How Ready is Your Church for the Fastest Growing Religious Demographic in the US
Recently read a great book called The Rise of the Nones by James Emery White. It’s about the fastest growing religious affiliation in the U.S., which is the NON-affiliated. In St. Tammany Parish, where I live, best research shows that we have 116,000+ in that number (http://ow.ly/Ll3D0) or about 50% of our population. And in Louisiana, best research indicates that at least 1.8 million people are in that number.
As Christians, this is an UBER important thing for us to consider, since our mission from Jesus is “to seek & save the lost.”
White talks about how most churches that grow, grow by BIOLOGICAL (natural family growth) or by TRANSFER (Christians swapping churches) or by PRODIGAL growth (Church goers returning to church after years away) & NOT by CONVERSION (reaching nonbelievers with the Gospel). And he says there are 6 kinds of churches in regard to the Nones:
- Hostile – openly antagonistic toward the nones who venture in.
- Indifferent – not hostile, but apathetic and unwilling to answer the nones’ questions.
- Hopeful – want to see the nones reached for Christ, but unwilling to change their environment to do so.
- Sensitive – want to reach the nones for Christ, willing to change their environment, but still primarily catering to the already convinced.
- Targeted – high priority placed on the needs of the nones and make every effort to remove all barriers that made impede their exploring life in Christ.
No Man’s Land – not being targeted enough to reach the unchurched, but being too targeted to the unchurched for the churched.
A few questions:
- Where would you say your church is on this list?
- How many none’s do you know?
- What do you think it would take for a church to reach them?
“Purpose doesn’t take the pain away or make the process easier” Kirk Jones – Generate Conf Recap
Some Big Takeaways from the Generate Conference with Shawn Lovejoy, Kirk Jones, & Bill Dye. The Conference brought together Church Planters & Leaders from around Louisiana. Great networking & the content was top shelf.
from Kirk Jones, founding pastor of Fellowship Church in Prairieville, on lessons learned while planting:
> Straight rows are efficient. Finished rows are fertile.
> Faithfulness is required, not perfection.
> Preparing the field will never lead to perfection but to fertility.
> Purpose doesn’t take the pain away or make the process easier.
> The more seeds you plant, the more you harvest.
> The more seeds you plant, the more seeds you have.
from Bill Dye, Sr. Pastor of North Monroe Baptist Church in NE Louisiana, on overcoming growth barriers:
> Overcoming barriers comes through vision.
> If you give up on church growth, you’re giving up on people.
> Church is designed for people not there.
> We don’t try to make converts. We want to make disciples.
> Build your vision around the Great Commission. Helps deal with resistance. Who can resist the Great Commission?
> Most important thing to get people to buy in to in church: “It’s not about you.”
from Shawn Lovejoy, Founder of Mountain Lake Church in Cummings, GA & ChurchPlanters.com that host the popular Velocity Conference each year:
> Too many church planters want to plant & harvest in the same week.
> Most pastors quit right before the harvest.
> Be careful what kind of church you plant, you might have to pastor it one day.
> Successful leaders lead themselves first.
> The condition of our hearts determines the outcome of our ministries.
> Be developers of people, not doers of ministry.
> What you celebrate, gets done. Celebrate the individual life, not the huge crowds.
> No discipleship plan is perfect, so work your plan.
And thanks to Fellowship Church for going above & beyond as our host for the conference! Hope it won’t be the last!
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- Kirk Jones & Todd Blount
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- Bill Dye
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- Bill Dye & Kirk Jones
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- Shawn Lovejoy
Alternative to the Big Spring #Outreach Event
Big outreach events are fun & can be fruitful, but can also leave people & the church budget exhausted. Our church examined the fruitfulness of outreach & saw that more people had connected to Christ & our church through relationships & neighborhood events (block parties, small groups, neighborhood BBQ’s, etc.), than our big, expensive Spring Easter Egg Hunt. Doesn’t mean we should never do it again. Even if it seems unfruitful, seeds were sown & relationships cultivated. You never fail when you reach out in the name of Christ. But we wondered if we could put our money into Spring Outreach that had proven the most fruitful in our context & could give incentive for us evangelicals to actually get to know our neighbors. So our teams came up with the Neighborhood Outreach Basket. This Spring they provided two: Neighborhood Easter Egg Hunt basket & the Neighborhood BBQ basket. Basically, a starter kit for a party!
And maybe your church can do both! Whatever it is, do something to gather people & cultivate relationships toward the Gospel.
For more info on throwing a block party check out my post Why Block Parties? And check out the Bridge Church Block Party Manual. For more info on Creative Outreach Check out my post Proven Ways to Plant Seeds & Cultivate Relationships.
Update: Here’s a couple of pics from a recent Neighborhood Easter Egg Hunt in St. Tammany Parish.
#ChurchRevitalization Story: The Grove
“a lot of change… that’s all nothing compared to the fact that you’re saving lost souls”
~ from a member of a church revitalization project
Broussard Grove Baptist Church had experienced an 80% decline in attendance in less than 10 years in one of the fastest growing parishes in Louisiana. They were struggling to keep systems alive in their congregation. Interim Pastor Larry Badon reached out to a sister congregation, Istrouma Baptist Church, for help. Istrouma adopted Broussard Grove a Multi-Site Campus Development, brought in a Campus Pastor / Church Planter, changed the name to The Grove, aligned ministries with to reach the community. Now, two years later, the congregation has experienced a 60% turn around in attendance & are seeing new people follow Christ. See the story for yourself:
Interested in Church Revitalization?
Interested in Multisite?
Reminder: “God saved you to be a conduit…” #devo
The Gospel came to you because it was heading to someone else. God never intended for your salvation to be an end, but a beginning. God saved you to be a conduit through whom his glorious, life-changing gospel would flow to others. You are a link in the chain…
Robby Gallaty in Growing Up: How to Be a Disciple Who Makes Disciples
“Build in the Beginning What You Want in the End” – Basic Training for #ChurchPlanting Recap
Finished up our first Basic Training for Church Multiplication event yesterday in Louisiana. Two more events coming up this year. Basic Training serves as a workshop overview of systems that need to be in place for a church to get off the ground & sustain flight toward evangelizing a community for Christ. A study of recent church plants in Louisiana shows that planters that take advantage of some kind of workshop training experience 45% higher attendance & 61% more baptisms in their first three years. Our trainings in Louisiana are free & include overnight accommodations & three meals. And feel free to bring your team. If you can’t make it to these & are in the midst of planting a church, find a boot camp, school of church planting, or significant training event to plug into.
A few highlights:
- Understanding the soil in which you are planting – spiritually, socially, and culturally – is crucial to the effectiveness of your church plant.
- Just like farming, there are two activities for church planters: cultivating and planting. If you do the right thing in the wrong season, you get zero results.
- Vision is nothing if it’s not rooted in human problem and growing toward God’s glory. ~ Will Mancini
- You won’t do ministry that really matters until you define what really matters ~ Aubrey Malphurs
- Three keys to church planting: Gather, Gather, Gather.
- Healthy churches have a healthy culture that is created and facilitated by healthy systems.
- Most new members in church plants don’t go from 0% to 10% in giving right away. That’s a path we must lead them down.
- Church Multiplication is a spiritual decision of a local church to put the needs of a desperate world before self-preservation. ~ Stephen Gray
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- Lonnie Tucker, Stillwater Baptist Church
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- Scott Cheatham, The Way Church
Pray for Great Kingdom Church – Hammond, Crossroads Church – Kenner, Stillwater Church – New Orleans, Downtown Church – New Orleans, Life Point Church – Plaucheville, Life Point Church – Simmesport, Hope Church – Chauvin, Bridge Church – Covington, & three yet to be named projects.
#ChurchPlanting Hack: 18 Proven Ideas for Engaging the Community and Planting Seeds
When starting a new church or wanting to impact a community for Christ through evangelism, scattering seeds should be one of your primary missions. On Church Planter reports we ask for the # of contacts made each month. No coincidence that often the church plant with the most salvations and baptisms is also the one with the most contacts made in the community over the course of a year. That’s not always the case at first, because some communities will take more of the spiritual work of cultivating the ground through prayer and serving before seeds can be planted and harvest gathered. But if a church planter aggressively devises a strategy of seed scattering and planting, eventually a harvest can be expected (Psalm 126:6).
What is scattering seed for a church planter? Seed scattering is any activity that intersects believers &/or the gospel with the lives of people in the community. The more directly evangelistic the better. But considering that it probably takes 20 touches for someone to become a Christian, plan for activity that cultivates, plants, and draws the harvest.
Here’s 18 Proven ideas for engaging the community and increasing your contacts and seeds planted in your church plant:
8 Places of Engagement to Plant Seeds and Cultivate Relationships in Your Community #ChurchPlanting
In Church Planting, the ability to see the possibilities for relationships, ministry, & engagement in the community will determine much for the church’s future impact in the community. Engaging the community is fun, easy in most places (especially in the south), & can lead to many seeds planted, if you’re willing to risk & build relationships.
Here are 8 Places of Engagements in almost every community that I’ve found WIDE OPEN to relationship with a church. This is a continuation of the series Planting Seeds & Cultivating Relationships in Church Planting (Part 1, Part 2).
Members of Stillwater Church in Hammond pass out healthy snacks to kids getting off the bus at a local mobile home park.
11. Multi-Housing Communities – Multi-Housing Complexes offer many potential points of contacts with all different kinds of people. One easy, low cost, highly relational way to make some people smile & start a conversation is to pick up some boxes of snacks & juice boxes & setup at a common bus stop at an apartment complex or trailer park after school. Our church does this the week before kid friendly events that we’d like to promote. Stillwater Church in Hammond has seen a new church birth, utilizing the after school bus stop as a primary way to make connections in two large mobile home parks in their area.
12. Community Agencies – Council on Aging, Volunteers of America, Boys & Girls Club, Local Fire Dept., Local Police Dept., Town Council, local Crisis Pregnancy Center, Mayor’s offices, local utility companies, Easter Seals, Special Olympics, Habitat for Humanity, Neighborhood Revitalization committees, local Work Release Program. These are a handful of the community agencies that our church plants have worked with that exist in almost every community in North America. Great partners, often looking for volunteers, & often wondering why churches don’t offer to help. And believe it or not, we’ve found no problems from most community agencies with the expectation that we as a church would also be sharing the gospel with people we serve. Projects, partners, points of contact with the community is a phone call away.
13. Area Daycares – Private daycares are often open to allowing churches to make contact with families they serve. We have built relationships with daycares in our area that have allowed us to come in & do Gospel centered activities with kids. We also send posters & invites to any kid friendly special event (Easter Egg Hunt, Trunk or Treat, etc.) to local daycares & have found that many of them will post them on a bulletin board & some will pass them out to parents picking up their kids. Start by making a list of area daycares & consider including them in service opportunities & invites to special events.
14. Rec Fields – Another great way to both invest in the community & get some name recognition is to get a sign on the fences of local recreation fields. $200-500 can get your logo, name, website in front of a large % of unchurched people in your community. And the interaction with key leaders in the recreation programs can be a great thing for your personal network as a church planter as well. I’ve also seen churches serve rec fields in other ways: Inflatables & face painting on opening day, free snow cones, free souvenir pictures. I’ve also thought about the possibility of offering a Sunday morning worship time at our local ball field with 100’s pouring in every weekend for travel ball leagues.
Bridge Church in Madisonville, doing free balloon animals & face painting at a local festival in 2014.
15. Community Festivals – In Louisiana, there is some kind of festival going almost every weekend. Festivals offer a variety of opportunities for churches to engage the people of the community. First & maybe most importantly, the impact of getting to know leaders of festivals on most occasions also means getting to know key leaders in the city or town. Getting involved lets them know that you’re on their side & want to see the community succeed. A few ways that I’ve seen churches reach out to festivals: Serve by picking up trash all day, Face Painting, Kids Games, sponsor entertainment, Free Souvenir pictures, Festival volunteers, Setup & tear down. Many other ways to engage people. Remember your Invite Cards (see part 1), go unselfishly to serve the community, & have fun! Louisiana Festivals are the best!
16. Funeral Homes – Outreach to funeral homes? As a brand new church planter in the community, as I was networking, I stopped by several area funeral homes with a card & an offer to preach the funeral for anyone that didn’t have a pastor already. To my surprise, I soon found myself doing 4-5 funerals every week. Which proved to be emotionally exhausting, but served as a great way to connect with families at a time they needed the Gospel & relationships built around faith more than ever. People will NEVER forget you, when you’re able to be there with them in the valley of the shadow of death.
17. Community Networks – A network is a group or system of interconnected people. They are everywhere in your community & most are ready & willing to connect new people to the group. Get your church plant involved in the local Chamber of Commerce. Most have a Non-Profit membership stream & I’ve found that they love having churches involved. Early on in the life of one of our church plants, I joined what was called a BNI, or Business Network International. People paid to join a group that commits to help each other promote their respective businesses. They loved having a church in the group. Made all kinds of connections in that network. Church planting is about networking & you don’t have to recreate the wheel at the outset. Join the community networks & relationships will lead to seeds planted & opportunities to share the Gospel.
18. Local Hospitals – In the New Testament, we see Jesus often ministering to people at the point of illness, disease, & grief. There are several ways that a church plant can engage people at this point of need. Find out if the hospital has a volunteer chaplain program. In my community, our local baptist association has built this bridge to several local hospitals & pastors & lay people are trained & empowered to meet needs through chaplaincy work. Stock the Waiting rooms. Waiting rooms can be lonely, cold places. Get permission to put fruit baskets, magazines, fresh donuts, Bibles, or whatever you can in the waiting rooms. And don’t forget the gift of presence. Drop by & give the gift of a listening ear & encouraging words. One of my favorite servant evangelism projects is pick up a handful of gift cards to the nearest restaurants & drop by the ICU waiting room & give them away. Remember, this ministry is not about you! Only go if you can realistically put the needs of others first. This can be a great ministry for those with the gifts of mercy in your church plant.
What other Places of Engagement would you add to this list?
Assessing the Need for New Churches in the Seemingly Over-churched South #churchplanting
A common question I’m asked as a church planter and strategist: “Why do we need new churches when we have so many already?”
Stated in other, more direct ways:
- “We’ve got that area covered already, there’s no need for a new church.”
- “Planting a new church will make Pastors in the area feel unappreciated or like they’re not doing their job.”
- “Why plant a new church when my church needs so much help?”
- “Do we really need another ‘little’ church in this area?”
- “Won’t a new church just take resources from other churches.”
- “Don’t most new churches fail anyway?”
These can be legitimate concerns, when brought with a kingdom mind set, and these concerns should be addressed by strategists and planters in the planning process. I’d really like to work through each of these concerns individually at some point but now I’m asking, what are the right questions and the key indicators of the need for new churches or ministries in the seemingly overchurched south?
- Is the community being transformed for the good or bad? Instead of starting by looking at ourselves (i.e. the existing churches in the community), maybe we should take a look at what’s happening in the lives of people in the area. Church planting should start with a desire to see the community transformed by the gospel. Is it happening as we need it to? Are we willing to admit that the task of transforming our community may be more than one church can handle? Are we committed to life change at all costs?
- Are there places where the Church is not? Flowing out of the first question, what do we find when we look at spheres of influence and places of engagement in the community? Are churches able and willing to engage the local schools, multi-housing complexes, business communities, correctional facilities, chat rooms, neighborhood associations, etc.?
- Are there population segments or people groups that are not being touched by the Gospel? Next, are there language, socioeconomic, or lifestyle groups, that are not being touched adequately by a consistent Gospel witness?
- What is God stirring up in and for this community? God is in the world reconciling people to Himself (2 Corinthians 5:17-21). What is He doing in this community in that regard? When our Father’s work includes stirring the heart of a church to multiply and send out its own to start a new church or launch a new campus or reach out to a population segment, we should not oppose what He is stirring. We can assess if this is a genuine call from God or a call to disgruntlement or if it is born out of divisiveness. We can also hold our planting teams accountable to be agents of transformation not division, focusing on where the church is not, and reaching out to unreached peoples.
Many Pastors, me included, tend to think about a new ministry or church through the lens of what it may cost us. What if we thought about it in terms of the great cost to those who may never hear the Gospel, or those who are going through life without the joy of a relationship with Christ, or those who are going through life’s challenges without a family of believers who can love and provide for them along the way? Can we look honestly at our communities and see the need and God’s activity if it’s there and then partner together to plant for God’s glory and the good of our communities?
Are there other good questions and key indicators as we plan to plant the Gospel in North America?
Get started on your church planting journey:
- I think I want to Plant a Church, What Now?
- 5 Things You Must Do Before You Plant a Church
- 10 Biblical and Practical Ways to Get Involved in Church Planting
- Every Church Can Encourage Church Planting & Multiplication
- Every Church Can Be A Church Planting Partner
- Your Church Can Be A Parent to A New Church or Campus
Real Life Scenarios of #ChurchRevitalization: Merging and Multisite
Got to sit down last week with leaders from First Baptist Church West Monroe & The Way Church in Denham Springs & talk about their successful Church Revitalization endeavors over the last few years.
The Stories:
Fairbanks Baptist Church in Sterlington, LA, had a history of decline & was struggling to keep systems running in the life of their church. They reached out to First West & First West accepted the challenge of helping them revi through merging. Fairbanks Baptist became First West Fairbanks. A Campus Pastor was chosen to restart the work. Today, 250+ worship where 3 years ago there were 20.
The Way Church, 300+ worshipping in the Calvary Baptist facility.
Calvary Baptist Church in Denham Springs, LA, had a history of decline & was struggling to keep systems running in the life of their church. The Way Church was in their third year as a church plant & had baptized over 100 in three years by successfully reaching unchurched young adults in the same community. However, the Way Church was paying very high rent & began looking for other facility options. Their Associational Director of Missions connected Calvary & the Way & they began exploring the possibilities of merging. Calvary officially closed its doors in the Fall of 2014 & the Way took over the property & today 300+ are worshipping each Sunday, where last year there were only 20.
As I listened to First West (Pastor Michael Wood, Global Mission Pastor Mark Fenn, & Campus Pastor Chad Merrell) & the Way (Scott Cheatham) tell their respective stories, I wrote down 9 Keys to a Successful Church Revi Transition that includes Merging & Multisite:
1) Healthy Church Life & Multiplication Happening. Both First West & The Way were growing, multiplying leaders & groups. Healthy systems were in place & functioning at both churches.
2) Healthy Relational Networking Among Churches in the Community. Both First West & The Way are involved in their local Associations & relationships laid a foundation for the development of merger talks. The Way Church had even began hosting a quarterly community worship experience where they first met the pastor of Calvary & conversations were initiated.
3) Realization of Need by Declining Congregation. Both Fairbanks Baptist & Calvary Baptist had reached a point where they were willing to admit their need of help from the outside. For most congregations this will probably come in the form of financial struggles. Many will be faced with a loss of pastoral leadership. But something happens to initiate the idea that help is needed.
4) A Healthy Mediator. In both scenarios a healthy mediator began the conversation of merging. For Fairbanks, a Deacon at First West was good friends with some of their leaders & they ask him if First West would be willing to help. For Calvary & the Way, David Brown, the Director of Missions in the area served as a healthy mediator beginning & walking through the details with the congregations.
Baptisms at First West Fairbanks in 2014.
5) Everybody Seeking God’s Will & the Good of the Community. There had to be a declaration by all parties that we’re not seeking our own will, but God’s & the good of the lost community around us.
6) Defining Terms. There had to be a moment where hard realities were laid out & hard decisions made. In these scenarios, the older congregations had to come to understand that nothing would stay the same & it was time for their congregations to die that something new may be birthed for the good of the Kingdom.
7) Accepting Responsibility. These transitions WILL NOT be easy or cheap. Both First West & the Way said you can expect it to be costly. Broken systems can create some messy situations with taxes & debt & building needs. Jim Tomberlin with Multisite Solutions says you can expect to pay about $250,000. Both First West & The Way spent that in the transition period.
8) The Right People at the Right Time. Everything rises & falls on leadership. The Way Church was blessed to have Scott Cheatham, who had a business background & knew the right steps to take to raise money, get the property legal, & assure the Calvary faithful few that their church would be in good hands. First West also had a businessman, Chad Merrell, who knew how to build great relationships & solve problems. These were the right people at the right time.
FW Fairbanks gathered at Sterlington High School while renovations were made to the Fairbanks Baptist Church.
9) Keep the Good, Retire the Bad. Fairbanks Baptist had 70+ kids coming on Wednesday night for a Kids program. Chad Merrell made the healthy decision to keep that ministry going. At the same time, they held services off campus at the High School for a season, to increase their capacity for attendance & build relationships with the community. Moving back to the campus of Fairbanks meant they moved back into the gym, because the worship center was too small.
Merging & Multisite is one healthy scenario for churches in need of revitalization. These 9 characteristics of a healthy transition may help guide you through a process with a partnering church.
What would you add or take away from this list?
Lane Corley 