Top 6 Places to Plant a Church in Louisiana
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 places to plant a church in Louisiana:
(I use data on SBC, southern baptist churches, because that attendance data is readily available to me as a SBC strategist. Data on evangelicals comes from the.arda.com).
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 & salt water fishing 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.
6. Lake Charles
Population: 235,000. Only 3.7% attend a SBC Church.
Aw man! If I were 28 again & ready to start a church, I’d plant myself here! Includes the cities of Lake Charles, Sulphur, & Jennings. May be one of the fastest growing areas in the south right now with 17% growth over the last 18 months. Expected to add 40,000 jobs over the next decade. Home to McNeese State University.
Contacts: Carey Baptist Association, DOM Bruce Baker.
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.
Leaders…
Ambitious leaders provide solutions, not just ideas. They constantly move toward completion. They honor others by showing up early and finishing on time. They always anticipate what needs to be done next and are always one step ahead, and they work on items they weren’t asked or told to do but know have to get done. They move the needle wherever they are placed and are always looking for ways to improve the process. They are disciplined in their learning and understand the power of becoming an expert, no matter what level or role they play in an organization. Ambitious leaders write down everything immediately, knowing they will probably forget if they don’t and that writing it down makes it a priority. They take initiative and remove things from leaders’ plates around them.
Brad Lomenick in H3 Leadership: Be Humble, Stay Hungry, Always Hustle
Seeing the Possibilities for Life On Mission
Life on mission emerges for the believer when we are able to see the possibilities of our relationship with God & our position in the world. Three beliefs that help me see the possibilities:
- God is all powerful – “with God all things are possible” Matthew 19:26
- God has placed me in this world for a purpose with the promise of His power & presence – “we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.” Ephesians 2:10
- I will meet people today in great need – “Jesus saw the crowds & had compassion on them.” Matthew 9:36
When these three collide, the possibilities for making a difference should be constant in our hearts & minds. Just add obedience.
- Do I believe that God is all powerful?
- Do I believe that god has placed me in this world on purpose?
- Who do I know that needs encouragement, witness, acts of kindness, rebuke, etc.?
How to Be Satisfied By Church
If you ask people about their church today, you might get a “BUT.”
- “The music is great, BUT…”
- “The pastor’s teaching is good, but…”
- “I like my Sunday School, class, BUT…”
A lot of dissatisfaction out there about church. A product of our consumer culture I guess. We’re taught to critique anything we buy & we know we have other choices if we’re not satisfied. Unfortunately, that’s what church has become, simply another service vying for our time & attention & in our culture, we have choices!
Well, I’m not trying to sell you anything, but I believe that you can be SATISFIED by YOUR CHURCH or any Biblically sound church with some attitude changes. Here’s three Biblical attitudes that will bring much satisfaction to your life at church:
1. “My church is incomplete without me.”
See yourself as a part of the whole body, & the church as incomplete without you. See Ephesians 4:7 & 1 Corinthians 12:8-12.
he has given each one of us a special gift[a] through the generosity of Christ.
The human body has many parts, but the many parts make up one whole body. So it is with the body of Christ.
2. “I’m a player, not a spectator.”
Be a player, not a spectator. We’re actually all playing for an audience of one. Our leaders are there, not to entertain us, but to EQUIP US FOR THE WORK OF THE MINISTRY. See Ephesians 4:11-12
Their responsibility is to equip God’s people to do his work and build up the church
3. “What can I give today?”
Don’t focus on what you can “get out of it.” It’s not what you “get out of it” but what you give to others that makes you & the church grow AND (watch this) determines if you GET SOMETHING out of it or not. See Ephesians 4:16.
He makes the whole body fit together perfectly. As each part does its own special work
In the Old Testament book of Exodus – chapter 18, Moses found himself leading a very large group of dissatisfied people. They had many needs & they looked to Moses to meet them all. Moses’ father-in-law came to town & gave Moses a different plan. Empower the people to use their gifts & abilities to solve the problems of the community. And I love what he told Moses about this plan in Exodus 18:23.
“If you do this, and God so directs you, you will be able to endure, and also all these people will be able to go home SATISFIED.”
When we all come together TO GIVE of what God’s given us, take OWNERSHIP of the mission, & drop the “but’s” no matter where you are, we’ll get the most out of our experience in & with the body of Christ.
Learn more about Getting something out of church by grabbing the audio for last weeks message at Bridge Church in Madisonville where we talked about the On Ramp of Ministry & Mission as a vital component of our Spiritual Growth.
Things Pastors of Evangelistic Churches Say
This week, I had the opportunity to facilitate a Breakout at the Louisiana Baptists Evangelism Conference with three men that lead churches with great Evangelistic culture in Louisiana. Jacob Crawford – Life Point Mansura, Willis Easley – Christ’s Community Denham Springs, & Checkerz Williams – Celebration LaPlace. (See my previous post for a bit of bio on them & their churches). These churches are responsible for 100’s of baptisms each year. We threw out several questions designed to just get them talking, so that we could glean insights & be inspired. These men had never met each other before this conference, but it was interesting to hear how many of the same things came out of their mouths related to creating an evangelistic culture. Here’s some things they said over & over that have stuck with me:
“It’s about casting vision.”
Checkerz Williams said he uses the statement “Can you imagine what our community would be like if…?” to get people to see the possibilities.
“We teach people, ‘It’s not about you.'”
Willis Easley said at least monthly they tell people to turn to the person next to you & say “It’s not about you.” And interestingly enough the other two churches do the same thing!
“Our church looks like our community.”
Life Point is 60% white, 40% African-American, which matches the demographics of the community it is in. Celebration LaPlace is 55% African-American, 35% white, 10% Hispanic, which matches the demographics of the community it is in. Each of these churches are diverse, multi-ethnic churches. A lot of people talk about diversity & multi-ethnic ministry, but what I’m learning is that diversity & multi-ethnic church development is a product of an evangelistic culture.
“We share the Gospel at every gathering.”
Each church makes the gospel an important part of every service. Jacob Crawford said, “Never assume that everyone believes. Assume the opposite & share the gospel.” And these leaders go out of the way to share the gospel in ways that are reproducible & easily picked up by others. Willis Easley says, He uses the Roman Road EVERY time he shares the gospel from the Pulpit, because it’s easily picked up by others.
“We love people to Christ.”
Service & outreach to the community is of course a major part of the ministries of each of these churches. Christ’s Community & Celebration Church both sponsor a big day of service at least annually, where everyone takes on outreach & evangelism projects together.
“We started an additional service to reach more people.”
Each of these churches have started multiple services to add capacity for reaching new people for Christ.
“We encourage people to pray for friends that are not believers.”
Each of these churches have a system in place for people to identify people in their relational network who are without Christ & pray for them. For Celebration it’s the FRAN list – Friends, Relatives, Associates, Neighbors. For Christ’s Church it’s called the High 5’s.
“We network with community leaders.”
Being involved in the community is important to each of these churches. “Building bridges not barriers” – Checkerz Williams.
“We baptize people that become believers quickly.”
Baptisms are down across the Southern Baptist Convention, so I was very curious as to what the process these churches have for baptism. Each said they baptize people very soon after they make a decision. Checkerz Williams says their baptistry at Celebration LaPlace is ALWAYS full & ready. Ushers at Life Point show up early & ask every Sunday, “How many do we have today?” in reference to baptisms. Their is an attitude of expectancy in these churches that people will be getting saved, so lets get ready to baptize them.
“We equip & train members of the church to do the work of evangelism.”
It was clear that for these men, their role is to equip the people & groups to do evangelism. So, from modeling, to training, to keying on reproducible processes, the desire is for the entire church to own evangelism of the lost community.
Great conversation. What do you need to add to your vocabulary this year related to your church’s culture? These sayings will be a great start.
Here’s a few other great quotes from our session:
- Willis Easley – “When I saw that we had only baptized 5 or 6 in a year, I got alone with God, & said, ‘Lord, we’re not doing what you called us to do.'”
- Jacob Crawford – “We cast a vision for community transformation. Avoyelles Parish’s suicide rate is similar to North Korea. We teach people that only Jesus can fix this.”
- Checkerz Williams – “Our Baptistry stays full. We talk about it every Sunday. Once per year we do a Baptism emphasis. You’ve got to keep it in front of people.”
- Willis Easley – “If you’re not sharing the gospel with lost people, you won’t be baptizing many people.”
- Willis Easley – “Southern Baptist have been trying to harvest in fields in which we haven’t sown.”
- Jacob Crawford – “The biggest obstacle to evangelism in our church was ME, the Pastor. I had to get out of the way & equip the members to do the work of the ministry.”
Left to Right: Jacob Crawford, Checkerz Williams, Willis Easley.
Creating an Evangelistic Culture in Your Church
Looking forward to ECon – the Louisiana Baptists Annual Evangelism Conference on Monday & Tuesday, January 25-26 at FBC Lafayette. Featured speakers will be Josh McDowell, Steve Gaines, Alvin Reid & others. (Live Stream located here). I’m very excited to be facilitating a breakout on Tuesday afternoon called Creating an Evangelistic Culture in Your Church. This will be a forum featuring pastors from three of the fastest growing, most evangelistic churches in Louisiana in 2015. If you’re curious about what growing churches in Louisiana are doing, find this breakout!
Jacob Crawford from Life Point Church, Mansura. Life Point had an incredible year, baptizing 105 & starting four new churches! And they did this in one of the most impoverished, hardest to reach areas of Louisiana.
Willis Easley from Christ’s Community Church in Denham Springs. CCC was recently featured in Outreach Magazine. They baptized 135 last year & have done an incredible job designing ministry for the unchurched community. Located just south of a major new on ramp to I-12 at Juban Rd. in Livingston Parish.
Checkerz Williams from Celebration LaPlace. Celebration Church leads Louisiana in baptisms almost every year. They’ve multiplied to six campuses & expecting to add more in the near future. Checkerz leads the River Parishes campuses which has grown exponentially over the last few years in a traditionally hard to reach area for evangelicals.
Grateful for these men & looking forward to learning some tips & tricks born out of real experience of reaching people in Louisiana.
On Failed Church Plants: How Many Are There? and Why?
Fifteen. That’s the number of “failed” church plants we’ve recorded in Louisiana since 2010. 15 out of 124 churches planted. I tracked this number down, because it’s one of the regular remarks I hear from people wanting to question or disparage the role of church planting in the ministry of the church.
- “Don’t most church plants not make it anyway?”
- “History tells us that most church plants won’t be around in 10 years.”
- “I’ve heard 80% of church plants fail.” (Don’t know where this number came from, but it has to have joined the ranks of most quoted bad stats).
So that means we have an 88% “success” rate in church planting in Louisiana since 2010. The North American Mission Board has reported a 68% success rate across North America. (not an 80% failure rate! Please quit saying 80% of church plants fail!)
As a church planter, I hate using these words – “failed” & “success.” Here’s why?
- You can’t fail in attempting something great for God. If you’re sharing the gospel, you might not get immediate results, but you plant seeds for the future. The word of God never returns void. In the context of church planting, that might mean you run out of time on financial sustainability, but you can look back & see seeds planted, people that were lifted, & deep lessons learned that led to spiritual growth & character development in the life of a planter & team. I don’t think God would call that a failure.
- Defining success in church planting can be muddy waters. Successful Church Planting is evangelism that leads to the birth of a new congregation. Is it success, then, if a church plant stays open, but reaches very few new people through evangelism? Is it success, if a church plant grows at the expense of other churches in town? Is it success, if a church plant doesn’t impact the community around it through evangelism & people in the immediate area don’t even know it exists? Questions like these lead me to look back at my list of 15 & see a few churches that made the tough decision to close, but may have been more “successful” than some of the 109 that are still open. Self-sustainability is an important factor in church planting, but evangelism & reaching new people, should ultimately define our true success.
Why do Church Plants Fail?
Looking back at our list of 15, & a factoring in a few others that I’ve been involved with prior to 2010, here are the reasons for their failures:
- Character & Calling issues. 4 out of the 15 I mention closed because of moral failure or a deficiency in character in the church planter.
- Wrong Context & Culture. Another 4 in our list, can be chalked up to the church’s strategy & focus or the church planter himself not being a good fit for the context & culture.
- Ran out of Time. The other 7 just simply ran out of time before achieving critical mass or financial sustainability. Lots of factors could go with this one, including work ethic issues of the church planter (which may go back to character & calling), lack of partner development, lack of evangelism & team building, difficulty of the soil in the area (which may go back to context), etc.
These are all things that we can counter with good solid assessments of planters & partner churches on the front end, good equipping & networking opportunities for planters & their teams, & by building great partnerships to come around each new plant.
In Louisiana, we offer these opportunities as part of our Church Planting Networks. Connect with our Facebook Group to keep up with opportunities. Our Greenhouse Training coming up this Spring is specifically designed to help a church planter in Louisiana design systems & strategy to get to self-sustaining status in 5 years.
Church Planting is a risky thing. Not failing every now & then may be a sign that we’re not pushing into the absolute hardest to reach areas. The great axiom is “Failure is never final, it’s only feedback.” If a church plant doesn’t make it, it usually leaves behind some changed people & we can say it’s cultivated the ground for something in the future.
Check out these resources to help you or your church to get started on your church planting journey:
- 5 Things You MUST do Before You Start a Church
- 5 Things You MUST do During the First Year of a New Church
- 10 Biblical & Practical Ways to Get Involved in Church Planting
- Every Church Can Encourage Church Planting and Multiplication
- Every Church Can Be a Church Planting Partner
- Your Church Can Be a Parent to a New Church or Campus
On Ramps to Spiritual Growth: Building Catalytic Relationships
God wants you to grow in 2016. Bridge Church is tackling some of the best On Ramps to Spiritual Growth & Transformation this month. First was the on ramp of Understanding the Gospel & God’s Will. Second, was the On Ramp of Personal Devotional Habits. This week, we covered the On Ramp of Building Catalytic Relationships. Check out the talk given by Evan McGinty at yesterday’s Bridge gathering HERE or on Itunes. Here’s a few big ideas from the message:
- A catalyst is something that increases the rate of change. Relationships serve as great catalyst for personal & spiritual growth.
- God desires for us to have relationships with wise people with lots of God-experiences – “Those who walk with the wise become wise” Proverbs 13:20.
- Wise people have a lot of experience with God that their eager to share. They’re not afraid to challenge you & they make you more like Christ.
- Walking is SLOW & INTENTIONAL. Walking takes time. God commends long term relationships, not just a quick fix.
- Reading books pale in comparison to walking slowly through life with friends. Following people on Facebook is no comparison to engaging relationships. Walking side by side with people in relationships is far better than following them from afar.
- Walking with the wise requires:
- Exchanging pride for humility. Pride is the #1 enemy of catalytic relationships.
- Exposing your weaknesses. Relationships sharpen us, which means we expose the dull edges to others so that they can help us knock them off.
- Making time for slow walking in committed relationships. Is there room in my life for walking with & getting to know people deeply?
- Taking risk & putting yourself out there. Relationships are risk & reward. Risk difficult conversations. Risk being vulnerable about your weakness. Reward – personal & spiritual growth.
When people have grown spiritually & matured, they can usually look back & say, “_____ helped me grow spiritually.” They point to deep relationships with people that took time, challenged them, & helped them grow closer to God.
Do you have these kind of relationships in your life? Are you looking to be catalytic in the lives of others?
Join Bridge Church next week for the final On Ramp. 10:30am at the Maritime Museum in Madisonville.
Am I a Church Planter? Some Essential Characteristics
When we think about the question “Am I a Church Planter?” One of the best list of criteria that has been developed is Charles Ridley’s 13 Essentials. These formed the basis of Church Planter Assessments for years & though more recent list may look a little different, Ridley’s work provides the foundation for much of everything done in assessment today. The axiom that Assessments are built upon is “Past behavior is the best predictor is of future practice.” So the way potential candidates & assessors should look at this list is, “Are these qualities present in my life / the life of the candidate?”
These are also good benchmarks for us who are actively seeking to multiply churches. This list has served challenges & tools for personal review for me along my church planting journey.
Here are Ridley’s 13:
- Has visionizing capacity: Generates visions, initiates plans, builds significant projects from the ground floor up.
- Intrinsic motivation: Demonstrates the ability to be a self‐starter who works with diligence and excellence.
- Empowers others to lead: Passes on the baton of ministry so that others can continue the race.
- Reaches the unchurched: Consistently reaches out and influences people toward a relationship with Christ and the church.
- Has spousal cooperation: If married, has a spouse that is committed to collaborating in marriage and in ministry.
- Effectively builds relationships: Evidences the ability to meet new people and engage them in relationships.
- Committed to church growth: Embraces growing the church, numerically and spiritually, and implements church growth principles effectively.
- Responsive to the community: Understands local communities and implements culturally responsive ministries.
- Utilizes the giftedness of others: Assesses, develops, and releases others to serve in their area of giftedness.
- Flexible and adaptable: Negotiates change successfully while staying centered on the overall vision.
- Builds cohesive groups: Orchestrates widely differing people to function as a unified body.
- Resilient: Stays the course in the face of major setbacks, disappointments, and opposition.
- Exercises faith: Evidences a strong, vital relationship with God and willingly takes significant faith risks.
Also see my post “You Might Be A Church Planter If…”
If you’re considering church planting in Louisiana, you can get started with an assessment by filling out our Initial Info Form. Or contact me & I’ll be glad to point you toward some next steps to start your church planting journey.
Also, consider attending our upcoming training called Greenhouse: Creating the Right Conditions for Church Multiplication in Walker on Feb 22-23.
Life Change Common Place at Christ’s Community Church
“When I first came to the church… I looked like something out of Sons of Anarchy… and this church just opened their arms to me.”
Christ’s Community Church of Denham Springs, Pastor Willis D. Easley, was profiled this month on OutreachMagazine.com. CCC baptized 135 people in 2015! And they’ve grown exponentially from 50 to 500+ in 5 years.
Check out the full story HERE.
Willis will be part of our breakout on “Creating an Evangelistic Culture in your Church” at the LBC Evangelism Conference at FBC Lafayette, Jan 25-26 (https://louisianabaptists.org/econ2016). Along with Checkerz Williams from Celebration Church & Jacob Crawford from Life Point Mansura. Hope you’ll come by & get to know Willis.
Lane Corley 