Mission Partnerships

In 1925, Southern Baptists began the Cooperative Program to unite our resources for the furthering of the gospel.  Southern Baptist churches give a portion of their offerings to the Cooperative Program to fund both state and national convention work.  Over the years, thousands of missionaries have been deployed all around the world for gospel advancement;... Continue Reading →

Enlisting a Short-term Mission Team

Your church wants to partner well with missionaries and perhaps even knows with whom and where you will partner.  But how does a church go about enlisting people to go on short-term mission efforts?  Is it best to just open up the mission effort to any and all who want to go?  Are there some... Continue Reading →

Healthy Church Formation

Do we need to plant more churches or strengthen existing churches today? In other words, what should be the focus of our churches: plant new churches or revitalize/strengthen current churches? Healthy church formation is not about choosing between these two as if they are opposing options. (A church meets in a small building in South... Continue Reading →

The Work: Every Church on Mission

“They had turned inward,” the pastor said with regret.  As I gathered with a group of pastors, AMSs, and church leaders from around Kentucky in Cincinnati recently to hear about ways their churches and associations can partner in the Queen City, one pastor in Cincinnati shared an all-too common story about his church.  When he... Continue Reading →

More Than Optimism

The time has finally arrived. The long drought is almost over.  Fall is just around the corner.  In fact, you can almost feel it in the air as the temperature and humidity have dropped in recent days.  No, I am not referring to the arrival of pumpkin spice latte or even pumpkin bread or pumpkin... Continue Reading →

The Work

The day of Stephen’s death was the day that a “great persecution began against the church in Jerusalem” (Acts 8:1).  As the first known martyr of the Christian church, God used the “blood of martyrs as the seed for the church” (Tertullian).  As persecution spread, so too, did the early church and the gospel with... Continue Reading →

Establish Healthy Churches

From time to time as I help churches develop their missions strategy that inevitably should involve church planting, the question is asked: "Do we need more new churches or for our existing churches to become healthier? The answer is simple. Yes! We need both. While I have written about the need for church planting, I... Continue Reading →

Information or Transformation?

When Jesus offers those famous final words to his disciples on that mountaintop in Galilee, he has the end goal in mind—transformation, that is, mature disciples.  Jesus’s command in the Great Commission is to “make disciples of all nations” (Matt 28:19).  The goal of the Great Commission is faithful Jesus followers.  Where the gospels end... Continue Reading →

The Mission Continues

As Jesus gathers with his disciples on that Galilean Mountain for a final time, what would he say to them?  Would he say, “It’s been fun. Thanks for the memories.”?  Or maybe, “I will miss you. Hang in there.”  Of course not.  As the disciples see Jesus, they are mixed with worship and worry (Matt... Continue Reading →

Throw a Lifeline

Years ago, while speaking at a youth camp in Daytona Beach, FL, myself and several others were caught in a dangerous undertow while attempting to give assistance to a teenager struggling in the choppy Atlantic waters.  Thinking that I was swimming over to help a teenage boy in need, I found myself needing help.  Before... Continue Reading →

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