Viral Faith
“Pray that the Master’s Word will simply take off and race through the country to a groundswell of response” http://bible.us/2Thess3.1.MSG
And that’s exactly what it did in the early days of the New Testament Church. But today we face slow declines. We bemoan the loss of Biblical values in the culture and it’s hard to see churches struggle to survive. But the worst part is that the message no longer races through the country, person to person, house to house, village to village, country to country.
Yesterday at Bridge Church we talked about how to have viral faith as part of our Core Practices message series. We know about 
viral things mainly from our favorite Youtube Videos that have been passed around through our social networks and email inboxes. Seth Godin mentions 4 things that have to be present for some content to go viral. His list is instructive in relation to the spread of the Gospel:
1. The content has to be understood. Recently our Association partnered with the LA Baptist Convention on a first of its kind opinion poll related to Northshore residents views on religion and church. One of the questions was: “How can a person become a Christian.” Over 80% could not explain how to become a Christian in the estimation of the operator. But interestingly enough only 31% of self-identified Southern Baptist, 34% of non-denominational, 8% of charismatics, 15% of Methodists could give a clear answer. Good question: Do I understand the gospel and can I explain it in a way that others can understand and can pass along?
2. There has to be a desire for others to know about it. We tend to pass on and create buzz about what is important to us. Today, church leaders are in the buzz creating business, but usually it’s creating buzz about programs that will keep us coming to church. There’s little desire to see the Gospel set people free around us. It was Charles Spurgeon who said, “Have you no wish for others to be saved? Then you are not saved yourself. Be sure of that.” Do I have a desire for others to know Christ? As a church leader is there a growing desire in my church for others to know?
3. There’s a belief that passing it on has personal and corporate benefits. What’s the benefits to spreading the Gospel? We have to look deeper than the skin and we have to be willing to look to others. There’s great benefit to obeying Jesus, like his promised presence with us and eternal reward for faithfulness (Matthew 28:19-20, John 14:21 & 23). And there’s the benefit to society of a message that can transform people and cultures. In our concern to fit church into people’s schedule and keep them coming through tangible earthly benefits, have we lost the viral advantage of eternal benefits and an other’s centered perspective on life (Philippians 2:3-4).
4. It can be spread affordably. Here’s a product that’s free and can be spread for absolutely free if so desired. It’s free to us and free to spread, but a high price was paid for us to have the opportunity to know and make it known. Jesus paid it all. Our cost now: people’s opinions of us – “I don’t want people to think I’m a fanatic”, time – “I’m just so busy”, concern for others – “That’s their problem, not mine.” Small prices to pay comparatively.
This week I’ll be sharing some practical ways to go Viral with your faith.
Back Yard Projects
2011 was a good year for Back Yard Projects. This warm weather’s got me dreaming again:
Club House. We’ve got a traditional swing in our subdivision playground, so I wanted to do something a little different. Found the plans here. Started on Memorial Day, finished on 4th of July. I know, I ‘m an amateur.
Garden Boxes. I grew up gardening for my grandparents for $5 an hour after school. Guess I got hooked. Contact me if you’d like some homegrown pickled okra, or get on my list for cucumber give aways starting in June. Great stress relief and many multiplication lessons learned.
Pergola. Thanks to Brad Gerken with Gerken Homes for this project. All Louisiana Cypress. Still have to get the rest of the concrete poured. And hopefully an outdoor fireplace and kitchen built under this.
With a third Corley Kid coming this Spring and more space needed, this picture posted by Ben Arment has me thinking about a 2012 project… The Office Shed.
Riding a Dead Horse
Remembered and shared this a few times over the past month while working on Associational Church Revi Strategies. I think I heard it first from one of John Maxwell’s Enjoy Tapes back in the 90’s. It’s passed around a lot. I guess because it’s so true. Got any dead horses around?
25 Ways to Ride a Dead Horse
The tribal wisdom of the Dakota Indians—passed on from generation to generation—says that when you discover that you are riding a dead horse, the best strategy is to dismount.
Modern churches, however, have found a whole range of far more advanced strategies to use, such as:
- Buying a stronger whip.
- Changing riders.
- Declaring, “God told us to ride this horse.”
- Appointing a committee to study the horse.
- Threatening the horse with termination.
- Proclaiming, “This is the way we’ve always ridden this horse.”
- Develop a training session to improve our riding ability.
- Reminding ourselves that other churches ride this same kind of horse.
- Determining that riders who don’t stay on dead horses are lazy, lack drive, and have no ambition – then replacing them.
- Lowering the standards so that dead horses can be included.
- Reclassifying the horse as “living-impaired.”
- Hiring an outside consultant to advise on how to better ride the horse.
- Harnessing several dead horses together to increase the speed.
- Confessing boldy, “This horse is not dead, but alive!”
- Providing additional funding and/or training to increase the dead horse’s performance.
- Riding the dead horse “outside the box.”
- Get the horse a Web site.
- Killing all the other horses so the dead one doesn’t stand out.
- Taking a positive outlook – pronouncing that the dead horse doesn’t have to be fed, it is less costly, carries lower overhead, and therefore contributes substantially more to the bottom line of the church’s budget than do some other horses.
- Rewriting the expected performance requirements for all horses.
- Promoting the dead horse to a supervisory position.
- Name the dead horse, “paradigm shift,” and keep riding it.
- Riding the dead horse “smarter, not harder.”
- Stating that other horses reflect compromise and are not from God.
- Remembering all the good times you had while riding that horse.
On Prayer
Looking fwd to hanging out at the LA Collegiate Evangelism Conference in Pineville today. Doing a breakout on Prayer and Awakening. My notes are here. Here’s a few of my favorite quotes on Prayer:
- “Prayer is the slender nerve of power that moves the muscle of omnipotence” ~ Charles Spurgeon
- “To pray is to change. If we are unwilling to change, we will abandon prayer as a noticeable characteristic or our lives.” ~ Richard Foster
- “I have seen many men work without praying, though I have never seen any good come out of it; but I have never seen a man pray without working.” – Hudson Taylor
- “Talking to men for God is a great thing, but talking to God for men is greater still.” ~EM Bounds.
What’s your fav quotes on prayer? Awakening? Etc.?
New Data on Faith, Religion, and Perspectives on Church in TANGIPAHOA Parish
We’ve been working with Don Turner from Turner Research on a first of its kind opinion poll survey conducted with residents of the Northshore. The study was commissioned by the Northshore Baptist Association and the LA Baptist Convention. This is the first professional opinion poll that I know of that is specifically Northshore opinions of religion and faith. The study was also conducted in New Orleans and the Shreveport area. Much more will be released in this study in the coming weeks, but here’s a few interesting findings from the Tangipahoa Parish data. See the St. Tammany Data here. I’ve included the St. Tammany data where I could below for comparison sake.
- 61% said they had not been contacted by a church by phone, mailout, or visit. 66% in St. Tammany.
- 40% said they would be ok with someone coming to their door to invite them to church. 38% in St. Tammany.
- 63% said they would listen if a Southern Baptist contacted them with an invitation, compared to 34% w/Mormons, and 30% with Jehovah Witnesses. 51%, 29%, and 25% in St. Tammany.
- On direct mail from churches: 48% said they “never read it. I always trash it.” 47% in St. Tammany.
- 67% said they would attend churches that met in schools, movie theaters and other public buildings. 62% in St. Tammany.
- 63% said they attend church at least 2x per month. However, analysis of attendance roles indicate that actually only 24% attend 3/8 Sunday’s. 64% in St. Tammany.
- 11% said that when they attend they attend a Southern Baptist Church, 29% Roman Catholic, 6% Methodist, 4% Charismatic.
- 80% said if they attended church they would enjoy a church of 200 or less the most. 73% in St. Tammany.
- Ministries needed and that your family would actually attend: Prayer Group – 67%, Informal Bible Study – 59%, Block Party – 49%, Leadership skill development – 40%, Marriage seminar – 33%.
- “What is one single thing a church could do that would cause you to attend?” 30% said “Clear message/strong service.” 21% said “Less Judgement.” 7% said “Invite me.”
- 82% of people could not explain clearly how a person can become a Christian. 85% in St. Tammany.
- When asked, “Would you attend a church with the word Baptist in it?” 68% said yes. 55% in St. Tammany.
More on the study will be released in the coming months. What does this say about our community? Any big take away’s if these are indeed true? Anything surprising? Any question that you have or wish you could ask the community?
On Church Buildings and Portable Church
Great thoughts from Geoff Surratt on the Problems w/Church Buildings & why/how to make portable church 
sustainable. Our church has been portable since inception in 2009. There are limitations, but Surratt does a great job demonstrating that the grass is not always greener on the side of having a permanent building. I learned this the hard way when our first church plant moved from being portable and meeting in an unairconditioned fire station to owning our own property. The building sucked much of the energy out of community ministries but we had air conditioning. Interestingly enough, 6 months later, many of our leaders were saying, “I wish we were back in the fire station.” Below is a synopsis of Surratt’s comments. All the posts are well worth reading for church planters and those thinking of multiplying through multi-site:
I agree with Surratt: “Church buildings are not evil, obviously most churches have had them for the past 1700 years. But if we are going to really make a dent in reaching lost people I think we are going to have to literally think outside the box.”
Part 1: What a Building Won’t Do
- First, a building won’t make you a real church. I’m sure you realize that the Christian church built few, if any, buildings before 300 AD.
- a building doesn’t validate a church, the anointing of the Holy Spirit validates a church.
- if you have a leadership development problem, a discipleship problem or a volunteer recruitment problem now, you will still have those challenges once you have a building. If people aren’t growing at your church now they still won’t be growing when you put a permanent roof over their heads.
Part 2: The Hidden Costs
- Buildings Attract Christians – If your target audience is now sitting in someone else’s pew, then a new building is just the bait to lure them in. If you really are after the unchurched, a building might not have the impact you think it will have.
- Buildings Eat 24/7 – When you get a permanent facility you won’t have to set up and tear down any more, but you will have to pour endless amounts of cash into the care and feeding of your new money pit.
- Buildings Modify Vision – Once you have a permanent location the vision of your church will be greatly impacted by your building. A lot of what you do will be guided by paying for your box, filling up your box and expanding your box.
Part 3: 8 Ways to Make Portable Sustainable
- Realize you have meeting space now
- Lease an office space with a small to medium size meeting room
- Have multiple teams for set up and tear down
- Select the right team leaders
- Honor the setup and tear down teams
- Build community into the teams
- Create a path for advancement
- Hire the setup/tear down crew
And interestingly enough, 62% of residents in our community recently said in a professional opinion poll that they would be ok with attending church in a school, movie theater or other public building.
Thoughts? Follow-up questions? Ideas or experiences on portable church?
The Great TRANSFER GROWTH Boogie Monster, part 2
Many church leaders are afraid of church multiplication because of the Great Transfer Growth Boogie Monster that will jump out and get us if we plant new churches. We tend to assume that ALL new churches just take members from existing churches. In my previous post, I talked about why this is wrong/bad strategy and I shared some of Dr. JD Payne’s great challenge to church planters to not settle for transfer growth over reaching the unchurched. (Read all the Ethical Guidelines for Church Planters here.)
Now, a few questions for pastors and ministry leaders on the other side of this, who are poopooing on the whole notion of church planting and off campus multiplication in fear of the great Transfer Growth Boogie Monster.
- Are you practicing what you’re crying out against? When I share with other ministry leaders some of JD Payne’s principles and my own process for those who may be wanting to transfer membership, most admit that they don’t do that themselves, pointing out that there is just no time. So time is better spent talking down the planting of new churches and making unfounded accusations about church planters who are seeking the good of the city? If you gladly shake the hands with a “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy toward transfer members, you should not use that as a reason against church planting.
- Is your fear of people leaving your church really just insecurity about your own ministry? If we believe in the sovereignty of God and his placing of people in the body as He sees fit, and if we are properly discipling people to understand who they are in Christ and their place in the body, what’s to fear? Unless we’re really just appealing to people’s consumeristic tendencies ourselves in order to “get some butts in the seats” (Whoopie Goldberg in Sister Act). There will always be a better show come to town to draw consumeristic attenders. Building ministries with robust disciple making instead of a great and attractive show may mean slower growth at first, but greater commitment to the church family on mission together.
- Is the thought of people leaving your church scarier than people spending eternity in hell? Most pastors today will admit that there are population segments in their community that they cannot and will not reach. And at the same time, not lend support to the planting of new churches to reach those people. Are we content to leave significant numbers of people without a contextually appropriate gospel witness because of fear our numbers may dip?
Transfer growth is not best for the kingdom, but the real boogie moster for us is the growing number of unchurched
Americans and those leaving the church and never coming back. We need church planters and healthy churches that will focus on making disciples through on and off campus multiplication.
We could head off transfer growth and grow the Kingdom through an effective SENDING/MULTIPLICATION strategy. That’s for a future post.
Check out Part 1 of The Great Transfer Growth Boogie Monster. Also check out my post entitled Commitment, Honor, & Transfer Growth which deals with ethical guidelines for ministry leaders to consider.
The Great TRANSFER GROWTH Boogie Monster
An assumption of many pastors about church planting in North America is that new churches just draw people from other churches. Underlying that assumption is the fear that the new church in town is going to do harm to my success and take “MY people.” So, as a strategist I seem to spend a lot of my time talking to Pastors about the potential negative impact of church planting on their church and the SCARY notion that the transfer growth boogie monster will jump out of the closet and get us all if we plant new churches.
And, unfortunately, some church plants have earned this reputation, proving this assumption true, and done harm to church multiplication efforts in several ways. To that I say: SHAME ON THEM!!!
Church planting is about evangelism that leads to a new church, NOT let’s create a better experience than all the other churches and “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” when their members pile up in our chairs and put their money in our plate. I heard of one church recently that had “lost” 800 people to a new church with a livelier experience on Sunday morning creating a financial hardship for the church. I heard of another church that intentionally targeted people from other churches because they were people of influence in the community and “God wants our church to be filled with influencers.”
JD Payne has written a great piece called Ethical Guidelines for Church Planters and challenges church planters to “not prioritize transfer growth by designing ministries that will primarily attract believers” and to “have a systematic plan to respond to the transfers who want to become part of the new church.” Here’s some of Payne’s comments:
On planting as Kingdom expansion not just church growth:
Church planting is not about attracting a crowd or launching a worship service, but rather it is about the advancement of the Kingdom as unbelievers become followers of the living God through local expressions of the Body of Christ. Though crowd attraction and starting a new worship service are not necessarily bad things, their manifestations, however, do not necessarily mean the Kingdom has advanced. In many cases, such events actually attract large numbers of Kingdom Citizens. For church planters to settle for large numbers of transfer growth is not the way of the Apostolic Church.
On the dangers of transfer growth to the church planting initiative:
Even for the church planters who are doing everything possible to discourage transfer growth, they will encounter it. Particularly in the North American context, members of other churches will be interested in the new work. Some of these brothers and sisters will have a genuine desire to serve in a new work. Others, however, will be of the massive consumerist crowd looking for the most novel thing in town. These “new-experience Christians” will remain as long as their desires are met. Like parasites on a living organism, they participate to take, until they get their fill or until something else comes along to satisfy their desires. Rather, than understanding who they are in Christ, and their place in the work of the ministry (Eph 4:12), they believe that following Christ is an individualistic, self-gratifying, desire-meeting experience void of biblical koinonia.
On the ethics of transfer growth:
Regardless of the motivation behind any local church members wanting to be a part of the new work, it is unethical for a church planting team (and the new churches) to receive them as members without regard for their local church family in which they are presently involved in a covenant relationship.
What process should be in place? Payne says the church planter should find out what evangelical church the person is a member of and why they desire to leave that fellowship. Second, contact that pastor to inquire why they would want to leave. Third, only allow them to join after discouraging them from leaving their church and asking them to get the pastors blessing that this move is a prompting from God. I’ve added a third question to my on process: “Have you made pledges to that church?” When churches are in capital campaigns, etc. they ask people to make pledges and this is seen as a spiritual commitment. So we challenge people to fulfill their pledge or be released from it. See Ecclesiastes 5:5.
Dr. Payne’s concerns for a code of ethics for church planters are worth noting:
In the face of great spiritual opposition and ministerial challenges, church planters are many times faced with the temptation to accomplish something good for the Kingdom at the sacrifice of something great for the Kingdom. Faced with funding resources that diminish over time, lack of receptivity of people to the Gospel, the pressures to start a worship service and produce certain numbers at a worship gathering, many times leads missionaries down a path that deviates from biblically based and missiological guided church multiplication strategies.
…such as settling for and designing ministries to attract Christians and not penetrate the majority of unreached people in North America and beyond.
In Part two, I’ll ask a few question of pastors and ministry leaders on the other side of this, who are poopooing on the whole notion of church planting and multiplication in fear of the great Transfer Growth Boogie Monster.
Also check out the post entitled Commitment, Honor, & Transfer Growth that spells out a few ethical guidelines for ministry leaders to consider.
Top 5 Posts, Links, and Tweets for Jan 2012:
- New Data on Faith, Religion, and Perspectives on Church in St. Tammany Parish
- Good Reads in 2011
- Missional Garage Making
- I Don’t Want to Be A Drive-By Disciple
- “when you pray…And when you fast…”
Best Online Reads: (from my Delicious Account)
- Missional Challenge: Are You Aware of Your Assumptions? by Dave Devries
- Three Topics a Small Group Should Never Discuss by Rick Howerton
- Five Steps to Leading a Good Meeting by Bob Logan
- Three Important Church Trends by Ed Stetzer
- A How To for Producing Events from Catalyst
5 Favorites of my Favorited Tweets in January:
- @ThomRainer – Church isn’t about my preferences & desires; that’s self-serving. It’s about serving others & Christ. bit.ly/y3bc5x
- @PastorMark – “I think men who have a pierced ear are better prepared for marriage. They’ve experienced pain and bought jewelry.” – Rita Rudner
- @EntreLeaership – “You can’t build a reputation on what you are going to do.” – Henry Ford
- @VergeNetwork – “There are only 3 kinds of Christians when it comes to missions: zealous goers, zealous senders and the disobedient.” ht.ly/8t6bT
- @davidkinnaman – “Disciples are hand made not mass-produced”
World Changers Coming to the Northshore
I’m already excited about the upcoming Summer. For us it means 4-6 mission teams, dozens of block parties, many home repair 
projects, and lots of needs met in our community. This year we have the incredible opportunity to host World Changers. Since 1990, World Changers has mobilized over 300,000 teenagers and college students to do home repair and community development projects in over 100 cities in North America. This year, FBC Covington will host 300 students and leaders to conduct 20-25 home repair projects in the West 30’s neighborhood in the City of Covington. They’ll be opportunities for local churches to get involved through prayer, adopting a site for lunch, follow-up with homeowners, and more. Our Northshore Baptist Association page for the week is here. Info will be updated on the site regularly along with opps to sign up to be a part. Or if you’d like to register to be a part of the Covington Project, there is still time. Go to the World Changers website, click on projects and find the Covington project info.
Here’s the basics as of today:
- Dates: July 9-14.
- Host church: FBC Covington
- On the web: world-changers.net. Facebook, Twitter
- Download the World Changers Poster.
- View or Download the World Changers 2012 Promo Video here.
- Fast Facts about World Changers: PDF
- Opps for your church: Register for the Covington site at World-changers.net. Plan to feed a crew at a work site. Prayer, Prayer walking, more to come soon at http://northshorebaptists.net.
Lane Corley 