#WorthReading – Saturate: Being Disciples of Jesus in the Everyday Stuff of Life
I first learned of the Soma movement like most everyone else, through this video that was widely shared 4 years ago. Jeff Vanderstelt & his church embodied the refreshing approach & rhythm that many of us were looking for in this new age of ministry engagement. Missional Communities. Later that year I got to hear him speak at Exponential in Orlando, FL & then at the Verge Conference in Austin, TX. Our church plant has utilized the Soma resources on Storying called the Story Formed Way, the Story of God for Kids curriculum, & followed the movement as we’ve sought new ways to engage the unreached in our communities. And now, Jeff Vanderstelt has finally given us the full story in this book. The content is great of course, but the thing I’ve come to appreciate most about Vanderstelt & the Soma story is that you come away believing that EVERYBODY can do this. This is ministry that’s real, raw, & DOABLE. More than techniques, Saturate helps you see the open doors in your current everyday life to begin making disciples & bringing glory to Jesus. Simple. Reproducible. Inspiring. Read it & jump in to life on mission. This book is going to stay close by my desk for awhile. Here are a few of my favorite quotes:
God’s intent was never to have us define church merely as an event on Sunday. We don’t go to church. We are the church sent out into the world.- Jesus didn’t live, serve, suffer, and die so we could just attend a Christian event. He lived and died so we could become his people who are sent into every part of the world on his behalf.
- out on mission, the need for grace and power from God will never be more clearly manifested. We have to get out on mission to fulfill the mission of being disciples who make disciples.
- Through our lives, Jesus is showing the world the kind of king he is and the nature of the kingdom he rules. As his servants, we point forward with our acts of service to a far better world where Jesus’s rule will be experienced everywhere. Every one we serve experiences a taste of life in the kingdom.
- If you are a child of God and a servant of King Jesus, you have been sent into the world as his missionary with the same spirit that sent and empowered Jesus.
- life is the program, because people need to see what it means to follow Jesus in the everyday stuff of life.
- if it isn’t messy here and there, you are likely not yet on mission.
- everyday stuff, done with gospel intentionality in the name of Jesus, changes lives.
More Thursday….
I-20 Church Planting Connections:
Eight Church Planting Network Luncheons this Summer across Louisiana. Got to connect with some great I-20 Church Planting partners last week:
>> Open Road Fellowship in Haughton with Raymond Wilkinson. Reaching motorcycle enthusiasts in NW Louisiana.
>> The Warrior Network with Trey McGuire. Reaching airmen in the Shreveport Bossier area. Incredible new ministry that hopefully will multiply into other areas.
>> The Covenant Church with planter Luke Allen. Great plant started in 2010 meeting in Downtown Shreveport & doing an incredible job reaching millenials. .
>> The Crossing Church in Monroe with Jarrod Hawthorne & Kendrick Banks.
>> The Circle Church cranking up this year in Alexandria, LA with Vincent Smith & Casie Dunn Smith. Great team coming together! This is going to be good!
>> First West Fairbanks with Chad Merrell continues to go strong in their 5th year. Great revitalization & multiplication story at Fairbanks –http://ow.ly/P8L8c.
>> North Hills Church in Calhoun with Planter/Pastor Jon McCartney. Great plant sponsored by Cedar Crest Baptist Church.
>> Tommy Smith is the new pastor of North Monroe Baptist Church’s Bastrop campus. Great multiplication story going on at North Monroe. Grateful for Bill Dye & his leadership. Next Generate Conference is in the works for 2016 – http://ow.ly/P8KGv.
>> Also, grateful for our I-20 DOM’s Jerry Price & Lane Moore for their support of church planting in their regions. Great things to come for the I-20 communities.
Four more Church Planting Network Luncheons still to go this month. Get connected!
Handling Money in a New Church #churchplanting #churchadmin
Managing money is one of the roles we as church planters are often NOT ready for when it comes time to launch a new church. Most figure it out, but mistakes made in this area can cost credibility & more. And this is one area that you DO NOT want to fall behind on & have to play catch up later. This may seem simplistic, but you need to devise strategy for six steps that must be done with money given to your church:
- Receive it.
- Count it.
- Deposit it.
- Record it.
- Spend it.
- Report it.
Worth Reading: 5 Recommendations from My Recently Read List
Updating my Recently Read, Currently Reading, or Will Soon Read list today. Here’s my recent favs that I’d highly recommend to you if you enjoy church leadership, history, good guy stories:
- Fearless: The Undaunted Courage and Ultimate Sacrifice of Navy SEAL Team Six Operator Adam Brown by Eric Blehm. Aw man!!!! This was an incredible story!!! Supposed to be a movie being written now. Can’t wait to see it! Adam Brown’s story of overcoming incredible circumstances (drug addiction, loss of an eye, loss of part of his hand) to become one of the world’s elite soldiers. You will not want to put this book down!
- Mission at Nuremberg: An American Army Chaplain and the Trial of the Nazis by Tim Townsend. Now this book will make you think! How should we treat the worst of the worst? And this chaplain demonstrated great resolve to share the gospel & give grace a chance with the top Nazi’s who faced the world at the Nuremburg trials. Incredible story!!!! Can’t wait til it comes out on Audio.
- How the West Won: The Neglected Story of the Triumph of Modernity by Rodney Stark. Love Rodney Stark! A lot of myth busters & history nuggets that defy modern conventional wisdom on why things are the way they are globally. Helped me see the world differently.
- Saturate: Being Disciples of Jesus in the Everyday Stuff of Life by Jeff Vanderstelt. Great book to get you thinking on missional church strategy. Real about the struggles of missional life & discipling new believers. I’ll definitely share more about this book soon. This ones gonna tag along with me for a while.
- Born to Run: A Hidden Tribe, Superathletes, and the Greatest Race the World Has Never Seen by Christopher McDougall. I’ve not been a huge runner since the late 90’s. Now trying to get back into it & came across this book because I’m more concerned about injuries & frankly, disability now that I’m in my 40’s :). Very inspirational. Great stories of ancient people groups, how God made humans for endurance & why (though the author does not come from a Christian perspective), & a race for the centuries that no cameras caught. Added fuel to my current desire to get back to running & gave me some tips on doing it without injury. Supposed to be a movie coming out in the future with Matthew McConaughey. Will be a must see.
Any good books to recommend?
How to Baptize More People in Your Church #churchplanting
People in the water being baptized serves as a highlight & significant spiritual marker in the life of an individual & a church. Recently, I polled a few of our highest baptizing church plants in Louisiana & found that they have 5 intentional practices that every church can do to increase baptisms:
-
Pray & Share the Gospel.
If you don’t have anybody to baptize, you need to ask the question, “Are we communicating the gospel clearly to our community?” It may be that you are in a hard soil area & cultivation will take time. That’s fine. But the promise of the word of God is to produce results (Isaiah 55:11). God’s working in all our communities to bring people to himself (1 Corinthians 5:19-21). As we pray & share, planting seeds in our communities, eventually we can expect a harvest (Psalm 126:6). If you need some ideas, see my post Proven Ways to Cultivate Relationships & Plant Seeds in Your Community.
-
Keep a current list of potential candidates.
Write down the names of people in your fellowship that you’re not sure of their relation to Christ &/or if they’ve followed the Lord through believer’s baptism. Share it with core leaders & ask them to pray. Plan on systematically talking with them about making this important step in their faith journey. Also, teach parents how to look for signs of God’s work in the lives of their children & when they begin to respond, put them on the list & begin to pray for them. (Check out this helpful article on How to Tell If Your Child is Ready for Baptism).
-
Put it on the church calendar.
As you do calendar planning, go ahead & put at least two dates for baptisms on the calendar. Announce these regularly. Expect to have candidates. Pray & share the Gospel. Work the list.
-
Get info out about Believer’s Baptism.
Teach on it regularly. Produce a brochure & keep it in a well trafficked area in your building & on your website. I’ve also heard of churches doing brief Informational meetings about baptism before & after church. Don’t assume people realize the importance & Biblical reasons for baptism. Here’s the brochure our church utilizes.
-
Make it a celebration.
Baptism is an opportunity to celebrate God’s work in the heart of human being. Jesus died so that work could be done! A person has left the kingdom of darkness & entered the kingdom of light (Colossians 1:13)! Even the angels in heaven throw a party when this happens (Luke 15:10)!. Let’s celebrate! Make it a big deal. Send out invitations, post pics, share videos! We throw parties for much less, so a thing that makes heaven party & busts people out of the kingdom of darkness should instigate a celebration!
An evangelistic culture must be cultivated & maintained with intentionality. We have a command from Jesus to go & baptize (Matthew 28:18-20). We have so many people without a relationship with Christ. Get intentional about moving people to understand & respond to the Gospel & celebrate it through baptism.
A Few More #Summer #Outreach Ideas
Several great list of Summer Outreach Ideas have passed around. I liked this list from Diana Davis. Here’s a few other low cost ideas that have proved fruitful for meeting people:
-
Water Bottles for front yard lawn mowers
Fill a few ice chest full of ice cold water or gatorade, then head out on Saturday morning & watch for people working in their front yard. Interrupt them by giving them a bottle & a small connection card to your church. I promise they won’t mind.
-
Face Painting or Balloon Animals at local festivals
Every Louisiana community has a festival, car show, farmers market or something. Add to the gathering by offering something fun for kids. Face Painting is easy for almost anyone. Poll your team for other talents that might be unique & entertaining. Don’t forget to have invite cards to your church or Bible Study.
-
Fun for kids at Multi-Housing complexes
If you haven’t already, you should get to know the managers at local apartment complexes. They’re often required by upper management to provide events for the park & in my experience they are stressed about that! Offer to help by extending a VBS activity or showing up with a snow cone machine or bounce house.
-
Snow cones at local daycares
Private daycares are usually very open to engagement with churches. Especially if you offer free snow cones for every child in the afternoon! Snow cone machines rent for $100 or so, check around to see if another local church has one, or if you’re part of a Baptist Association, they probably have a block party trailer equipped with a snow cone machine plus. Ask the daycare if they’ll send home an invite card or event invite from your church in backpacks in return.
-
Outdoor Movie Nights
Pick an area park, backyard, subdivision common space, & a short movie. Outdoor movie screens can be purchased for around $200. Projectors are available from partner churches or your local association.
-
Hurricane Prep for local Mobile Home Parks
Great men’s group project. Connect with a local trailer park & offer to cut low hanging limbs back away from trailers in the run up to Hurricane season. This is a great service to residents & management that will never be forgotten. Pole saws rent for $125 or so & probably at least one guy in your group has a chainsaw.
-
Free Movie Day for Stay at Home Moms with Kids
Turn your church or a local meeting hall into a free cinema for the afternoon. Show a favorite kid movie with popcorn & box drinks. There’s probably a local mom’s facebook group that you can spread the word through.
-
Outdoor Summer Concert
If your church or community has a nice green space, find a local musician or band (no shortage of those in Louisiana) & throw a free sunset concert. Offer free drinks & invite cards to your churches gathering.
Got other ideas for summer outreach? Don’t be stingy. Please share.
What if: New Resident Welcome Baskets #Outreach #Multihousingministry #Onmission
Lot’s of people on the move in the summer. If you live in a growing community, what if you equipped your church to be on the lookout for new neighbors & the bless them with a basket of goodies & info about your church or churches in the community. Would also be cool to partner with area Multi-Housing facilities to provide baskets for their new residents. Here’s a list put together by Angie McGinty & the Creative Team at our church for last summers New Resident Welcome Baskets:
Basket (I have been lucky enough to find some the perfect size in the dollar section at Target, but I think they are out now)- Archer Farms Brand (@Target): Box of cheddar sourdough cheese straws and caramel macadamia popcorn in the big clear container (by chips). I picked these because they look nicer and more gourmet if you will.
- Some type of gender neutral note pad (I found ones with magnets in the Target dollar section)
- A nice pen to go with notepad (I usually only get these if they have some in the dollar section…nice pens are not cheap)
- Antibacterial hand soap (I get the nice ones from Bath and Body Works..they were running a special for 7 of them for $20 but they may not be running that anymore. If not, I know that Target has some nice ones like the organic hand soaps) I think adding a nice soap with a great smell really makes the baskets kick up a notch as opposed to just some random everyday soap.)
- A nice dish towel/hand towel. You may be able to find some cute Spring ones on sale at Hobby Lobby right now. I got a neutral color from Target for a few bucks.
- Thick wire edge ribbon to tie around the basket (Hobby Lobby has great ribbon and usually on sale)
Cost of each basket: less than $25
What if…
- Every multi-housing complex had a partnering church to welcome new residents.
- We noticed & took responsibility for new movers into our neighborhoods & cultivated relationships during this important season in their lives.
- You equipped a team in your church to wow new residents with a nice basket of goodies for their new home.
- God moved someone into your community & your kindness led them to open their heart & eyes to God’s purpose for the first time.
What else would you include? Does your church do anything like this?
5 Reasons to Be Intentional About Relationships
Bridge Church in Madisonville is in the midst of a sermon series called Why Bother? We’re looking at things culture is pressing us to devalue but God counts as of great value. One thing thats valued less & less is relationships. We don’t build front porches onto our homes much anymore. Instead we build “privacy fences” in the backyard. Loneliness plagues neighborhoods & people who have hundreds if not thousands of Facebook friends. And relationships can be hard & messy, unlike the video game that we can hit restart on, or the relational lives of television characters that we live vicariously through in our imagination. It may not be lack of desire, but lack of intentionality. So Why Bother with Relationships? Why do we need greater intentionality? Why should we push through difficulty to build deep relationships with others?
1. God’s primary purpose was & is to RESTORE RELATIONSHIPS. Isaiah 59:2 reminds us that sins separates humanity from God & that separation extends to our earthy relationships (James 4:1). What is God doing in the world? Restoring Relationships (see 2 Corinthians 5:18-19). As we relate with God, his desire for relationship will spread to us & through us to others.
2. Jesus bothered with RELATIONSHIPS. In the gospels, we see Jesus spending time with a small group of 12 followers who he called friends (John 15:14-15). Then he had an inner circle of three that he shared an even greater depth of relationship (Matthew 17:1). We also see Jesus initiating relationships with difficult people like a crooked tax collector named Zacheus, a promiscuous Samaritan Women at a well, & a Jewish religious leader named Nicodemus. Jesus demonstrated intentionality in relationships & used relationships as the primary means for spreading the gospel.
I like Jon Acuff’s take on Jesus’ minsitry:
What an ineffective communicator Jesus was by our modern standards of platform building. He could have spoken to hilltops of thousands of people each night, but instead he wasted time at dinner with a handful of tax collectors and strangers. Want to change the world? It’s easy. Have a long, time-wasting, friendship-generating dinner with someone.
3. Jesus commanded us to bother with RELATIONSHIPS. Jesus not only set the example of intentional relationships, he took this to “COMMAND FROM GOD” status in John 13:34-35, then in John 15:12 & John 15:17. Also, in stories like the Good Samaritan, where Jesus presses his people to put the needs of others ahead of themselves, even despite busy schedules & cultural differences (Luke 10:25-37). And he adds in the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5:41-48) that we are to love even the most unlovable, like Roman soldiers that make unjust demands, & avowed enemies. With Jesus, intentional relationships are not an option for His followers.
4. You can’t possibly obey the Bible without building relationships. People often say in our culture, “I don’t have to go to church, to be a Christian.” That’s true, but New Testament Christianity would tach us that you must be in relationships with other believers to be an OBEDIENT Christian. Depending on what Bible translations you use, there are 40-50 verses that you can’t possibly obey outside of relationships. We call them the One Another’s. A few of my fav’s:
- “Be devoted to one another in brotherly love…” (Romans 12:10)
- “…Honor one another above yourselves. (Romans 12:10)
- “…Serve one another in love.” (Galatians 5:13)
- “…Forgive whatever grievances you may have against one another.” (Colossians 3:13)
- “…Build each other up…” (I Thessalonians 5:11)
- “…Encourage one another.” (Hebrews 10:25)
- “…Do not slander one another.” (James 4:11)
- “Don’t grumble against each other…” (James 5:9)
- “…Pray for each other.” (James 5:16)
Here’s a great Infographic with all of them listed.
5. RELATIONSHIPS bring growth & change into our lives. Proverbs 27:17 says, “As iron sharpens iron, so a friend sharpens a friend.” That’s a great image of the importance of friendships. I have a tool in my garage to sharpen my lawn mower blades. it’s called a Grinder. And when sharpening blades, it gets messy. Sparks fly. The noise is annoying. But the end product is a sharper tool & a cleaner cut. Without relationships, we run the risk of remaining dull & less effective as followers of Christ. So God compells us to sharpen one another. To push through the sparks that may fly as we grow & change through relationships.
Today there’s a great mission field to be had for the Christian that will be intentional about Relationships. We have so many lonely people. In our neighborhoods are people with few relationships. People are searching for answers in impersonal ways, but are open to a friend that will help them. Be intentional. Show up. Engage. Love. Serve. And see how God uses you.
Why Bother with Evangelism?
Bridge Church in Madisonville is in the midst of a sermon series called Why Bother? We’re looking at things culture is pressing us to devalue but God counts as of great value. Evangelism has long been at the top of the list for our culture, as we hate for people to “push religion on us.” But it’s also devalued by Christians because of our fears.
So, Why Bother with Evangelism? Four Reasons:
- God’s heart for the world should lead us to bother with evangelism (John 3:16, 2 Corinthians 5:19, 2 Peter 3:9)
- Jesus life & work demands & he commands that we bother with Evangelism (Matthew 28:18-20)
- The World is Broken & Breaking & we will be held accountable for our neglect of evangelism (Isaiah 59:2; Hebrews 9:27: Ezekiel 3:18)
- The Natural Flow of the Spiritually Growing Christian will be to give & share God’s heart & Jesus’ work with others & to care deeply about restoring the broken world (1 Peter 3:15; John 15:16; Acts 1:8; Matthew 4:19)
What would you add to this list?
Hear the sermon in its entirety along with the rest of the series here, or on Itunes (search Bridge Northshore).
Worth Reading: The Rise of the Nones
A lot has been said & will be said about the recent Pew Report on Religion in America, but it confirms the premise behind the book The Rise of the Nones: Understanding and Reaching the Religiously Unaffiliated by James Emery White. I posted one of my best take aways from the book earlier. It also makes the book that much more important for the church leader that’s serious about reaching the unreached in our day. Here’s a few quotes from the book that have stuck with me:
- The nones now make up the nation’s fastest growing and second largest religious category.
- this trend is only an American phenomenon, not a global one.
- The nones are NOT made up of seekers who are looking for a spiritual home but simply haven’t found it yet
- Until we think about conversion growth as the way to grow our churches, we won’t make a dent in the fastest growing religious demographic of our day.
- Most churches have as their primary focus reaching and then serving the already convinced. So the mission isn’t making disciples but rather caring for them.
- When it comes to evangelism, the efforts of the church need to be like an incubator. Every approach, every program, every service furnishes a particular environment that will either serve the evangelistic process or hinder it.
- Church is often like “a fishing expedition in which people put bait on a hook, place it in the middle of the boat’s deck, and then join hands to pray for the fish to jump in and grab the hook.”
- If you are going to reach the nones, they are going to come to you as a none. That means they will come as couples living together, as gay couples, pregnant outside of marriage, addicted, skeptical.
- If nones ever come to your church uninvited, it will probably be for the sake of their kids.
- This is no time for cross-town church competitions for transfer growth and then patting ourselves on the back for reaching the already convinced as if we somehow made a dent in hell.
- This is no time to cave to spiritual narcissism, in which the primary concern is whether people are fed, are ministered to, or “get anything out of the worship experience,” as though the mission is caring for believers as consumers instead of dying to ourselves to reach a lost world.
Lane Corley 