Blog Archives
Reaching Rural Louisiana
This week we hosted Kyle Bueermann from NAMB’s Rural Replanting Team. Some great resources are available through this team. Check out: https://replanthub.com/ (register for free and gain access to an incredible library of resources). Also: https://www.namb.net/church-replanting.
The Rural Pastor Podcast with Andy Addis is really good –https://theruralpastor.com/. (Look it up wherever you get podcasts).
Rural Louisiana:
- 40 of Louisiana’s 64 Parishes are considered Rural by the Dept. of Health.
- 29% of Louisiana’s Population live in these 40 Parishes.
- 52% of our Louisiana Baptist Churches are in these 40 Parishes.
- We have 12 towns in these parishes with no SBC church.
- New churches are definitely needed in at least 3 of these parishes.
- Replanting is needed in most of them.
There are significant transitions and struggles happening for many of these churches.
- Declining Populations (45 of 64 parishes lost population over the last 10 years).
- The need for Bivocational Pastors with fewer jobs available in these areas.
- AND some are growing and stand to grow through Urban and Suburban spread, changing the culture in the area, which churches have to transition to as well.
Lots of great opportunities for meaningful ministry in Rural Louisiana. Partners, Planters, Replanters, Pastors needed.
Pastoral Prayer for Humility #Tozer
Now, 0 Lord of heaven and earth, I consecrate my remaining days to Thee; let them be many or few, as Thou wilt. I accept hard work and small rewards in this life. I ask for no easy place. I shall try to be blind to the little ways that could make life easier. If others seek the smoother path I will try to take the hard way without judging them too harshly. I shall expect opposition and try to take it quietly when it comes. Or if, as sometimes it falleth out to Thy servants, I should have grateful gifts pressed upon me by Thy kindly people, stand by me then and save me from the blight that often follows. Teach me to use whatever l receive in such manner that will not injure my soul nor diminish my spiritual power. Let me never forget that I am a man with all the natural faults and passions that plague the race of men. And if in Thy permissive providence honor should come to me from Thy Church, let me not forget that I am unworthy of the least of Thy mercies.
“7 Things to Pray for Your Children” and other links I liked and learned from this week:
From my delicious.com account:
- Seven Things to Pray for Your Children // desiringgod.org parenting, prayer
- 10 Time Management Rules That You Are Breaking // timemanagementninja.com TimeManagement
- 10 Things Your Son Needs From You // allprodad.com Fatherhood, Sons, Dads
- Starting Spiritual Conversations // loganleadership.com evangelism, conversations // “Sometimes people honestly have no idea how to answer a spiritual question. Modeling your own response first makes it easier for them by giving them a category for how to respond.”
- 12 Essentials of Powerful Church Communications // churchplants.com ChurchCommunication
- How to Keep Your Insecurity From Hurting Your Church // pastors.com leadership, insecurity // “Competitiveness, combativeness, and complaining do not have a place in the church of Jesus Christ, especially in the life of a minister of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.”
- Disciple Being or Disciple Making? // loganleadership.com Discipleship // “Disciple-making requires making new disciples. Disciple-being involves only existing disciples.”
- 9 Leadership Acceleration Skills // visionroom.com leadership, personaldevelopment // “bad leaders, average leaders, and even good leaders can change their spots.”
What if… ~ Mentoring Teen Moms
61 out of every 1,000 births in Louisiana are to a mom age 15-19. Here’s a cool story about a group of Christian mother’s mentoring teen mom’s at one Texas high school. Consider the possibilities…
Lane Corley 