Church Planters Never Quit
The Church Planting journey can be lonely and discouraging. My journey has had its moments. Few friends have kept me going like Larry & Pat Badon. Larry would often call just at the right time to say, “How’s the family?” “How’s the boys?” “You been hunting lately?” And other questions that make you feel again after tough times. Yesterday was Larry’s last day as Church Planting Strategist for the Louisiana Baptist Convention. He retires after planting church in New York state & training hundreds for the church planting journey in Louisiana. I’ve learned a lot from Larry & have appreciated his passion for the unchurched & for doing life at full speed. When asked yesterday what he’s going to do in retirement, he just said, “I want to do what I can to reach more people for Jesus.” Church planters never quit, but hopefully they’ll get the chance to retire with as much fruit to look back upon as Larry has.
True or False: “We are not proclaiming ourselves but Jesus Christ as Lord”
2 Corinthians 4:5 HCSB
What thought do people walk away from our churches with? “That church does cool things” or “Jesus Christ is Lord”? In today’s world of ministry design & branding, which I love, I don’t want 2 Corinthians 4:5 to be untrue of my church. If people walk away with knowledge of how to weave through our church system, but without Jesus, we fail. If I spend more time talking about how cool my church is than I do about Jesus, I fall short of giving them something of eternal value. If I invite people to church, but not to Jesus, I may be just another of millions of sales pitches a person hears along their journey through life.
Logos, signs, T-shirts, websites, Facebook banners, Series graphics will fade away. So lets be sure our ministry design doesn’t overshadow & points people directly to the truth: Jesus Christ is Lord!
God Gives Leaders for My Protection and Guidance
God’s gifts to believers in Christ include most importantly Jesus Christ, salvation & eternal life through Him. Also, the Holy Spirit who empowers us for life & ministry. But another one of the gifts God gives us is qualified, godly leaders (Ephesians 4:11) that serve us through teaching, encouraging, protecting, guiding, providing accountability, help us grow, etc. The New Testament gives us some great snapshots of what these leaders will look like in passages like Titus 1:6-9 & 1 Timothy 3:1-7. But what does this truth say about me & you? If God gives leaders to his church, I need leaders in my life to protect me, guide me, equip me, keep me accountable, etc. Hebrews 13:17 says, “Obey your leaders & submit to them, for they are keeping watch over your souls… Let them do this with joy & not with groaning, for that would be of no advantage to you.”
So a few questions:
- Am I allowing myself to be equipped by God-given leaders in my life?
- Am I isolated without spiritual protection & guidance in my life?
- Am I allowing Godly leaders to keep watch over my soul?
- Am giving joy to those that God has given to help me grow spiritually?
- Is God calling me to lead others, taking responsibility for their spiritual growth?
Don’t be isolated or think you can go it alone spiritually. Connect with a church, small group or both & ask God to put leaders in your life who will protect, guide, equip, & lead you to be all He desires you to be.
From my Bridge Church message notes from Sunday. Join Bridge Church this month for our study of the book of Titus called Bringing the Church into Focus. Sunday’s, 10:30am at the Lake Pontchartrain Basin Maritime Museum.
Utilizing Social Media for Ministry
The Gospel of Jesus Christ is big news. It’s a message to be declared, proclaimed, announced, and distributed to as many people as we can as often as we can. God’s work among His people is also news and a story that needs to be told. The tools that churches have relied upon to announce their message and distribute their stories are the pulpit, newsletters, letters and post cards, phone trees, scrolling power point announcements, and email. As a Pastor, my church utilized each of these tools and still I heard regularly from people in my church – “I didn’t know anything about that.” Communication is definitely one of our biggest challenges. Also challenging is the fact that a generation is here that is abandoning paper and phone lines for wireless messaging and social networking. It’s time for the church to take communication to another level and engage the world in the fastest growing means of messaging that we have today and utilize the world of Social Media.
Why?
So you’re not a computer geek, you don’t enjoy video games, you hate hype and fads. These are some of the reasons given for not engaging in the popular social networking domains. Here are four reasons why you should put all excuses away and just do it:
1. It’s where the people are. In February, Facebook announced that it now has close to 1 billion users and with 669 million logging in every day! Twitter boasts 550 million users and growing at a rate of 135,000 per day. Currently there are 58 million tweets everyday, about 9,000 tweets per second. These interfaces are growing and people are using them more and more each day. If we’ve got a message that we want to get out to as many people as possible, it seems that we’d want to get it where the people are and social media seems to be that place.
2. Message saturation is possible. A few years ago I asked a group of Church Secretaries and Administrative Assistants if the teenagers in their church are reading the church’s publications. 100% expressed uncertainty. We recognize that a hard copy newsletter does not reach all of our audience. Utilizing social media will allow you to get the exact same information to them in a way that does attract their attention. It is possible to saturate your message throughout the different age-grades and audiences in your church today like never before.
3. It’s Free. The most compelling reason for utilizing the fastest growing communication tools today is the cost. It’s completely free! At every level of social networking, free is an option that gets you out to where millions of people are interacting every second of everyday.
4. You Might Have Fun. Why has Facebook grown so fast? It’s enjoyable. People like having info at their fingertips in real time. They like talking about themselves and connecting with people. They will enjoy connecting with your church and discovering what it’s all about as well. And it’s ok to have fun while we proclaim His message and tell our story.
This report was originally presented at the Total Church Life Conference in Baton Rouge on August 24th. Download the PDF version here: Utilizing Social Networking for Ministry – Aug 2013.
Faith-In-Action in Response to Hurricane Isaac
Hurricane Isaac was a non-news maker for most of the country, but devastated a few of our communities in South Louisiana. Here’s the story of the faith-based communities response in Madisonville, Louisiana.
Video by Matt Marrs, of Harmonic Films.
One Year After Isaac
Isaac was a non-newsmaker for most of the country, but devastating for a few of our communities in the Greater New Orleans area. One being the town of Madisonville where our church is currently located. I’m grateful for a strong recovery for our community, for a tremendous surge of Disaster Relief Volunteers from September-December. Then for the opportunity to bring a few folks back home January through August. A few pics:
Intersection of Hwy. 21 & Hwy. 22 in Madisonville.
As usual, tree damage was significant on the Northshore.
Volunteers pray with an elderly homeowner after cleaning up his yard.
The Jenkins family moved home January of 2013, thanks to the work of volunteers from Hosanna Lutheran, FBC Mandeville, & Bridge Church.
Laura Mae Chatallier, 97 years young, had repairs completed in March 2013.
Our last project is getting Ms. Pat Stein back in her home. Should happen any day.
Thanks to the volunteers that gave time, talent, money, materials & more to these projects. And glad the sun is shining outside on August 29th, 2013.
Humility Wins, Pride Loses
“At every stage of our Christian development and in every sphere of our Christian discipleship, pride is our greatest enemy and humility is our greatest friend.” ~ John Stott
“Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God, so that He may exalt you at the proper time” 1 Peter 5:6.
Diagnosing Pride
“Pride is the only disease in the world that makes everyone sick except the person who has it.” A few questions to help recognize pride in yourself:
- What happens in you when someone does something good?
- What happens in you when someone does something bad?
- What happens in you when someone encourages you?
- What happens in you when someone corrects you?
- What happens when someone successful walks in?
- What happens when someone unsuccessful walks in?
- What happens in you when you do something good?
- What happens in you when you do something bad?
Pride has to be on top, so it often sees other people’s successes, failures, words, & actions as opportunities for ill will, gossip, jealousy, resentment, or worse.
“As a face is reflected in water, so the heart reflects the real person” Proverbs 27:19 NLT.
Learn to listen to your heart to diagnose pride & other sinful attitudes.
Dealing with Enemy #1: PRIDE
“At every stage of our Christian development and in every sphere of our Christian discipleship, pride is our greatest enemy and humility is our greatest friend.”
-John Stott
Pride is the #1 Enemy of Spiritual Growth, Relational Growth, Personal Growth & the biggest obstacle to people experiencing God. And Pride is often easy to recognize in others, but tough to recognize in ourselves. It’s a matter of what’s in your heart. That can be determined most often by what’s coming out your mouth (Luke 6:45).
What does pride sound like?
- “It’s all about me.” Pride needs to feel better than others and call attention to itself. It needs to be in control and on top. Pride makes us too vulnerable not to be.
- “I don’t need you.” To need God and others is a vulnerable place to be. A prideful heart is set on avoiding vulnerability. So pride will keep us from intimacy with God and others.
- “I know that already.” A prideful heart can’t listen, can’t learn, can’t admit weakness, therefore a prideful person can’t grow.
- “I don’t care.” A prideful heart can’t care too much about something that doesn’t promote self interest. So pride causes us to struggle to celebrate others success. A prideful heart will struggle to find solutions. Other peoples problems helps keep them on top, looking down on all the people that can’t figure it out. Pride gives us a sense that other people’s mistakes & weaknesses can be an opportunity and an occasion to promote self.
We can overcome pride by humbling ourselves before God and others. What does humility sound like?
- “It’s all about God and others.” God’s will and the needs of others are why I’m here. Philippians 2:3-8.
- “I need you.” Humility helps us realize that we’re nothing apart from God (John 15:5) and we need others to grow (Ephesians 4:15-16; Proverbs 17:17).
- “Can you help me know God?” Humility helps us realize how much we don’t know and sees the rich value in relationships. “Walk with the wise & grow wiser still” (Proverbs 14:30).
- “Your suffering is not good for me.” With humility we realize that my success doesn’t depend on the weakness of others, but on a sovereign God that gives grace to those who need Him.
“…serve each other in humility, for God opposes the proud but favors the humble. So humble yourselves under the mighty power of God, and at the right time he will lift you up in honor.”1 Peter 5:5-6
Diagnosing and repenting of a prideful heart can be a first step to growth and maturity and fruitfulness for you as a believer. Get honest about your attitude toward God and others using these filter and see what kind of grace God showers on you.
7 Reasons to Make Ramp Building Part of Your Local Ministry
One of the first projects our church did together when we got started was build a wheelchair ramp. We’re blessed with men with the tools & know how & opportunities for this work is plentiful in every community. Here’s 7 reasons why I love Ramp Building as part of a church’s local ministry:
- Access & the Gospel. There are elderly & handicapped people who feel like captives in their own homes due to lack of access. We’ve even had several people in our community that couldn’t get out of their homes without help from the Fire Dept. What a great way to be good news & share the good news with a family & neighborhood. Access to God was built through Christ (1 Peter 3:18).
- Send the carpenter types. “I never knew I had anything to offer to the church” – a carpenter type after completing a ramp project through our church in 2010. If you’re thinking about Creating Sending Capacity & Sending the Whole Church, you must think about projects for the construction gifted men in the congregation. And some men in the community jump on these projects before jumping into attending church.
- Stimulate the local economy. Ramps cost approximately $25 per foot. $800-$1,200. Buy local. Don’t ask for a discount. But be thankful & promote the business when they give it.
- Projects for Real Men. What was the last thing your church did to promote authentic manhood? Construction, Power Tools, Sweat, Rescuing the Helpless, etc. Ramp & light construction ministry bring out some of the best in men & gives them great opportunity for fellowship around a challenging mission.
- Father & Son Projects. Looking forward to my boys being a little older so they can get more involved in ramp building, but I’ve enjoyed seeing a few Father & Son moments on ramp projects through my church. Also, have had great opportunities to explain the why behind church & ministry to my boys through describing the life situations of people we have served through construction ministry.
- Partnerships with local agencies. Your local Council on Aging, Easter Seals, Parish or County Social Services Dept., local Fire Depts. & others can give you a list to get started on. Also, chances are, your church has elderly, widows, people with handicaps, with access issues in their homes now. “do good to all people, and especially to those who are of the household of the faith” Galatians 6:10.
- Monuments to a Caring Church. Ramp building makes for long memories in a community. “That church came and built that.” Memories that make it harder for people in neighborhoods to say that nobody cares about them. That means we’ve brought hope & made ourselves available to meet other needs.
Here’s some good tips on doing construction as a ministry & how to get started from our 2012 Faith in Action Roundtable.
A few ramp projects completed this summer by the men of Bridge Church & our partners. The first was for an elderly deaf man in a wheelchair. The second was for a member of a sister congregation who had fallen & broken her leg & now faced some disabilities.
Lane Corley 