Blog Archives
Fall Equipping & Networking Opportunities for Church Multipliers in Louisiana:
>> I-12 Multi-Site Church Luncheon, August 13th, 11:30am-1:30pm at The Way Church in Denham Springs. Join Chad Merrell from First West Fairbanks in Sterlington, LA, to hear a great Louisiana multisite story & talk multisite readiness for your ministry. Good especially for churches in a more rural or suburban setting. RSVP by joining the Facebook event or calling the Eastern Louisiana Baptist Association at 225-664-9309, or email David Brown at amc4elba@elba.brcoxmail.com.
>> ReGroup Small Group Conference, August 15th at FBC Lafayette. Matt Papa, Jeff Iorg, Eddie Mosley & others for a day of working on Small Groups Strategy. I’ll be leading two Church Planting Breakouts:
- Discovery Groups: Strategies for Starting Groups from the Unchurched Community
- “Where does your group meet?” – Small Group Strategies for Portable or Space Limited Churches.
>> Total Church Life Conference, August 22nd at Jefferson Baptist Church in Baton Rouge. Annual Church Leadership Conference hosted by the Baptist Association of Greater Baton Rouge. Breakouts literally on every area of church life! I’ll be leading the session called Social Media & the Local Church – How social media can help your church grow & equip people for ministry.
>> Basic Training for Church Multiplication, September 11-12 at FBC Mandeville. A great workshop for churches in years 1-3 or in the process of restarting or revitalizing. Church Planters that have attended a Basic Training Workshop over the last five years have experienced 50% higher attendance and 65% more baptisms than those who haven’t.
Sessions covered:
- Where are we? Understanding Your Context and Community
- Who are we? Discovering Your Church’s Unique Purpose for Your Community
- What do we do? Establishing the Strategy and Systems for Your Church to Multiply Disciples, Leaders, Groups and Churches
>> Century XXI Hispanic Leadership Conference, September 18-19 at Calvary Baptist Church in Ruston. Contact Carlos.Schmidt@LouisianaBaptists.org for more info.
>> E4 Preaching Conference, September 18-19 at FBC Pineville. E4 is designed to encourage expository preaching and encourage pastors. Partnership of Louisiana Baptists, First Baptst Pineville, Louisiana College, New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary and Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary.
Know of other Equipping or Networking Opps happening in the next few months?
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.
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!
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.
January Brings 6 New Churches to Louisiana #churchplanting
Pray for these 6 new churches starting this month in Louisiana. A few have been ministering for some months, but they began receiving funding through the Louisiana Baptist Convention & North American Mission Board this month:
>> Live Oak Church, New Orleans – Planter Adam Bourne. Sponsored by FBC Vicksburg, Send North American New Orleans / New Orleans Baptist Association.
>> New Life, Baton Rouge – Planter Ed Scott. Sponsored by Grosse Tete Baptist Church & the Baptist Association of Greater Baton Rouge.
>> Broadmoor Hispanic, Shreveport – Planter Daniel Hernandez. Sponsored by Broadmoor Baptist Church, Shreveport & the Northwest Louisiana Baptist Association.
>> Iglesia Gracia Y Restauracion, Kenner – Planter Yony Matute. Sponsored by William Blvd. Baptist Church, Kenner & New Orleans Baptist Association / Send North America: New Orleans
>> Iglesia Hispana de Sulphur – Planter Jose Perez-Sanchez. Sponsored by Houston River Baptist Church, Lake Charles & Carey Baptist Association.
>> Plaucheville Mission – Planter Norris Landry. Sponsored by Life Point Church, Mansura & Louisiana Baptist Association.
How about 6 every month in 2015?
Interested in Church Planting? Start here:
- I think I want to Plant a Church, What Now?
- 5 Things You Must Do Before You Plant a Church
- 10 Biblical and Practical Ways to Get Involved in Church Planting
- Every Church Can Encourage Church Planting & Multiplication
- Every Church Can Be A Church Planting Partner
- Your Church Can Be A Parent to A New Church or Campus
Ready to Plant? Consider “the Most Cajun Place on Earth” #churchplanting
Great opportunity open to plant & partner in Vermillion Parish, one of Louisiana’s least reached areas – only 4% evangelical according to thearda.org. Sponsor church, location, core team, cooperative funding ready to go. Pray with us & spread the word.
Message me for more info.
Check out these articles on getting ready to plant:
- I think I want to Plant a Church, What Now?
- 5 Things You Must Do Before You Plant a Church
- 10 Biblical and Practical Ways to Get Involved in Church Planting
- Every Church Can Encourage Church Planting & Multiplication
- Every Church Can Be A Church Planting Partner
- Your Church Can Be A Parent to A New Church or Campus
Lane Corley 