I’m Part of a Church Plant – Where are we now?

Since last fall, our family has been a part of a core group/launch team for a new church in St. Tammany Parish. The question of viability is always on the mind of an entrepreneur. How do you think this is going? How’s it going so far? What are we supposed to be doing right now? [...]

Out Being the Church

Launching a new church in North America is not easy, success rates are low, momentum can be elusive, and detractors can be found everywhere. The first church plant I was a part of, we focused on “having church,” which was in a borrowed building, without Air Conditioning, and with as many inconveniences as you could [...]

North Shore Church Planting update

Sometimes I can’t believe they pay me to do what I do. Spent this weekend hanging out and worshipping with church planters from various demographic contexts.
Friday and Saturday I was privileged to conference with our Filippino-American Church Planter Network. Lito Magbanua leads our network and his passion for people to know Christ has ignited a [...]

Church Planting Networks

Planting a new church is one of the loneliest and most vulnerable tasks one can undertake. Momentum can be allusive. Area churches can be at worst territorial, at best uncaring. The needs in the community greatly outweigh the capacity of the team. The loneliness can be stifling.
One solution: The Church Planter Peer Network. Getting together [...]

Friendly Reminders

I thank God for friendly reminders. When it seems the mission I’m on as a church planter in North America is too difficult, too elusive, too costly, too lonely, etc., etc., God reminds me that the opposite is true. 
Last night I met with a church planter who is starting churches in a country of 72 [...]

The state of the Church in Louisiana

I recently came across some insightful statistics from the American Church Research Project, compiled by David T. Olson of the Lausanne Movement (see www.theamericanchurch.org). They seek to answer the question “How many people really attend church in Louisiana every week?” Here’s what they found:

27% of Louisiana residents attend a Christian church on any given Sunday [...]

Kingdom Partnerships: Zimbabwe

In 2005, I had the incredible opportunity to travel to Zimbabwe, Africa to initiate a partnership with Mbare Christian Fellowship in the capital city of Harrare. MCF is led by the visionary leadership of Peter Mabasa and a team of elders that just might fulfill the Great Commission even with inflationary rates in the millions [...]

Six Years of Hope – Greatest Challenge, Greatest Joy

Yesterday I was asked a familiar question, “why new churches?” This is typical from two groups: 1) The church member that seldom imagines life outside the walls of their church, unless they are bribed or begged to try to think of an unchurched friend that they can invite to a special event or Easter service. [...]

Six Years of Hope – History

In 2001, God led my wife Heather and I to Southeast Louisiana to start a new church in St. Tammany Parish. This weekend that church – Hope Church of Waldheim – will celebrate its 6th Anniversary. Though words can’t describe the experience it has been for our family, I’ve got to try anyway. And lucky [...]

Church Planting Again

Our family is embarking upon a new journey. This month we began working toward the planting of a church in St. Tammany Parish. After seven years planting Hope Church of Waldheim, I feel no more prepared for this huge task, but I do know a little better what to expect – hard work, reliance upon [...]