Blog Archives
A Church Planter’s Sunday
He’s up early, pulling a trailer, setting up the chairs, making the coffee, motivating the team, shaking every hand, saying thank you 100’s of times. Welcomes the guest, preaches the message(s), extends the invitation, stacks the chairs, loads the trailer, cleans up the messes. Misses kickoff but doesn’t care. Grateful for all my church planter & portable church brothers this morning.
Supporting Church Planters
Here’s some great ideas from Georg
e Ross for supporting church planters both near & far. CLICK HERE to read George’s latest update on church planting in New Orleans for this list & much more.
PLANTER SUPPORT IDEAS:
- Baby shower for expecting planters. Have your church host a baby shower for an expectant planter. A partner church hosted a shower last year and provided a planting couple with diapers, baby food and clothes, and a freezer FULL of food. What a blessing!
- Monthly Volunteers for childcare during Worship. SEND New Orleans has several partner churches that take one worship service a month and send a volunteer team to do childcare. This allows overworked volunteers to come and worship with their church family.
- Date night and childcare for a planter. One of the greatest barriers planters face in cultivating a healthy marriage, is simply finding childcare and resources to make it happen. Plan to send a team down to provide childcare and a dinner gift card. I promise it will be a blessing.
- Church Planter Profiles prayer strategy. The greatest partnership a planter can have is a faithful church praying for their family and work. Visit the NAMB website and download church planter profiles today, CLICK HERE for SEND New Orleans Church Planter Profiles.
- Hosting a Global Impact Conference at your church. Having a church planter come and share at a GIC is a powerful way to communicate and challenge your church to participate in local and global missions. Get more information on the benefits of a Global Impact Conference over at George’s Blog.
- Pastor Appreciation Month. Unlike many established churches with a rich tradition of pastor appreciation, church plants reaching un-churched and de-churched people rarely have a background in pastor appreciation. Use this October as an opportunity to appreciate your church plant pastor. Click HERE for some great resources for pastor appreciation from the North American Mission Board.
Get to know George by following his blog, connect with him on Twitter. And follow Send New Orleans HERE.
Why I LOVE Giving to the Georgia Barnette Offering for Louisiana Missions!
The Georgia Barnette Offering for Louisiana Missions is one thing that I can give to with great cheer (2 Corinthians 9:7). Why? Through the GBO, among other things, we’re able to cover up to 30% of the first year budget for a new church & provide two additional years of support for a total of 36 months. Current averages for church plant support are around $44,000 per, over a 36 month period. This assures the church planter of substantial support as he plans out the first three years of ministry in the community. Also, as a church planter who has received support through the GBO, I was encouraged by the weight of 1,600 Louisiana Baptist churches who said yes to our calling as a family & our communities need for the gospel. And now, I get to see the results of our together giving up close & personal as I read the reports & follow the work of our church planters in Louisiana. This year, over 200 people have been baptized & over 600 have professed faith in Christ through churches supported by the GBO. I give with cheer cause I know my $$ will be turned into real people engaging communities with the gospel & people’s lives being changed in my home state. Below are a few 2015 pics from works directly supported by the GBO. Give with cheer! Check out GeorgiaBarnette.org for more info & see what other ministries in Louisiana supported by Georgia Barnette.
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- Unity Baptist, Franklin – Planter Darryl Guy
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- Restoration Church, Metairie – Planter Dean Ross
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- Jacob Crawford, Life Point, Mansura – Planter Jacob Crawford
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- Crosspoint Church, Galliano – Planter John Boss
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- United Outreach, Shreveport – Planter Greg Shyne
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- First HIspanic Haughton – Planter Miguel Guillen
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- First West Fairbanks – Planter Chad Merrell
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- Stillwater Baptist, Hammond – Planter Lonnie Tucker
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- Level Ground NOLA – Planter Joshua Holland
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- Genesis Church, Walker – Church Planter Jeff Smith
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- Westbank Baptist, Marrero – Planter Ryan Melson
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- Impact Church NOLA – Planter Lance Montalbano
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- Grace Point, Destrehan – Planter Chris Housewright
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- Life Church NOLA – Church Planter Ryan Rice – begins receiving support through GBO in October 2015
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- The Grove, Prairieville – Planter T Lusk
Planning for an Evangelistic Culture
New churches tend to be more evangelistic. As a matter of fact, data has shown that established Southern Baptist churches baptize 3.4 people per 100 members, and new SBC churches baptize 11.7 people per 100 members. Why? I believe, one simple reason is in the way we plan. As the pastor of a local church, I started my week with this mindset – “They’re coming, how do I get ready?” That is, the members will be coming to church on Wednesday & Sunday, so get ready for them. The insiders. How’s the sermon? How’s the building? How do I make the insiders happy?
When I became a church planter, that changed subtly to “They’re NOT coming, how do I get ready?” That motivated me to different means. How will I invite people & let them know about the gathering? How will I communicate so they will understand what church is about? How will I present the gospel? How will I GO into the world? How can I get this message out?
Creating and evangelistic culture is about living for those who are NOT there yet. And helping get ready for those who are NOT coming. When we can get every person, every ministry, every sermon, the longing of every heart in the church geared toward THEM, an evangelistic culture is beginning to blossom.
I want to live by, “They’re NOT coming, how do we get ready?” and get out & do all we can to invite, share, invest, & serve, so that they’ll do much more than just come to our church, but so they’ll be part of that great throng surrounding Jesus in worship for all eternity.
And folks, the reality is, THEY’RE NOT COMING. Evangelical church attendance is around 10% of the population or less across Louisiana. The assumption that most people go to church somewhere is just false.
So how are you planning this week?
Starting an Associational Church Multiplication Movement
Good strategy should create the right conditions for a church multiplication movement to reach every people group & population segment in our communities. Here’s five steps to an associational strategy for church multiplication:
Step 1: Mobilize an Associational Missions or Church Planting Team. Intentionality will be best maintained by men & women with a heart for missions & church multiplication who work in concert with the Director of Missions & other partners to strategize for reaching the lost in the area.
Step 2: Conduct an Area-Wide Feasibility Study or Probe. A probe of the area should include intense demographic & ecclesiographic research. To maximize buy in, it may also include organizing a vision tour or windshield survey across the area with Pastors & church leaders. A probe may also include polling pastors & staff members & key leaders in the community about the need for new churches & ministries in the region.
Step 3: Map the Strategy based on the Probe. Combining extensive data collection with soundbites from organized efforts to determine needs, the church planting team should then be ready to go to a map & start pinpointing potential locations for churches & ministries. The LBC Engage Map can be a great tool for this & church planting priorities can immediately be available for recruiting planters & resources to projects determined by the the Church Planting Team via the world wide web.
Step 4: Discover & Develop qualified planters & team members. Once we know who we need to reach & where, we can best determine who we need to be looking & praying for to take on the mission of planting a church in that area. It will also help the state convention in planning resources & training events that will best assist planting in the region. Armed with data & vision for meeting the specific needs of communities we can be more intentional in gathering resources & recruiting partners & team members.
Step 5: Network church planting leaders & enthusiasts for celebration, encouragement, health, & recruitment. Engaging the lost community through church planting will lead to stories that need to be told, wounds & scars that need to be healed, & greater interest in diving into the church planting pool. A regular network meeting in the region will be a great tool to keep the movement going & keep points going onto the map & multiplication of disciples, groups, & churches going for years to come.
Utilizing this strategy, one of our Louisiana associations has started 14 new churches since 2000, with only one failed plant. That’s a 93% success rate! The Louisiana Baptists Missions & Ministry Team is here to assist with 10-3-1 Strategy Development. We can assist you & your team with each of these steps as we move toward a strategy that engages every person in Louisiana with the Gospel.
Build Retreat and Rest Into Your Church Planting Journey
“Come away by yourselves to a desolate place and rest a while” Mark 6:31 ESV
Be intentional about building in retreat & rest into your church planting journey. A bunch of good partners for ministers on a tight budget in this regard. Here’s a few around Louisiana & vicinity:
- Shore Ministries –http://www.shorministries.com/ – Free Retreats for Pastors & their wives, all across the south.
- Abbie Lane – http://abbielane.org/ – Free Retreat center in Coushatta, LA.
- Lighthouse Resort Ministry, Grand Isle – http://ow.ly/KQkCu. Contact Fellow Church Planter John Boss.
Also, most of our Associational Camps across Louisiana offer free stays for Pastors in need of retreat & rest:
- Acadiana Baptist Center, near Lafayette – http://www.abccamp.com/
- Camp Bethany, near Shreveport – http://www.campbethany.com/
- Camp Harris, near Shreveport – http://www.harrisbaptist.com/
- Camp Living Waters, near Hammond – http://camplivingwaters.net/
- Clara Springs Baptist Camp, near Natchitoches –http://www.clarasprings.com/
- Dry Creek Baptist Camp, near Lake Charles – http://drycreek.net/
- Judson Baptist Retreat Center, St. Francisville, near Baton Rouge –http://www.judsonretreat.org/
- Tall Timbers, near Alexandria – http://www.lbc.org/talltimbers/
Let me know if you know of others!
Why Multi-Site Church? 6 Benefits
Multi-site Church development continues to be a great tool for multiplying & revitalize churches. A few observations about current multi-site churches among Louisiana Baptists,
- those churches have experienced a combined 30% growth in attendance since becoming multi-site.
- 80% have experienced growth in worship & small groups.
- Half have included a church merger or gifting of a building from a declining church as part of the multisite development.
- Half have requested & received cooperative funding from the Missions & Ministries Team of our state convention for the new sites.
- ALL of them were growing churches BEFORE multisite development, not BECAUSE of multi-site development.
One of the big takeaways: Multisite is NOT a tool for getting your church to grow, but to multiply your growing DNA to a new community.
Dennis Watson, Pastor of Celebration Church in New Orleans, which has 6 campuses & planning more gives six benefits of a Multisite Campus Strategy, Multi-site enables your church to:
- Grow larger and smaller at the same time.
- Overcome geographic and cultural barriers to reach new people.
- Address more community needs and provide more community support.
- Involve more people in growth and outreach opportunities.
- Staff with generalists and specialists, so that both groups can be utilized.
- Provide a new church vibe with a big church punch.
How can our church know if multisite is in our future:
- Do you have a vision for church revitalization that may include merging with a declining congregation?
- Are you running out of space, but do not feel led to build bigger?
- Has your church been in decline and could possibly be a candidate for merging with a sister congregation?
- Take this MultiSiteDiagnosis Self Assessment.
Doing some Multi-Site readiness roundtables this week in southeast Louisiana. Let me know if you’d like more info.
Hardcore Church Planting
Enjoyed getting to finally meet Peyton Jones at the Send 2015 Conference & I was honored to sit down with him for a bit to talk Louisiana Church Planting for the Hardcore Church Planting Podcast. Great discussion on some of our unique challenges in the Bayou State or Duck Dynasty country. Check it out HERE. And if the Church Planter Magazine, Church Planter Podcast, & Hardcore Church Planting Podcast are not in your feed, take care of that today. Always practical & relevant content from Peyton & company, born out of real life, on the ground experience in church planting. And check out his book Church Zero: Raising 1st Century Churches Out of the Ashes of the 21st Century Church, which is still at the top of my Current Church Planting Bibliography.
Old and New Churches Team Up to Plant in Bunkie
Love this story! One of Louisiana’s oldest congregations – St. James Baptist in Bayou Chicot (started by Joseph Willis in the early 1800’s) & one of Louisiana’s newest congregations – Life Point Church in Mansura, planter/pastor Jacob Crawford, are partnering to start a new church in Bunkie. Planter/Pastor is Reginald Arvie, who also serves Bi-vocationally as a hospital administrator in Mamou. Pray for Reginald, Jacob, & their team that are planting St. James – Bunkie!
Joseph Willis is credited with planting the first evangelical churches west of the Mississippi River. His life is remembered in the great book Twice a Slave.
Top 5 Places to Plant a Church in Louisiana #SendNorthAmerica #churchplanting #send2015
I like to call south Louisiana the back pocket of the Bible Belt. Still many cities & communities in need of new churches in one of North America’s most unique cultures. Here’s the top five places to plant a church in Louisiana:
1. New Orleans
Population: 956,000. Only 2.1% attend a SBC Church. Only 11% Evangelical. 432,270 unaffiliated with any church.
Includes the Parishes of Orleans, Jefferson (Louisiana’s 2nd largest Parish), St. Bernard, Plaquemine, & St. Charles. New Orleans is strategic for a lot of reasons: one of North America’s most influential ports, a cultural icon for the world. For Louisiana, it makes up 20% of our population. For Southern Baptists, its one of only three Send Cities in the South.
Contacts: The New Orleans Baptist Associaton, DOM Jack Hunter. George Ross, North American Mission Board Send City Coordinator for New Orleans.
2. Acadiana
Population: 675,000. Only 1.8% attend a SBC church. Evangelical population only 9%. 229,049 unaffiliated with any church.
Includes the cities of Lafayette, Youngsville (one of Louisiana’s fastest growing), Abbeville, Carencro, Opelousas, Breaux Bridge. This is true Louisiana. Cajun Country. The images most shared about Louisiana come from these areas. Amazing food. Gators. Live Oaks. It’s also home to Louisiana’s second largest University, University of Louisiana – Lafayette.
Contacts: The Evangeline Baptist Association, DOM Bert Langley.
3. Baton Rouge
Population: 630,000. Only 2.0% attend a SBC Church. 23% evangelical. 242,000 unaffiliated with any church.
Includes the cities of Baton Rouge, Prairieville, Gonzalez, Port Allen, Plaquemine & others. Louisiana’s state capital & the center of political life & becoming more influential in the Business life of the entire I-10 corridor. Growing refugee populations have been noted & this year will begin receiving Syrian refugees. Also, home to one of America’s most influential universities, Louisiana State University.
Contacts: The Baptist Association of Greater Baton Rouge, DOM Tommy Middleton.
4. Bayou
Population: 208,000. Only 1.8% attend a SBC Church. Only 6% Evangelical. 70,672 unaffiliated with any church.
Includes the cities of Houma, Thibodaux, Grand Isle, Galliano, Cutoff, & others. One of the best places for fresh shrimp in North America! Beautiful people & incredible culture. Also, very influential because of the thousands that work out of these communities in the drilling & oil production industry across the Gulf of Mexico. Home to Nicholls State University.
Contacts: The Bayou Baptist Association, DOM Joe Arnold.
5. I-12 Corridor
Population: 541,234. Only 4.8% attend a SBC Church. 25% Evangelical. 270,687 unaffiliated with any church.
Includes the cities of Denham Springs, Walker, Hammond, Ponchatoula, Covington, Mandeville, Slidell & others. Fast growing for years due to suburban life. Now robust corporate life developing. Home to Louisiana’s third largest University – South Eastern Louisiana State University in Hammond.
Contacts: Eastern Louisiana Baptist Association, DOM David Brown. And Northshore Baptist Association, DOM Lonnie Wascom.
And VERY close behind or tied with these FIVE:
- Lake Charles – Center of Louisiana’s Chemical Corridor. Expected to add 20,000 jobs over the next 10 years.
- Avoyelles Parish region – Still several communities that have never had an evangelical church.
Planters & partners needed. Message me for info about these and other communities that need new churches in Louisiana if God may be leading you to the Bayou.
Find other info on Church Planting in Louisiana at https://louisianabaptists.org/churchplanting.
And connect with other church planters in Louisiana by joining our Facebook Group – Louisiana Church Multiplication Network.
Lane Corley 