A few Church Planting dates for the Fall
- 8.24 – Partners in Church Planting Luncheon, 10:30am-1pm @ FBC Mandeville. For pastors and churches interested in getting involved with Church Multiplication. Ask questions, hear about opportunities and needs, plan and strategize with other multiplication minded leaders on the Northshore.
- 8.29 – Monthly Church Multiplication Network Meeting, 11:30am @ Cafe Nola in Ponchatoula. Network meetings are for planters, planting teams, future planters, planting enthusiasts, multiplication minded church leaders. Great time to fellowship, collaborate, encourage one another. And this fall we’ll add an optional Afternoon coffee training module/learning cluster after lunch. CP Networks are vital.
- 9.8-10 – Basic Training for Church Planters, 8:30am-4:30pm each day, @ Woodland Park Baptist Church in Hammond. For anyone planting or prepping to plant a church. Also, would be good for revitalization of a church. Pre-register here.
- 9.26 – Monthly Church Multiplication Network Meeting, 11:30am @ Northshore Church in Slidell.
- 10.21-22 – Greenhouse: Organic Church Planting w/Neil Cole @ New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary. http://www.nobts.edu for more info. I read everything Neil Cole writes. Looking forward to learning from him at NOBTS this fall.
- 10.24 – Monthly Church Multiplication Network Meeting, 11:30am, @ TBA
- 11.28 – Monthly Church Multiplication Network Meeting, 11:30am, @ TBA
Discipleship and Choice
American Christianity has become about choices. Early service, late service, contemporary music, traditional music,
small groups, Sunday School, big church, little church. And these choices are for the most part self-focused – “I’m looking for a great kids ministry” or “I like a small church” or “I like the early service” or “I like an older pastor.” Not that any of these things are bad and we must commend ministries in the west for making church life and the word of God as accessible for everyone as we can get it. The question is, How does this square with the New Testament picture of a disciple or follower of Christ? Read the New Testament and THE CHOICE was often RISK or SECURITY, DEATH or LIFE. I know the environment was different, w/o the freedoms and technology that we enjoy today, but did Jesus intend Christianity to be free from risk and sacrifice. Jesus said, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will save it” Luke 9:23-24. In Acts, we see the first Christ followers, after initial fears, CHOOSING risk and suffering over and over again. The Apostle Paul spoke of “the brand marks of Jesus” Galatians 6:17 (NASB) on his body, obviously speaking of the torture that he’d endured for sharing the Gospel in unreached areas. He catalogued his suffering in 2 Corinthians 11:25-28:
countless beatings, and often near death. Five times I received at the hands of the Jews the forty lashes less one.Three times I was beaten with rods. Once I was stoned. Three times I was shipwrecked; a night and a day I was adrift at sea; on frequent journeys, in danger from rivers, danger from robbers, danger from my own people, danger from Gentiles, danger in the city, danger in the wilderness, danger at sea, danger from false brothers; in toil and hardship, through many a sleepless night, in hunger and thirst, often without food,tin cold and exposure. And, apart from other things, there is the daily pressure on me of my anxiety for all the churches.
Neil Cole in his interpretive biography of Paul’s life called Journey’s to Significance suggests that Paul could have avoided the “forty lashes minus one” but could not b/c of his love for the Jews.
This type of scourging was sometimes meant to purge or restore a brother to the synagogue instead of making him suffer excommunication. The punishment was executed by three or more leaders…and was exercised for a number of reasons…including being a false teacher and entering the temple unclean, both of which Paul would be accused of having done. Saul saw the synagogues as strategically important for the mission he was ultimately called to fulfill, and so perhaps HE CHOSE to be beaten raw in this way just to maintain access. He could have escaped this horrendous suffering by being excommunicated or keeping his mouth shut, but neither was a real option for him, and so instead he endured.”
New Testament Christianity seems to ASSUME risk and its adherents seem to CHOOSE risk and sacrifice at every turn. And the catch is, according to Jesus’ words in Luke 9:24, it’s in risk and death to self that we find the thing we’re often looking for in our choices at church – security and life.
So what’s the riskiest choice you’ve made as a Christ-follower lately? To attend service at a different time? Joining a new class or group? Do those things, but ask, does this require faith and denial and sacrifice for me? If not, could I be missing a key to real obedience and growth toward God?
What can I do to risk more? Well, you’ll most likely not be asked to endure beating and torture, but here’s a few risk for starters:
- Take some risk in your neighborhood and invite someone over for coffee or dinner that you don’t know that well and build a redemptive relationship with them.
- Find an organization that’s reaching out to the hurting in your region. There are many. Like orphans and widows, inmate children, homeless or those facing imminent homelessness, the hungry through local food banks, etc., etc.
- Instead of consuming your church’s ministries, contribute by volunteering to teach or lead a group.
- Take a short-term mission trip or fund another mission trip goer.
And Pastor, I’m asking myself as a church leader – Am I offering my church the opportunity to experience growth and grace through risk, sacrifice, and adventure? If not, do we keep our church from experiencing the life Christ spoke of in Luke 9:24?
More Courageous Movie Stuff
Looking forward to the movie Courageous, coming out Sept 30th. It’s going to highlight men’s issues and challenge dad’s like nothing before. Here’s some great ideas for your church. And some input from the National Fatherhood initiative. Check out the official music video below. The movie trailer is at the end of the clip. Or find it here. Also, check out the Courageous Song lyrics below the video. Also, check out this post by Randy Alcorn about the importance of fathers and the accompanying video with cast members and ministry leaders talking about the importance of fathers.
Courageous Lyrics
We were made to be courageous
We were made to lead the way
We could be the generation
That finally breaks the chain
We were made to be courageous
We were made to be courageous
We were warriors on the front lines
Standing, unafraid
But now we’re watchers on the sidelines
While our families slip away
Where are you, men of courage?
You were made for so much more
Let the pounding of hearts cry
We will serve the Lord
We were made to be courageous
And we’re taking back the fight
We were made to be courageous
And it starts with us tonight
The only way we’ll ever stand
Is on our knees we’re lifting hands
Make us courageous
Lord, make us courageous
This is our resolution
Our answer to the call
We will love our wives and children
We refuse to let them fall
We will reignite the passion
That we buried deep inside
May the watchers become warriors
Let the men of God arise
Seek justice
Love mercy
Walk on
Be with your God
In the war of the mind
I will make my stand
In the battle of the heart
And the battle of the hand
Northshore Pastors 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. Many pastors and churches are beginning 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.
Check out some of our Northshore pastor blogs:
- Waylon Bailey, waylonbailey.com – Pastor FBC Covington.
- Pete Charpentier, godswordapplied.blogspot.com – Pastor Woodland Park Baptist Church, Hammond.
- Lane Corley, lanecorley.wordpress.com – Pastor/Church Planter Bridge Church & NSBA Church Planting Strategists.
- Randy Davis, kudzuvine.org – Pastor, Trinity Baptist Church, Hammond
- Avery Dixon, www.misfitjoys.com – Pastor Hope Church of Waldheim.
- Jeremy Harper, adesperateseeker.wordpress.com – Worship Leader at Ebenezer Baptist Church in Hammond
- Jay Johnston, jayjohnston.org – Associate Pastor at FBC Covington
- Matt Marrs, worshiptoolbelt.wordpress.com/ – Creative/Worship Leader at Bridge Church.
- Tobey Pitman, thechurchbreakingout.wordpress.com – NSBA Community Ministries Strategist.
- Ken Schroeder, kenschroeder.wordpress.com – Pastor FBC Mandeville & NSBA Vice-Moderator
- Nathan VanHorn, fbcfolsompastor.blogspot.com – Pastor FBC Folsom
Check out these resources on Social Media and Ministry:
- Why I Want to Write A Blog by Waylon Bailey
- How to Start a Blog by Tim Challies
- Utiilizing Social Networking in Ministry by Lane Corley – Presentation for Ministry Assistants Conference in 2010.
- All About RSS by Tim Challies – the best way to follow blogs and news sites.
More than Maps
How many sub-groups, sub-cultures, people groups, neighborhoods, cracks, and crevices are there in your city or region? The homogenous suburban mass is breaking up and many cracks and crevices are left that only relational outreach can fill. So, mission strategy must look at the cracks and crevices, not just the maps. A block party Saturday in a local neighborhood turned out families from China, Virginia, and New York City. All had moved here in the last year. We have a new Jerusalem (Acts 1:8). Just planting worship services with a “ya’ll come” cannot be counted as a sole strategy that births regional transformation with more cracks and crevices developing around language, digital tribes, generational shifts, economic pressure, and information/activity overload.
Reading through the Missional Community Field Guide this summer, which proposes “in addition to using maps to determine our course of action we also implement cracks as a way of becoming the church.” Empowering people to see “the Gospel come to life and incarnated in whatever crack and crevice of society they find themselves in.”
“Reaching the world requires us to release the church to penetrate society, rather than simply offering more centralized services. Such a church, gradually infiltrating subversively through all the networks of society, will birth genuine city transformation.”
Some natural cracks and crevices that are common across our culture: Multi-housing complexes, restaurant workers, language groups, the first responder community. Are there others?
Check out Launching Missional Communities: A Field Guide by Mike Breen and Alex Absalom. Also, Mike Breen’s blog.
12 Things I’m Thankful for after 12 Years of Marriage
12 years ago today I did something right. I married a most amazing woman. I grow more and more grateful for
her each day. Here’s 12 of the things I’m thankful for reflecting on our 12th Anniversary:
- “Find a good spouse, you find a good life-and even more: the favor of God!” Proverbs 18:22 (MSG). Thank God for showing His favor by giving me you!
- I started noticing in year one – People like me better when you’re around. Thanks for completing me.
- Finally realized around year three – I am better when you’re around. Thanks for making me better than I am.
- Two are better than one, because they never quit at the same time. Thanks for helping me persevere through tough times.
- It’s OK to not iron the tucked in portion of the shirt. Thanks for helping me to not sweat small stuff.
- A mother’s voice is a powerful weapon (Proverbs 31:26). Thanks for being a great mom to my boys.
- Unselfishness is a pre-requisite for success in almost everything, especially marriage. Thanks for demonstrating how to put others first so clearly.
- I’ve noticed, families that serve together make a greater impact. Thanks for serving along side me and opening my eyes to new opportunities everyday.
- Marriage is humiliating, b/c you can’t hide who you really are. Thanks for being patient and forgiving.
- Beauty is only skin deep, and I’m thankful for a wife who’s smokin hot, inside and out.
- Peach cobbler and red meat are still my favorites. Thanks for always going out of your way to know my favorites.
- “Lane, you know we only hired you, b/c we met your wife.” Thanks for inspiring confidence in me and others. I’m a better man because of you.
For the City
There are four postures that churches take toward their society and populations: 1) IN the city. Just a location. 2) AGAINST the city. An US vs. THEM mentality. 3) OF the city. There’s no godly distinctives at all. 4) FOR the city. A model of engagement where church seeks to speak the truth and bring transformation to its region.
So say Matt Carter and Darrin Patrick in their book entitled For the City: Proclaiming and Living Out the Gospel. This
was one of my Exponential Conference book takeaways and it was on my summer reading list. It’s a short book but packed with ideas and the kind of ideas that’s shaping how church will look for the next generation. In the book, these two young leaders tell the story of the growing churches which they planted (Austin Stone in Austin, TX and The Journey in St. Louis) and how they are transitioning them to be focused on being FOR their respective cities. Lot of great ideas here, including one that we’ve picked up in our region of partnering with local non-profits and starting new non-profits to meet the practical needs in the city. Well worth reading. Here’s a few of my favorite quotes:
- We are on dangerous ground when we seek to define the worth of a church by how it meets our felt needs.
- A great church, a healthy church, is one in which Jesus Christ is found in word and deed.
- A God-honoring, gospel-loving church is one where the Word of God is the primary motivator for doing the work of God.
- the church does not exist to fix problems. Instead, the church is to carry the burdens of the world to Jesus.
- the most effective way to know God more intimately is to be in deep relationships with other Christians who are also seeking to know God intimately.
- The common temptation in the American church is to neglect the world in order to protect the church…yielding to this temptation results in a bunch of Christian who, instead of being bought in – loving and serving their neighbors – are mostly checked out from their neighborhoods, closing themselves up in a sanctuary several hours a week rather than opening their home to share dinner with unbelievers who live right next door.
- …if you are not currently in a relationship with a drunk, a prostitute, a beggar, an outcast, or a modern social equivalent to one of these people, you are not wholeheartedly following Jesus.
- …true, biblical community is so rare. And even rarer is a Christian community that sets its focus on the welfare of its city and not just the welfare of its church.
- We want to tear down the false teaching that has crept into our churches that church is all about checking an attendance box and eating out after service on Sundays
- Church is a group of radically changed people infiltrating the world and propelled to love others at great cost to themselves, all empowered by the simple message of the gospel.
- The church in the west has drawn people into the church, but it has done a poor job of sending them back out into the messy world.
- the notion that God will not put on us more than we can handle is unbiblical. God always calls us to do more than we can handle, and he does this in order to bring us back to him as the source of our strength and power.
Finding Meaning
The summer has taken Bridge Church on mission to Chiapas MX, into several of our neighborhoods to do Block Parties
and home repair, into our local jail with a new Fatherhood initiative and round two of Celebrate Recovery, AND through the book of Ecclesiastes on Sunday’s at the West St. Tammany YMCA during our weekly worship gatherings. We have several weeks to go, but here’s a few highlights from the series so far.
- A 40-year study was conducted by the wealthiest man who ever lived, of every pleasure known to man, to see what would bring real fulfillment. His full report is known to us as the Old Testament book of Ecclesiastes.
- Here would be a good headline in tomorrow’s paper for this report: “Can Meaning be Found in Life? 40-year, Multi-Billion Dollar Study says No”
- Who is Solomon? a cross between a Saudi Arabian prince, the President of the United States, Socrates, & Mickey Mouse. The wealthiest, most politically powerful, wisest, & most famous person in the world. He reigned for 40 years as King of Israel and his life serves as a case study for FINDING MEANING. He tried it all and spared no expense in search for meaning and found it ALL meaningless.
- Life on earth – “under the sun” – is a lot like a soap bubble, you float for a while and then you pop and the shows over, usually leaving much to be desired by onlookers.
- Don’t let what you can’t control or can’t explain destroy what you can enjoy.
- The power to enjoy life comes from within. It’s about character, not circumstances.
- Worship and wealth go hand in hand, b/c our checkbook follows our hearts desire.
- God is in control. Worship, don’t negotiate.
- Friendships are worth more than paychecks.
- Money is to keep us and others alive, not to give us life and meaning.
- Do you want to stand before God and say…I didn’t invest much in your kingdom, but I did drive some great cars. I didn’t help those in need, but I did have a great cable package. I didn’t support world missions, but I did try everything on the menu at Copeland’s.
- We don’t live by explanations, we live be promises. We don’t walk by what we see, we walk by faith. We don’t get to heaven by what we know, but who we know.
Links I liked and learned from lately
- 12 Signs the Church has lost sight of the story of God – #2: “The church will measure success primarily by how many people attend services and programs, and fail to measure what difference the gospel is making in their neighborhoods.”
- 25 Ways to Engage Your Neighbors – “practical ideas to start engaging the people around me”
- Books that Equip Disciplemakers by Jason Dukes
- Are you a leader who is all in? 10 Characteristics of “all-in” leaders by Brad Lomenick
- The Missional Youth Group – “Youth pastors need to lead the youth to look past their own personal needs and attention to the needy in the community and church.”
- Helping My Boys Become Christian Men –
- Homeworks articles – Times-Picayune and Karen Baker’s op ed in the local picayune.
Lane Corley 