“All disciples of Jesus are called to be sent people”
Highlights/Reflections from our Basic Training Event for #ChurchPlanters: This weekend we held our first Basic
Training for Church Planters on the Northshore. A diverse group of Church Planting teams from across Louisiana came together for the event, including a Biker Church, Asian American churches, Attractional and Missional approaches. This is about my 5th time through Basic Training and I’d say a developing trend that I’m excited to see may be Bi-Vocational church planting teams. Also, NAMB’s new Basic Training Journey has made some helpful adjustments. Get it online here. Also, here is a Google Doc with some resources mentioned and discussed during the workshop. Here are a few highlights for me:
- Church Planting is all about relationships.
- There is only one kingdom and it belongs to God. And God’s kingdom is extended to the ends of the earth through His church.
- All disciples of Jesus are called to be sent people.
- You can’t plant a church in your head, you have to plant it in the community.
- We don’t plant churches just for the community, we plant them for the whole world.
- Every congregation is a world missions strategy center.
- Contextualization is answering the communities questions about God and the gospel in their terms. NOT on their terms.
- Discipleship = Applying the inner meaning of the Gospel to persons at the point of their need.
- Multiplication principles: You reap what you sow. You reap later than you sow. You reap more than you sow.
- Don’t just start services, start making disciples.
- Discipling is a process of learning to obey Jesus.
- Two questions from Simple Church: What is a disciple? What is our process to make and mature disciples?
- Disciples are shaped by serving, not just sitting and singing.
- Don’t use people to get ministry done. Use ministry to get people done.
- Small Groups = Accountability = Growth.
- Small Groups are the seedbed to develop new leaders.
- In church history, a significant amount of missionary activity and advance was carried out by unrecognized teams of church planters. i.e – the Moravians
- The Moravians saw witnessing as the common concern from all members of the faith community and sent small groups of ordinary believers to plant churches and testify for Christ in new areas.
- “Ultimately, each church will be evaluated by only one thing – its disciples. Your church is only as good as her disciples. It does not matter how good your praise, preaching, programs, or property are; if your disciples are passive, needy, consumeristic, and not radically obedient…” Neil Cole
Bridge Church This Weekend, etc.
Happy Black & Gold Day! Incredible weather, Saints game tonight, so much good stuff going on. Looking forward to this weekends Bridge Church Gatherings as well. A few things to remember:
- Worship Gatherings Sunday: 9am @ the St Tam Jail/Work Release, 10:30am @ the West St Tam YMCA, 6pm – Bridge Tangi @ Northshore Christian Fellowship in Hammond (Map). 6pm-Bible Study @ Oak Villa Mobile Home Park #71.
- Continuing our series called One Story: Creation, Corruption, Redemption, Restoration. This weekend we’ll answer the questions: What’s wrong with people? Why is everything so hard? etc. Get last weeks message on Creation here. See the One Story Trailer here.
- Small Group Leader luncheon, Sunday, 12:15pm @ the Corley’s, 2058 White Myrtle Dr., Madisonville. If you’re teaching a Bible Study or would like to in the future, email Jeremy Butler and let him know you’ll be coming. We’ll talk ideas and questions about groups over lunch.
- Celebrate Recovery @ the StTam Jail, 3:30pm & 7pm. Please continue to pray for our teaching team at the jail. Jump in as a teacher, encourager, or tutor if you’d like.
- New Bridge Ladies studies starting this week: 9am @ Heather Corley’s – contact Heather, 807.3151 & 7pm, Wed the 21st @ the YMCA – contact Jane Gerken for info – 966.1010.
- 9.17 – Bridge Guys night, 5:30pm. It’s at my house this time.
- 9.18 – Chiapas Info Meeting, 5:30pm. Sergio & Beth Matassa will be in town.
- 9.30 – Columbia St. Block Party, 6-8pm.
- 10.9 – Faith in Action Sunday. See some video clips from our last FIA Sunday here. And a nice article mentioning Bridge Church in this AM’s Times-Pic.
Let me know of other things going on. Go Saints & GO Northwestern St. DEMONS!
In Christ-On Mission-For Others,
Lane Corley
985.373.2748
“Hey, You Just Told My Story”
“Many people think of the Bible as a book of moral teachings with stories sprinkled through to illustrate the teachings. But it’s a lot better than that…the Bible is a single true story with teachings sprinkled through to illustrate the story.” ~ Tim Keller
I’ve always been primarily an outline and propositional truth kind of teacher, but I’ve been trying my hand at storytelling over the past month and seeing the fruit already. Lot’s of reasons story-telling is needed – our society is less literate than ever, Jesus was a great story-teller, 3/4 of the Bible is story – but the one reason that has jumped out at me recently is that people put themselves inside the story before they put themselves inside the outline. Hear’s the line I’m hearing multiple times a week: “You just told my story. I’m the guy that …” “Hey, that’s me you were talking about. I’m the girl that …” “You were talking about my friend.” Story has a way of connecting us with truth and seeing how it can change everything.
At our Bridge Church gatherings, we’re telling the One Story of Salvation in four acts: Creation, Corruption, Redemption, Restoration.Follow the series here. Get some good storying resources here. Leave in your comments good stories that I can use :)).
Are You Plateaued?
Few leaders finish well. Maybe as few as one in three. And this was true of the leaders described in the Bible as well. Whether you’re leading a family, a church, a team, or a business, it is difficult and God’s wisdom is needed if we are to do what it takes to finish well. How can we keep from plateauing and burning out as leaders?
Just finished Neil Cole’s latest book, Journey’s to Significance: Charting a Leadership Course from the Life of Paul. In the
last chapter he describes a plateaued leader who’s on the way to burn out or worse:
He says plateaued leaders…
- Avoid relationships of personal accountability. How many degrees of separation are there from you and other leaders?
- Have infrequent personal application of God’s word. Are you mastering a subject or following and pursuing a King?
- Have seen joy, peace, and love replaced with envy and resentment. Is your character being shaped by Christ or by the opinions and actions of others?
- Frequently look for greener pastures in other places. Are you too focused on the circumstances around you to bring transformation to the place God has called you?
- More easily find fault in others than in themselves. Do you give others as much grace as you give yourself?
- Are burned out from lots of activity that has been substituted for intimacy with Christ. Are you exhausted from thinking more effort and more activity will bring you more blessings from God?
- Compromise ethical principles once held dear. Are you taking liberties that you once would not, because of entitlement?
- Stay within safe areas of expertise rather than branching out into new learning endeavors. Does the idea of learning something new make you afraid or proud?
- Are teachers and experts more than learners. Are you easily offended when instruction and advice comes from others?
- Have reduced the Christian life to the rut of a routine. Can your Christian walk be described as a few do’s and many don’ts?
- Perspective. They are focusing their energies on consistency over the course of their lives.
- Renewal. They take time to refresh and renew and rest and reconnect with God.
- Discipline. “Finishing well over the course of a lifetime is not accidental but intentional” ~ Cole.
- Learning. They maintain a learning posture throughout their lives.
- Mentoring. They mentor others and are mentored themselves.
- They maintain a personal vibrant relationship with God right up to the end.
- They maintain a learning posture and can learn from various kinds of sources.
- They manifest Christ-likeness in character as evidenced by the fruit of the Spirit in their lives.
- Truth is lived out in their lives so that convictions and promises of God are seen to be real.
- They leave behind one or more ultimate contributions.
- They walk with a growing awareness of a sense of destiny and see some or all of it fulfilled.
Story-Tellers Needed
- Researchers believe that 70% or more of the people in North America prefer non-literate means of communication.
- Over the past twenty years, 20 million people have completely stopped reading.
- Only 14% of Americans still read extensively.
- 80% of American families did not buy a book last year, and the average reader only makes it to page 18.
- Over 50% of people over the age 16 are functionally illiterate.
- 58% of US adult population never reads another book after high school.
- 42% of college graduates never read another book. (I actually had a doctor recently tell me that he had never read a book all the way through!).
- Each day, people in the US spend four hours watching TV, three hours listening to the radio, and 14 minutes reading magazines.
- It’s estimated that we spend as much as 80% of our non-working, non-sleeping time in front of a screen – TV or PC. [1]
As I come across more and more folks who are post-literate, I’m challenged to think about my communication of the Gospel. 75% of the Bible is story, and by making it primarily propositional truth do we take it out of the comfort zone of learning for many of our hearers and especially for those who are unchurched and not accustomed to listening to preaching. What about you? What is your preferred method of learning? Outline? Story? What do you remember most from the last sermons that you have heard? Leave your comments below.
Trying my hand at more story-telling this Fall with our new Message series called One Story. Enjoying it so far and seeing the impact already.
Check out a few resources on this if your interested:
- Truth That Sticks: How to Communicate Velcro Truth in a Teflon World by Avery T. Willis, Jr. and Mark Snowden
- Story Thru the Bible: An Interactive Way to Connect with God’s Word from Walk Thru the Bible
- Story of God Training by Soma Communities Church in Tacoma Washington.
- Making Disciples of Oral Learners from the Lausanne Committee for World Evangelization
Upcoming Training for Planters and Multipliers
- Basic Training for Church Planters, September 8-10 @ Woodland Park Baptist Church in Hammond. More info here. Register for the event here. After registering Prepare for the Journey here. Basic Training is a workshop that helps shape the vision and direction of a new church. Looking forward to taking the journey again with our newest crop of planter in the NOLA region.
- Greenhouse w/Neil Cole and Church Multiplication Associates, October 21-22 @ New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary. Here’s the event brochure. Register for the event here. Neil Cole’s writings have inspired me to think beyond planting a church to planting a movement. Looking forward to spending a few days learning with him and his team.
Church Multiplication is a spiritual decision of a local church to put the needs of a desperate world before self-preservation.
~ Stephen Gray – read more: http://tinyurl.com/3dhbpak
Hurricane #Katrina
A few things I remember 6 years later:
- the weatherman saying, “a little jog to the west.”
- preaching Sun, Aug 28 to a small group of people who mostly had their bags packed for a nervous trip north.
- seeing my family drive away into the endless stream of cars heading north.
- the 3 hour drive that took 9 hours.
- the sound of generators running from miles around.
- the smell of pine sap, sweat, and bar oil. It’s forever burned into my nostrils.
- the trees. So many trees.
- 10 weeks without electricity.
- MRE’s and Southern Baptist cooked pastalaya.
- Countless volunteers, I wish I could remember all their names, who cooked, cut, constructed, & deconstructed.
- Rice crispy treats!!! Our church received a call, “Can you take the contents of a truck from TN?” “What’s in it?” “Not sure.” It was a truck load of rice crispy treats. Took forever to get rid of them. Still have night mares about rice crispy treats.
- Saying good-bye to friends who had to move away.
- The heart breaking sights and sounds in the city of New Orleans & the Gulf Coast.
- The day my family came home :)).
- Laying down in my bed for the first night with electricity and realizing the trees were no longer there to shade the street lights.
- Hearing people say Katrina was a good thing because it helped me realize I needed God and needed others.
This van was left in our church parking lot by a St. Bernard resident.
Faith in Action Sunday!
Four times per year Bridge Church takes a Sunday and instead of gathering, we scatter for worship by serving and giving ourselves away in our community in a variety of ways. Here’s a quick list of our scheduled projects and a few before pics:
- Disabled single mom had a kitchen fire in 2007. She’s washed dishes in her bathtub since then. This summer,Homeworks teams re-roofed and painted the house. Sunday she’ll get new cabinets and sink. We’ll also cut the grass, clean up the yard, and serve her any other way we can.
- Habitat House in Abita Springs – Habitat loved our Faith in Action Sunday idea so much, they asked if we could be on their project list. They have several homes at different points of completion.
- Several projects at a local Mobile Home Park including hand rails for a recent stroke victim and two elderly widows, new door locks for a single mom who can’t lock her house and cleaning the place up in a Tipping Point kind of way.
- A new porch and steps for a family with special needs child in Hammond.
- Hadden Hall, Jahnke St., Covington – Council On Aging Senior Center in need of repair, pressure washing, andpainting.
- Food Baskets – @ the YMCA, Ladies will prepare baskets with food, Bibles, etc. to be delivered to elderly residents at Oak Villa MHP & other places.
- Potted Plants – @ the YMCA, kids will prepare plants to be delivered to elderly residents at Oak Villa MHP &other places.
- Bake Goods to Public Servants – Families can deliver baked goods to area fire depts and police depts. Great way to say thanks & get to climb on a fire truck :).
- ICU Waiting Room visits – we’ll have gift cards to deliver to area ICU waiting rooms. Cafeteria’s are closed on weekends, so this meets a basic need and communicates to those in crisis that they are not alone.
- Block Party @ Dave’s Trailer Park – as we work on the porch in Hammond, we’ll bring light to the West Hammond community with inflatables, snow cones, hamburger, hotdogs, and an old old story.
- Block Party for Visitation at a local work release center to connect with families of inmates that we minister to on a weekly basis.
Wondering Why? Click here. Or show up at 9am with a willingness to serve. It’s more than singing and sitting that shapes a disciple of Christ. God wants to use us as well. Through Faith in Action Sunday, everybody can serve, we can see our community in a different way, we shine light on hundreds of people who are not in church on Sunday morning. Looking forward to serving with my family on mission tomorrow!
Lane Corley 