calls & empowers people for this important role. Many times they’re just not discovered or mobilized because we’re not looking to discover or mobilize them. Knowing church planters & being one, here’s an observational list that you may find true of yourself if you’re thinking you may be a fit for church planting. Not saying all of these have to be true, but they may be true.
1. You made a lot of visits to the ER growing up.
Church planters are risk takers at heart & this probably started early. The desire to jump off of, over, or go through any obstacle to the detriment of personal health is often a characteristic of pioneering church planters.
2. You can’t concentrate in church because of the kids you saw playing in the street on the way.
You’re heart will be with those who are NOT in church on Sunday’s. At times it may consume you to the point that you seem at odds with church leaders. God may put that discontent there if he’s leading you to those outside the camp. (See my post on Sending the apostles).
3. You think Chic-Fil-A would be a good place for a church.
If you find yourselves in different environments & believe that spiritual life could happen there you might be a church planter. The imagination of the church planter is usually full of ideas about creating environments to share the gospel. The new churches I have been involved in have met in apartment complex offices, a fire station, a former bar, a local gym, & a museum. Doesn’t make sense? Made perfect sense to me! And worshipping in Chic-Fil-A on Sunday is a dream of mine!
4. You hang out with the wrong kind of people for the right kind of reasons.
In college, I didn’t play intramural ball with my collegiate ministries intramural teams. I had a desire to use the skills I had to build relationships with non-Christians. The church planter will often be energized more by these relationships than relationships in Sunday School. But get ready…
5. Your Christian friends think your weird for that.
You may even be labeled by religious friends for hanging around sinners & disreputable characters. But seems like I saw someone in the Bible that had the same thing happen. Mark 2:13-17.
6. You get a kick out of calluses on your hands.
Church planting is hard work. Gathering & motivating people can seem like pushing a rock up hill. Setting up church in non-traditional locations is not easy. If you are afraid of physical & emotional calluses & soreness then run the other way. Some go into church planting to avoid what they perceive as hard things in church leadership, but you’ll find many of the same things plus some in church planting. Make sure its a calling.
7. You’ve shared the gospel more times than you can remember.
Sharing the gospel must be a natural part of the church planters life & vocabulary. A church is a church because of the Gospel & the Gospel must be shared. The church planter must lead the way.
8. Friends call you with spiritual questions.
Leadership is innate & merely recognized by others. Do people see in you something that they want & need? Do people seek you out when there are questions about life & God? As a church planter you’ll probably be without title, position, & respect. Your character & ability to earn the respect of people because of leadership ability will be important.
9. You usually travel with a group.
You are more comfortable in a group & with a team, a posse. You will not be able to do this alone. Church planters must love people & believe that everyone is better off sticking together. Lone Ranger Church Planter is an oxymoron.
10. You daydream about solving big problems in the world.
North Korea, the crime ridden multi-housing complex down the street, the high school dropout problem, etc. These issues may cause you to stare off into the future & make list in your mind about how you would go about reaching people & changing the places with the greatest problems.
If this list still doesn’t talk you out of it, find out a little more about next steps here. And feel free to hit me up (lane.corley@lbc.org). I’d love to help you get started on the church planting journey. And there is a community that is needing God’s people to say yes and take the jump into multiplication!
What I’m Reading
- A Dude’s Guide to Manhood: Finding True Manliness in a World of Counterfeits by Darrin Patrick.
- The Measure of Our Success by Shawn Lovejoy. Very helpful book for those in full time ministry.
- Multiplying Missional Leaders: From half-hearted volunteers to a mobilized Kingdom Force by Mike Breen
- Sentness: 6 Postures of a Missional Christian by Kim Hammond
- Twice a Slave by Sammy Tippit – story of Joseph Willis, one of the first church planters in Louisiana, way back in the early 1800′s.
- Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption by Laura Hildebrand – Listening back through this incredible story in anticipation of the movie coming out later this year! See the Trailer.
- Follow Me: A Call to Live, A Call to Die by David Platt – Bridge Church Spring Bible Study.
- Gospel Coach: Shepherding Leaders to Glorify God by Scott Thomas. Got to attend the seminar last month. This book will stay close to my desk for the foreseeable future.
- The Sending Church: The Church Must Leave the Building by Pat Hood
- Bold as Love: What Can Happen When We See People the Way God Does by Bob Roberts
- Jesus Hates Religion: Finding Grace in A Works Driven Culture by Alex Himaya
- How to Read the Bible Book by Book by Gordon Fee – going back through the prophets right now. Always have this at my side when I do.
Why Read?
Lane Corley 