What Downtown N.O. Needs: A Church Plant

An article in the paper today predicts 4000 new apartment and condo units in downtown New Orleans within five years. That's in addition to the 2000 already in existence. That means that in five years, the population of downtown could triple from it's current level to as many as 18,000 people - and no church. This makes downtown one of the most strategic church planting needs in the city. So start praying now for God to send a church planter to take the Gospel to downtown New Orleans.

Best Kept Secret in New Orleans

Last night I stopped by a Bible study in a Metairie neighborhood that meets in a garage. I became aware of it after meeting with a young man who is planning on planting a church in the metro area early in 2010. He has some connections with several of the students from he and his wife's ministry in New Orleans prior to Hurricane Katrina.

The Bible study had been meeting faithfully since the storm and was comprised of students and young adults. There's nothing unusual about this except for the fact that this group has carried on their activities without specific leadership or the involvement of an existing church. They've met, studied The Word, led others to Christ, discipled new believers and even sent some of their own on mission trips. The cool thing about it is that no one told these students to do these things. They simply poured themselves into God's Word and obeyed it.

I was encouraged by this group of students and their faithfulness. They had great community and did life together at every turn. It is one of the most authentic body of believers I've run across in the metro area. They truly are the church, the body of Christ.

Hot Enough For Ya?

I've got to give a hand to my volunteer teams for the past three weeks. The temperature in New Orleans has been brutal with the heat index over 100 degrees nearly every day and still they have served and are serving strong. The heat has caused us to cut short some of our afternoon outreach in an effort to keep these kids hydrated and healthy. However, they are making the most of the time they spend in the field. Our near drought conditions have made some things difficult but we work on in spite of the sweltering heat and humidity.

These kids are learning that serving Christ is not always comfortable or easy. Not only have they endured the heat but they have also come face to face with crack addicts, abused children, con artists, thugs, atheists, health & wealth junkies, non-religious, angry-religious and more. They've seen difficult situations and been asked tough questions, all because they chose to invest themselves in people's lives instead of serving from arm's length and hoping morality will rub off in Jesus name. These kids will go home changed for the better because they are learning what it means to be a missionary in New Orleans as well as understanding how God works in our culture. I'm proud to serve along side them.

God On The Move In Central City

If you really want to be part of something God is doing, I have a word of advice; try to keep up.  That's how it feels with the church plant in Central City.  We're having to stay on our toes as God moves in ways that are amazing.  His actions demand our response and we often find ourselves picking up the pace in certain places and settling into a smooth rhythm in others with a sprinkle of mad-dash thrown in.  

The property Ed Scott, the pastor, is interested in may soon be available to work from in order to hold community events, Bible studies and worship services.  There's also a signs that an agreement on ownership could come in the near future.  

A good relationship is forming between Pastor Scott and the community and doors are open to use volunteers to host Backyard Bible Clubs at a nearby park during the summer.  In fact, we hope to make the most of the next few months so we can go into the fall with a full head of steam.  Join us in prayer for this church plant and for Ed Scott.  Also pray for favor with the current owner of the property, the city and the community so that the next phase of outreach can begin in June as we have planned.   

New Executive Director of Missions

Change comes slowly to New Orleans if it ever comes at all.  Over a year ago, our association, the Baptist Association of Greater New Orleans, voted to adopt a new strategy for reaching the area with the gospel.  Known as 2020 Vision, this strategy was a dramatic shift in traditional associational form and function.  Part of the 2020 Vision included redefining the position of Director of Missions, something I think was way overdue.  The new position, called Executive Director of Missions, is more closely akin to an urban strategist and has the responsibility of being a visionary leader who understands the city and works to move churches towards engaging the city on multiple levels in culturally relevant ways.  So who's the lucky guy? 

Duane McDaniel, currently pastor of Hawaii Kai Baptist Church in Honolulu, has accepted the call as our new Executive DOM and I am very excited about serving along side him.  This is a positive move for our association and we welcome Duane, his wife Kathleen and their four children to our great city.  Personally, I can't wait till he gets here.  We've been in a holding pattern for months now with the our only two associational staff members retiring and the new Executive DOM always seeming to be over the next horizon.  Now I'm breathing sighs of relief and songs of thankfulness for what God is doing, and more importantly, what God wants to do in the Greater New Orleans area.  

God Works Big Through Small Things

Dr. Ken Taylor just poked his head into my office to share with me the following story. Gentilly Baptist Church, where Dr. Taylor is pastor, spent some time this past Thursday praying for the community across from New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary and distributing door hangers. Friday night, Blake, one of the members of Gentilly Baptist was "dialed-in" to the Evangelism Response Center of the North American Mission Board to serve as a phone encourager to people who call a toll free number seeking spiritual information or prayer. When dialed-in, you can receive phone calls from anywhere in the nation. When Blake's phone rang, it was a women from the community who had received one of the door hangers the day before. She stated she needed spiritual guidance and Blake was able to share with her the gospel which led to her conversion. This is already a great story isn't it? On Sunday, Blake shared this encounter with Dr. Taylor and no sooner had he finished and stepped away from the conversation when the lady he had led to Christ walked in the door of the church. Dr. Taylor greeted her and she introduced herself. Upon hearing her name, Dr. Taylor turned to Blake and brought face to face the lady searching for hope and the young man who brought her to the cross. There is no coincidence here, just our great God working through the efforts of the faithful.

My Story

From the time I was a boy I’ve loved comic books.  The characters, the stories and the artwork all fed my vivid imagination.  I had a list of heroes that I wanted to be like.  Add to this the fact that I was raised in a very religious family.   This introduced me to a whole new set of characters and stories of which Jesus was often playing the title role.  To me, he was a lot like the comic book heroes I loved so much.    Sometimes my imagination had Jesus and Spiderman rushing into a burning building together to save Aunt May.  He was an ordinary guy that did cool stuff, and that’s where I left it.

As I got a little older, I discovered an unsettling truth: something wasn’t right with the world.  I saw people doing a lot of bad things on the news and heard my parents talk about this problem and that problem.  What was worse was the fact that I realized that something wasn’t right with me.  I wasn’t doing any of the bad things I saw on the news but I did plenty of stuff that made my parents, who loved me very much, sad.  I tried to stop doing those things but couldn’t no matter how hard I tried.  Not only were these things hurting the people I loved, I was told they were hurting God, the last person I wanted to offend.  Something about me was broken and beyond my ability to fix and that bothered me.  I had offended a God who loved me, and I knew I was doomed. 

Fortunately for me, this unpleasant discovery led me back to Jesus.  I was older now and had moved beyond Jesus-as-comic-book-hero to actually considering the things he said and did.  As I read the gospels and heard more stories about Jesus from my parents, I found that he specifically address this issue of being broken.  As I read and listened, I felt that somehow Jesus was speaking directly to me.  He claimed that he was God’s Son and that he had come to fix the brokenness and make things right.  He claimed that he was the only one that could fix it and his plan for doing so shocked me.  Jesus willing traded places with me so that He could accept the rightful penalty that had to be dished out for my offence toward God.  My offence, sin as the Bible calls it, earned me God’s wrath and I knew I deserved it.  However, when Jesus was crucified, he took the full force of God’s wrath for me.  His followers buried him but the Bible says Jesus rose from the dead three days later.  Over 500 people saw Jesus alive after his resurrection.  But it was his last claim that tied everything together. 

Because of who he is and what he did, Jesus could substitute his right standing before God for all the garbage in my life and offer me absolute forgiveness for my sins and remove from me the curse of God’s wrath, but only if I wanted it.  I did want it.  I wanted it more than anything – I needed it.  The Bible said it was mine for the taking but I had to put my trust in Jesus, who provided it for me, and follow him, really follow him and him alone.  I thought about it and decided this gift was too precious to leave on the table.  I believed Jesus was who he said he was and did what he said he did.  I decided to trust him with my life, accept his forgiveness and offer of a new life.  I decided I wanted to follow him no matter what.  I stopped living the way I wanted to live and started down a new path.  That was the best decision I’ve ever made and I have no regrets.  I’m not perfect but I couldn’t do life without Jesus.  My job, marriage, surviving Katrina, would not be the same where it not for Jesus.

People Are Fascinating, Talk to Them

For the past several days I’ve been inundated with suggestions that I need to go to You Tube and watch the video of Susan Boyle singing on Britain’s Got Talent reality show.  “It’s so amazing!”  “It will blow you away!”  “It will change your life!”  “You’ll be able to see into the future!”  Okay, maybe I exaggerated a bit there at the end, but nonetheless, friends, talk show host, news personalities and all in between urged me to watch this video.  Why, because we love fascinating people.  There’s a reason we, at least many of us, have become enamored with reality shows.  American Idol, Biggest Looser, Survivor, Dancing with the Stars, The Real World, The Real Housewives and the list goes on and on and on and on for crying out loud.  We love to watch people because people are fascinating.  Their personalities, backgrounds, hopes, dreams, setbacks, and stories keep millions of Americans riveted to their televisions each week.  We talk about them at work.  We comment about them on Facebook.  Some actually spend time and money to vote for their favorite reality star.  People are fascinating. 

I want to submit that you don’t have to look to reality T.V. to find fascinating people.  God has put 6.7 billion people on this world and each and every one of them is fascinating.  Each and every one of them was created by God and is their own reality star.    Too often we miss out on getting to know these fascinating people because we’ve crammed our calendars full.  The gospel is for people and is to be shared by people, fascinating people.  Get to know someone this week.  Listen to their stories.  Find points of commonality.  You might just make a friend.  If we will take the time to know and love God’s fascinating people, the opportunities to share with them the good news of Jesus Christ will abound.  

Beautiful

Wow!  That's the first thing that comes to mind when I think about this past Saturday's prayer walk at First Baptist Kenner.  More than 100 members took time out of their weekend to assemble at the church before spreading out into south Kenner and some of Metairie.  An estimated 5,000 homes were prayed for, representing around 13,500 people.  Wow!  The sight of that many people gathered together to engage their community for Christ was more beautiful than the crisp, sunny day we enjoyed.  I'm still blown away by the response from First Kenner.  I've said it before; Availability + Opportunity = Awesome.  God is ready to do amazing things through our churches if we will be obedient to His Great Commission.  

"I Am So Happy With My Decision"

That was one of the comments from an individual that made a decision to follow Christ after seeing a commercial from Southern Baptist about having a personal relationship with Jesus and then visiting a website where they were taken step by step through what it means to be a Christian.  These commercials are running about 100 times a day as part of our efforts to share the gospel with the Greater New Orleans area through the Sharing the Peace of Jesus emphasis.  Those churches that participated are seeing numerous responses from the door hangers they are leaving at homes while prayer walking their neighborhoods.  More responses are coming in through NAMB's Evangelism Response Center as people call the Jesus2009 number seeking more information on spiritual issues.  

What an exciting time for our churches as they engage their communities and see God at work.  How even more exciting to think that this is only the first phase in the Sharing the Peace of Jesus emphasis.  Continue to lift up our New Orleans area churches as we continue with this process.  Many are using Easter as their main evangelistic event so pray for open hearts during these special worship services this Sunday.  

Exclusive and Unique Cannot Be the Same As…

John Lennon bemoaned the fact that everybody’s talking about ism, ism, ism in his song “Give Peace a Chance.”  Not much has changed regarding that sentiment since Lennon recorded his song during him and Yoko’s infamous Bed-in in 1969.  Ironically, this idea that everyone should just abandon truth and embrace each other for the sake of peace has developed into a new ‘ism’- pluralism.  Therefore, for the next two days, the topic of pluralism will be discussed and debated at New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary as part of the Greer-Heard Dialogue. 

Is Jesus’ claim that “no one comes to the Father except by me” valid?  Can’t a good, moral Buddhist get to heaven?  Don’t all religious roads lead to God?  These are the questions that pluralism raises as it grows in popularity in the United States and the rest of the world.  This isn’t just a big city issue.  It permeates our entire society.  In fact, it’s so in vogue they should probably change the name to ipluralism to better match its popularity.  Think I’m overstating things; let me put it to you like this.  Statistics tell us that 52% of all Christians in America believe other religions, other can Christianity, can be true.  In fact, more than 1/3 of Evangelicals hold this position.  This means that at lease 30% of the attendees of biblical conservative churches disagree with the notion that Jesus Christ alone provides the only means for salvation.   

Harvard University has launched what is called the Pluralism Project, an effort that on the surface seems very academic.  However, if you read carefully, you find that their aim is not merely to educate people about different religions, but to bring them to a point of acceptance of other religious views as equally valid.  Turn on the TV and you see how reality shows intentionally put people of different faiths and lifestyles together to promote tolerance and demonize exclusivity, thus further ingraining pluralism into the minds of Americans, including Christians. 

The fact is that the Bible and Christ are unique and make exclusive claims, claims that were not meant to be absorbed into to larger religious landscape but stand out and above everything as the only beacon of truth regarding God, sin and salvation. 

Check out www.4truth.net for learn the facts regarding Christianity and other world religions.  

New Church Plant in Metairie

Church planting is one of our biggest needs in the Greater New Orleans area post Katrina.  The newest effort is being led by Jim Louviere, a church planting veteran.  He is focusing on people in transition in the Metairie area north of I-10.  This means that a lot of his work will be in apartment complexes, a notoriously unchurched part of any city.  They are in the process now of conducting, what Jim calls, "pizza focus groups" which are designed to learn about people's lives and their attitudes towards church.  This helps Jim and his core team share the gospel in ways that connect with their target group.  Keep Jim and his team in your prayers as they seek the Holy Spirit's direction for planting this church.

A Sad Note

I was informed a short while ago that Greg Pembo, pastor of Vieux Carre Assembly of God, passed away following a stroke earlier in the week. I met pastor Pembo only once but his reputation of being an authentic witness and a man of integrity was well known among those that spent any time serving in the French Quarter. Greg went from bar owner to preacher through the grace of Jesus Christ and served at Vieux Carre Assembly of God for, I believe, fifteen years. His unexpected death is a shock that leaves a void not only with his family but in gospel ministry to the French Quarter. Please join me in prayer for the Pembo family in this time of loss.

A Great Time in East-Central Louisiana

I just returned from an On Mission Celebration for the OuachitaBaptist Association and it was a blessing.  I enjoy spending time with fellow believers and sharing with them what God is doing in the New Orleans area.  I also enjoy the ridiculous amount of delicious food that's placed before me.  That reminds me, time to hit the gym.  One of my favorite things about OMCs is spending time with the other missionaries and talking shop.  We have the best strategy sessions at these things and I think we all go back to our places of ministry with a fresh perspective on certain things.  

More respite than time off, OMCs offer a welcome break from our daily routine.  We get to step back and share the big picture of God's work in our area, something that can get overshadowed when on the field.  It lifts us up just to remember and tell all He has done.  We are also served and cared for by the most precious saints around.  The churches that host these events don't know how much we take away from these OMCs ourselves.  The benefit is defiantly mutual.  

Mardi Gras '09

Goodness gracious me.  Where do I start?  Perhaps the best place to start is to say, "Thank You Lord for your strength, mercy, protection, grace, discernment, love, peace, presence, and so much more over the past five days.  Thank You for the countless opportunities to engage people, pray with them, tell them of Your love and, yes, care for their physical needs when the revelry left them abandoned and abused on the streets.  Thank You for sending godly men and women to go out into the darkness to quietly love and even compel people to trust You.  Thank You for those places of refuge where Your Word and our worship brought emotional, spiritual and physical rest and healing.  Thank You for always winning even when certain brothers and sisters make a horse's rear end of themselves and the rest of us because they fail to love.  Thank You for sending believers to places we've not been and in numbers we've not had before to touch people we've too long ignored.  Thank You for working in the hearts of men and women who came to this city to lose themselves but instead found You.  Thank you for putting us before drunks, punks and movie stars to share your love.  Thank You for loving every vulgar, intoxicated, puke-soaked reveler enough to die for their sins.  Thank You for loving us just as much."  When it all begins and ends with Jesus Christ, what else is there to say?  

Here are some pics from the Quarter.  

BCM students sharing trough song and testimony 

The Cross 

Breakfast at Viuex Carre Baptist

Off To a Great Start

Churches across BAGNO have been turning in their commitments this week for Sharing the Peace of Jesus and more are expected to submit theirs over the next few days. So far 18 churches and two new church plants have joined together to lift up their communities in prayer and share with them the good news of Jesus Christ. At this point, over 50,000 households representing at least 125,000 people will be prayed for individually by members of BAGNO churches who will take to the streets in a few weeks.

Here's a look at the Mardi Gras outreach event that took place on Sunday, Feb. 15 at Lakeside Baptist Church in Metairie.

This was the first time ever something like this has been done at a Jefferson Parish parade by one of our Southern Baptist Churches and it was awesome. I love the fact that God raised up one of our smallest churches, with and average Sunday morning attendance between 25-30, to start something BIG for Him during Mardi Gras. They did a lot of hard work to make this happen and with the help of her sister churches, First Baptist Belle Chasse and Celebration, this event brought the love of Christ out onto the streets and to the people of Jefferson Parish. In the end, three people made decisions for Christ!

Praying For The Lost

The first phase of Sharing the Peace of Jesus is getting underway. Churches throughout the Greater New Orleans area are considering where God is leading them to conduct their prayer walks. Maps are being poured over by pastors like generals before a strike. On our the master map in my office, significant portions of the city are being filled in as commitments are made. Some churches have stepped up in big ways, one committing to pray for 7,000 households, another for 8,000 and yet another for nearly 10,000. More churches send in their commitments each day and my excitement builds as I consider the tens of thousands for red door hangers dotting our neighborhoods representing tens of thousands of households lifted up in prayer.

It's Just What We Do

The sun is setting and the temperature is dropping into the 50s with the wind blowing in from the north. Perfect time for a snowball. As I sat and savored every bite of my stuffed praline snowball, I wondered out loud, "Where else would this be normal?" There are a lot of things about living in the New Orleans area that produce that reaction. Most of them bring a smile to my face. The way we find a reason to celebrate anything, even if it doesn't make sense. The way we turn our noses up to Starbucks because we already know what good coffee is all about. The fact that we're geographically in the South but don't drink sweet tea. The fact that we actually believe King Cake is some sort of confectionery masterpiece.

I could spend all day listing things that make life what it is in New Orleans but don't make sense anywhere else. I could spend double that trying in vain to explain why we do these things. Honestly, we don't know ourselves. It's just what we do. The best thing in all of this is that with all our cultural triumphs, oddities and downfalls, Christ loves New Orleans. This is the driving theme in our outreach as we rapidly approach Mardi Gras. There will be many who come to our city during this time, claiming to represent Christ, with the message "God hates you." They'll be in our people's faces with bullhorns and signs driving them further and further away from the truth because they fail to understand the heart of the Gospel.

Do people sin during Mardi Gras? You better believe it and so do I. Does sin offend a holy God? More than we can possibly understand. Is God's wrath for their sin justified? Without a doubt. Is there a way to avoid God's wrath? PRAISE GOD YES! A way was provided out of love and it is out of love that we must reach out to New Orleans during Mardi Gras (and any time for that matter). Believe it of not, we actually show up at parades and help people have a good time. We give them food and water, clean places to use the restroom and chairs to rest their feet. We play with their children and serve hot chocolate when it gets cold. Do we confront sin? Yes we do, but it's done from a place of love, the same way Christ provided our salvation. We love New Orleans because Christ loves New Orleans and died for her. Our intent is to make that love known because it's just what we do. It's what we must do.

Sharing the Peace of Jesus

If there's a city in the United States that needs to experience true peace, it's New Orleans. Actually, they all do, but I live here and am therefore daily confronted with this need. From neighbors that live in anxiety due to illness to those that live in fear because of their street-thug lifestyle. From the angry driver on the interstate to the angry resident protesting on the steps of City Hall. From the elderly women too afraid to go outside her house to the mother still grieving the loss of her two year old son who was murdered by a father no longer wanting to pay child support. The New Orleans area is messed up because of one thing and one thing only – sin. The drugs, the violence, the poverty, the poor education, and so on have their root in the fact that people sin and that sin ruins everything. In other words, the problems in New Orleans are, to quote Blind Willie Johnson, “nobody’s fault but mine.”

With an equal share of the blame and monopoly on the truth, The Church is the only group in position to reach beyond itself and offer a viable solution that strikes at the heart of the problem. This is what Sharing the Peace of Jesus is all about. Its aim is to turn The Church loose on the New Orleans area to pray for each household in the city, share the Gospel with each person in the city and then gather in the harvest from what the Holy Spirit has done through these efforts.

Over the next few weeks, I’ll be going through the four milestones of Sharing the Peace of Jesus: praying, engaging, sowing, harvesting, and explaining how our churches intend to fulfill each aspect of this strategy.

Check out this video to learn more about our strategy.

2009 - A Year of New Beginnings

While the rest of the world records the passing of years in B.C. and A.D., we in the New Orleans area have adopted our own designation for the advancement of time. Because August 29, 2005 marked such a dramatic turn in our history, all historical items area referred to in reference to this date. For example, we’re entering into the fourth Mardi Gras season after Katrina and we just had our second snow since the December before Katrina. It’s basically a B.K. and A.K (Before Katrina & After Katrina) timeline and for many of us, it will be the dominate timeline for the rest of our lives.

This is important to remember as we enter into 2009, or the fifth month of A.K. 4, because each new year brings us further into our recovery and as we make this journey we have questions to answer and obstacles to overcome. As we’ve pushed forward, I’ve given my own description of each year. It helps me see where God is taking us and how that differs, the majority of the time, from were we think we are supposed to be. This is how I’ve labeled the past several years:

2005 – The year of Katrina
2006 – The year of preparation
2007 – The year of prayer
2008 – The year of turning the corner

So what do I think 2009 will be? I believe this year will be the year of new beginnings. For all the work we’ve done since Katrina, I really believe we are just getting started. Some believe we should already be done and have this Katrina business behind us but they don’t live here and are only thinking about the bottom line. However, where the rubber meets the road, things are about to get very interesting. Yes, even more interesting than they already are. 2009 will bring a completely new BAGNO, new Director of Missions, new staff, new vision and direction. It will also see new ministry opportunities that did not exist before Katrina. The Sharing the Peace of Jesus evangelistic emphasis will give our churches the opportunity to reach more people in 2009 than in any year before. Church planting efforts in places like Central City are now underway, an answer to at least three years of fervent prayer. These are just the things I know are taking place in 2009. No doubt there are numerous surprises the Lord has for us and I am excited about being a part of His great plan.