If This Were the Last Week of Your Life…
Well, apparently the world may end sometime this week! Great timing. Our church will hit 2 Peter 3 in our Fall Message Series called Godliness in a Godless World.
2 Peter 3:10-14
10 But the Day of the Lord will come like a thief; on that day the heavens will pass away with a loud noise, the elements will burn and be dissolved, and the earth and the works on it will be disclosed. 11 Since all these things are to be destroyed in this way, it is clear what sort of people you should be in holy conduct and godliness 12 as you wait for and earnestly desire the coming of the day of God. The heavens will be on fire and be dissolved because of it, and the elements will melt with the heat. 13 But based on His promise, we wait for the new heavens and a new earth, where righteousness will dwell.
14 Therefore, dear friends, while you wait for these things, make every effort to be found at peace with Him without spot or blemish.
Will the world end? I don’t think so, but if this were the last week of your life how would you live? Truth is, none of us are guaranteed tomorrow. Be at peace with God, with others, on mission with Christ. As a mentor of mine used to say, “Live every minute like the next may be the last.”
We’ll talk about what the Bible says about the end of the world this coming Sunday at Bridge Church, 10:30am at the Maritime Museum in Madisonville.
Does the Georgia Barnette Offering Make a Difference?
Growing up in a Southern Baptist Church in Louisiana, every year of my life I’ve heard the names Annie Armstrong, Georgia Barnette, & Lottie Moon. These are the name sakes of special offerings for the National, State, & International missions efforts of our convention. Each of these three ladies were real people who devoted their lives to missions & inspire us to do the same today. Many Southern Baptist never get to see the impact of giving to these special offerings, but for me it’s personal. As a church planter, I’ve personally benefited from the Annie Armstrong Easter Offering & Georgia Barnette State Missions Offering & can say with confidence that people are in Christ today, because of the generosity of our churches to support missions efforts through these offerings. Now, I’m working as Church Planting Strategist in Louisiana & I get to attend the meetings of the Georgia Barnette Committee (which is made up of Pastors & Lay leaders from churches across Louisiana) where money is granted & I read the monthly reports of church planters whose ministries depend upon money from the GBO fund. What all does the GBO cover? Looking back over my notes from last years Georgia Barnette Committee Meeting, here’s a few areas of influence:
- LA Baptist Children’s Home Sanctity of Human Life & Pregnancy Resource Ministry
- New church startup grants across Louisiana (currently 75 projects receiving funding)
- Compassion ministry sites across Louisiana (currently 57 sites receiving ongoing funding)
- French & Spanish evangelistic Radio programming
- Literacy Missions across Louisiana
- Multi-housing Ministry across Louisiana
- City Care Effect in New Orleans
- NOBTS Extension at Angola State Penitentiary
- Evangelism at other state prisons
- Outreach to African-American collegiate students in south LA
- Summer Collegiate Mission Team (GOLA)
- Disaster Relief Supplies & Equipment
- The Mission Builder program which builds & renovates first unit buildings for new churches.
- Grants to new ministries & churches for first unit land & buildings.
- Port Ministries in New Orleans, Gonzalez, & Baton Rouge.
You can see the 2016 Budget Allocations HERE. As you can see, the Georgia Barnette Offering makes a huge difference all over Louisiana. Check out this years promo videos HERE to see a few of the stories behind the works supported by GBO. The summary video is below. Looking forward to seeing the impact of this years offering in reaching people & meeting needs in the coming years.
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?
Week of Prayer for Louisiana Missions
Hope you’ll join me for the Week of Prayer for Louisiana Missions as we pray for some of the great mission projects going on across Louisiana. You can follow each day of the week of prayer HERE. And videos to promote Louisiana Missions in your church & across your social media platforms are HERE.
And this month is also the emphasis for the Georgia Barnette State Missions offering. This years goal is $1.8 million. 100% of this offering will go to support missions in Louisiana. What kind of things does it support? You can find the 2016 allocations HERE. I’m grateful for the generosity of Louisiana Baptist churches that allows us to continue to plant churches, start compassion ministries, minister at our global ports, & much more.
Kick off today by praying for Level Ground Community Church, a new church in New Orleans. Get their story & how to pray for them HERE.
Pastor Daylon Taylor engages children from the Holly Grove neighborhood of New Orleans at Level Ground Community Church.
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!
Katrina Memories
Rode out Katrina’s aftermath in Waldheim, LA while planting Hope Church, between Covington & Bogalusa, LA. The community lost about 30% of its trees. A few memories still stuck in my head:
- The weatherman saying, “a little jog to the west.”
- Preaching Sun, Aug 28, 2005, to a small group of people who mostly had their bags packed for a nervous trip north.
- Seeing my family drive away into the endless stream of cars heading north.
- The sound of generators running from miles around.
- The smell of pine sap, sweat, and chain saw bar oil. It’s forever burned into my nostrils.
- The trees. So many trees….
- 10 weeks without electricity.
- MRE’s and Southern Baptist cooked pastalaya.
- Countless volunteers (I wish I could remember all their names) who cooked, cut, constructed, & deconstructed, hugged, cried, sweated, & bled with Gulf Coast folks for more than a year.
- Rice crispy treats!!! Our church received a call, “Can you take the contents of a truck from TN?” “What’s in it?” “Not sure.” It was a 40′ truck load of rice crispy treats. Took forever to get rid of them. Still have night mares about rice crispy treats.
- Saying good-bye to friends who had to move away.
- The heart breaking sights and sounds in the city of New Orleans & the Gulf Coast of Mississippi.
- Seeing the heartbreak of St. Bernard Parish residents as volunteers pulled the flooded, molded contents of their homes to the curb.
- The day my family came home :)).
- Laying down in my bed for the first night with electricity and realizing the trees were no longer there to cover the street lights. Couldn’t sleep for a week.
- Hearing my atheist neighbor ask, “What is God trying to tell us, Pastor?”
- Hearing people say Katrina was a good thing because it helped me realize I needed God and needed others. (Also, see my post on What’s worse than a Cat 4 Hurricane).
Conversational Discipleship Tools
Evangelism & Discipleship takes place today over multiple if not many conversations (Billy Graham says at least 20). Here’s a few tools that work well over coffee or in a small group setting:
- How to START or Re-START the Christian Life – PDF
- How to Get a Grip on the Bible – PDF, Issuu
- Allowing the Teachings of Jesus to Go Deep. How to use HERE.
- Discover Your SHAPE for Ministry – PDF
- 25 Training Objectives for Disciples by David Platt
What tools have worked for you in growing in your faith & making disciples?
“A Prophet Not A Promoter”
A Church Leader’s Prayer:
Lord Jesus, I come to Thee for spiritual preparation. Lay Thy hand upon me, anoint me with the oil of the New Testament prophet. Save me from the error of judging a church by its size, its popularity or the amount of its yearly offering. Help me to remember that I am a prophet – not a promoter, not a religious manager. Let me never become a slave to crowds. Heal my soul of carnal ambitions and deliver me from the itch for publicity.
A.W. Tozer
Beneath the Surface: Going to Church vs. Getting Involved in the Life of a Church
“every individual Christian will find in the communion of a local church the most perfect atmosphere for the fullest development of his spiritual life.” ~ A.W. Tozer
My observation is that most people never experience “the fullest development of his spiritual life” through the church or see the great value, because they may GO TO CHURCH, but they don’t get involved in the LIFE OF A CHURCH. There’s a big difference. Going to church makes you a CONSUMER of its services. Getting involved in the life of a church puts you in “COMMUNION” with a life source fed by God himself. The Apostle Paul said it like this
“From Him the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work.” ~ Ephesians 4:16
It’s consuming vs. serving, sharing life, supporting, being supported, building up, being built up, etc.
The enduring image of church for me is that of a forest. A forest stays strong, even in dry seasons, because BENEATH THE SURFACE, the roots of the trees are feeding off of one another for growth & strength. Roots can’t share their life with a tree that just lays itself upon the surface. It has to take root & do life with the others.
“I tried church, but it didn’t help.” Probably not, if you just showed up every now & then with little commitment, little humbling of yourself, little sharing of your life, little getting involved in relationships, little investment in ministries, little digging deep to support & be supported.
I love the Tozer quote, because I’ve experience it. Now, don’t read it wrong. The church is NOT a “perfect atmosphere.” Far from it. It is the perfect atmosphere for spiritual development BECAUSE of its imperfections. Relationships with people that are struggling through life together, growing as individuals, utilizing unique gifts no matter how imperfectly. And seeing God in Christ feed & nourish & heal & empower each other. It’s a beautiful thing! But you won’t see it on the surface by just GOING TO CHURCH.
Lane Corley 