Category Archives: Uncategorized
2016 ACP Data Is In!
2016 ACP (Annual Church Profile) Reports are in for Louisiana. The Annual Church Profile is collected by State Convention Communication and Information Services Departments and tallied together nationally by Lifeway. Our Information Services Department works hard to gather the data, even from churches that do not turn in the form, by calling them and asking for what data can be gathered over the phone. Most Associations do a good job helping churches see the importance. It is valuable for us to see how we are doing together and for our strategists to have good data as we plan church planting and missions efforts nationally. It also gets our state included in national data collection.
Here are a few highlights that I found interesting from this years ACP Reports:
- 86% or 1,376 Louisiana Baptist Churches reported. So 248 churches did not report.
- Total Worship Attendance for 2016 in Louisiana was 165,228. Which is 3.5% of Louisiana’s total population of 4,670,724.
- Total Resident Membership for 2016 was 357,631. Which is 7.7% of Louisiana’s total population.
- Total Baptisms reported – 10,214. Down almost 900 from the previous year. Baptisms declined in every age group, but most drastically among children and youth.
- Worship Attendance is down 8% since 2012.
- 791 or 57% of Louisiana congregations are <150 in Resident Membership
- 449 or 33% are between 150 and 499 in Resident Membership
- 136 or 10% are over 500 in Resident Membership.
- Out of 1,376 reporting congregations, 498 or 36% reported a decline in attendance from 2015-2016. 331 or 24% showed a decline of 10% or more.
- 551 or 40% reported a decline in Small Group Attendance. 25% had a decline of 10% or more. 656 out of 1,376 or 48% reported a decline over the last 10 years.
- Small Group Attendance is at an all-time low in Louisiana, dropping below 100,000 only the 2nd time in reported history.
- No congregation had showed a decline every year in the last 10 years.
A few takeaways:
- A decline continues to be noted in attendance and membership.
- The decline is not a doomsday 80% of churches, that we hear sometimes. 36% of churches, not 80% declined since last year. And NO CHURCH showed a decline every year in the last 10 years.
- Small Group attendance figures are alarming. Small Group attendance has dropped drastically for Southern Baptist in Louisiana. Part of this is probably due to programming issues. More churches doing two worship services, etc. But knowing how much great face to face discipleship happens in small groups, it grieves me to see these figures dropping so drastically.
- Noted decline among children and youth baptisms continue in Louisiana. In the 1990’s Louisiana Baptist were baptizing 5,000+ children and 4,000+ youth every year. This year only 2,597 children and 1,896 youth baptisms were reported. Prayers for the next generation.
What data point most interest you? What would you like to know from this years ACP data? What are your takeaways? Comments? etc.
We’re Not Done When We Make Converts, Our Mission is Maturity
The 2017 Generate Conference is a wrap. This years host and showcase church was North Monroe Baptist. Grateful to Pastor Bill Dye and staff for the generosity and hospitality. The Generate Conference is designed to help church planters in years 3 to 10 to get beyond growth barriers and leadership hurdles. Pastors and leaders in churches from >50 to <500 have also attended and took away actionable steps. With the Generate Conference we highlight the work of several Louisiana churches that have found ways to grow and break growth barriers in our unique context. Shawn Lovejoy, with Courage to Lead and Kirk Jones, Fellowship Church in Prairieville, also served as equippers this year, along with North Monroe’s staff. Here’s a few of my big takeaways this year:
From Bill Dye:
- You can’t be a great pastoral leader without having the heart of Jesus.
- Find a way to use new people. They are the best volunteers because they’ve bought in to the vision. Don’t wait to put them on ministry teams.
- Only person who likes change is a wet baby. Don’t attempt any substantial change until you’ve done at least one year of vision casting.
- Be willing to ignore and work around difficult people. Are you trying to win a fight or win the world for Christ.
- Let the quality of your work speak for itself. When you do tough things in a spirit of humility, your stock goes up with the right people.
- We’re not done when we make converts. Our mission is maturity.
- Church staff are not ministers, but administrators of ministry. We don’t pay people to minister. Everybody ministers.
From Shawn Lovejoy:
- The Three Gears of Growth: Culture – Team – Systems
- Growth depends not on your preaching ability but the ability to let go of control and build a great team.
- Decisions must be made based on who we might reach instead of who might leave.
- If you have the right culture and the right team, almost any system will work.
- You have to be the culture you want to build. We reproduce who we are.
- Behaviors of a High Performing Team: They Trust Each Other, They Engage in Healthy Conflict, They Commit to Decisions and Plans of Actions, They Focus on Collective, not Individual Results.
- Four things we owe our leaders: Clarity, Grace, Honesty, and Proper Placement.
- God will not bring you more followers than you have leaders.
- A learning church is a growing church. A learning leader is a growing leader.
- Church staff is to be the equippers, not to do ministry, but to develop ministers.
Other presenters were: Jacob Crawford, Life Point Mansura; Chad Merrell, First West Fairbanks; Jason McGuffie, FBC Tallulah.
Look forward to highlighting other growing churches and leaders in 2018. Lots to learn from those right around us.
Church Growth = Growing Friends + Growing Family
I’ve been a part of a couple of growing churches. The fun of it is having a growing number of people to call friends and then a growing number of people to call family. This is essentially a good, simple church growth strategy. Hey, let’s make more friends and let’s stick with them long enough that they become family. Scaling this to grow a church larger and larger requires intentional strategy. Nothing wrong with a small group of friends and small families. But most churches want to grow. Many pastors and most church planters want their churches to be self-sustaining and be around for future generations. So how do we grow friends and family?
1. Design systems to discover and track the number of friends your church has.
A friend is anyone that may be connected with your church or with a member of your church family. Do you know how many friends you have? In the past, we’ve called these prospects. I prefer to think of them as friends. Do you have a list of prospects / friends? Here’s some ways to discover them:
- Have a connection card on Sunday’s that people fill out. All first time guests are added to our Friends list, so that we can pray for them, and stay in touch with them.
- Ask people in your church to make a list of friends that don’t have a church family. List them, pray for them among the leadership, visit them, invite them.
- Have regular events that are just designed to make new friends. Easter Egg Hunts, Fall Festivals, Movie Nights in the park, etc. Let the community know that this is a safe place to know and be known.
- Our church uses a list we call Crowd – Congregation – Core to track where people are spiritually within our family.
2. Cast a vision and provide resources to help people in your church to make new friends.
Tim Keller said, “In the first two centuries, mission work was informal, conversational, and largely through friendship.” I think our world could use a lot of this kind of mission work as well. What if people got a vision for expanding the kingdom through friendship and caring for those around them. Here’s some ways a church may encourage this:
- Teach people the importance of initiating new relationships in the process of evangelism.
- Provide resources for people to celebrate and party well within the community. Like a block party trailer with inflatables, tents, and outdoor sound equipment. Like a big BBQ pit that can be loaned out to families on the weekends for Birthday parties and neighborhood gatherings.
- Have special friend days, designed just for people to invite new friends to church that promises a meaningful message with them in mind.
3. Design systems to lead to deeper family-like connections and commitments.
One of the growing small groups at our church, does an annual camp out. Friendship written all over this pic. Love it!
We become family-like by sticking with each other through difficult times and awkward moments. Having systems in your church that provides meaningful connections for friends going through transitions and crisis – like moving, bringing home a new baby, experiencing loss, etc. helps develop sticky family-like connections. How do we do that?
- Have a small group ministry where people can develop great connections where they can know and be known through good and bad seasons.
- Have a team in your church that looks for opportunities to serve people in transition of some kind. For our church it’s the Family Support Team and the individual small groups. Care and concern make relationships sticky and family-like.
4. Move people to Commit to God’s family by Connecting them with Christ.
Our ultimate goal is not to have family-like relationships. We can do that through other organizations and relationships. We want to move people to become real spiritual family members and we do that through connecting them with the person and work of Christ.
- Share the story of Christ at every gathering.
- Teach people to share their story of connecting with Christ as they build friendship in the community.
- Offer a Family Connections Class or Workshop or New Members Class that teaches people how to become real spiritual family through Christ.
Don’t focus on what you can’t do as a church. Make it simple. Friendship + Family. Every church can make new friends in their community and stick with them long enough to become family.
Grateful for these friends in our small group that our family is blessed to walk through life with through our church. Great stories around this table.
The Art of Neighboring
This weekend, our church talked about living out life In Christ in our Neighborhood’s and with those in close proximity. Get the message audio and follow up guide HERE.
A couple of years ago I read one of the most challenging and informative books on this subject called The Art of Neighboring: Building Genuine Relationships Right Outside Your Door. Here’s a few great quotes from the book that should get you thinking about how to live out your faith in your neighborhood:
- “The majority of the issues that our community is facing would be eliminated or drastically reduced if we could just figure out a way to become a community of great neighbors.” – local small town mayor
- We are often moving too fast to notice that those who are right around us need a good neighbor.
- To love someone, it helps to actually know their name.
- It’s vital to take a step back and ask ourselves if we live at a pace that allows us to be available to those who live around us.
- In this life, we can only do a few things really well; I think it’s a good idea to make certain that one of those things is what Jesus says is most important.
- Love and hurry are fundamentally incompatible. Love always takes time, and time is the one thing hurried people don’t have.
- If you don’t set your priorities, others will do it for you.
- God is already working in your neighborhood. Being a good neighbor simply means slowing down and being aware of what he is designing.
- Jesus didn’t tell us to become acquaintances with our neighbors; he called us to love them, and that means we need to have an actual relationship with them.
- We don’t love our neighbors to convert them; we love our neighbors because we’re converted.
- If we live out the Great Commandment, an environment is created where the Great Commission can be effectively obeyed.
- Good neighboring – you walk alongside those in need and help them find their way.
- Behind every door is a story.
Questions:
- What would happen if every Christ-follower made it a point to know and befriend their literal neighbors?
- Do I live at a pace that allows me to be available to those around me? And if not, are all of those things I’m doing more important than taking the Great Commandment literally?
- What are the activities you most enjoy doing, and how might they become tools for building relationships with your neighbors?
- Which of your neighbors do you feel God calling you to spend more time with?
Find some great resources that go with the book at ArtofNeighboring.com.
Prayer is… 8 Definitions in the Lord’s Prayer
This weekend at our church we looked at the Lord’s Prayer & surrounding scriptures (Matthew 6:6-18) through the lens of how important prayer is to the believer. Jesus gave us a great model, but He also defined prayer for us by His life & His teaching. So what is prayer?
1. Prayer is ASSUMED for the Christ Follower. (Matthew 6:6)
Jesus said “When you pray…” not if. (verse 6). Is prayer a regular part of your life? Is it a when or if?
2. Prayer is RELATIONSHIP with God. (Matthew 6:5-8).
Prayer is how we relate to, learn from, seek help from our Father in Heaven. You can’t start the Christian life without praying (Romans 10:9, 13). You can’t maintain a healthy Christian life without praying. (John 15:5, 7). And Jesus says God doesn’t want repetition or ritual but relationship.
3. Prayer is WORSHIP of God. (Matthew 6:9)
“hallowed be thy name”. In prayer we acknowledge who God is. And by doing so, who we are not. God wants to know our cares & anxieties (1 Peter 5:7) & our requests (Phil 4:6), but the greatest thing we do when we pray is acknowledge that He is Lord & we are his servants. That’s worship.
4. Prayer is GROWTH in HUNGER for God. (Matthew 6:10)
When we pray, we should acknowledge & demonstrate our desire to see His will accomplished & His kingdom expanded. Are all your prayers about you and your desires or about aligning your life with God’s desires? (see James 4:3)
5. Prayer is FAITH in God TO PROVIDE. (Matthew 6:11)
Prayer is a great act of faith. It is an acknowledgement that God exists & that He is providing for our lives.
6. Prayer is HEALING & FORGIVENESS. (Matthew 6:12, 14-15).
In prayer & relationships with God is where we find healing & forgiveness. 1 John 1:9 says that when in prayer, we confess our sins to Him, He promises to cleanse us.
7. Prayer is DELIVERANCE from SIN. (Matthew 6:13)
Prayer & relationship with God will also help keep us from sin. When you’re aligned with God’s will, acknowledging God’s authority, depending upon God’s power, hungry for God, there’s not that much appetite for sin. Also, in our relationship with God, He promises insight & wisdom that may keep us from paths of sin.
8. Prayer is SURRENDER to GOD’S WILL. (Matthew 6:13)
In prayer, we acknowledge God’s authority & surrender our will to His.
Which one of these jumps out at you as an area of need in your life right now? How will you make prayer a regular part of your life this year?
Get the audio from Sunday’s gathering HERE. Download resources on Prayer & Fasting HERE.
Our Reactions = Rats in the Cellar
What do my REACTIONS say about me? and about what’s in my heart? A lot! I love C.S. Lewis’ notes on our reactions being like rats in the cellar.
what a man does when he is taken off his guard is the best evidence for what sort of a man he is… what pops out before the man has time to put on a disguise is the truth. If there are rats in a cellar you are most likely to see them if you go in very suddenly. But the suddenness does not create the rats: it only prevents them from hiding.
what we are matters even more that what we do… what we do matters chiefly as evidence of what we are.
C.S. Lewis, from Mere Christianity
My reactions to insults, interruptions, corrections, questions from people I have hidden angst against. My snapping at my spouse or kids or coworkers. These reveal what’s really in my heart. I can excuse it, call it an exception, blame it on my ancestors, but ultimately its pointing to something that’s amiss in my life. Christ’s work in our hearts produces “love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faith, gentleness, self-control” (Galatians 5:22-23). These do not always automatically appear in our lives. They’re born out of being convicted of our sin and going to God for help.
Ask: What are my reactions saying about what I am? Ask Jesus, to reveal and replace for his glory.
Lewis finished this thought with a reminder of our need for God:
the change which I most need to undergo is a change that my own direct, voluntary effort cannot bring about… After the first few steps in the Christian life we realise that everything which really needs to be done in our souls can be done only by God.
Three New Churches on the Map in Louisiana for July
Three new church plants added this month in Louisiana. That brings us to 18 for the year & 142 since 2010.
Pray for these Church Plants & Planters:
>> Connect Church Northshore, in Covington. Planter Matthew C. Smith. Sponsor: New Zion Baptist in Covington. Association: Northshore Baptist Associations. In just a few months, Matt has gathered 20+ & already had one new commitment to Christ!
>> Lakeshore Church, New Orleans. Planter George Ross. Sponsor: Canal Street Mosaic. Association: New Orleans Baptist Association. This will be the 19th replanting project in our current slate of church plants. Replanting of Pontchartrain Baptist, which is in a historic spot just north of where the 17th Street Canal breached & flooded New Orleans in 2005. Brings us to 8 plants in New Orleans this year, topping last years high of 7.
>> Seeds of Faith Baptist Church, Lake Charles. Planter Felix Harris. Sponsor: Emmanuel Baptist, Lake Charles. Association: Carey Association. Felix & his wife lead the Lake Charles Charter Schools. He is a former Florida State Seminole Running Back. Scored his first TD against our LSU Tigers. All is forgiven. Look fwd to how God will use Felix in Lake Charles. This is our 7th African-American plant of 2016. 32nd since 2014.
We’ve got at least SEVEN starting next month! Yea! Need 12 more to reach our goal of 30 for the year.
Thankful for the generosity of Louisiana Baptist churches in giving to the Cooperative Program, Georgia Barnette State Missions Offering, & Annie Armstrong Offering for North American Missions which allows us to provide some resources for great church planting projects like these. Let me know if you know an area in need or are considering a multiplication project. You can email me at lanecorley@gmail.com or check in on one of our upcoming networking opportunities:
- Summer Church Planting Network Luncheons.
- Multiply Louisiana Conference at New Orleans Seminary, August 29-30.
- Greenhouse: Basic Training for Church Multiplication, Acadia Baptist Center, September 15-16.
Finding Leaders vs. Developing Leaders
There is a mindset that hinders growth of people & organizations, especially volunteer organizations like churches. It’s the mindset that says leaders are FOUND. The opposite in a lot of ways is the mindset that leaders are DEVELOPED. Churches that multiply & grow exponentially have found a way to develop leaders instead of just hoping they find some.
Finding Leaders often means:
- Hoping leaders show up.
- Trying to talk leaders from other churches or organizations to come lead in your church or organization.
- Never seeing the potential in the people God actually sends you.
- Limiting the capacity of your church because you don’t see the potential in everyone.
- Always seeing who you don’t have instead of who you do have.
- Staying safe & never taking risks on people that don’t seem “ready.”
- A few leaders filling lots of roles.
- Little trust in people (and ultimately in God).
- Fear of Failure.
- Big back door as people come to understand they’re not needed.
Developing Leaders often means:
- Expecting leaders to show up.
- Seeing potential in every person that walks through your doors.
- Having intentional processes & systems to move people from where they are to where God wants them to be in leadership.
- Embracing tension & releasing people into leadership roles when they may not seem “ready.”
- A lot of trust in God the Holy Spirit to work in & through people.
- Failure as a valuable tool to teach & train.
- Sending people intentionally as their value expands to other organizations & churches.
Are you hoping to find leaders or intentionally developing leaders?
Planting in Unreached Avoyelles, Realistic Church Planting Expectations, and Other Things from this Week
1. Replanting on the Northshore
Last week I reported that there are 18 ongoing Re-Starts or Re-Plants going on in Louisiana. Met this week with leader of one of the latest going on in the Covington area. Derek Kitterlin is replanting Pilgrim’s Rest Baptist Church near Barker’s Corner. FBC Mandeville is providing sponsorship. A Re-Plant is one in which a church dies to become something new. Usually includes a building, but not always. New identity & organization is birthed. Systems are restored that lead to evangelism & discipleship. We’re seeing great success across Louisiana with up to 1,000% turnarounds in attendance on sites that were struggling. Attendance is already doubled at the site of the former Pilgrim’s Rest. Looking forward to seeing how this develops. Another great turnaround in the works!
2. Planting in Unreached Avoyelles
Got to meet this week with church planters in Avoyelles Parish. Avoyelles is one of Louisiana’s poorest parishes. It also had several towns that have NEVER had a SBC church. That is changing now!
- Life Point Church was planted in 2007 in Marksville. They’ve since moved to Mansura & have spawned a mini-church planting movement.
- Point-of-Life Church is being planted by Norris Landry in Plaucheville. So many great stories already coming out of this work. Bro. Norris retired to plant a church. I tell him, he flunked retirement J. Land has been purchased already. Despite some mild persecution by the local Catholic church, the work goes forward.
- Bayou Life Church is being planted by Louis Charrier in Cottonport. Louis has planted 19 churches in Louisiana. Great work going on in one of Louisiana’s largest towns without a SBC Church.
- Grace Point Church is being planted in Simmesport by Jacob Crawford. Simmesport is a key stop between Baton Rouge & Central Louisiana. It also has a ferry into the Angola State Penitentiary. Looking forward to seeing this work develop.
- James Baptist Church is being planted in Bunkie by Reginald Arvie. This is a partnership between one of Louisiana’s oldest churches, St. James Bayou Chicot, started by Joseph Willis in the early 1800’s, & one of Louisiana’s newest churches, Life Point Mansura. Great story!
3. Church Planting FAQ: How Am I Doing Really?
Most weeks I meet with church planters whose works are not meeting expectations. Their own expectation &/or that of the sponsor church(es). We’re establishing some standards for average & median attendance & giving in church plants at certain points in development in Louisiana to help planters & partners manage expectations. And Lifeway has provided a helpful study called The State of Church Planting that gives Average & Median attendance figures among other data. Here’s some of the numbers:
- Average Attendance in Church Plants in Louisiana – 49.8
- Median Attendance in Church Plants in Louisiana – 35.5
- Lifeway’s Average Attendance for Church Plants Year 1 – 51, Year 2 – 74
- Lifeway’s Median Attendance for Church Plants Year 1 – 30, Year 2 – 45
This is usually encouraging to planters who expect to be at 200 by the end of year two. Very seldom happens that way. Probably less than 5% of the time. However, it is important for works to be on a growth trajectory. I wrote two post with these conversations in mind this month:
4. A few reports from the Missions & Ministry Office this week:
- 13 new churches planted so far in 2013. 6 in New Orleans. 7 Non-Anglo. All 13 in South Louisiana. 20 in development for 2016. 137 new churches planted since 2010.
- 76 baptisms, 336 new commitments to Christ reported Jan-Mar 2016 by church plants in Louisiana.
- Since 2010 – 1,804 baptisms & 9,532 new commitments to Christ. Hopefully we’ll pass 2,000 baptisms & 10,000 new commitments to Christ this year.
- New Orleans – Since 2012 when Send New Orleans launched – 27 new churches started, 348 baptisms, 1,352 New Commitments to Christ. $972,508 in Cooperated Funding provided from Louisiana Baptists Missions & Ministry office for Church Planting in New Orleans.
5. Tangible Kingdom Primer Small Group Study
Taking our third tour through the Tangible Kingdom Primer with a Small Group on Thursday nights this Spring. TK always challenges us to develop & create opportunities for sojourners to experience the kingdom. Some of the things that have birthed out of these groups:
- Guy with mad Billiard skills committed to use them for outreach to other billiard lovers.
- Guy with poker skills committed to invite friends over once a month to play poker & talk about life & God.
- Mother with music background felt led to begin singing in the Community Choir.
- Family decided to begin monthly Block Parties for kids in their neighborhood.
- Highly recommend the TK Primer to help get groups postured outward, primer on missional living, & to open eyes to opportunities that God given gifs, abilities, provisions have provide for us.
Check out a few previous posts on the TK Primer:
- Tangible Kingdom Primer
- The Tangible Kingdom: Posturing Toward Others
- What is Community?
- Go…
- Outcome Didn’t Matter, Faithfulness Did
- What Does Missional Look Like?
6. Great Moments
A Father baptizes his daughter at Bridge Church on Sunday. Love these moments. Greg Chester actually baptized three of his kids: Grace (pictured), Joshua, & Caleb. These pics never get old.
7. How Many Sacks is Your Church?
Someone proposed a new way to track the growth of Louisiana church plants: How many sacks of Crawfish does it take to feed the crowd? Bridge Church has grown from 2 to 8 sacks now! How many sacks are you?
On the Blog This Week:
A Few Simple Holiday Outreach Ideas
Yesterday our church kicked off Advent with a number of simple service projects that any church, small group, family, or individual can afford. These make a big impact with a small investment of time & money.
1. Gift cards for ICU Waiting Rooms. At any given time in your community there are people reeling from traumatic events or devastating illness. Their families can be found in waiting rooms at your local hospital. Pick up a handful of Gift Cards to the closest restaurants & coffee shops, drop by & give them out with a “Praying for You” card from your church. Offer to pray for anyone you get to talk with. Simple act of kindness can breathe life into someone that is overwhelmed with bad news. If no one is there, give them to the nurses desk & they’ll pass them out for you. These nurses could also use prayer & encouragement. Call ahead & find out when visiting times are so that you know when people are in the waiting rooms. $100 for 5-10 gift cards.
2. Care packages for the Homeless. If you live in a metro area or near the interstate, you probably get an invitation to serve the homeless everyday at area red lights. Should I give them money? is a constant question. Few of us carry cash anymore. Doing nothing is not desirous for most believers. How about make up some simple care packages with some goodies that that can be passed out the window of a car. Keep 3-5 in your car at all times. $10 per bag.
3. Christmas Decor for Nursing Home Residents. Go to your local nursing home & ask for a list of residents with no local family. The reality for these residents is often few visits if any, few seasonal decorations for their walls, few convenient items like warm socks or lotion. Offer to pray for them. Find out what they want or need & plan a return visit. Spend some time listening to their story. Yesterday, some of our team got to meet a lady who was 105 years old! Incredible story. $25 for a few Christmas decorations & simple cards colored by kids.
4. Fruit baskets for Elderly shut-ins. Local shut-ins are lonely. They often feel trapped. They often have simple to-do’s around their home that can be taken care of in less than an hour. Making up fruit baskets to deliver to them gives you a reason to encourage them with a visit & find out other needs that your faith community can take care of on their behalf. $25 for a bowl or basket & fruit & other goodies to go int them.
All day I’ve been hearing stories from those who delivered these items to people in our community. Simple acts of kindness make a big difference & the holidays offer many opportunities for us to extend kindness & plant seeds in the hearts of people in need.
What other similar outreach ideas have you or your church done at Christmas?
Lane Corley 