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.
Fall Equipping & Networking Opportunities for Church Multipliers in Louisiana:
>> I-12 Multi-Site Church Luncheon, August 13th, 11:30am-1:30pm at The Way Church in Denham Springs. Join Chad Merrell from First West Fairbanks in Sterlington, LA, to hear a great Louisiana multisite story & talk multisite readiness for your ministry. Good especially for churches in a more rural or suburban setting. RSVP by joining the Facebook event or calling the Eastern Louisiana Baptist Association at 225-664-9309, or email David Brown at amc4elba@elba.brcoxmail.com.
>> ReGroup Small Group Conference, August 15th at FBC Lafayette. Matt Papa, Jeff Iorg, Eddie Mosley & others for a day of working on Small Groups Strategy. I’ll be leading two Church Planting Breakouts:
- Discovery Groups: Strategies for Starting Groups from the Unchurched Community
- “Where does your group meet?” – Small Group Strategies for Portable or Space Limited Churches.
>> Total Church Life Conference, August 22nd at Jefferson Baptist Church in Baton Rouge. Annual Church Leadership Conference hosted by the Baptist Association of Greater Baton Rouge. Breakouts literally on every area of church life! I’ll be leading the session called Social Media & the Local Church – How social media can help your church grow & equip people for ministry.
>> Basic Training for Church Multiplication, September 11-12 at FBC Mandeville. A great workshop for churches in years 1-3 or in the process of restarting or revitalizing. Church Planters that have attended a Basic Training Workshop over the last five years have experienced 50% higher attendance and 65% more baptisms than those who haven’t.
Sessions covered:
- Where are we? Understanding Your Context and Community
- Who are we? Discovering Your Church’s Unique Purpose for Your Community
- What do we do? Establishing the Strategy and Systems for Your Church to Multiply Disciples, Leaders, Groups and Churches
>> Century XXI Hispanic Leadership Conference, September 18-19 at Calvary Baptist Church in Ruston. Contact Carlos.Schmidt@LouisianaBaptists.org for more info.
>> E4 Preaching Conference, September 18-19 at FBC Pineville. E4 is designed to encourage expository preaching and encourage pastors. Partnership of Louisiana Baptists, First Baptst Pineville, Louisiana College, New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary and Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary.
Know of other Equipping or Networking Opps happening in the next few months?
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.
No Program Needed! You can Make Disciples in the Everyday Rhythms of Your Life!
That’s the message of the book Saturate: Being Disciples of Jesus in the Everyday Stuff of Life. Shared a few of my favorite quotes from the book in this earlier post. The thing I’ve come to appreciate most about Jeff Vanderstelt & the Soma story, is that you come away from this book believing that EVERYBODY can do this. How? Not by adding anything, but by redeeming the rhythms of your life. The challenge:
Seeing church mainly as an event creates a significant problem for mission, because most people are very busy. And the more we fill our lives with church events and programs, the more we get pulled out of everyday life with people who don’t yet know Jesus.
We need to see that life is the program, because people need to see what i means to follow Jesus in the everyday stuff of life.
When we engage in these everyday rhythms with Jesus-centered, Spirit-led direction, mission can happen anytime and everywhere, and anybody can be a part of it.
Vanderstelt and Soma identified six regular rhythms that most people are already engaged in, that can be changed through submission to Jesus.
1. Eating – “Eating is not an extra event added on to your life. What if you ate with others more often?” We eat 21 meals each week. How many could we commit to disciple making conversations with other people?
2. Listen – “One of the greatest gifts we can give one another is a set of open ears and a closed mouth.” Are you listening to God & others? Who is the dominant voice in your life? If we listen, people will often tell us how to reach them.
3. Story – “Everybody lives in light of a larger story… and the stories provide the lenses through which people view their worlds.” “The larger narrative of God’s story can bring redemption to each of our individual stories.” Do you know God’s story & how to apply it to your life & the lives of others?
4. Bless – “Whatever God gives to his people, he plans to give through them to others.”
5. Celebrate – “Disciples celebrate the grace of God given to us through Jesus in order to express how good & gracious God is.” Are you able to celebrate like God? Can you look back at what He’s done through you and say “This is very good!”
6. ReCreate – “Too many of us can’t rest and create. But we should be the most playfully rested people on the earth, because our Dad has it all taken care of for us!” Can you rest? Can you create freely? Can you play?
Eat. Listen. Story. Bless. Celebrate. ReCreate. Not really catchy. Doesn’t spell out anything. But these represent things happening all the time around us. As disciples of Christ we should embody his desires for people as we live them out.
No program needed! You can make disciples in the everyday rhythms of your life! Live it!
What everyday rhythm of your could you turn into a disciplemaking opportunity?
Check out Saturate by Jeff Vanderstelt. Great primer for Disciplemaking & doing church in the rhythms of your life.
Discipling Tool: What is a Disciple?
Use this acrostic to lead someone in a conversation about what a disciple does:
#PrayersforLafayette
>> Population of EVANGELINE BAPTIST ASSOCIATION (Lafayette area) – 404,977
>> .9% of the population or 3,806 attend Bible Study in a SBC church.
>> 1.6% or 6,649 attend Worship in a SBC church.
>> 46 SBC churches – 1 church to every 8,803 persons. Our goal is 1 to 2800. NAMB suggests 1 to 2,000.
>> Population of ACADIANA (Acadia, Evangeline, Gulf Coast, Bayou Associations): 675,207
>> 1.8% attend worship in a SBC church
>> Evangelical population only 9%
>> 229,049 unaffiliated with any church
Planters, Partners needed.
One Christian Life
You say, “What can I do?” You can furnish one Christian life. You can furnish a life so faithful to every duty, so ready for every service, so determined not to commit every sin, that the great Christian Church shall be the stronger for your living in it, and the problem of the world be answered, and a certain great peace come into this poor, perplexed phase of our humanity as it sees that new revelation of what Christianity is.
Phillips Brooks (1835-1893), Addresses, Philadelphia: Henry Altemus, 1895, p. 22
Unsplash.com / Dustin Scarpitti
Lane Corley 