Wednesday, April 30, 2008

BAGNO Sets its Sights on 2020 Vision

During our annual spring meeting, the elected representatives of our churches voted to move forward with a very bold new strategy for completely restructuring our association. The strategy, entitled 2020 Vision, is designed to give BAGNO greater relevance within the metro area while bringing it to the forefront of the recovery effort. 202o Vision has five specific goals for attaining its purpose; visionary leadership, maintaining community relevance, church planting, associational restructure/reorganization, and strengthen existing churches as mission centers. As the vision statement states, "By the year 2020, we envision BAGNO as a dynamic beacon of hope for the community as we focus the love of Christ to the hearts of area residents and people groups on a daily basis." This is an exciting opportunity to lay the groundwork for what can become a model for local church/association ministry and cooperation. I've said all along that God is doing amazing things in the New Orleans area and this is just one very important piece of the puzzle. Commit to praying for this effort as we take a bold step towards seeing the Greater New Orleans area reconciled to God through Christ.

Monday, April 21, 2008

Missions Starts at Home

This past Sunday, I participated in an On Mission Celebration on the Northshore of Lake Pontchartrain. I had the opportunity to speak in four churches in and around Kentwood, LA. I do these things in order to keep people aware of the needs in the New Orleans area. Most importantly, I try to replace news of government failure, corruption, crime, murders, and drugs with news about the amazing things God is doing in the hearts and lives of the Crescent City. I end every presentation with a plea to come and serve Christ on mission in New Orleans. However, this time, I did things a little different. I've had something on my mind for quite some time now and I thought I would go ahead and include it in my presentation. After I made my plea to come and serve in New Orleans, I said something along these lines, "As much as I would like to see you serving with us in New Orleans, I pray that you will not neglect the rest of the Great Commission. Please don't turn missions into an endeavor where you repeatedly drive past your lost neighbors en route to an exciting mission destination." I believe this is part of the reason why I've seen a decline in the quality of volunteers over the years. Missions has become a place we go instead of something we do. Churches decide to get their feet wet in missions by going somewhere interesting. Entire groups go completely unfamiliar with what it means to be on mission and when they're asked to do the work of a missionary they become uncomfortable and sometimes uncooperative. We do this on a local level as well. We drive across town to serve in a ministry center but we won't take the time to walk across the street or engage the community sitting in the shadow of our church. Our first responsibility in missions is our Jerusalem. If we would take the time to reach out to our communities with the love of Christ first, then, I believe, we would see and increase in interest in going to places of interest and ministry centers and we would go better equipped to reach the lost. The army doesn't train its troops on the front lines; they send them first to boot camp. Why should the Army of God be any different? Let missions start at home and then branch out into the utter most parts. We will be better prepared, in greater numbers, and will have a more significant impact on the world for Christ. Missions starts at home.

Wednesday, April 16, 2008

What's a Guy To Do?

Have you ever had one of those weeks when things look optimistic on Monday morning and it seems you've adequate time to accomplish everything on your list only to find yourself screaming "slow down I'm not going to make it!" come Wednesday? I'm in one of those weeks, again. I just don't understand where the time goes and why it has to take so much longer to do what, at the time, seemed so simple. There's always these interruptions, or what my friend Kathy Frady would probably call Delay Delights, that keep popping up throughout the day. A last minute meeting here, an impromptu meeting there, lanes closed on the interstate, a flood of phone calls, emails piling up, high priority requests from state or national leaders, and volunteers, volunteers, volunteers flow over me like tidal surge rushing into a low lying area turning my blue Monday sky into a watery dome from which I must emerge to get air. You see, I like to get things done and I like to have them done well and on time. However, real life doesn't operate on my schedule. I imagine that it doesn't operate on yours either. It's times like these that I've learned that, in a little while, the curtain is going to draw back and all the work God has been doing behind the scenes is going to come into the light. My struggle, including my lament, has just been an aside a few lines before God takes center stage and brings the act to a close in dramatic fashion. It's the moment I've been waiting for. The moment when you lean over to your friend and whisper, "this is my favorite part." With the least effort, God preforms His part and then the curtain closes to my thunderous applause.

Monday, April 07, 2008

A Weekend With the WMU: or how Joe McKeever finally caught up with me.

I've spoken to WMU groups in various places and at various times and my favorite by far is when I'm given the opportunity to speak with WMU in my home state. I've matured far past my disdain for Louisiana as an adolescent. I think we all go through that stage in our lives when we think where we live is the pits and anywhere else is better that where we are. Today, I wear Louisiana with pride and love the land, the people, the food, and the culture. So, I had a great time this past weekend meeting with and speaking to the annual gathering of WMU at their state meeting in Baton Rouge. This group is like family. I grew up in front of some of these ladies, which they were quick to point out. I've lived in their towns. Jaime and I have attended churches with some. I've even had the privilege of serving in ministry with a few of them. Honestly, this was probably the most relaxed I've been while speaking to a group, unlike my friend Lonnie Wascom, Director of Missions for the Northshore, who said he was the most nervous he'd ever been (he said it from the pulpit, I'm not ratting him out.) All in all, Jaime and I enjoyed our time at the meeting and felt the love and prayers of the WMU ladies who were in attendance. Where would we be without the WMU? As for the Joe McKeever bit in the title of this entry, I've never made it known where and when I'm speaking for fear he might show up. Yes,yes, I confess. It's true. I think a lot of him and his opinion. However, this time I couldn't avoid it. Oh well.

Friday, April 04, 2008

You Want To Do What Today?

There I was, busy in front of the computer, working out the details for this weekend's speaking engagement, tonight's conference call, and July's summer camp for our Baptist Centers when my cell phone rang. It was my good friend Don Snipes, a construction coordinator for Operation NOAH Rebuild. After exchanging pleasantries , Don said, "I've got a team that whats to do a block party and I wanted to know about the block party trailer at BAGNO." "The trailer isn't quite ready yet because it needs some work" I explained. "When are they wanting to do the block party?" (Okay. Here's my thought process at this point. Although the trailer wasn't ready at that moment, we were scheduled to have it in order by the end of next week. Therefore, I figured the trailer would be available for them to use when they arrived on the field. Now back to reality.) "Uhhhh, today" Don said into the phone almost as if it were a question. I let out a chuckle of nervous laughter. Volunteers, God love them! Skipping some details, I learned from the team leader that what they really wanted to do was grill some burgers, play some music and hang out with folks in the neighborhood. I was relieved by this clarification since this type of event is much easier to put together last minute. So what did our intrepid team have to pull this off. Next to nothing. To their credit, they had the setup for their praise band which was some good lagniappe. We love live music. It took the better part of the day, but in the end the team had pieced together an impressive event. I had to leave before things got kicked off. I still had that conference call to make. I'm all the time telling teams about the need to be flexible when coming to the New Orleans area. Sometimes I have to practice what I preach.