Author Archives: Lane Corley
What if…? Bus Stop Breakfast Buffet
As part of our Incarnational Action strategy our church does regular events at West St. Tammany’s largest mobile home park. Our resident missionaries at the park, Mauricio and Rebecca Hance, came up with a great idea of having hot chocolate and breakfast snacks at the bus stop for the 40+ kids that catch the bus there.
Cost: $50 or so. And food is a great conversation starter even for the skeptical. Read Mauricio’s recent post about the experience here.
What if every multi-housing complex had a Bus Stop Breakfast Buffet once per month? Could your small group or Sunday School class or family adopt a complex? Other ideas?
Real Men in Church
You cannot defeat men like this. Tell them to keep quiet, and they disobey you. Throw them into prison, and they convert the jailer. Whip them, and they rejoice to be allowed to suffer for Christ. Stone them within an inch of their lives in one city, and they carry on with just the same message in the next. Kill them, and others arise to take their place. Endurance like that simply has to win in the long run. But we do not see enough of it in our western church. There is plenty of obstinacy, to be sure, but usually about the wrong things: church property, ministers who aren’t liked, or style of services.
Michael Green on the endurance of the early church in his great book called 30 Years that Changed the World.
The Elephant in the Christian Church
today is that we are not seeing robust disciple-making taking place. You are more likely to find evangelicals affirming that there is more than one way to get to heaven today than you were 15 or 20 years ago. Why? We’ve done great at getting them in the door, but we’ve done terrible at actually growing them up and grounding them in the faith.
This quote is from the most recent edition of Facts & Trends Magazine. Ed Stetzer reports on three important church trends: Decline, Dropouts, and Discipleship.
Recent research of our own area here on the Northshore backs up each of these as a local trend as well. Our Northshore PROBE found that there was a 14% drop in attendance in SBC Churches from 2000-2010 and a 14% drop in Baptisms, with an accompanying 19% increase in population. I think the quote above from Stetzer explains a little bit of the why. Without robust disciple-making, we cannot expect robust spiritual fruit. A recent opinion poll conducted by Turner Research of residents of St. Tammany Parish (see my previous summary of the research here) mirrors research finding from around the country.
- 69% of people asked affirmed this statement: “It doesn’t matter where you attend church, all teach and preach the way to go to heaven.” 33% of self-identified Southern Baptists polled affirmed this statement.
- 84% of people asked could not tell in their own words how a person can become a Christian. 35% of self-identified Southern Baptist polled could not.
Many churches are now rediscovering ways to push more depth from the Sunday morning stage, better ways to assimilate the crowds into small groups and discipling relationships, more organic ways to nurture spiritual formation, and stronger ways to create missional expansion in their communities and world.
What are other ways to create an environment for robust disciple-making in our churches?
More info on the opinion poll data to be released next week.
I Don’t Want to Be a Drive-by Disciple
A few years ago, I was a busy pastor driving to the church 2-3 or 4, OK 5-6 nights a week for meetings, events, or to open the door and micro manage others meetings and events, when God opened my eyes to something. All of a sudden I noticed people out in their yards, coming home from work, and some even waving at me. Then I started noticing homes that were substandard and people walking on the side of the road and people living alone w/o relationships. God opened my eyes to the fact that I was DRIVING BY the needs of my neighborhood and community to get to my busy schedule of ALL GOOD and MOSTLY necessary church activities. I had essentially become the Levite and Priest in the story of the Good Samaritan, passing by the beat up guy with mega needs for the sake of my busy schedule and the opinions of others. I realized that I had become a DRIVE-BY DISCIPLE. I repented and ask God to help me live life on mission beyond my church’s calendar and property lines.
Matthew 9:36 says that Jesus “SAW the crowds.” Can you see those around you? Their needs? Their lifestyles? Their value to God? Their potential through Christ? In my area, when I looked around I saw 76-90% that are not attending church more than once per month if at all (96% not attending SBC churches). And the number that I’m driving by on my way to church is increasing every year. I see a growing number w/o hope leading to an ever increasing suicide attempt rate and people who are daily recognizing their pursuit of pleasure and ease is a facade. I began to see widows and elderly with no one to take care of their simple household issues. I began to see the multi-housing facilities and parks that takes me a few seconds to DRIVE-BY, but house 30o-500 lives in need of the Gospel.
In Matthew 10:5, Jesus responded to what he saw by SENDING his disciples on mission. He’s done the same today. WE ARE sent not to church, but into the world to give, to love, to share, to serve. Being a member of a church is an important part of life on mission, but it must not be a substitute for responding to and serving the needs around us as disciples, individually and corporately.
Every time there’s a 5th Sunday in a month, our church takes a Sunday – Faith In Action Sunday – to take care of needs we’ve been DRIVING BY for three months. It’s an intentional way for us to encourage life ON MISSION FOR OTHERS and take our message to the world beyond the church walls.
Join us for Faith in Action Sunday in 2012 – January 29th (more info and project list here), April 28th-29th, July 29th, and September 30th. Better yet, open your eyes to the needs around you. Look around as you drive to church this weekend. See the crowds, have compassion, realize that if you’re a disciple Jesus has sent you to this place for this time.
This Faith In Action Sunday we’ll be taking care of a few elderly widows needs, throwing a block party for inmate families at our local jail, painting a house in a neighborhood that’s undergoing revitalization, and more.
Here’s a great list of dozens of ways to be On Mission in your neighborhood, workplace, or community.
What if…. Multi-Housing Ministry Ideas
Yesterday we held our annual Multi-Housing ministry roundtable on the Northshore. Thanks to Jeff Cook for leading us in the great dialogue about ideas for engaging a vastly unchurched population segment. By the numbers:
- 24%, or 47,611, housing units on the I-12 corridor are mobile homes or multi-unit dwellings. That doesn’t include the 1,300 dorms at Southeastern, and the multitude of institutional settings like nursing homes and retirement centers. Get our full report on Multi-Housing on the Northshore.
- 2%-3.5% of Multi-Housing residents do not attend church.
- Experts say that 4% of the people in a multi-housing complex can be reached by going and inviting them to your church. 30% can be reached by taking your church to them through Bible Studies, Kids activities, congregationalizing inside the complex or park.
How do I start ministering to a multi-housing complex. 3 Tips:
- Get to know the Management. Ask them, “How can a church help?” Then get ready to respond to needs.
- Think Incarnationally. How can we bring our church/VBS/Sunday School/etc. to them?
- Pole your church and see who is already living in local multi-housing complexes. Then work toward commissioning them as missionaries to the park.
- Look for needs. Be creative. Start Small. Ideas: Block Parties on site, beautification projects, outreach to the vulnerable (elderly, widows, single moms), activities for kids, benevolence ministry.
- Trailer Park Weatherization Clinic
- Tutoring ministry for kids.
- Outdoor Movie Night. Blow up movie screens can now be purchased for $200 or so. The Northshore Baptist Association has one in our Block party trailer.
- Affinity classes on site: Parenting, Financial Planning, Marriage, Addiction Recovery, etc.
- One of my favorite books in this regard is an oldy – One Church, Many Congregations by Tim Ahlen.
- Check out this video on Francis Chan’s new mission of starting congregations in high rise apartments in San Francisco. It’s called Adopt A Building.
What if every multi-housing complex or park had a church adopt it for prayer, activities, and ministry?
A Few Links I Liked and Learned from this week:
- Calvin Miller’s Letters to a Young Pastor:
“One of our chief sins is that we school our students in the works of preachers with large churches and then brutally send them into the world of small churches…”
“When you read your church’s bulletin and determine the invitation you offer, you will know whether your church is a community center or the globalizing, wounded arm of the Savior.”
- David Putman wants to Rescue Church Planting:
We confess that we have made church planting more about…
- Building our little kingdoms instead of advancing his glorious Kingdom.
- Reaching “more of those” instead of the “least of these”.
- Puffing our own Narcissism instead of His glory and honor.
- Advancing our own personal mission instead of embracing his mission.
- Producing weekend services instead of reproducing the “Body of Christ”.
- Being relevant instead of proclaiming his liberating revelation.
- Six Types of People You Meeting in Church Planting: Family, Fence, Fans, Friends, Farm, & Foes. Very true.
From the Twittersphere:
- Tim Peters “Winning is habit. Unfortunately, so is losing.” Vince Lombardi
- Jeff Vanderstelt Its impossible to forgive someone if you feel superior to him – Keller
- 30 Second MBA Pessimists see difficulty in every opportunity. Optimists see opportunity in every difficulty. ~Winston Churchill
- Mark Driscoll “I think men who have a pierced ear are better prepared for marriage. They’ve experienced pain and bought jewelry.” – Rita Rudner
- Rick Howerton Anyone who wants to make a big difference must first make a big decision… I will sacrifice all if necessary.
- FocusLeadership Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man’s character, give him power. Abraham Lincoln
- Rick Warren If couples put even half as much thought preparing for marriage as they give to the wedding, there’d be fewer divorces.
- EntreLeadership “You can’t build a reputation on what you are going to do.” – Henry Ford
- Eric Geiger Assimilation and transformation are not the same thing…
Dealing w/Difficult People
Seems like I’m talking about this more and more lately with people of my generation or younger. Maybe it’s b/c we played inside looking at a screen more than outside resolving conflict on the sandlot. Or maybe it’s b/c the boomer generation tended to sweep things under the rug, so we never saw conflict resolution handled well. Or maybe it’s b/c we’re the sitcom generation and everything supposed to work itself out in 30 minutes or less and if it doesn’t we’re not sure what to do. Or maybe it’s b/c we’re the “pretense” generation, obsessed with everyone liking our pages, our ideas, and our way of life and we have trouble when they don’t. Whatever the case, relationships can be difficult. It helps me to remember a couple of things:
- To someone I am a difficult person. Why? It may be that I’m misunderstood or I’m having a bad day or my personality rubs you the wrong way. But we tend to give ourselves the benefit of the doubt, credit for our intensions, and many chances. Do we do that for others? Remember, the merciful will be shown mercy (Matthew 5:7; James 2:13). I love this scene from the movie Fireproof which reminds us that our relationship with others tends to show us a pic of our relationship with God. The cross was necessary b/c we were enemies of and unable to relate to God. He had mercy, grace, and He made a way. So should we.
- Hurting People, Hurt People, and are more easily Hurt by People. When we’re hard to live with, it’s usually something deeper. We’re living out of our pain. (James 4:1-3). Don’t fight back at first instinct. Pray for the person, look for opportunities to address the why behind their issues. Don’t pile on the pain for you or them. And when someone irks you or hurts you, don’t point a finger automatically. Ask, “Is there something in me that’s making this appear worse in my eyes than it really is?”
Here’s a few of my favorite books that help us think through relationships, especially difficult ones:
- Fool-Proofing Your Life: How to Deal Effectively with the Impossible People in Your Life by Jan Silvious.
- Friends, Foes, and Fools by James Merrit.
- Safe People: How to Find Relationships that are Good for You and Avoid Those that Aren’t by Henry Cloud and John Townsend.
- Romans 12 is the one stop shop for relational help. Read it, apply it, enjoy life.
Spiritual Inventory and Evaluation
This month our church has been participating in 21 Days of Prayer and Fasting for Spiritual Awakening in Louisiana. We’ve tracked through a 21-Day devotional authored by Claude King as well. One of the highlights has been the Complete Spiritual Inventory that was part of day 6. The questions destroy any sense of self-righteousness and bring you face to face before God. You can download the devotional here. The Inventory is on page 50. I’m going to hang on to this and try to do it at least once per year. Here’s a few of the questions that I’m still grappling with. Take a little inventory yourself:
Was there ever a time in my life that God completely transformed my life and made me a brand new person – therefore, the following elements are lived through the message of my life:
- Old things passed away (attitudes, thoughts, desires, motivation, vocabulary, lifestyle, actions, reactions) and all things became new (new heart, new love, new purpose, etc.)? YES or NO
- I cannot sin and get away with it without conviction? YES or NO
- I do not love the things of the world (worldly lifestyles, clothes, music, crowd, philosophies…)? YES or NO
- I have a desire to do God’s will in every area of my life? YES or NO
- I cannot continually or habitually practice the same sin? YES or NO
- I love people with all my heart and demonstrate it by giving of myself to minister to their physical and spiritual needs? YES or NO.
- God answers my prayers? YES or NO
- Is it ever difficult to confess my sin to God? YES or NO
- Do I ever find it hard to ask forgiveness from my family or acquaintances when I sin against them?
- Is it ever hard for me to admit when I am wrong?
- Do I have a tendency to want credit for accomplishments?
- Do I ever desire to get ahead and get a big name and be a success for personal gratification?
- Do I desire to be recognized?
- Is it ever difficult for me to publicly display my love for Jesus?
- Is it ever hard for me to express genuine love and appreciation?
- Do I ever try to get ahead at the expense of others? Am I an opportunists?
- Am I ever willing to sacrifice my honesty and purity in order to be a success?
- Do I ever defend myself when a fault or sin is pointed out in my life?
- Is my primary drive to look out for myself rather than to serve others and help others be a success?
By example and proof of your life which is more important?
- People or Production
- Service or Success
- Ministering or “The Ministry”
- The worker or “The Work”
- Quality and depth or Quantity and size
- Prayer and Fasting or Methods and programs
Take the whole inventory by downloading the Guide.
“Life’s a Marathon Not a Sprint”
Very proud of several members of our Small Group that completed marathon’s this past weekend in Baton Rouge and Houston. What a tremendous accomplishment! One of the guys wife was sending text updates at different legs of the race on Sunday. I got a text at one point that said, “Mile 16 and 10 to go.” Having never ran a marathon before the gravity of that hit me. This guy has run 16 miles and still has to run 10 miles!!!
Life hits us like that sometimes I think. If we don’t realize the finish line is ahead, we may give up. You’re at mile 16. You’re tired. You’ve run a long way. Don’t quit, keep going, the race can be completed.
What are you considering giving up on right now? Could it be possible that you’re just at mile 16?
Core: Be Intentional w/People
One characteristic of a follower of Christ is intentionality in personal relationships. Jesus is our model of intentionality and living life on mission in three ways:
- He was responsive to the needs around him. In the Gospel of Mark a word jumps out at least 40 times – IMMEDIATELY. He responded to needs without hesitation and demonstrating great concern.
- He intentionally sought out people with needs. From Zaccheus, the wealthy, friendless, lonely man looking for a slither of hope from the fork of a tree – see Luke 19:1-10; to the woman at the well, who was hardened by broken relationship and a bad reputation – see John 4; to the man by the pool at Bethesday who had been a invalid for years – see John 5. Jesus intentionally walked into these people’s lives and sought avenues to invest and heal.
- He befriended people others wouldn’t. The religious crowds faq, “Why does he eat with tax collectors and sinners?” http://bible.us/Mark2.16.ESV. Jesus was always at the parties that modern day WWJD? bracelet wearers would say he shouldn’t be at. And you get a sense that these folks loved being around Jesus, AND that he loved being around them.
So, how intentional are you? What did you do immediately this week? Who are intentionally seeking to bring hope and healing to? Who are you investing in that’s far from God and may be hard to love at times?
This month Bridge Church is talking about the 7 Core Practices of Life In Christ-On Misson-4 Others
. Check out the other 7 Core Practices and listen to Message #1 and #2 from this series here. Also, check out this great resource full of ideas about how to live with Gospel intetionality – Simple-Ways-To-Be-Missional-eBook from Verge Network.
Join Bridge Church at one of our gatherings on Sunday: 10am at the West St Tammany YMCA or 6pm at Northshore Community Fellowship in Hammond. Other gatherings: 9am at the St. Tammany Parish Jail and 6pm at Oak Villa Mobile Home Park #71.
Lane Corley 