So it has been a long time since I have posted here.  A part of me wishes that I had written something soon after the Exponential West Coast Conference, because some really wonderful things happened there.

Maybe I should just hit the highlights.  Maybe that will jog my memory a bit.

Exponential is a church planting conference.  Church planting is kind of like the space program of the church; it pushes the envelope and develops new strategies for evangelism and discipleship.  So even if you are not interested in planting a church, you can still learn a lot.

There were really great speakers, too many to mention.  Max Lucado was definitely a highlight, but so were Joby Martin, Derwin Gray, and Oscar Muriu.   I think, though, two speakers really stood out.  JD Greear has been beating the drum of multiplication and releasing leaders and resources to start new churches.  Ying Kai is a church planter in China whose organization has baptized 1.7 million (yes, you read that correctly) people in 20 years.  And he freely gives away what he has learned.  As I write this, I realize that I will spend some time blogging about this in the future.

What I want to say now… God does some amazing things.  I just keep finding that he puts so many people in our path.  I don’t know where to start so maybe with the first crazy thing.  In the first breakout session, the guy presenting talks a bit to me and says, “Hey, you’re from Kentucky, go meet Jamey!” So I meet Jamey, who planted a church in Louisville, but is now planting a church in Phoenix.  Where are his parents from, and where did he spend most of his summers as a kid? Menifee County!  We hope to have a conversation with him to reach out to some of his family who still live there!

Some of you know how much I agonize for places that don’t have the Gospel preached, and how much I am distressed that California, my home state, the state with the most population in the U.S. has so few Methodists.  My great-great grandmother was a Methodist from Bitterwater.  I can’t imagine what a middle-of-nowhere that place was 140 years ago… and still a Methodist circuit rider went out there, because even though homesteads were few and far between, there were souls there to save!

Anyway, one day at Exponential, I was in the bookstore of the church that was hosting the Conference.  They have their own Lifeway bookstore…which is another story.  I see a guy whose name tag says he is from my dad’s hometown.  He and his wife are planting there. She left and was never going back, but she said they were visiting and saw so much pain and brokenness and they wanted to plant a “life-giving church for God’s people.” God was working on me, because I woke up the next morning weeping with the joy of the Lord! The Holy Spirit had started working me over before I woke up!  I was so blown away that this couple was there!  God spoke plainly. “Don’t worry about California.  I’ve got that.  What I don’t have is Eastern Kentucky.”

I had to laugh, because as I look back on my intense prayer time last year where God told me I could ask Him for anything I wanted, and after weeks of Him pushing me to ask for something real, for something only He could do and only He could get any credit for, I finally blurted out, “Give me a disciple-making movement that wins Eastern Kentucky to Christ!” He worked me around to where my heart broke for what breaks His; He led me to follow where He was going.  I am so thankful! Otherwise I would be roping the wind.

This Conference was in many ways a dream.  I took Jessie, Mike (our planter in Frenchburg) and Jacob, who I hope will be able to come on board at our church to lead worship in a third service.  I keep wanting to take more and more people, to let them have a taste of the deep desire so many have for evangelism and discipleship.

New Hope Discipleship Movement.

Next Sunday, I will be heading to the Exponential West Conference in Orange County, CA.  There is a pre-conference event called The National Discipleship Forum, which is hands down the best event I have been to anywhere, anytime.  Exponential is the largest gathering of church planters in the world.  The one in Orlando in the spring has about 5,000 in attendance.  I think West has about 2,000.  I love going because of the energy and optimism.  It's thousands of people who believe everyone is going to be baptized... tomorrow!  The worship is some of the best I know of and the teaching is from the best practitioners.  Even though it is church planting-specific, church planting is kind of like the space program of the church-- it develops great evangelism and discipleship tools.

Jessie, Mike Adams (our former youth pastor who is planting our church in Frenchburg, KY) and Jacob Wilson are going with me.  I hope to keep taking more people each year. The Discipleship Forum by itself is worth the time and effort to get to.  If you have a holy discontent about the church, about your own discipleship, let's talk.  New Hope Discipleship Movement (a non-profit Mike, Wes, and I set up to start new churches in Appalachia) will be taking a crew to Orlando in April. Hit me up if you want to go.

Pray for us-- for safe travel, for great fellowship, for deep learning.  Last year I went with Mike and Jacob.  Jesus wrecked our lives.  I daresay we are still figuring out what happened, still dealing with the fallout, still putting things into place to be better at making disciples. Pray that we get wrecked again, hearts broken for the neglected mission of making disciples.  Pray that we come back with a spirit of humility, because we are going to be on the cutting edge of the Church.

About this time last year, I went to take one of my 15 minute afternoon naps.  But I could not.  God had me raise my arms in prayer and I knew I just had to keep them there in praise.  After a while, He spoke.  "Ask me for anything you want."  I made a few feeble stabs, ashamed that I was not ready!  Everything I asked for, He said "I already do  that. Ask me for something that only I can do."  I would pray at other times for the next few months, but still was not asking for enough.  I shared this with a small group  of friends, some prayer warriors.  Finally, one day I just cried out in desperation for the mission, "Lord, give me a disciple-making movement that takes back Eastern Kentucky for Christ!" And then there was absolute peace and assurance.  Thus New Hope Discipleship Movement was born.

Pumped Up

I want to share some stuff that's been going on that has been really encouraging.

First, our Children's Ministry.  My wife Jessie is the Children' s Pastor in our church, and she is knocking it out.  As in they have outgrown their second space, and need to look for a new place. The kids have a great two hour bloc on Sundays of Sunday school and children's worship.  They do catechism and they know more about worship than the adults!

Second, our Youth Ministry.  Adam Foster and a crew of volunteers worked really hard to put on a great Youth Kickoff with a lot of energy and games and fun and an awesome fireside devotion.  It's great to be in Morehead where you can have a big gym to romp in and then go outside under the trees and hear crickets chirping. 40 kids, most of whom we just met last night, came.

On the church planting front, Mike Adams, our church planter in Menifee County, KY, is also working as a boys basketball coach for the high school.  It has given him and his new church a lot of visibility in the community, as well as providing them with a mission.  His main focus is on discipleship.  He, Wes, Holland and I have formed a non=profit called New Hope Discipleship Movement with the purpose of raising up and training evangelists and disciple-makers who start new works of God in the rural areas of Eastern Kentucky.

When I was in Lexington, I met a couple, Chad and Meredith Brooks.  They have the dubious honor of inventing the Methodist Mimosa-- orange juice and Ale-8.  Anyway they came to our church in the fall of 2006, and informed me not long after they started coming that they were leaving because of something I said.  It's not what you're thinking.  I was challenging people to live incarnationally where they worship. So Chad and Meredith said it was crazy for them to drive from Nicholasville when there was a church right next door that needed their help.  But, he said, he would be back to do his supervised ministry with me.  Sure enough, 2010 he came back.  We had some epic times talking Q, doing evangelism visits on the crazy streets of Northside, and fellowshipping.  My boys adored Chad and Meredith.

Fast forward. Chad went home to Louisiana.  He is planting a church called Foundry in Stirlington, outside of Monroe.  I stay in touch with him because we're buds and also because one of my spiritual gifts is talking church planters out of quitting when they get hit with the ridiculous obstacles and barriers that get thrown at them.  They had their launch service last weekend.  I have been preaching for years you need to launch Fast and Loud.  As many people as you can get.  Because after 6 weeks you will only have 1/2 of the number who come to launch.  Chad launched with 354.  Basically, he is day one sustainable.

Chad was worried he might break the rule about 1/2 the people after 6 weeks, as in he was worried they have been a misfit church, not fitting any paradigms, so maybe they will have less.  I doubt it.  I think he will grow even bigger.  Chad works hard and smart.  Pray him up and check him out at revchadbrooks.com

Awesome Evangelism Visit(s)

So, we divided up into two teams.  Justine took Adam, our youth pastor.  I took Jacob Wilson, pastor of Barterville UMC and general idea-generator.  We hit a neighborhood I had been to about a year ago.  MOst folks weren't home, as it was middle of the day.  And that's ok-- sometimes it's good to get a lot of cards out!  But we had three people we got to talk to.

First was a fellow who said he "just has not felt the need to go to church."  Now, normally, I would have talked about what he thinks his "need" would be, and then describe the Bible's definition of his need.  But for a number of reasons, I knew it was not the time. The Gospel would not have gotten a hearing, and as I was sensing that he will one day respond to communication at a later time, I moved on.  I hate that, because a part of me thinks, no you have to tell him now. I hope I was right.

Next house, a woman opens the door with a maybe a three year old on her hip.  We told her who we are, asked if she had a church.  Long story short, she visited the church about 3 years ago, I visited the house they were living in after they came to the church, but they moved.  She remembered the church and we had a great time reconnecting.  Then while we were still talking, her husband showed up and we were able to really talk to them about all the ministries of the church.  So let's hope they come!

I asked Jacob what he thought about that visit.  He was pumped, of course, but he had a great suggestion about getting contact information.  To see it, you'll have to watch the periscope video.  Get the periscope app on your smartphone or tablet and follow aaronjmansfield  Maybe I will post it to youtube.

Anyway, we hit another house and it was another family who came sometime back but had not been since.  It was cool to reconnect there, too.  We had a chance to invite them and remind them of the love of God.

Jacob was excited that we made a contact that will probably come to church.  He said, "What would happen if every month you had a family of four join the church?"

Right! Your church will grow!  The tough thing is... getting more people out and getting the time to do the visits.  I guess I would say, many many days I wish it was all I did!

Mentors

You need a mentor for the significant areas of your life.  I have been privileged to have good mentors right when I needed them.  As far as ministry is concerned, I was lucky to learn from Howard Willen, my pastor at First United Methodist in Lexington, KY from 1995-2000.  He took me to school in things like prayer; bible study; visiting in hospitals, nursing homes, jails, and homes; how to do a funeral; and preeminently in evangelism... making contacts with people, looking for the open door to share Christ, and asking them to put their faith in Him.  If I had not seen that done, I would have a hard time imagining what it looks like or how to do it!

We were doing some planning for an upcoming evangelism training, and I guess I mentioned Howard a number of times, to the point where it was suggested that we make WWWD bracelets for evangelism training... What Would Willen Do?

Visiting House to House

Visiting from house to house is the most controversial evangelism strategy I use.  If I stood on a street corner with a sandwich board and a microphone, perhaps that would be the most controversial.  What I mean by controversial, is that it spawns a lot of negative reactions in ministerial colleagues.  It’s the one I take the most grief for, and have to defend the most.  But, I also get a lot of encouragement. So people are divided on this one.  Two interesting tid-bits: the most encouragement I get is from people whose doors I knock on!  They are glad someone took the time to come by and is out doing the work!  I also get a lot of people telling me it doesn’t work, and yet those same people have never tried it, much less done it consistently.

We took a vow as a United Methodist elder to “visit from house to house.”  We love to dodge this.  Cynically, I have had a number of UM leaders tell me those are “historic” questions that don’t really fit who we are today.  Others confine it to visiting people who are members of your church.  Nope.  It’s the shepherd roaming the hills to gather the harassed and scattered flock. So you go from door-to-door.  And it works.

But you have to do it consistently, over the long haul.  In my first church, when I started this, I had a number of people say, “we tried that and it didn’t work.”  I asked them what they did.  They went out one time, two by two (because that’s what the Bible says), with some fresh baked bread that had a card that said, “The Bread of Life.”  “And no one came,” they told me.

I had to break the tough news to them.  You never engaged with our neighbors about Jesus beofre, you went out one time with fresh bread (which is a great idea) but there was no follow up.  The folks they visited literally had no clue what it was about!

What you have to do in visitation is be consistent.  Go back again.  If the people you talk to are remotely receptive, keep going back, with an invitation to services, to a special event, to a cookout at your house…

I will probably be talking about this forever and telling this same story, so bear with me.  When I was appointed to my first church, I had no clue about anything!  Larry Baker me a map of Clark County, one of those really detailed road maps.  One day driving back out into the country from town, I heard the Lord speak, “Every house to the county line is mine.”  I kind of went a little farther, into Estill and Powell counties, but I reasoned those places belonged to the Lord, too!  I got to the house, made a bookmark on card stock that had basic info about our church.

Then I started systematically visiting every church in a large swath of the county I had decided was my church’s area.  I went to every house at least once, most houses more than that, and the houses where someone was receptive to me and the invitation to church, I went to those houses many, many times.

The reasons visitation works is that you find people you don’t even know exist. You talk to people you would never get to.  Is it time consuming?  Yes.  It proves its worth when someone comes because you took the time to come to them, talk to them, pray with them, they know you love them enough to break down barriers!  And they tell their friends and family who also come!

Remember to take church members with you and teach them how to do this.  If you get some help, oh man can you cover some ground.  You can hit hundreds of houses in a few hours with 3 or 4 people.  Remember… to go back.  People who had not yet come to church would call  me their pastor.  I would get called to hospitals of jails on behalf of people I did not know well, but had stopped by their house.  I was the only pastor they knew.  We had 7 people come to our church because I visited their family members in jail. I was called to do funerals and got to minister to even more people in a family because they called the pastor who would visit them.

The how to:

Make some kind of card, not on printer paper.  You need something that can stand up to being placed in a door, or held between a screen door and the main door.  I have used bookmarks on card stock.  With just basic information about the church—contact info, directions to get there, service times, etc.  Lately I have been using a tract from the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association, the classic “bridge” illustration.  Then I use an address label to put the church info on. They get our info and a really good basic intro to believing in Jesus.

Rehearse what you are going to say when someone opens the door.  “Hi, my name is Aaron.  I am the pastor at Morehead United Methodist Church.  I am just going out in the community, getting to know people, inviting them to church.  Do you have a church that you go to?”  That’s it.  Their answer might lead to some more conversation.  If they seem interested, I make a note of it in a notebook I keep for the purpose.  Then I write them a note, thanking them for their time and again inviting them.  And then I know that that is a place I will go back to.

That’s it.  If you will do visitation regularly, and consistently (meaning all your life), you will see church growth and conversion.

I will tell some other stories later that help show how it’s done and the fruit that comes from it!

Was It Really a Fish Story?

Or was it about trying new things to see what will work?  What will be fruitful?  Doing whatever it takes to get the job done?

I will do anything short of sin to win someone to Christ.