Category Archives: Church Planting
Supporting Church Planters
Here’s some great ideas from Georg
e Ross for supporting church planters both near & far. CLICK HERE to read George’s latest update on church planting in New Orleans for this list & much more.
PLANTER SUPPORT IDEAS:
- Baby shower for expecting planters. Have your church host a baby shower for an expectant planter. A partner church hosted a shower last year and provided a planting couple with diapers, baby food and clothes, and a freezer FULL of food. What a blessing!
- Monthly Volunteers for childcare during Worship. SEND New Orleans has several partner churches that take one worship service a month and send a volunteer team to do childcare. This allows overworked volunteers to come and worship with their church family.
- Date night and childcare for a planter. One of the greatest barriers planters face in cultivating a healthy marriage, is simply finding childcare and resources to make it happen. Plan to send a team down to provide childcare and a dinner gift card. I promise it will be a blessing.
- Church Planter Profiles prayer strategy. The greatest partnership a planter can have is a faithful church praying for their family and work. Visit the NAMB website and download church planter profiles today, CLICK HERE for SEND New Orleans Church Planter Profiles.
- Hosting a Global Impact Conference at your church. Having a church planter come and share at a GIC is a powerful way to communicate and challenge your church to participate in local and global missions. Get more information on the benefits of a Global Impact Conference over at George’s Blog.
- Pastor Appreciation Month. Unlike many established churches with a rich tradition of pastor appreciation, church plants reaching un-churched and de-churched people rarely have a background in pastor appreciation. Use this October as an opportunity to appreciate your church plant pastor. Click HERE for some great resources for pastor appreciation from the North American Mission Board.
Get to know George by following his blog, connect with him on Twitter. And follow Send New Orleans HERE.
Planning for an Evangelistic Culture
New churches tend to be more evangelistic. As a matter of fact, data has shown that established Southern Baptist churches baptize 3.4 people per 100 members, and new SBC churches baptize 11.7 people per 100 members. Why? I believe, one simple reason is in the way we plan. As the pastor of a local church, I started my week with this mindset – “They’re coming, how do I get ready?” That is, the members will be coming to church on Wednesday & Sunday, so get ready for them. The insiders. How’s the sermon? How’s the building? How do I make the insiders happy?
When I became a church planter, that changed subtly to “They’re NOT coming, how do I get ready?” That motivated me to different means. How will I invite people & let them know about the gathering? How will I communicate so they will understand what church is about? How will I present the gospel? How will I GO into the world? How can I get this message out?
Creating and evangelistic culture is about living for those who are NOT there yet. And helping get ready for those who are NOT coming. When we can get every person, every ministry, every sermon, the longing of every heart in the church geared toward THEM, an evangelistic culture is beginning to blossom.
I want to live by, “They’re NOT coming, how do we get ready?” and get out & do all we can to invite, share, invest, & serve, so that they’ll do much more than just come to our church, but so they’ll be part of that great throng surrounding Jesus in worship for all eternity.
And folks, the reality is, THEY’RE NOT COMING. Evangelical church attendance is around 10% of the population or less across Louisiana. The assumption that most people go to church somewhere is just false.
So how are you planning this week?
Starting an Associational Church Multiplication Movement
Good strategy should create the right conditions for a church multiplication movement to reach every people group & population segment in our communities. Here’s five steps to an associational strategy for church multiplication:
Step 1: Mobilize an Associational Missions or Church Planting Team. Intentionality will be best maintained by men & women with a heart for missions & church multiplication who work in concert with the Director of Missions & other partners to strategize for reaching the lost in the area.
Step 2: Conduct an Area-Wide Feasibility Study or Probe. A probe of the area should include intense demographic & ecclesiographic research. To maximize buy in, it may also include organizing a vision tour or windshield survey across the area with Pastors & church leaders. A probe may also include polling pastors & staff members & key leaders in the community about the need for new churches & ministries in the region.
Step 3: Map the Strategy based on the Probe. Combining extensive data collection with soundbites from organized efforts to determine needs, the church planting team should then be ready to go to a map & start pinpointing potential locations for churches & ministries. The LBC Engage Map can be a great tool for this & church planting priorities can immediately be available for recruiting planters & resources to projects determined by the the Church Planting Team via the world wide web.
Step 4: Discover & Develop qualified planters & team members. Once we know who we need to reach & where, we can best determine who we need to be looking & praying for to take on the mission of planting a church in that area. It will also help the state convention in planning resources & training events that will best assist planting in the region. Armed with data & vision for meeting the specific needs of communities we can be more intentional in gathering resources & recruiting partners & team members.
Step 5: Network church planting leaders & enthusiasts for celebration, encouragement, health, & recruitment. Engaging the lost community through church planting will lead to stories that need to be told, wounds & scars that need to be healed, & greater interest in diving into the church planting pool. A regular network meeting in the region will be a great tool to keep the movement going & keep points going onto the map & multiplication of disciples, groups, & churches going for years to come.
Utilizing this strategy, one of our Louisiana associations has started 14 new churches since 2000, with only one failed plant. That’s a 93% success rate! The Louisiana Baptists Missions & Ministry Team is here to assist with 10-3-1 Strategy Development. We can assist you & your team with each of these steps as we move toward a strategy that engages every person in Louisiana with the Gospel.
Build Retreat and Rest Into Your Church Planting Journey
“Come away by yourselves to a desolate place and rest a while” Mark 6:31 ESV
Be intentional about building in retreat & rest into your church planting journey. A bunch of good partners for ministers on a tight budget in this regard. Here’s a few around Louisiana & vicinity:
- Shore Ministries –http://www.shorministries.com/ – Free Retreats for Pastors & their wives, all across the south.
- Abbie Lane – http://abbielane.org/ – Free Retreat center in Coushatta, LA.
- Lighthouse Resort Ministry, Grand Isle – http://ow.ly/KQkCu. Contact Fellow Church Planter John Boss.
Also, most of our Associational Camps across Louisiana offer free stays for Pastors in need of retreat & rest:
- Acadiana Baptist Center, near Lafayette – http://www.abccamp.com/
- Camp Bethany, near Shreveport – http://www.campbethany.com/
- Camp Harris, near Shreveport – http://www.harrisbaptist.com/
- Camp Living Waters, near Hammond – http://camplivingwaters.net/
- Clara Springs Baptist Camp, near Natchitoches –http://www.clarasprings.com/
- Dry Creek Baptist Camp, near Lake Charles – http://drycreek.net/
- Judson Baptist Retreat Center, St. Francisville, near Baton Rouge –http://www.judsonretreat.org/
- Tall Timbers, near Alexandria – http://www.lbc.org/talltimbers/
Let me know if you know of others!
Why Multi-Site Church? 6 Benefits
Multi-site Church development continues to be a great tool for multiplying & revitalize churches. A few observations about current multi-site churches among Louisiana Baptists,
- those churches have experienced a combined 30% growth in attendance since becoming multi-site.
- 80% have experienced growth in worship & small groups.
- Half have included a church merger or gifting of a building from a declining church as part of the multisite development.
- Half have requested & received cooperative funding from the Missions & Ministries Team of our state convention for the new sites.
- ALL of them were growing churches BEFORE multisite development, not BECAUSE of multi-site development.
One of the big takeaways: Multisite is NOT a tool for getting your church to grow, but to multiply your growing DNA to a new community.
Dennis Watson, Pastor of Celebration Church in New Orleans, which has 6 campuses & planning more gives six benefits of a Multisite Campus Strategy, Multi-site enables your church to:
- Grow larger and smaller at the same time.
- Overcome geographic and cultural barriers to reach new people.
- Address more community needs and provide more community support.
- Involve more people in growth and outreach opportunities.
- Staff with generalists and specialists, so that both groups can be utilized.
- Provide a new church vibe with a big church punch.
How can our church know if multisite is in our future:
- Do you have a vision for church revitalization that may include merging with a declining congregation?
- Are you running out of space, but do not feel led to build bigger?
- Has your church been in decline and could possibly be a candidate for merging with a sister congregation?
- Take this MultiSiteDiagnosis Self Assessment.
Doing some Multi-Site readiness roundtables this week in southeast Louisiana. Let me know if you’d like more info.
Hardcore Church Planting
Enjoyed getting to finally meet Peyton Jones at the Send 2015 Conference & I was honored to sit down with him for a bit to talk Louisiana Church Planting for the Hardcore Church Planting Podcast. Great discussion on some of our unique challenges in the Bayou State or Duck Dynasty country. Check it out HERE. And if the Church Planter Magazine, Church Planter Podcast, & Hardcore Church Planting Podcast are not in your feed, take care of that today. Always practical & relevant content from Peyton & company, born out of real life, on the ground experience in church planting. And check out his book Church Zero: Raising 1st Century Churches Out of the Ashes of the 21st Century Church, which is still at the top of my Current Church Planting Bibliography.
Old and New Churches Team Up to Plant in Bunkie
Love this story! One of Louisiana’s oldest congregations – St. James Baptist in Bayou Chicot (started by Joseph Willis in the early 1800’s) & one of Louisiana’s newest congregations – Life Point Church in Mansura, planter/pastor Jacob Crawford, are partnering to start a new church in Bunkie. Planter/Pastor is Reginald Arvie, who also serves Bi-vocationally as a hospital administrator in Mamou. Pray for Reginald, Jacob, & their team that are planting St. James – Bunkie!
Joseph Willis is credited with planting the first evangelical churches west of the Mississippi River. His life is remembered in the great book Twice a Slave.
Top 5 Places to Plant a Church in Louisiana #SendNorthAmerica #churchplanting #send2015
I like to call south Louisiana the back pocket of the Bible Belt. Still many cities & communities in need of new churches in one of North America’s most unique cultures. Here’s the top five places to plant a church in Louisiana:
1. New Orleans
Population: 956,000. Only 2.1% attend a SBC Church. Only 11% Evangelical. 432,270 unaffiliated with any church.
Includes the Parishes of Orleans, Jefferson (Louisiana’s 2nd largest Parish), St. Bernard, Plaquemine, & St. Charles. New Orleans is strategic for a lot of reasons: one of North America’s most influential ports, a cultural icon for the world. For Louisiana, it makes up 20% of our population. For Southern Baptists, its one of only three Send Cities in the South.
Contacts: The New Orleans Baptist Associaton, DOM Jack Hunter. George Ross, North American Mission Board Send City Coordinator for New Orleans.
2. Acadiana
Population: 675,000. Only 1.8% attend a SBC church. Evangelical population only 9%. 229,049 unaffiliated with any church.
Includes the cities of Lafayette, Youngsville (one of Louisiana’s fastest growing), Abbeville, Carencro, Opelousas, Breaux Bridge. This is true Louisiana. Cajun Country. The images most shared about Louisiana come from these areas. Amazing food. Gators. Live Oaks. It’s also home to Louisiana’s second largest University, University of Louisiana – Lafayette.
Contacts: The Evangeline Baptist Association, DOM Bert Langley.
3. Baton Rouge
Population: 630,000. Only 2.0% attend a SBC Church. 23% evangelical. 242,000 unaffiliated with any church.
Includes the cities of Baton Rouge, Prairieville, Gonzalez, Port Allen, Plaquemine & others. Louisiana’s state capital & the center of political life & becoming more influential in the Business life of the entire I-10 corridor. Growing refugee populations have been noted & this year will begin receiving Syrian refugees. Also, home to one of America’s most influential universities, Louisiana State University.
Contacts: The Baptist Association of Greater Baton Rouge, DOM Tommy Middleton.
4. Bayou
Population: 208,000. Only 1.8% attend a SBC Church. Only 6% Evangelical. 70,672 unaffiliated with any church.
Includes the cities of Houma, Thibodaux, Grand Isle, Galliano, Cutoff, & others. One of the best places for fresh shrimp in North America! Beautiful people & incredible culture. Also, very influential because of the thousands that work out of these communities in the drilling & oil production industry across the Gulf of Mexico. Home to Nicholls State University.
Contacts: The Bayou Baptist Association, DOM Joe Arnold.
5. I-12 Corridor
Population: 541,234. Only 4.8% attend a SBC Church. 25% Evangelical. 270,687 unaffiliated with any church.
Includes the cities of Denham Springs, Walker, Hammond, Ponchatoula, Covington, Mandeville, Slidell & others. Fast growing for years due to suburban life. Now robust corporate life developing. Home to Louisiana’s third largest University – South Eastern Louisiana State University in Hammond.
Contacts: Eastern Louisiana Baptist Association, DOM David Brown. And Northshore Baptist Association, DOM Lonnie Wascom.
And VERY close behind or tied with these FIVE:
- Lake Charles – Center of Louisiana’s Chemical Corridor. Expected to add 20,000 jobs over the next 10 years.
- Avoyelles Parish region – Still several communities that have never had an evangelical church.
Planters & partners needed. Message me for info about these and other communities that need new churches in Louisiana if God may be leading you to the Bayou.
Find other info on Church Planting in Louisiana at https://louisianabaptists.org/churchplanting.
And connect with other church planters in Louisiana by joining our Facebook Group – Louisiana Church Multiplication Network.
The Church Planter’s Wife
In honor of my church planting wife on our 16th Anniversary
Sunday’s have been abnormal for my wife for the entirety of our marriage. They’ve included:
- never having her husbands help getting the kids ready for church because he’s setting up for church.
- very seldom sitting by her husband in a worship service because of preaching/sound/nursery/etc.
- going to church in weird places like apartment complex clubhouses, fire stations, former bars, & gymnasiums
- not having Sunday lunch till 2pm most weeks because he’s doing teardown & cleanup
Why? Because her husbands a church planter. I’ve never heard her complain about any of this as she has accepted this role as who she is. It’s OUR calling, she says. A calling that’s led her to:
- Lead worship for a new church’s first worship service in an un air conditioned fire station in August, WHILE 9 MONTHS PREGNANT.
- She cooked for & hosted the first new members class for a church plant, JUST BEFORE checking in to the hospital to deliver one of our children.
- She’s started worship teams, children’s teams, Bible Studies, Book Club’s, women’s ministries. She’s painted faces, painted buildings, scrubbed floors, scrubbed toilets, changed diapers, etc., etc., etc.
- She’s prepared the home for meetings probably a thousand times by now! Many times 2 or 3 times a week. Sometimes twice in one day.
- She’s never complained about short vacations & creatively inexpensive date nights or about having to work outside the home because the church planters salary was, to say it nicely, below the average income for the area.
- She’s cooked & cleaned for thousands of volunteers that have served through our ministries. Many of them in the emotional aftermath of Hurricanes that had damaged our property & the property of most of our friends.
- She’s faced the emotional ups & downs of having a type A church planting husband who has faced criticism, made bad decisions, said yes to too much, & wanted to quit every Monday.
- And during all this, did I mention WE’VE GOT KIDS! Yep, she’s also an incredible mom, sister, friend, coworker, etc.
Dr. Reggie Ogea, who recruited me to plant our first church tells me every time I see him – “You know we only hired you because of your wife. We thought you were the real deal, but we knew Heather was the real deal.” And she’s proven him right over & over again.
Sometimes as I think about all of this I want to say “I’m sorry.” But she wouldn’t get it. So I just have to keep saying THANK YOU! & giving her the praise she deserves (Proverbs 31:28, 31).
Last year I talked her into telling her story to a group of church planting wives. I told her she should write it up, but she didn’t. However, I hijacked her notes (after 16 years of marriage, we can usually guess each others passwords). Here’s her outline – the commitments of a Church Planting Wife:
- I will love my husband well.
- I will not allow chaos, conflict, & criticism to completely freak me out.
- I will be who I am created to be & not compare myself to other women.
- I will take a posture of love to the lost in my community.
Grateful that she’s fulfilled & lived these commitments out. And looking forward to many more years of planting, ministry, & life with my good thing (Proverbs 18:22) Heather Corley!
Church Planters Share Their #1 Resource… It Might Surprise You
This summer we held Church Planting Network luncheons across the state of Louisiana. Over 100 leaders attended the luncheons & were asked to share three things:
- Biggest Recent Win
- Current Greatest Challenge
- Best Resource
The discussions were great & inspirational. God is truly doing some historic things across the Bayou state. It was a great experience to share a meal & get to spend some time with these incredible leaders.
What was the top resources? The #1 resource shared by church planting leaders across Louisiana was… PEOPLE! At every meeting several of these leaders would wisely say, “My best resource is the people that serve with me, support me, & that I can call on when I need them.” Fits a church planting axiom that I heard years ago, “The resources are in the harvest.” Church planting leaders MUST learn how to gather, develop, encourage, deploy, & depend upon people. Our best resources will always be those around us.
Here is a list of 25 other resources shared at our statewide gatherings this summer.
- Website: http://bookdepot.com/ – Great site to check when doing book giveaways. Recent releases for as low as $3 each. Must order $100 worth.
- Website: http://www.rightnowmedia.org/ – Video Bible Study & Kids Entertainment Library.
- Website: http://erlc.com/ – Keep up with culturals shifts & how to respond to issues.
- Website: http://evernote.com – for sermon prep, planning, staff communication.
- Website: http://get.planningcenteronline.com/ – for team & volunteer management
- Website: http://story4all.com/ – for info on Gospel Storying
- Website: http://Eventbrite.com – for event planning, registration, AND also social networking for events in your area.
- Book: It’s Personal: Surviving & Thriving on the Journey of Church Planting. This years network giveaway. Great book on the personal, emotional side of planting & leadership.
- Book: Rediscovering the Church Fathers: Who They Were and How They Shaped the Church
- Book: When Helping Hurts: How to Alleviate Poverty Without Hurting the Poor . . . and Yourself. Start healthy compassion ministries.
- Book: Truth That Sticks: How to Communicate Velcro Truth in a Teflon World. on storying the Bible.
- Book: Contagious Disciple Making: Leading Others on a Journey of Discovery. Great book on discipleship movements.
- Book: The Rise of the Nones: Understanding and Reaching the Religiously Unaffiliated. Must read for church planters!
- Book: Saturate: Being Disciples of Jesus in the Everyday Stuff of Life. Book of the year on discipleship & church life.
- Book: Total Church: A Radical Reshaping around Gospel and Community. on setting up healthy church systems & structures.
- Book: Right Color, Wrong Culture: The Type of Leader Your Organization Needs to Become Multiethnic
- Book: Community Group Guide: Planting or Re-Planting Life Giving Small Groups by Brad House
- Book: The Pocket Guide to Leading a Small Group: 52 Ways to Help You and Your Small Group Grow by Dave Early
- Book: Bobby Bowden On Leadership: Life Lessons from a Two-Time National Championship Coach. Shared by a former Florida State running back looking to plant a church in Louisiana in the coming years!
- Book: Preaching to a Postmodern World: A Guide to Reaching Twenty-first Century Listeners
- Book: Better Together: Making Church Mergers Work
- Book: Ordinary: How to Turn the World Upside Down by Tony Merida
- Resource: The Redeemer Church Planting Manual.
- Mobile Pregnancy Center from the Louisiana Baptist Children’s Home – available to setup at your church or community event. Pregnancy test, ultrasounds, etc. done on site.
- Re-Group Coaching with Sean Keith. Sean helps churches set up structures & systems for continued growth. Contact Sean.Keith@LouisianaBaptists.org.
Watch for some fall opportunities to network with multiplication leaders in your area.
Lane Corley 