Blog Archives
Church Planters Share Their #1 Resource… It Might Surprise You
This summer we held Church Planting Network luncheons across the state of Louisiana. Over 100 leaders attended the luncheons & were asked to share three things:
- Biggest Recent Win
- Current Greatest Challenge
- Best Resource
The discussions were great & inspirational. God is truly doing some historic things across the Bayou state. It was a great experience to share a meal & get to spend some time with these incredible leaders.
What was the top resources? The #1 resource shared by church planting leaders across Louisiana was… PEOPLE! At every meeting several of these leaders would wisely say, “My best resource is the people that serve with me, support me, & that I can call on when I need them.” Fits a church planting axiom that I heard years ago, “The resources are in the harvest.” Church planting leaders MUST learn how to gather, develop, encourage, deploy, & depend upon people. Our best resources will always be those around us.
Here is a list of 25 other resources shared at our statewide gatherings this summer.
- Website: http://bookdepot.com/ – Great site to check when doing book giveaways. Recent releases for as low as $3 each. Must order $100 worth.
- Website: http://www.rightnowmedia.org/ – Video Bible Study & Kids Entertainment Library.
- Website: http://erlc.com/ – Keep up with culturals shifts & how to respond to issues.
- Website: http://evernote.com – for sermon prep, planning, staff communication.
- Website: http://get.planningcenteronline.com/ – for team & volunteer management
- Website: http://story4all.com/ – for info on Gospel Storying
- Website: http://Eventbrite.com – for event planning, registration, AND also social networking for events in your area.
- Book: It’s Personal: Surviving & Thriving on the Journey of Church Planting. This years network giveaway. Great book on the personal, emotional side of planting & leadership.
- Book: Rediscovering the Church Fathers: Who They Were and How They Shaped the Church
- Book: When Helping Hurts: How to Alleviate Poverty Without Hurting the Poor . . . and Yourself. Start healthy compassion ministries.
- Book: Truth That Sticks: How to Communicate Velcro Truth in a Teflon World. on storying the Bible.
- Book: Contagious Disciple Making: Leading Others on a Journey of Discovery. Great book on discipleship movements.
- Book: The Rise of the Nones: Understanding and Reaching the Religiously Unaffiliated. Must read for church planters!
- Book: Saturate: Being Disciples of Jesus in the Everyday Stuff of Life. Book of the year on discipleship & church life.
- Book: Total Church: A Radical Reshaping around Gospel and Community. on setting up healthy church systems & structures.
- Book: Right Color, Wrong Culture: The Type of Leader Your Organization Needs to Become Multiethnic
- Book: Community Group Guide: Planting or Re-Planting Life Giving Small Groups by Brad House
- Book: The Pocket Guide to Leading a Small Group: 52 Ways to Help You and Your Small Group Grow by Dave Early
- Book: Bobby Bowden On Leadership: Life Lessons from a Two-Time National Championship Coach. Shared by a former Florida State running back looking to plant a church in Louisiana in the coming years!
- Book: Preaching to a Postmodern World: A Guide to Reaching Twenty-first Century Listeners
- Book: Better Together: Making Church Mergers Work
- Book: Ordinary: How to Turn the World Upside Down by Tony Merida
- Resource: The Redeemer Church Planting Manual.
- Mobile Pregnancy Center from the Louisiana Baptist Children’s Home – available to setup at your church or community event. Pregnancy test, ultrasounds, etc. done on site.
- Re-Group Coaching with Sean Keith. Sean helps churches set up structures & systems for continued growth. Contact Sean.Keith@LouisianaBaptists.org.
Watch for some fall opportunities to network with multiplication leaders in your area.
Engage Acadiana
Spent some time this week with Lafayette area Church Planters. Great need for new churches in Southwest Louisiana, affectionately known as Acadiana:
>> Population of ACADIANA (Acadia, Evangeline, Gulf Coast, Bayou Associations): 675,207 
>> Only 1.8% attend a SBC church
>> Evangelical population only 9%
>> 229,049 unaffiliated with any church
>> Population of EVANGELINE ASSOCIATION (Lafayette area) – 404,977
>> Only .9% of the population or 3,806 attend Bible Study in a SBC church.
>> Only 1.6% or 6,649 attend Worship in a SBC church.
>> 46 SBC churches – 1 church to every 8,803 persons. Our goal is 1 to 2800. NAMB suggests 1 to 2,000.
Planters, Partners needed.
I-20 Church Planting Connections:
Eight Church Planting Network Luncheons this Summer across Louisiana. Got to connect with some great I-20 Church Planting partners last week:
>> Open Road Fellowship in Haughton with Raymond Wilkinson. Reaching motorcycle enthusiasts in NW Louisiana.
>> The Warrior Network with Trey McGuire. Reaching airmen in the Shreveport Bossier area. Incredible new ministry that hopefully will multiply into other areas.
>> The Covenant Church with planter Luke Allen. Great plant started in 2010 meeting in Downtown Shreveport & doing an incredible job reaching millenials. .
>> The Crossing Church in Monroe with Jarrod Hawthorne & Kendrick Banks.
>> The Circle Church cranking up this year in Alexandria, LA with Vincent Smith & Casie Dunn Smith. Great team coming together! This is going to be good!
>> First West Fairbanks with Chad Merrell continues to go strong in their 5th year. Great revitalization & multiplication story at Fairbanks –http://ow.ly/P8L8c.
>> North Hills Church in Calhoun with Planter/Pastor Jon McCartney. Great plant sponsored by Cedar Crest Baptist Church.
>> Tommy Smith is the new pastor of North Monroe Baptist Church’s Bastrop campus. Great multiplication story going on at North Monroe. Grateful for Bill Dye & his leadership. Next Generate Conference is in the works for 2016 – http://ow.ly/P8KGv.
>> Also, grateful for our I-20 DOM’s Jerry Price & Lane Moore for their support of church planting in their regions. Great things to come for the I-20 communities.
Four more Church Planting Network Luncheons still to go this month. Get connected!
Handling Money in a New Church #churchplanting #churchadmin
Managing money is one of the roles we as church planters are often NOT ready for when it comes time to launch a new church. Most figure it out, but mistakes made in this area can cost credibility & more. And this is one area that you DO NOT want to fall behind on & have to play catch up later. This may seem simplistic, but you need to devise strategy for six steps that must be done with money given to your church:
- Receive it.
- Count it.
- Deposit it.
- Record it.
- Spend it.
- Report it.
How to Baptize More People in Your Church #churchplanting
People in the water being baptized serves as a highlight & significant spiritual marker in the life of an individual & a church. Recently, I polled a few of our highest baptizing church plants in Louisiana & found that they have 5 intentional practices that every church can do to increase baptisms:
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Pray & Share the Gospel.
If you don’t have anybody to baptize, you need to ask the question, “Are we communicating the gospel clearly to our community?” It may be that you are in a hard soil area & cultivation will take time. That’s fine. But the promise of the word of God is to produce results (Isaiah 55:11). God’s working in all our communities to bring people to himself (1 Corinthians 5:19-21). As we pray & share, planting seeds in our communities, eventually we can expect a harvest (Psalm 126:6). If you need some ideas, see my post Proven Ways to Cultivate Relationships & Plant Seeds in Your Community.
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Keep a current list of potential candidates.
Write down the names of people in your fellowship that you’re not sure of their relation to Christ &/or if they’ve followed the Lord through believer’s baptism. Share it with core leaders & ask them to pray. Plan on systematically talking with them about making this important step in their faith journey. Also, teach parents how to look for signs of God’s work in the lives of their children & when they begin to respond, put them on the list & begin to pray for them. (Check out this helpful article on How to Tell If Your Child is Ready for Baptism).
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Put it on the church calendar.
As you do calendar planning, go ahead & put at least two dates for baptisms on the calendar. Announce these regularly. Expect to have candidates. Pray & share the Gospel. Work the list.
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Get info out about Believer’s Baptism.
Teach on it regularly. Produce a brochure & keep it in a well trafficked area in your building & on your website. I’ve also heard of churches doing brief Informational meetings about baptism before & after church. Don’t assume people realize the importance & Biblical reasons for baptism. Here’s the brochure our church utilizes.
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Make it a celebration.
Baptism is an opportunity to celebrate God’s work in the heart of human being. Jesus died so that work could be done! A person has left the kingdom of darkness & entered the kingdom of light (Colossians 1:13)! Even the angels in heaven throw a party when this happens (Luke 15:10)!. Let’s celebrate! Make it a big deal. Send out invitations, post pics, share videos! We throw parties for much less, so a thing that makes heaven party & busts people out of the kingdom of darkness should instigate a celebration!
An evangelistic culture must be cultivated & maintained with intentionality. We have a command from Jesus to go & baptize (Matthew 28:18-20). We have so many people without a relationship with Christ. Get intentional about moving people to understand & respond to the Gospel & celebrate it through baptism.
A Few More #Summer #Outreach Ideas
Several great list of Summer Outreach Ideas have passed around. I liked this list from Diana Davis. Here’s a few other low cost ideas that have proved fruitful for meeting people:
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Water Bottles for front yard lawn mowers
Fill a few ice chest full of ice cold water or gatorade, then head out on Saturday morning & watch for people working in their front yard. Interrupt them by giving them a bottle & a small connection card to your church. I promise they won’t mind.
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Face Painting or Balloon Animals at local festivals
Every Louisiana community has a festival, car show, farmers market or something. Add to the gathering by offering something fun for kids. Face Painting is easy for almost anyone. Poll your team for other talents that might be unique & entertaining. Don’t forget to have invite cards to your church or Bible Study.
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Fun for kids at Multi-Housing complexes
If you haven’t already, you should get to know the managers at local apartment complexes. They’re often required by upper management to provide events for the park & in my experience they are stressed about that! Offer to help by extending a VBS activity or showing up with a snow cone machine or bounce house.
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Snow cones at local daycares
Private daycares are usually very open to engagement with churches. Especially if you offer free snow cones for every child in the afternoon! Snow cone machines rent for $100 or so, check around to see if another local church has one, or if you’re part of a Baptist Association, they probably have a block party trailer equipped with a snow cone machine plus. Ask the daycare if they’ll send home an invite card or event invite from your church in backpacks in return.
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Outdoor Movie Nights
Pick an area park, backyard, subdivision common space, & a short movie. Outdoor movie screens can be purchased for around $200. Projectors are available from partner churches or your local association.
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Hurricane Prep for local Mobile Home Parks
Great men’s group project. Connect with a local trailer park & offer to cut low hanging limbs back away from trailers in the run up to Hurricane season. This is a great service to residents & management that will never be forgotten. Pole saws rent for $125 or so & probably at least one guy in your group has a chainsaw.
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Free Movie Day for Stay at Home Moms with Kids
Turn your church or a local meeting hall into a free cinema for the afternoon. Show a favorite kid movie with popcorn & box drinks. There’s probably a local mom’s facebook group that you can spread the word through.
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Outdoor Summer Concert
If your church or community has a nice green space, find a local musician or band (no shortage of those in Louisiana) & throw a free sunset concert. Offer free drinks & invite cards to your churches gathering.
Got other ideas for summer outreach? Don’t be stingy. Please share.
What’s Happening in Louisiana Baptist Missions?
Tuesday, was the Louisiana Baptists Executive Board meeting, which means the Louisiana Missions Support Committee & State Missions Offering Committee met as well. These two teams are made up of members of Louisiana Baptist churches & they get to oversee church planting & missions work & the spending of missions $$ in our state. Always a lot of fun to sit in on these meetings! A few big takeaways from this week:
- The Mission Support Committee approved 20 new churches, 3 new compassion ministries, $725k in cooperative funding between sponsor churches, associations, North American Mission Board & the Louisiana Baptist Convention.
- In the current recording cycle, Louisiana Baptist churches have given $4 million to Lottie Moon Offering for International Missions, $2.1 million to Annie Armstrong Offering for North American Missions, $174k to the World Hunger Fund, & $1.6 Million to the Georgia Barnette Offering for Louisiana Missions.
- and this team gets to give away the $1.6 million. Allocated: $200k for first unit buildings for church plants, $828k for church planting supplements, $410k for special mission projects, $125k for the Mission Builder Program, $95k for scholarships, $224k for missions training & promotion.
- We reported 18 new churches started so far in 2015. 3 in north Louisiana, 15 in south Louisiana, & 13 multi-ethnic & non-anglo. 60% to our goal of 30 for the year.
- We also broke ground on the Georgia Barnette Conference Center, which will be a state of the art gathering space for missions training & more at Tall Timbers Conference Center in central Louisiana.
I’m humbled to be a part of the process of starting churches, raising & dispersing resources through the work of Louisiana Baptists. Grateful for the generosity of Southern Baptist Churches in Louisiana who continue to give that the gospel may be shared, disciples made, & churches started for the people of Louisiana & beyond.
Keep up with the work of Louisiana Baptist Church Planters on our Facebook Group. And follow events & happening throughout the Louisiana Baptist Convention at LouisianaBaptists.org.
“In every apple there is an orchard” #churchplanting
I-10/Acadiana Basic Training for Church Planting Recap
Finished up another Basic Training for Church Planting yesterday in SW Louisiana. Excited about the teams that made it to this training.
- Bayou Life Church in Cottonport – Life Point in Mansura has targeted the communities with no SBC church & little evangelical influence across Avoyelles Parish, which is the northern fringe of cajun country. Cottonport is one of those comunities & they have tapped Louisiana church planting legend, Louis Cherrier for the task of planting there.
- Broadmoore Hispanic in Shreveport – Planter Daniel Hernandez. Hispanic population has grown to near 300,000 in Louisiana. Grateful for Pastor Daniel & his team.
- Christ Church – Lafayette, Opelousas, & now Abeville. Christ Church has added three locations in around 12 months. Excited about the heart that Pastor Brandon Nealy & Exec Pastor Joe Garner has for multiplication. May their tribe increase.
- Crosspoint Church in Galiano – Planter John Boss, & Associate Pastor Noah Blackburn who’s looking to plant in the future. Great work going on in the hard to reach bayou communities in southern Jefferson, Lafourche, & Terrebone Parishes.
- Redeemer City Church in Lafayette – Planter Aaron Schamp. Meeting in downtown Lafayette & reaching out to millenials & young professionals. They’ve done a great job in year one. Looking forward to seeing what the future holds for the team at Redeemer City.
- St. James Baptist Church in Bunkie – Planter Reginald Arvie. One of Louisiana’s oldest evangelical congregations (St. James Baptist in Chicot – started by Joseph Willis in the early 1800’s) & one of Louisiana’s newest congregations Life Point Mansura are teaming up to start a new work in Bunkie. Actually cranking up ministry tomorrow night! This is going to be good!
- The Cross Church in Lafayette – Planter Emmanuel Kuada . Brand new project. Looking fwd to what shapes up in fast growing Acadiana.
Several yet to be determined projects as well as several Revitalization projects were also represented. Our next Basic Training will be in north Louisiana at Camp Harris in Minden. Register & get more info here: http://louisianabaptists.org/basictraining2015.
How Much Does it Cost Your Church to Reach One Person for Christ?
Got an interesting question that has me working the calculator this morning. How much money does it take to reach a person for Christ in the average SBC Church? So many factors could be thrown in to the equation here, but just some quick figuring in a few major population areas in Louisiana.
- A sample of 66 churches in one city spent $40,845,337 in 2013.
- The same 66 churches reported 503 baptisms in 2013.
- So it took this group of 66 churches $81,203 to baptize one person.
- Looking at the new churches in this group of 66, the total spent per baptism went down to $21,276.
- I’m guessing, it will go up for the age of the church, but more study will be needed.
How much does it cost your church to baptize one new convert? is this a good question to gauge our effectiveness? What do these figures tell us about our churches?
Basic Training for Church Multiplication, April 27-28 @ Acadian Baptist Center
If I had a bumper sticker it’d say, “I’d Rather Be Planting Churches.” Blessed to be able to work with those planting churches in Louisiana & one of the ways I get to do so is through planning training events. Our next Basic Training for Church Multiplication is April 27-28 at Acadian Baptist Center, near Lafayette. Register here: http://ow.ly/LHbKX. Overnight housing & all meals included.
>> Our Basic Training Workshop works through all the major systems needed for a church to grow no matter the model.
>> Church planters in Louisiana who have attended some type of Basic Training event have experienced 50% higher attendance & 65% more baptisms. Not sure if that’s because of our great training or the teachability that attending training exemplifies.
>> Facilitators are men who have successfully planted churches in Louisiana. This session will include: Andy Tribe from The Bayou Church – Youngsville, Jacob Crawford from Life Point Church, & Joe Garner III from Christ Church.
>> The training is offered free, thanks to gift from Louisiana Baptist churches to the Cooperative Program & Georgia Barnette State Missions Offering.
>> More info at LouisianaBaptists.org/basictraining2015 or give me a call at 985.373.2748.
Lane Corley 