“A Church in Motion…” wisdom on Growing Churches from Gary McIntosh
Got to hear Church Growth & Revitalization guru Gary McIntosh share some wisdom at last week’s Louisiana Baptist Convention Evangelism Conference in Shreveport. Gary likened church to Newton’s first law of motion: A body at rest tends to stay at rest, unless… A body at motion, tends to stay in motion, unless… It’s a good challenge for churches to be intentional & here’s some things that Dr. McIntosh believes that growing churches intentionally do to get or stay moving toward growth:
7 Best Practices of Churches in Motion:
- Put a greater emphasis on prayer.
- Teach & preach the Bible with authority. Preach it & live it!
- Define reality for the church & community.
- Take responsibility for making disciples.
- Make hard decisions. (i.e. Closing ineffective ministries, let staff go, realign finances, dealing w/sine, etc.)
- Refocus ministry on the unchurched in the community.
- Start new ministries.
Simple list of things that can be acted upon this week.
Check out some of Dr. McIntosh’s helpful books on Church Growth & Health & Revitalization here.
#ChurchPlanting Hack: The Stewardship System
This week our church is sending out the Annual Contribution Statements to our 2014 contributors & church members. This is part of a healthy Stewardship System designed to make disciples that are generous givers to the kingdom ministry that is their local church. A contribution statement is a simple report of the households giving to the church & its ministries over the previous year. Many churches do this on a quarterly basis as well. Our statements include a letter from one of the leadership team (Contribution Letter) as well as an offering envelope. We’ve also included the annual church budget in the packet before. It’s a great reminder of the responsibility we have as disciples to be good stewards.
Check out this years Contribution Letter from our church.
Here’s a simple outline of what a beginner Stewardship System should look like for a new church:
- Provide a variety of avenues for giving to your church. Online Giving, Bank Draft, ACH Online Bill Bay, Sunday Morning Offering Box/Basket/Plate, Offering Envelopes. With people attending church less often than ever before, offering more than just the Sunday Morning Offering time for people to give is necessary.
- Use an Offering Counting Sheet to record each weeks offerings. At least two people should count, and the planter/pastor should be one of them only in case of grave emergency. When possible a third person should make the deposit. Integrity in counting & depositing boils down to a solid paper trail that tracks every cent. A counting sheet is the best tool for this.
- Get a good cloud-based Church Management System & input the data from each counting sheet every week. Popular ones are Fellowship One, The City, ACS, Church Community Builder. These can be costly but worth it. You sponsor church may allow you to use theirs for awhile. A good CMS is an important time saver for your Stewardship System because it allows for quick printing on Contribution statements & mailing labels to deliver them.
- Teach that good stewardship of God’s gifts & resources (time, talent, treasure, property, etc.) is part of being a follower of Christ. Paul told the disciples at Corinth, “I don’t want what you have–I want you” (2 Corinthians 12:14). The Stewardship System shouldn’t just be about the needs of the church budget, but it should be about discipleship. As people become more like Christ, they should become more generous & live by kingdom principles in spending. This probably will positively effect the church budget, but that should be secondary to our desire for people to live like Christ.
- Model generosity & good stewardship as a leader & as a church. “You won’t be able to lead anyone somewhere that you’re not willing to go yourself.” The Church Planter/Pastor should lead the way as a faithful, generous steward. And the church should model generosity through regular missions giving & radical generosity in the community. Recently read: “If a person is self-focused, we call them selfish. If a church is self-focused, we call it normal.” via @cnieuwhof. We should model what we want others to become.
- Report regularly & transparently to the congregation through individual contribution statements & church budget reports. Contribution Statements & Budget Reports can serve as report cards for Disciples & Churches on the journey to Christ likeness.
What else would you include as part of a churches Stewardship System?
A couple of favorite resources on this subject:
#ChurchPlanting Stories from the Weekend
Baptisms yesterday down on the Bayou at Crosspoint Church, planter/pastor John Boss. John also leads FBC Grand Isle & it’s resort ministry (http://ow.ly/HzkUp). Check them out for your retreats or bayou mission adventure.
Only 1.3% of the Bayou Baptist Association population (Lafourche, Terrebone, & part of Jefferson parish) attend worship in an SBC Church. Both are listed in http://www.thearda.com‘s top 15 of least evangelical parishes in Louisiana (Lafourche only 6%, Terrebone only 11%).
Planters & Partners are needed. Director of Missions Joe Arnold, bayoubaptistbj@bellsouth.net to get started.
More baptisms at Life Point Church, Mansura yesterday. Planter/Pastor Jacob Crawford. Jacob will be part of our Teaching Team for Basic Training for Church Planting this year (Register Here).
A few things I’m hoping to learn from Jacob is: How do you start an evangelism movement that leads to over 100 baptism in 3 years in a hard to reach area? How do you start a church that looks like the community you’re planting in (40% Black, 60% white)? A lot of us talk about evangelism based & multi-ethnic church planting. Life Point has done it. Join us for Basic Training & get to know Jacob Crawford.
“Do not despise these small beginnings, for the Lord rejoices to see the work begin” Zechariah 4:10. West Bank Baptist Church & Planter Ryan Melson have been reaching out for 6 months now. Ryan & his wife Michelle have done a great job building partnerships & laying a foundation. Looking fwd to seeing what this pic looks like in the next six months.
Pray for Westbank Baptist Church. Follow Ryan & Michelle’s Church Planting Journey HERE. Sponsor Church is Cedar Crest in West Monroe.
Cross Creek Cowboy Church
in Zachary, Planter Josh Morris, hosted over 100 for their Open House in their new facility yesterday. Last year Cross Creek baptized 14 with 14 more salvations. Grateful for what God is doing across Louisiana through Cowboy ministries & churches.
The Way Church of Denham Springs held their official Grand Opening of their new facility yesterday with standing room only crowd. Planters Josh Spinks & Scott Cheatham. The Way has baptized over 100 in their first three years & they’re already sponsoring a new church in a neighboring community.
Let me know if you’d like to know more about church planting in Louisiana or about connecting with any of these five church plants for a missions partnership.
Check out these articles on getting ready to plant:
- 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
Team Corley Deer Season Report 2014
Had some great young bucks on our family property this year, but due to work, weather, & sickness during most of the holidays, only got to spend about 8-12 hours hunting, so no luck. Good news is, no one else had much luck either, so barring redneck poachers, they’ll be there next year :) with greater mass & more weight hopefully.
But we did have lots of deer hunting excitement jammed into Thanksgiving holidays thanks to our family on Una Mas Ranch in Bandera, TX. Spent the week in the hunting lodge & thanks to generosity of the Sako’s got to harvest a couple of this years culls. Beautiful place! Beautiful deer! Learned some good Whitetail tips. If you’re looking for a good place to do some trophy buck hunting, check out Una Mas Ranch. Here’s a few of our pics:
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- Unforgettable sunrises from the porch of the hunting lodge.
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- Breeder buck, full mount in the hunting lodge.
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- One of the breeder bucks on the wall in the hunting lodge.
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- Beautiful Texas Hill Country.
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- Nice no brow tine 4 point.
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- Jack’s first buck.
5 More Proven Ways to Plant Seeds and Cultivate Relationships in #ChurchPlanting
“Don’t judge each day by the harvest you reap but by the seeds that you plant.” Great reminder for the church planter or leader who is trying to get momentum behind the effort to reach their community for Christ. Our failure is often a failure of ideas & imagination when it comes to outreach, so I’m sharing some practical ways that I’ve seen work in Louisiana in hopes that your church will increase the number of seeds that it scatters across your community.
The first 5 I shared last week HERE.
- Invite Cards
- Direct Mail
- Facebook Page
- Facebook Ads
- School Newsletters.
Here’s 5 More:
6. Radio Spots – Average commute times in Louisiana are from 15 to 40 minutes. For most of those, the radio will be on for at least some of that time. Many radio stations offer some type of free bulletin board for community events, so if you doing something worth inviting the community to, give them a call. And radio ads can be surprisingly affordable with local stations. It’s a great way to support the local Christian radio station, but don’t just do Christian radio. On second thought, send a check to Christian radio & run your ads on the local secular stations.
7. Door Hangers – Door to door is still a great way to spread info & plant seeds. And studies in Louisiana have shown that a majority of people are open to door to door visits from churches. We’ve found a printer in our area that will print ready to hang door hangers for us. We’ve also ordered clear bags to put info in for hanging on doors, which makes them a little more weather proof. Works best for the time commitment in densely populated areas. Rules of thumb: Beware of dogs. Don’t be a jerk & ignore posted subdivision loitering rules. Expect at least one call from somebody that says, “HEY, DON’T EVER COME ON MY PROPERTY AGAIN OR I’LL @&%$#?…” Shake your head & move on. There’s always one.
8. T-shirts – Well-designed, eye-catching T-shirts can create more conversation than most other forms of advertising. Nothing else I can do in outreach gets more people to come up to me & say “Do you go to that church?” – “Is that church around here?” – “That looks like an interesting church” – “Where is your church?” Make T-shirts that people will want to wear & give them away if you can. And don’t forget to train people on what to say WHEN, not if, they are ask about your church when wearing a T-shirt.
9. Service Projects – Finding a need & meeting it has ripple effect potential for your ministry. You find someone that needs help & serve them, that’s a great kingdom contact in & of itself. And a kingdom win, is a win period. You also have to get others involved in using their gifts & abilities for ministry which helps them grow their kingdom eyes. Our church has used Wheelchair ramp building in this way. When you get a good service project you can also increase the ripple by inviting the community to join in. We’ve even ran radio spots (see above) about upcoming projects inviting others to contribute & participate. Continue the ripple by posting pics on Facebook, sharing the story with a follow-up video, etc.
10. Block Parties – A great way to gather people, cultivate relationships, plant seeds, & share the gospel is to throw a party. Mix free food, loud music, & an inflatable or two & you can be about meeting new people in almost any neighborhood in Louisiana. Another popular variation of an outreach friendly Block Party would be an Outdoor Movie Night in a city park, subdivision common space, or backyard. Also, you can use holiday’s, big national sporting events, & birthday parties to throw a party, invite everyone you know, & find ways to cultivate relationships & move them closer to experiencing the gospel of Jesus Christ. Check out this post on Why Block Parties & the How to Manual for Block Parties that our church put together.
What are other ways that you’ve cultivated relationships & planted seeds in your community?
Small is Big. Slow is Fast. And #Multiplication Always Wins.
In the book Small is Big Slow is Fast: Living and Leading Your Family and Community on God’s Mission, Ceasar Kalinowski paints a picture of the kingdom of God that makes you believe anybody can be a part of expanding it. That’s the belief we need to go viral in the church today if we’re going to see a movement of evangelism & discipleship in North America, so I want to highly recommend this book to you. The book challenges popular notions that have slowed multiplication including church has to be made up of big crowds & buildings to be real, discipleship should be scheduled in the midst of the busyness of everyday life, & only a few highly trained people should develop the skills to lead churches. Here’s a few of my favorite quotes:
- A disciple is someone who has reoriented his or her life around another to become, in essence, who that person is.
- We don’t live on mission because we are supposed to. It is our birthright. We get to do this.
- We will never lead another group of friends or anyone else father and deeper into discipleship and mission than our own family.
- If we are not careful, we can end up being the nicest, friendliest people in the neighborhood but fail to lead anyone one step closer to walking in the ways of Jesus.
- multiplication doesn’t just happen accidentally. Everything we do must be intentionally simple, scalable, and reproducible.
- the secret to increasingly living our lives together on God’s mission is to move away from seeing discipleship as something that needs to be tacked onto an already busy schedule, toward seeing all the normal stuff of life as full of opportunity for discipleship and growth in the gospel.
- This is not a call to life plus mission, rather, it is a call to life on mission.
- When looking to develop leaders, we initially have to identify who wants to lead. We do this by looking at who is ready first to be a follower.
- Some days are packed with very obvious kingdom activity, while others feel like nothing special… until you look back.
- Not everything happens as quickly as or in the way we want it to. People drop off the radar and out of community. This is messy stuff! On this journey, you must trust that God is filling your lives with opportunities for discipleship and kingdom expansion every day. Some you will notice; others you may not.
- Do we need to have larger gatherings… No. But you get to.
- Our identity is found in Christ, not the frequency of size of our gatherings.
- The mission of the church is discipleship, not creating church services.
The book also includes a very helpful chapter outlining what life on mission may look like in the typical week & a great appendix outlining the first 3 years or so of steps to launching a missional community movement, as well as a great list of tools & resources for multiplication of groups. Great resource for anyone looking to simply multiply & bear fruit for God’s kingdom.
January Brings 6 New Churches to Louisiana #churchplanting
Pray for these 6 new churches starting this month in Louisiana. A few have been ministering for some months, but they began receiving funding through the Louisiana Baptist Convention & North American Mission Board this month:
>> Live Oak Church, New Orleans – Planter Adam Bourne. Sponsored by FBC Vicksburg, Send North American New Orleans / New Orleans Baptist Association.
>> New Life, Baton Rouge – Planter Ed Scott. Sponsored by Grosse Tete Baptist Church & the Baptist Association of Greater Baton Rouge.
>> Broadmoor Hispanic, Shreveport – Planter Daniel Hernandez. Sponsored by Broadmoor Baptist Church, Shreveport & the Northwest Louisiana Baptist Association.
>> Iglesia Gracia Y Restauracion, Kenner – Planter Yony Matute. Sponsored by William Blvd. Baptist Church, Kenner & New Orleans Baptist Association / Send North America: New Orleans
>> Iglesia Hispana de Sulphur – Planter Jose Perez-Sanchez. Sponsored by Houston River Baptist Church, Lake Charles & Carey Baptist Association.
>> Plaucheville Mission – Planter Norris Landry. Sponsored by Life Point Church, Mansura & Louisiana Baptist Association.
How about 6 every month in 2015?
Interested in Church Planting? Start here:
- 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
5 Proven Ways a #ChurchPlanter Can Scatter Seeds – Part 1
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 & baptisms is also the one with the most contacts made in the community over the course of the 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 & serving before seeds can be planted & harvest gathered. But if a church planter aggressively devises a strategy of seed scattering & 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, & draws the harvest.
Here’s 5 Proven Ways to increase your contacts & seeds planted in your church plant:
1. Invite Cards – Always have something to invite people to & a card with the time & place with you. Print hundreds at a time & make sure your core team & congregation take a stack with them to give out or place on community bulletin boards as they go each week.
2. Direct Mail – Direct mail can be done on a small, affordable scale. You’ll need a Bulk Mail permit & someone who can do at least basic graphic design. Keep it simple. It’s the two color postcards that stick out in today’s mail boxes. Get to know Vista Print & Outreach.com for affordable starting points. Even better, get to know a local printer & include seed scattering to building relationships in the community. Also, check out the Mapping Center for Evangelism to get your communities addresses plus much more.
3. Facebook Page – likes & shares. Facebook is a great tool for spreading seeds about the gospel & your church. Start a Page, post regularly, & encourage your core team to like & share, which spreads the message to their network. Love what the Church at Addis did with Facebook. They found out one of the biggest needs in their community was help with blended families & they started a Facebook Page called Blended Family Help to connect Gospel resources with the need in peoples lives.
4. Facebook Ads – for $5 you can get your message to 1,000’s of people in a small town or neighborhood. Facebook Ads are easy to use, simple as posting about an event, then hitting a button to “boost” it & make sure it gets out there with a little bit of cash. Check out this helpful post from Outreach Mag on 6 steps to a Facebook Ad.
5. School Newsletters – Few people subscribe to newspapers anymore, everybody hates spammy email advertising, direct mail is a low % read for most. How can I get into the home of almost every young family in my community? Consider an ad in the local elementary & Jr. High newsletter. Goes home with every student. Even if it reaches no one, you’ve done something that supports the local school & administrators won’t forget you for that. Our local schools allow a business card size ad for about $25 per issue.
What are some other ways that you scatter seeds in your community? I’ll share 5 more next week.
#ChurchPlanting Hack: Backdrops #portablechurch
Looking for an inexpensive, easy to store solution for portable backdrops that doesn’t include PVC? Try photography backdrops. Lightweight. Come with a storage case. Only takes two people to set up. Stows easily in a trailer or trunk of a car. Different colors can be purchased for different seasons. And when you start doing testimony videos, you’ve already got your backdrops :). Pictured to the side at a Bridge Church gathering at a local YMCA in Covington, LA.
Ready to Plant? Consider “the Most Cajun Place on Earth” #churchplanting
Great opportunity open to plant & partner in Vermillion Parish, one of Louisiana’s least reached areas – only 4% evangelical according to thearda.org. Sponsor church, location, core team, cooperative funding ready to go. Pray with us & spread the word.
Message me for more info.
Check out these articles on getting ready to plant:
- 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
Lane Corley 
