Author: Russell Lightner

Fort Worth church sees sports as key to reaching community

Damon Halliday, pastor of The Key Church in Fort Worth, knows one key to reaching a community for Christ is with a court or a ball field. The pastor and his church are ministering to local high school football teams, bringing a Florida sports ministry model to Texas.

Halliday, a lifelong athlete, knew sports ministry makes effective outreach even before planting The Key nine years ago.

Among the first things he did at his former church in the Stop Six neighborhood of southeast Fort Worth was to erect basketball goals on the parking lot.

“I never had to look for kids,” Halliday said. “There would be 40-50 on the parking lot playing ball before you knew it.” The 15-person inner-city congregation grew to over 200.

“Sports is how we did it,” Halliday said, explaining that he coached kids and the church sponsored teams and sports-oriented block parties.

After Halliday discussed sports ministry from the pulpit one Sunday at The Key, member Eric Vance told him about Huddle Touch, a Florida ministry founded by Pastor Jeffrey Singletary that had grown out of Singletary’s three decades of doing chaplain services for high school, college, and professional teams.

Vance, who went to L.D. Bell High School in Hurst, played college football at Vanderbilt and was a player and coach with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, had volunteered with Huddle Touch in the Tampa area. Pre-COVID, Huddle Touch was in about 80 Florida schools, Halliday said.

Halliday accompanied Vance to Florida in 2017 found Huddle Touch to be all he had hoped for and more.

“Our goal is to have a football field here. Sports will draw families in and we will introduce them to Jesus.”

Damon Halliday Tweet

“When I saw it, I was in evangelism heaven,” Halliday said. He became a speaker at HT’s annual summer MOV conference, which besides speakers, features concerts and basketball and football tournaments. The Key Church began sending 15-20 local athletes to the conference.

Halliday also brought the HT ministry to The Key. “We pretty much copied their model,” he said.

Five years ago, like Huddle Touch in Florida, The Key started providing pre-game meals to varsity football teams at area schools, serving players at Byron Nelson High School till COVID hit. They added Chisholm Trail High and, in 2021, picked up L.D. Bell.

Church volunteers prepare and transport the food to the schools. Halliday or another speaker gives a short gospel-centered presentation while players and coaches eat. The church also sponsors a special Sunday for the schools, inviting players, parents, and coaches to attend the service.

While post-COVID attendance at The Key of about 750 in-person and online, Halliday admitted that it would be a stretch for the congregation to take on more teams just now, but said he hopes to see Huddle Touch grow in the DFW Metroplex and beyond. He urges pastors or leaders interested in the program to contact him for more information.

As for his congregation, sports will continue to be key.

Champions Elevation Outreach

In 2022, The Key, through its 501c3 nonprofit Champions Elevation Outreach, will sponsor the inaugural Champions Conference and Tournament on June 10-11, with an award ceremony on June 12. A 7-on-7 flag football tournament involving 12-16 teams will be held at area high schools. Like the HT conferences in Florida, Champions will feature speakers and entertainment.

Halliday welcomes sponsors to help with the tournament.

“We are stepping out in faith to put it on,” he said.

As for the future of sports at The Key, the church built a new facility completed in September 2020 on its 12-acre campus. Plans are to eventually create an athletic complex. The current sanctuary will one day become a gym, its design and 30-foot-high ceilings allowing for the transition.

“Our goal is to have a football field here,” Halliday said. “Sports will draw families in and we will introduce them to Jesus.”

HT has made a difference in the lives of athletes of all races. Halliday described visiting a local car dealership and hearing his name called.

“A young Caucasian kid came running around the building and jumped into my arms,” the pastor said. The player said that the program’s coming to his school had transformed his life. Formerly struggling with drugs, poor grades and a fractured home life, the young man had gotten saved, graduated, and now hoped to move up in the company.

“You have to give people what they want so you can ultimately provide people with what they need: a relationship with God through Jesus,” Halliday said. Sports can provide an opening for gospel goals.

To find out more about Huddle Touch, the Champions Conference and Tournament, or to enquire about sponsorships, contact Halliday at 214-403-4408 or visit championselevationoutreach.org.

Ministry aims to lead people to Jesus by taking them outside

COLLEYVILLE—Pastor Danny Souder recalled sitting in a Hill Country deer blind with his dad when he was eight. The elder Souder, who died in 2017, shot his last deer at age 88 on a hunt guided by his grandson Scott, Souder’s son.

“One thing [besides faith] that bound us all together was our passion for hunting,” the pastor told the Texan of his family’s love of the outdoors.

That generational bond is something Souder has facilitated for hundreds through Christian Outdoor Ministry, which he founded in 2017.

COM’s purpose is to connect parents and kids to hunting, fishing and Jesus.

“Jesus sought leaders who were outdoorsmen,” Souder said. “In Matthew 4:19, he says he will make the disciples ‘fishers of men.’” Fishermen are “patient, persistent, don’t give up, work hard and go where the fish are,” he added. “They trusted the Lord to provide fish.”

Much the same can be said of hunters and game.

Growth during COVID

For Souder, a veteran pastor and missionary, retired Dallas police department chaplain and former trustee and chair of the North American Mission Board, COM is a fulltime occupation that has grown exponentially. Some 50 kids, parents, ranchers, volunteer guides and cooks participated during its inaugural year; through 2021, more than 600 had joined in.

“COVID hit; our fundraising decreased but participation doubled,” Souder said, referring to COM’s annual wild game dinner, raffle, and auction which had provided 98 percent of the group’s operating capital and was scaled back during the pandemic. Scholarships and grants from local hunting clubs and donors have augmented the lost income.

The pandemic also proved a powerful lure for people “tired of being quarantined” and longing to “get out and hunt,” Souder said. “You can social distance in the outdoors.”

How it works

The ministry works like this. COM offers 25-30 weekend hunting or fishing experiences for parents and kids each year. The 2022 schedule features opportunities to hunt ducks, hogs, deer, turkey, exotics, rams or fish for bass or striper on Texas ranches and lakes. Outdoor experiences are generally limited to 4-6 youth hunters, ages 9-17, plus parents, volunteer guides and cooks. All volunteers complete Ministry Safe training and undergo background checks.

Texas ranchers volunteer their property for the hunting and fishing experiences. Currently COM networks with about 35 ranchers, Souder noted, adding that he is hoping to increase that number as the ministry eventually expands from locations 2-3 hours from Dallas down to the Hill Country and South Texas.

If accommodations are not available on a host ranch, the group camps or stays in a nearby hotel, Souder said, stressing that participants take care of the property they visit. “We leave things better than we found it,” he said. They also write thank-you notes to the ranchers. COM is consistently invited back to the ranches where groups have been.

With ranchers providing the locations, costs for each weekend stay low and scholarships are available.

As for participants, Souder said he prays every day and that it’s “definitely a God thing how he sends people our way.”

Word of mouth brings participants. The ministry is often recommended by teachers to students enrolled in outdoor adventure classes at school. Souder sends information to wilderness coaches who help advertise.

During the weekend events, which typically begin on Friday afternoon and last through Sunday, Souder urges cell phones and devices be set aside.

Guides arrive early to become familiar with the location and greet and orient the hunters. Each youth must be accompanied by a mom, dad or, occasionally, another relative, Souder said. Half the participants are girls and mothers. About half of the parents and youth are novice hunters.

Half of all participants in COM hunts are novice hunters and each youth is accompanied by a parent.

The heart of the hunts COM emphasizes:

1. Gun safety

2. Basic hunting and/or fishing skills

3. Parent-child time

4. Support of the second amendment

5. The gospel

“There’s no hard sell, but we present the plan of salvation every weekend,” Souder said, adding that COM provides discipleship materials for participants. More than 30 parents and youth have made professions of faith in Christ and COM connects these new believers with area churches and pastors for follow up.

“Being with other believers … not only let me unlock a passion for hunting but it also let me see another side of God,” said Will Saunders, a high school student who appears on COM’s promotional video.

“I keep coming back for the guides and some of the kids we meet. I like spending time with Danny and my dad, a lot of time with my dad,” added repeat participant Jack Caamano.

The parent-child time is among the program’s unique features, Souder emphasized, calling the memories of shared hunts with his father and son far more significant than any trophy mounted on his wall. He wants others to have that opportunity for togetherness in the outdoors and for eternity.

Besides, “God is a hunter,” Souder offered with a grin. Adam and Eve were naked in the garden and he clothed them with animal skins, didn’t he?”

“We welcome youth and parents, volunteer guides and cooks, ranchers, pastors and sponsors to get involved,” he said.

For more information, visit https://www.christianoutdoorministry.org/ or contact Souder at dsouder3@gmail.com or 214.394.5250. COM’s annual fundraising dinner and auction will be held Sept. 22, 2022, in Richardson, Texas.

Lessons around the fire on a snowy day

I had just graduated from college with a heart on fire for the Lord and decided that I wanted to go and plant a church in a suburb of Nashville. My wife and I packed up everything in a U-Haul and headed to Tennessee. I didn’t realize there was a new church in every school of this growing city. All I knew was I had a heart to see people saved and wanted to see a great church planted.

Fast forward a few months. Things seemed to be going really well. We had a good group of people meeting with us each week and we were moving ahead with enthusiasm and momentum. All that changed in the course of a phone call. I was informed that my wife, who was pregnant with our first child, had been in a car accident. By God’s grace, she and the baby were fine, but the doctor put her on bed rest for the remainder of the pregnancy. She was unable to finish out the school year as a teacher.

I immediately sought out another job in order to get insurance for my family. I was introduced to a country music artist who also owned a construction business. He was kind and offered me a job with minimum pay but one that provided insurance. I will never forget his words to me as he offered me the job: “Nathan, I am happy to give you a job. However, you need to know it is not glamorous and will not be fun. I will hire you to go around the construction sites picking up the trash that contractors leave.” In the moment I was simply grateful that God had provided.

One morning as I arrived at the site, it was cold and snowing. I lit a fire in a 50-gallon trash barrel and began filling it with scraps of wood and paper that were scattered across the site. Standing around the fire I started asking God what he was doing. I didn’t understand how I could be so on fire for him, leave a great church and ministry, and yet find myself alone picking up trash every day.

As I laid my heart bare before the Lord, he met with me around that trash barrel. God taught me two major lessons that I needed to hear and still live by today. First, he showed me that he didn’t call me to plant a church; he simply brought me there to plant something in me. I fell in love with the concept of planting, but was not called to it. I did, however, need to be brought to a place in life where I could be introduced to humility.

I had to learn how to love God and serve him in obscurity before he would ever bless me with any measure of influence.

Nathan Lorick Tweet

The second lesson I learned that day is one that absolutely changed my life and how I lead. He taught me that if I was not willing to pick up trash for him when no one was looking, then I certainly was not ready to lead anything for him with anyone looking. I had to learn how to love God and serve him in obscurity before he would ever bless me with any measure of influence.

In the next few weeks, my wife and I felt God was shifting us into a new season of life and ministry. We closed down the planting process and moved back to Texas. Some may claim that I failed at planting a church, but I know what God planted in me helped sustain me in life and ministry. As painful as the process was, I wouldn’t trade it for anything today!

What lesson is God teaching you today? What is your fire-barrel-on-a-snowy-day story? Just remember, whatever you are called to in this season, even if it is trash duty or serving in what seems like obscurity, God sees you and is working in you in order to work through you.

I love you, I believe in you, and I am in your corner!

Study: Most open to spiritual conversations, but few Christians speaking

NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Americans are curious about the religious devotion of others and are willing to discuss the topic, but most say they rarely have conversations about faith with their Christian friends.

An Evangelism Explosion study conducted by Lifeway Research found Americans are widely receptive to spiritual conversations in a variety of settings.

“This study reveals that most Americans are open to talking about faith,” said Scott McConnell, executive director of Lifeway Research. “It really isn’t about religious liberty, people not wanting to hear, or religion being off-limits. The reason conversations are not happening about the Christian faith is that Christians are not bringing it up.”

Half of Americans (51%) say they’re curious as to why some people are so devoted to their faith, including 60% of the religiously unaffiliated. Curiosity is also more likely among younger adults. Those 18 to 34 (61%) and 35 to 49 (55%) are more likely than those 50 to 64 (43%) and those 65 and older (40%) to say they’re curious about others’ religious devotion.

Amid this curiosity, however, most say their Christian friends don’t often bring up their religious beliefs. Six in 10 (60%) Americans say many of their friends who claim to be Christians rarely talk about their faith, including 52% of the religiously unaffiliated.

Most Americans (61%) say the pandemic has not changed their interest in spiritual matters. For a third of Americans (32%), however, COVID-19 has made them more interested. Few (7%) say they are less interested now compared to before the pandemic. One in 5 religiously unaffiliated Americans (20%) say they are more interested in spiritual matters now.

Still, for many, religion is not something they think about unless others broach the subject. Two in 5 Americans (40%) say they wouldn’t think about faith on their own unless a friend or family member brought it up. The religiously unaffiliated (50%), young adults 18 to 34 (49%) and men (47%) are among those more likely to say they do not think about matters of faith unless others bring up the topic.

“There is a quiet chasm between the religiously devoted and those who have no religion in the U.S.,” said McConnell. “The irony is that religious devotion intrigues many people, yet many avid Christians fail to share why faith is so important in their lives.”

Heavenly certainty

Most Americans (55%) say it’s very important to be sure they will go to heaven or have eternal life, and another 19% say it’s important. Fewer say it’s somewhat important (9%) or not important at all (12%). Even among the religiously unaffiliated 1 in 5 (19%) say it’s very important.

Despite how important most Americans say eternal life is, few say they have such certainty. Slightly more than a third (37%) say they are sure they will be with God in heaven. Another 11% say they are somewhat sure, while 23% say they hope they’ll be in heaven. Few (4%) don’t expect to make it, and 6% are sure there is no God or heaven. According to 17% of Americans, no one can know if they’ll go to heaven.

When contemplating a conversation with God about getting into heaven, Americans are split between pointing to their goodness or trusting in Jesus. Considering the question, “If God asked you, ‘Why should I let you into my heaven?’ what would you say?” 38% say they would respond that they trust in Jesus Christ alone, while 34% say they would respond that they are a good person. Few (4%) say they would bring up that they’ve been a very religious person. Some don’t know (12%) or prefer not to answer (5%). Another 7% don’t believe God exists.

“A quarter of Americans see heaven as a question mark or less,” said McConnell. “But the rest are evenly divided between relying on someone else—Jesus Christ— or themselves to be admitted. There’s a stark difference between heaven being a badge of affirmation for your human life or a mark of God’s ownership of your current life.”

Willing to talk

Around two-thirds of Americans say they are open to different types of spiritual conversations with a friend. Two in 3 (66%) say they’re at least open to having a conversation about faith with a friend, including 41% who say they are very open. Similarly, 66% of Americans are at least open to specifically discussing the Christian faith with a friend, including 40% who are very open. And 65% are at least open, including 36% who are very open, to talking with a friend about having a relationship with God.

Even among the religiously unaffiliated, few say they’re not open to having spiritual conversations with a friend at all. One in 5 (20%) aren’t at all open to a conversation about faith with a friend. One in 4 (26%) say they are not open to having a conversation with a friend about the Christian faith or having a relationship with God, yet 20% say they’re very open to either.

Fewer Americans are open to these types of conversations with people they don’t know, but still, at least half will talk about spiritual matters with a stranger. Half of Americans (51%) say they’re at least open to faith discussions with a stranger, with 26% saying they’re very open. When asked about having conversations with a stranger about the Christian faith specifically, 52% say they’re at least open, with 27% saying they’re very open. Slightly more than half say they are open (24%) or very open (30%) to talking with someone they don’t know about having a relationship with God.

The religiously unaffiliated are less open than others, but still most have some level of openness to religious conversations with strangers. Fewer than 2 in 5 (38%) say they’re not open at all to having a conversation about faith with a stranger. Almost half of religiously unaffiliated Americans (45%) are not open to talking with a stranger about the Christian faith, but 14% are very open. More than 2 in 5 (43%) say they have no openness to talking with a stranger about having a relationship with God, but 15% of the religiously unaffiliated are very open.

“Religion is a taboo topic for some, but actually very few people feel this way if it is between friends,” said McConnell. “There is typically no way of knowing ahead of time if someone hates the subject of faith, but the majority are open to you bringing it up even if they don’t know you.”

When meeting someone new, 71% of Americans are at least open to hearing about that person’s life story. A similar number (69%) say they’re at least open to hearing the life story from someone new if it includes faith.

Compared to in-person conversations, Americans are less likely to want to have a spiritual discussion on social media. Fewer than half (48%) say they’re at least open to having a conversation about faith on social media, including 26% who say they are very open. A third (33%) say they are not open at all to that type of conversation on social media.

As most Americans are already open to spiritual conversations, there aren’t many tools or tips that would make them more likely to engage in those discussions.

Almost half of Americans said it would not change their level of interest in continuing a conversation about faith if the other person shared a pamphlet or brochure (45%), showed information via an app (45%) or quoted from their religious text (49%). Similarly, around half (49%) say they wouldn’t be more willing to listen to someone else’s religious beliefs if the other person first listened to their beliefs.

“Many differences between potential types of religious conversations have no impact on people’s attitude about engaging in those conversations,” said McConnell. “The biggest thing that influences people’s willingness to talk about faith is the presence of a relationship with that person or faith being tied to their life story. If your relationship with God isn’t impacting your life, why would someone else want to hear about it?”

Very important needs

Americans of all religious convictions want certain things to be part of their lives. Most say it is very important to have peace (74%), hope (71%), and purpose and fulfillment (66%) in their lives. Religious Americans are more likely to agree these are very important aspects to have in their lives, but a majority of the religiously unaffiliated also say it’s very important their lives contain peace (63%), hope (54%), and purpose and fulfillment (55%).

As most consider these to be essential aspects of life, Americans may be more interested to hear how someone’s religious beliefs contribute to obtaining these. Around 7 in 10 Americans (69%) say they want to hear why someone thinks their faith helps meet a core human need. Close to 1 in 5 (21%) disagree. The religiously unaffiliated are more likely to disagree (32%), but the majority still say if someone they knew thinks their faith helps with a core human need, they want to hear more about why that person thinks that.

“For Americans with no religious affiliation, faith is not a goal or a destination,” said McConnell. “While some have reached a firm conclusion that they are not interested in faith, most are open to hearing about faith when someone can show it matters or when it is shared by someone who matters to them.”

Choose the hard investment

I sat in on a shareholder’s meeting recently. Just not the kind you might think.

On one side of the room sat Casey Perry, Jim Richards, and Ronnie Yarber—three men who, when history tells its tale many years from now, will be remembered for how God used each of them to lead a group of churches to stand for biblical inerrancy and missional cooperation in what we know today as the Southern Baptists of Texas Convention.

On the other side of the room sat 11 young SBTC pastors who gathered on this particularly crisp-but-sunny East Texas morning to hear about the importance of offering an invitation after preaching the word of God in their churches each week.

This informal gathering over breakfast, where men with well over 100 combined years of ministry experience were making deposits and investing into the lives of younger brothers, was a reminder to me of something I think we all need to be reminded of from time to time: there’s no greater investment we can make than giving our time to others.

We, as a body of believers, sometimes struggle with investing our time in others. We struggle to connect. With the best intentions we mean to have dinner with the young family that just joined the church but blink and it’s six months later and we still haven’t extended an invite. Sometimes we pull back because the lives of others are messy and we fear we won’t know how to fix their problem. But I think the most common reason we don’t invest in others is that the circumstances of our own lives can often feel like a tidal wave that sweeps up all our time in its wake.

I think the most common reason we don’t invest in others is that the circumstances of our own lives can often feel like a tidal wave that sweeps up all our time in its wake.

Jayson Larson Tweet

Other times we’re held back by our own faulty assumptions. For example, on several occasions in the pastorate I’ve had senior adults say to me that they don’t feel like they have anything to offer the younger generation. “They don’t want to hear from an old person like me!” they’ll say. And yet, one of the great joys of my ministry was hearing this very statement from a senior adult in her 70s who ultimately took a leap of faith, reached out to others, and has for the past several years invested countless hours discipling women who, in some cases, are 50 years her junior.

I think our older generation would be surprised at how many middle-aged brothers and sisters in Christ are spiritually lonely and hungry for someone older and more experienced in the faith to pour into their lives.

We’re wired for these kinds of connections. From the moment Adam opened his eyes, he was hard-wired for being relationally connected to God but also relationally connected to others. I heard a pastor say recently that the only thing God saw about his creation that wasn’t good was that man was alone (a problem he fixed with the creation of Eve). And yet, in our churches today, it seems we’re unintentionally trying to live a life that looks like Christ’s without being intimately and relationally connected to one another in the church. Those things—isolation and Christ-centered connectedness—do not compute.

There are little things we can do to encourage others each week. You can write a note to someone or even do something like give them a gift card or pay their car note that month. Those would surely be a great blessing to someone, but I see the greater—and costlier—blessing happening when you give the gift of your time and attention to others, inside the church and out. If Christ is in you, you absolutely have something to give to the other person.

Yes, it’ll be expensive in terms of your time and the emotional energy you may have to put forth. But it will be well worth the investment—for the other person, for you, and for the kingdom.

Lifeway Research says pastors concerned with growing leaders, reaching outsiders

When thinking about ministry difficulties, pastors say they’re most concerned with growing the people inside the church and reaching those outside it.

According to the latest release in Lifeway Research’s 2022 Greatest Needs of Pastors study, U.S. Protestant pastors say developing leaders and connecting with people not involved with a church are their two most prominent ministry needs.

“Paul’s instructions to ‘preach the word; be ready in season and out of season’ strike a chord within pastors like never before,” said Ben Mandrell, president of Lifeway Christian Resources. “In the midst of ministry challenges, it’s no surprise that their top felt needs are multiplying leaders and reaching the unchurched.”

Scott McConnell, executive director of Lifeway Research, noted that despite pastors having many personal needs, they often place a higher priority on the needs of their churches. “There is much agreement around the areas of ministry that need their attention today, because these needs have been the core work of disciple-makers since the Great Commission: equipping believers to share the gospel with unbelievers.”

Ministry difficulties identified

For the 2022 Greatest Needs of Pastors study, Lifeway Research interviewed 200 U.S. Protestant pastors who identified 44 issues they face in their roles and then surveyed 1,000 additional pastors to determine which of these needs was most prevalent. The almost four dozen needs were divided into seven categories: ministry difficulties, spiritual needs, mental challenges, personal life, self-care, people dynamics and areas of skill development.

More than 3 in 4 pastors say developing leaders and volunteers (77%) and fostering connections with unchurched people (76%) are among their greatest needs.

2022 Greatest Needs of Pastors study Tweet

Among the five needs classified as ministry difficulties, two resonate with pastors more than the others. More than 3 in 4 pastors say developing leaders and volunteers (77%) and fostering connections with unchurched people (76%) are among their greatest needs.

A majority of U.S. Protestant pastors also say training current leaders and volunteers (68%) and challenging people where they lack obedience (55%) are challenges they face. Slightly fewer (45%) say they need to establish a compelling vision for their congregation. Around 1 in 20 pastors say they did not need to give specific attention to any of these issues right now (6%).

“Pastors are personally burdened with the need for their churches to share the good news of Jesus Christ with their community,” said Scott McConnell, executive director of Lifeway Research. “This makes their personal priority list because their church is often less effective than it used to be. In addition, many don’t even know where to start in helping their congregations connect with non-believers outside the church.”

White pastors (77%) are more likely than African American pastors (63%) to say they are finding it challenging to foster connections with the unchurched. African American pastors (68%) are the least likely to say they need to give attention to developing leaders and volunteers.

The youngest pastors, those 18 to 44, (82%) are more likely than the oldest pastors, those 65 and older, (71%) to find forming connections with the unchurched an area in which they need to invest more time. Similarly, younger pastors (82%) are more likely than older pastors (70%) to feel the need to give attention to developing leaders and volunteers, as well as training current leaders and volunteers (74% to 62%).

Pastors at larger churches are more likely to say connecting with the unchurched is a difficulty to which they need to give attention. Those at churches with attendances of 100 to 249 (79%) and 250 and more (81%) identify this as a need more than those at churches with fewer than 50 in attendance (70%). Pastors of churches with more than 100 in attendance (81%) are more likely than those at churches with fewer than 50 (72%) to say they need to give attention to developing leaders and volunteers.

Evangelical pastors (63%) are more likely than mainline pastors (43%) to say they need to invest in challenging people where they lack obedience.

Single greatest ministry difficulty

When asked to narrow down the list to the ministry difficulty they most needed to invest in at this time, around a quarter said fostering connections with unchurched people (28%) and developing leaders and volunteers (25%).

Those challenges were also near the top when pastors were asked to pick the greatest need they face out of each of the 44 issues they said they faced. For 8% of U.S. Protestant pastors, connecting with those not involved with a church is their single largest need. Another 7% point to developing leaders and volunteers in their congregation.

“Three of the five ministry difficulties pastors need to personally address reflect the fact that ministry is done together,” said McConnell. “Motivating, developing and training leaders and volunteers are all needed for a congregation to function as one unit in sharing the love of Jesus with others.”

Specifically among the five ministry difficulties, 15% of pastors said training their church leaders and volunteers currently requires most of their attention. Fewer say their top ministry difficulty right now is establishing a compelling vision (13%) or challenging people where they lack obedience (11%).

Pastors in the Northeast (16%) are the least likely to say fostering connections with unchurched people is their top ministry difficulty. Pastors in that region (34%) are, however, more likely than those in the South (23%) and West (23%) to say that developing leaders and volunteers is their greatest need among the five ministry issues.

Many small church pastors say they’re struggling most with the vision of their church. Those in churches with fewer than 50 in attendance (15%) and from 50 to 99 (16%) are more likely than pastors of churches with 250 or more in attendance (8%) to say establishing a compelling vision is the most pressing ministry difficulty for them.

For more information, view the complete report or visit LifewayResearch.com/GreatestNeeds.

We need more of God’s presence

Personally, how would you answer the question, “If you could ask God for anything right now, what would you ask for?” Maybe it would be financial—to be debt-free or have a higher income? Or maybe physical—a new house or perfect health? Or even relational—a better marriage?

Now, here’s the same question with a different context: “If you could ask God for anything for your church with a guaranteed answer, what would you ask for?” No debt and a bigger budget? New facilities? Church unity? Your congregation to be whole and healthy?

It’s an intriguing question! And if we want to know the answer, all we need to do is look at our prayer journal or our church prayer lists. I will confess that I have spent countless hours asking God for all of those things and more. It’s not that we shouldn’t pray for those things or desire God to bless us in those ways. But what I am coming to discover is that the pursuit of those things is not the primary purpose of the church.

So what should we be asking for?

I truly believe that what we need is not more of God’s blessing on our church, but rather, his manifest presence in our church. What would it look like for us to become a people who desires God’s presence more than anything he could give us? What if our prayer life, both individually and corporately, was consumed by a longing for more of his presence? More than ever, I am convinced that a church with fewer things but more of God’s presence is a church that will still receive “exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think” (Eph 3:20).

We see an example of this in Exodus 33. There, the people of God sinned against him. As a consequence, God was going to destroy them, but Moses pleaded with God in prayer and God relented. Yet, God was going to remove his presence! In Exodus 33:1-3, “The Lord said to Moses, ‘Depart; go up from here, you and the people whom you have brought up out of the land of Egypt, to the land of which I swore to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, saying, ‘To your offspring, I will give it.’ I will send an angel before you, and I will drive out the [other nations] … Go up to a land flowing with milk and honey; but I will not go up among you ….”

In our Western Christianity version of this, it seems like a sweet gig! We’d have the best facilities, no debt, a bigger budget, great staff, church unity, and our own personal angel just in case! Where do we sign? Would we even realize God wasn’t with us? If we’re honest, this is how many churches operate functionally. I can confess that New Beginnings Baptist Church, where I pastor, has functionally taken this posture. We would never say it out loud, but I see it in our finance meetings, our strategic planning, our staff meetings, and our prayer lists. But I have learned something from Moses in Exodus 33.

Moses declined God’s offer to have the Promised Land without his presence. Exodus 33:13-16 says, “‘…if I have found favor in your sight, please show me now your ways, that I may know you in order to find favor in your sight. Consider too that this nation is your people.’ And he said, ‘My presence will go with you, and I will give you rest.’ And he said to him, ‘If your presence will not go with me, do not bring us up from here. For how shall it be known that I have found favor in your sight, I and your people? Is it not in your going with us, so that we are distinct, I and your people, from every other people on the face of the earth?’” In essence, Moses is saying, “No way! More than we want your blessings, we want you!” Moses would rather be in the wilderness with God than experience the Promised Land without him!

We are the people of God set apart for the mission of God to display the glory God. This requires the presence and power of the Holy Spirit in our churches. We need him more than anything else! Without him with us, there is no distinction between us and the world.

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Why? Because he understood their identity! In verse 13, the word “people” is loaded with meaning. In chapter 19, it’s a reference to their missional identity. Exodus 19:5-6 says, “‘… if you will indeed obey my voice and keep my covenant, you shall be my treasured possession among all peoples, for all the earth is mine; and you shall be to me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.’ These are the words that you shall speak to the people of Israel.” This is their missional identity! God set them apart, made them his treasured possession, to be a kingdom of priests who represent him before the rest of the world! As they walked in obedience to his commands, his presence dwelt among them and blessed them as a testimony to the other nations that they belonged to the true and living God! Their identity was not defined by what possessions they had but by whose possession they were! Their distinction was not in the land of promise but in the presence of the God of promise! The distinction was his presence.

As the church of Jesus Christ, we have the same missional identity. In 1 Peter 2:9, Peter quotes Exodus to a church in crisis, saying, “But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.” We are the people of God set apart for the mission of God to display the glory God. This requires the presence and power of the Holy Spirit in our churches. We need him more than anything else! Without him with us, there is no distinction between us and the world.

If God’s power isn’t with us, nothing else matters. What would happen if God’s presence became our highest priority? What if we spent more time asking for more of him in our lives and churches? I believe that we would see an outpouring of God’s presence, enabling us to live in our identity and advance the Great Commission in ways we have yet to see!

PASTOR TO PASTOR: Let social media work for you, not the other way around

From my earliest days of leading students, I was told if you weren’t on social platforms, you were not going to be reaching teenagers effectively.

In the 2010s we heard messaging like this at conferences, across youth ministry blogs, and at workshops over and over: If you’re serious about reaching GenZ then you need to be doing ________ on ___________.

Whatever was suggested next would inevitably include doing something more on a new social media platform that you were, in fact, not yet doing. These and similar messages were intended to sharpen you as a youth pastor but could leave you feeling discouraged and burdened at the thought of trying to do more.

At the height of the pandemic and without being able to meet in person, many of us felt the need to be doing loads more online to compensate. The messaging to student pastors was once again to post even more if you were going to capitalize on the moment.

Like most churches at the time, we listened to strategies and did our best to crank out devotionals and giveaways and all sorts of digital content across multiple platforms. But as the pressure for more content creation became a bigger dog to feed, I noticed something else—our ministry was not seeing any kingdom “wins” from all these new efforts. We were doing more ministry online than we ever even offered pre-pandemic—and I was exhausted from spending more of my time as a social media manager than the disciple-maker I was called by God to be (insert red flag emojis!).

I gathered our team and knew there needed to be a shift. We planned and prayed and went back to our mission and values. What emerged was surprising. We weren’t going to make more content, but less. We weren’t going to run ourselves tired trying to produce copious amounts of high-quality content which was pulling us away from doing meaningful life-on-life discipleship.

But as the pressure for more content creation became a bigger dog to feed, I noticed something else—our ministry was not seeing any kingdom “wins” from all these new efforts.

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These small changes were easy to implement and continue to help us make use of social media while also guarding what we value most as the local body of Christ. Here are three shifts our church made that can help social media aid you, not inundate you in your ministry to teenagers:

Limit your platforms

Less is more. We went from six social platforms to two. We closed accounts on Twitter, Snapchat, and even our YouTube channel in favor of more direct and intentional content via limited channels. We created a private Facebook group to equip parents with resources and provide them specific member care related to raising teenagers. This small step is now a central hub for reaching our parents privately and separately from our more student-focused Instagram account.

Aim for connection, not entertainment

While Millennials use social media primarily for entertainment purposes, GenZ uses social media to foster their core relationships (which hopefully includes you and their other youth group friends). This means they are watching less long-form media content and more interested in what their friends are saying/posting/doing through their stories and posts.

Try using an Instagram Direct group. Because of Instagram’s algorithms, if you’re only posting on your traditional newsfeed, your students may or may not be seeing your content anyway. An Instagram Direct group guarantees they see what you are sharing and is a great way to get instant feedback and engagement among students. It also prompts student-to-student prayer requests and is a great way to rejoice together at a gospel conversation. When it comes to what you post, stick to simple, clear reminders of gospel truths in plain language. It’s the cup of cold water they will need when the world’s content ultimately dissatisfies.

Pass It On

We recently recruited some of our students to be entrusted with running our Instagram account. This involved carefully selecting 1-2 faithful and mature students who were healthy social media users as well as a “social-media covenant” that was signed by the student and their parents. This created an opportunity for leadership development while also increasing peer-to-peer engagement on our dedicated social platform.

If you’d like to know more about these shifts and others like them that we’ve found impactful for ministry, please email me at rrenfrow@faithfbc.org.

Hundreds of years later, Liele’s gospel impact still being felt

One of the most significant figures in the history of Christian missions is a freed Georgia slave named George Liele. Even though William Carey may be called the father of the modern missionary movement, George Liele left America and planted the gospel in Jamaica a full 10 years before Carey left England.

Conversion and Early Ministry

George Liele came to Christ in 1773, at the age of 23, and was baptized by his white pastor, Matthew Moore. Sometime after Liele’s conversion, his owner, Henry Sharp, who was a Baptist deacon, gave Liele his freedom so he could pursue God’s call. Liele preached for two years in the slave quarters of plantations surrounding Savannah and into South Carolina after his conversion.

Because of his faithfulness and powerful preaching of the word, many surrendered their lives to Christ. Liele was ordained on May 20, 1775, becoming the first ordained African American Baptist preacher in America. After his ordination, he planted the first African American Baptist Church in North America, a church still in existence today.

George Liele was ordained on May 20, 1775, becoming the first ordained African American Baptist preacher in America. After his ordination, he planted the first African American Baptist Church in North America, a church still in existence today.

An Open Door to Preach in Jamaica

In 1778, Henry Sharp was killed in the Revolutionary War. After his death, Sharp’s heirs took steps to re-enslave Liele. As result of their actions, Liele was thrown in jail. Eventually, he was able to produce proper documentation concerning his freedom and was set free.

Soon after his release, Moses Kirkland, a colonel of the British army, befriended Liele and helped him leave the country. Kirkland helped pay for Liele’s trip to Jamaica, and after two years Liele paid this debt and obtained a certificate of freedom for himself and his family. George and his wife, Hannah, and their four children left Savannah and landed in Kingston, Jamaica, in 1782.

When Liele landed in Jamaica it was a British colony. There, Liele found land and a people who needed a missionary. Slaves were brought from Africa to Jamaica to work on the sugar plantations. These men and women had no real knowledge of Jesus Christ and the gospel. Liele planted a church and held a baptism service every three months. These baptisms were public events in which professing converts were baptized in a nearby ocean or river.

The Growth of an Integrated Ministry

The work of the church and the public baptisms caused persecution. Eventually, Liele was charged with preaching sedition and was thrown into prison. He was later acquitted of these charges. Despite facing these hostilities, during the eight years of preaching, he was able to baptize five hundred people and establish a strong church.

Not only did Liele’s ministry lead to a spiritual impact on the island, but his work also made a social difference for the Jamaican slaves. By July 31, 1838, slavery was eradicated in Jamaica.

In 1814, there were only about eight thousand Baptists in Jamaica. This number included slaves, freedmen, and some whites. However, as a result of Liele’s ministry, by 1832 there were over twenty thousand believers.

Author David Shannon summed up Liele’s life of ministry this way: “The Christianity practiced by Liele was not limited to one nation, colony, or ethnic group but was a faith found and spread through interaction with colonists and national leaders in the Americas and England. In turn, this broad vision of Christianity shaped and spread a variety of Christian experience that became widespread and influential in black, white, and integrated congregations in Georgia, South Carolina, Jamaica, Nova Scotia, Sierra Leone, and beyond.”

Training and Sending out Missionaries beyond Jamaica

Not only was Liele an effective missionary and evangelist, he was known for encouraging his converts to go preach the gospel to the lost. As a result of his leadership, they went to Savannah, Georgia, Nova Scotia, and Sierra Leone.

Adoniram Judson is often cited as the first Baptist missionary from the United States. But, in fact, this designation belongs to George Liele. His story is an important part of missionary history and is worthy of emulation.

George Liele died in 1828. He may have begun life as a slave, but he lived as a free man in Christ. He left a rich legacy of thousands who were transformed by the good news of Jesus.

Pitman says churches aren’t holy huddles: ‘We’re an army’

New Send Network president says gospel impact possible for any congregation powered by the Holy Spirit

One-hundred twenty. Vance Pitman wants Southern Baptists of Texas Convention churches to understand two significant things about that number: it’s the size of the crowd that took Jesus seriously when he first delivered his mission, and the size of the average SBTC church. In fact, a majority of churches affiliated with the state convention have an average attendance of 120 or fewer.

“The size of the church does not determine its significance. The size of the mission determines its significance—and the mission is big,” said Pitman, the founding pastor of Hope Church in Las Vegas. “Whether your church runs 10 or 10,000, both have the responsibility for the same mission, which is to locally engage their city with the gospel and globally engage people and nations with the gospel.”

The life of any pastor is a busy one, but these days are particularly full for Pitman, who has accepted a call to serve as president of the North American Mission Board’s Send Network. On this particular day, Pitman—who is scheduled to preach at the SBTC’s annual Empower Conference—is darting in and out of a series of scheduled interviews promoting his new book, The Stressless Life: Experiencing the Unshakable Presence of God’s Indescribable Peace.

Accepting the NAMB post means Pitman will have to resign from Hope Church, where he has served since its founding in 2001. What started as 18 adults meeting in a living room has, in the two decades since, become a thriving multiethnic, multigenerational congregation 4,000 members strong. Those members represent more than 50 language groups that have planted more than 75 churches.

Every church can join in on God’s mission, Pitman said, but in many cases, a shift in mindset might need to happen. Not only do many smaller churches often feel they do not have the resources to make a kingdom difference, but many followers of Jesus feel like evangelism is reserved for only the specially-trained “special ops people” in the church.

The shift is a subtle-but-critical one that essentially begins and ends with understanding the difference between living “for” Christ—a common phrase used among believers in churches—and allowing Christ to live “through” you, Pitman said. Living “for” Christ may lead to the development of a list of behaviors that someone should do or not do. Allowing Christ to live “through” you requires a surrender that opens the door for the Holy Spirit to ignite something in your life that only he can do.

“Evangelism and missions is not the highest realm of spiritual service” reserved only for a special class of people in the church, Pitman said. “It’s simply the overflow of Christ in us living his life through us. So if I’m not engaged in missions and evangelism, it’s really not a missions and evangelism issue. It’s an issue of Christlikeness in my life being fleshed out.

“[The first followers of Jesus] didn’t have influence ... resources ... money ... education. They didn’t have societal prestige. They had none of that. But what they did have is Christ in them and the empowering of the Holy Spirit ..."

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“[The first followers of Jesus] didn’t have influence. They didn’t have resources. They didn’t have money. They didn’t have education. They didn’t have societal prestige. They had none of that,” he said. “But what they did have is Christ in them and the empowering of the Holy Spirit manifesting the life of Christ through them—and so every one of them embraced the mission personally. Every one of them embraced [the command] that ‘you will be my witnesses.’”

Planting a Southern Baptist church in Las Vegas had its challenges. When they arrived in Vegas to plant, Pitman said, studies revealed the city was 95 percent non-Christian and 60 percent of the city was non-religious. “Which meant I could send out mailers all day long and nobody was looking to go to church,” he said.

So the planting team’s initial strategy was to “cultivate the field with prayer” by prayer-walking 50,000 households and praying through the Las Vegas phone book. At the same time, Pitman and his team combed through the scriptures for a discipleship strategy to employ once the Lord brought a harvest of people. Ultimately, the scriptures showed those leaders that Jesus had three types of interactions in the Gospels—with the Father, with his disciples, and with unbelievers. For Hope Church, that translated to a strategy where every follower of Jesus was encouraged to do the same: abide, connect, and share.

The next steps included finding needs in the community that the church could meet and encouraging members to build genuine relationships with people who were far from God. The Lord honored the effort. Pitman said the first 13 families he led to Christ happened through relationships he built coaching Little League. In another instance, the church learned that a school in its community had not been renovated in 30 years. So the congregation combined some financial resources with in-kind donations and hundreds of volunteers to renovate the school over a three-month span.

“We’re not a holy huddle in the midst of a dying world. We’re an army that’s been sent out to accomplish a mission that is so much bigger than us.”

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“By the time we were finished, I had a principal who was living an alternative lifestyle asking me for a stack of my business cards and saying, ‘I have got families in my school that I don’t know how to serve because they have real brokenness in their homes,’” Pitman said. “That principal told me, ‘I didn’t know people love schools like this anymore.’”

Some years later, Pitman had the opportunity to minister to that principal as he lay in a hospital bed dying. “He said he’d had faith years ago but re-surrendered his life to Christ right there in that hospital bed and then died two weeks later. But that happened because we found a need that needed to be met and we met that need. We did something the community valued and it opened up doors for gospel conversations beyond anything we could have imagined.

“We’re not a holy huddle in the midst of a dying world,” Pitman added. “We’re an army that’s been sent out to accomplish a mission that is so much bigger than us. The reality is, God’s alive and at work in the world and he’s invited us to get in on it with him.”