Category Archives: Ministry
Mutli-Housing Ministry Ideas
Last Friday the Northshore Baptist Association hosted a Multi-Housing Ministry Roundtable with Tia Albertson from Tarrant County Baptist Association in Fort Worth, TX. Tia’s husband Ray serves as Pastor of North Star Fellowship, which is a church that meets in a large apartment complex in Irving, TX. This is a fully constituted, fully functioning church that is intentionally planted to reach this particular multi-housing complex along with multiplying itself into others. The Roundtable was possible because of Northstar’s being in SE Louisiana on a mission trip.
I love this stuff because of my connection to an Apartment Church in Irving, while a student at Southwestern Seminary. Oak View Baptist adopted a strategy that included multi-housing church planting due to the lack of ethnic diversity in their congregation and overwhelming lostness in their one mile radius. I learned a ton at Kirkwood Park Fellowship and the principles of organic church life that I practiced as an apartment church pastor have stayed with me over the last 10 years.
Next time you drive by an apartment complex or mobile home park, think about the lives of the people there. Consider that what takes you 2 seconds to drive past, houses 400-1,500 souls who need to hear the gospel. A few takeaways from our roundtable with Tia Albertson and North Star Fellowship:
- Pray, Pray, Pray. Prayer walking is a good habit to get into and easy to do at a multi-housing complex. Click here for a Prayer Walking Guide.
- Try to work with the management. Go to serve. First question, “How can I help you?” not, “Can I have a Bible Study here?” A few ideas on this later.
- Look for persons of peace who live on site. Who is God working with that lives on site.
- Aim for church life on site. “The word became flesh and blood and moved into the neighborhood” John 1:14
If you simply do outreach to a multi-housing site, inviting them to your church site, you will reach 4% of the population. But if you take church-life to them, you will reach 30% of the site. I’m praying that we go for the 30%.
Zimbabwe Orphans
In 2009, Cassy & Steve DiLeo, organized a clothing drive that pulled in churches and businesses including PJ’s Coffee, who allowed boxes to be placed in all of their St. Tammany stores for a month or more. hundreds of boxes of clothes were shipped to Zimbabwe. This morning I was blessed to receive the first pics of orphans at Melfort Children’s Home in Zimbabwe receiving some of those clothes!
Thanks to Steve and Cassy for your AGAPE-like leadership and initiative to take on the task. Along with the clothes, this orphanage has received new life through a new water pump and system for the on site well, thanks to the Make-a-Wish Foundation and the desire of Jonathan DiLeo, Cassy & Steve’s youngest son who passed away last year due to complications with a brain tumor. His last wish was that Melfort have clean water. I was privileged to travel to Zimbabwe and visit Melfort Orphanage with Steve, Cassy, and Jonathan in 2005. It’s just a snapshot of the plight of millions of orphans in Zimbabwe and other parts of Africa (estimated 25% of the population in Zim are orphans). Peter Mabasa, Pastor of Global Life Ministries in Zimbabwe writes about the children at Melfort:
We paid a visit to Melfort Children’s Home this week to distribute the clothing you and others donated to us recently. It was such a beautiful sight seeing many of these children smiling and happy to get a new pair of shoes, dress or perhaps a warm jersey to counter this year’s severe winter. Most of the children at this home have their own story to tell. They come from dysfunctional families some shunned by their families because they dared report a case of sexual and or other abuse resulting in the arrest of a family member e.g. an uncle. Then there are the orphans as a result mostly of the HIV pandemic. Other groups comprise children abandoned at birth by young mothers not prepared to take the responsibility of motherhood. You sit down with any of these children and you hear harrowing tales that will bring the most hardened person to tears. Making a small difference in the life of these children is one of the most fulfilling things one can ever do and for that we are grateful to you brethren for making this possible.
Along with aid to orphans, churches are being planted, medical aid provided, and leaders are being trained in rural Zimbabwe in partnership with Global Life Ministries and churches on the Northshore and in Central Louisiana. This weekend we are praying for Global Life as they trek to remote Binga, Zimbabwe, for a medical outreach. Also, praying for teams from Central Louisiana currently on mission in Zimbabwe. I’m looking forward to getting back to Zim in 2011. Let me know if you’d like to get on board.
What Does Missional Look Like?
The call to mission may cause you to memorize the names of everyone on your street; take new co-workers out for lunch; throw parties to connect friends who don’t know each other; go out of your way to ask people, “How are things going?” You might intentionally give some money to help people or support church, civic, or global causes that meet practical needs. You might feel the call to give time to volunteer. You might even participate in local or global missions.
What is Community?
The call to community is more than just going to church on Sunday. A commitment to community might change the way you think about your Christian friends. Instead of working to impress them with your spirituality or your “edginess”, you might find yourself entrusting them with your struggles. Which might lead to better relationships. Which might lead to you going on mission together. Which is the whole point.
Good stuff from the TK Primer, which our church is tracking through this Summer.
Block Party Maximizer
Simple idea to maximize the impact of your evangelistic Block Party: Invite the local Ice Cream Truck to crash the party. And why not pay for the Ice Cream?
How Can My Church Get Involved in Church Planting and Multiplication?
Reaching North America for Christ is too big a task for one church to handle. New Church Multiplication is one of the best ways for us to work the North American fields to the edges. And every church can get involved in multiplication of new Churches. How? The sky is the limit. There is no right or wrong way to support church planting. The question is, what are you willing to do? How big of a commitment are you willing to make?
Here are three levels of relationship that excludes no church from involvement. I offer a few suggestions that are not meant to be an exhaustive list under each level.
It’s All About Relationships
Continuing our Close Encounters series at Bridge Church. Talked this week about the importance of relationships in Jesus’ ministry and the need for relational approaches to reaching our friends for Christ. In the book Lost and Found: The Younger Unchurched and Churches that Reach Them by Ed Stetzer, Richie Stanley, and Jason Hayes, they demostrate this need with statistical data. A few statistics:
- 17% in todays world would go to church if seeking spiritual guidance. The church is no longer the place to go to find answers about spirituality.
- 90% believe they can have a good relationship with God without being involved in a church.
- 91% have at least one Christian among their close friends.
- 90% said they would be willing to listen to someone share his or her beliefs.
- 60% said they would be willing to study the Bible if a friend ask them.
- 48% would be willing attend a small group of people to learn more about the Bible and Jesus.
So people do not consider church for answers, but they have connections with Christians in our churches and would even be willing to open their lives to listen to friends. So releasing and empowering Christians to reach their network of friends off of our campuses should be a major part of our strategy. Neil Cole in his book Church 3.0 comments about this research with this question: “Why is it that when we consider ways to reach out to the lost we always plan events rather than using the natural relationships God has already given us?” Could this be a solution to our churches budget crunch? Less expensive productions, more releasing people to form organic relationships that will bring others to a close encounter with Christ.
The Tangible Kingdom: Posturing Toward Others
Summer is here and for Bridge Church that means seven or eight mission teams, a Zephyrs game or two, renting out the largest water slide in southeast Louisiana, Worship Gatherings at the YMCA, building a few handicap ramps and other crazy compassion/service projects. And one of the most exciting things for me is that in Community Groups we’ll be working through the Tangible Kingdom Primer: An Eight Week Guide to Incarnational Community. It’s a simple study designed to challenge us to intuitively live life on mission for others. Looking forward to leaning in on what it means to be the presence of Christ in my neighborhood and community. One of the basic concepts in the study is the idea of posture, which is defined as “the way a person or community expresses itself toward others.” My personal posture and that of churches in which I’ve been a part of, has often been self-centered, inward focused, and closed off to nonconformists and anyone on the outside. What would it look like for us to posture ourselves and be present with those in the world? What honestly is the posture of your life? Toward the needs of others first or personal safety and satisfaction? Looking forward to tracking with Bridge Church through the TK primer. Contact me for more info.
Here are a few resources for those doing the TK:
- The Tangible Kingdom book.
- The Tangible Kingdom video.
- Tanglible Kingdom Primer Introduction. 17 minute description and training session led by the Author.
- Order the TK Primer and check out other Tangible Kingdom resources here.
- Follow the TK guys on Facebook.
Close Encounters – Summer Message Series at Bridge Church
We’ll begin a new message series this Sunday at Bridge Church. Close Encounters: Conversations that Bring Transformation. We’ll be looking at Jesus’ one on one interactions with people in the Gospel’s. The Big Idea will be that close encounters with Christ bring life transformation. The secondary idea is that we can be catalyst for life transformation as we bring people into a close encounter with Christ. Some of the questions will be asking: How did Jesus deal with shameful sinners, the wealthy fringe, those with major health issues, the religious zealot, the sinful fridge, people with rough edges, those who had doubt, the political idealogue. These are the people that we are walking past and relating to everyday. What can we say to lead them to see the light of the Glory of God in Christ? Let’s take some lessons from the Master. Should be a lot of fun.
Lane Corley 