Dear Friends,

On March 23, 2011 at 9:44 p.m., our father and friend, Billy Hornsby went to be with the Lord.  Billy’s passion for God, family, life, and leaders around the world will be long remembered.

This verse from God’s Word says it all:

“I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, and I have remained faithful. And now the prize awaits me—the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will give me on the day of his return. And the prize is not just for me but for all who eagerly look forward to his appearing.” (2 Timothy 4:7-8 NLT)

Words cannot express how much you mean to us. We are grieving, but not like the rest of men who have no hope (1 Thessalonians 4:13).  On behalf of my family, thank you for your love and support.

Chris Hodges

Struggle Well

Disciple Me on Sunday

Disciple Me on Sunday

Can I be successfully discipled by attending Sunday services regularly? So much attention is given to having a great Sunday service that you would hope that the event could reach the lost and disciple the believer. Of course, much attention should be given to preaching and reading of the Word on Sundays as well as any other times Christians gather together. But Sunday alone could never “make disciples” in the real biblical sense. Act 5:42…”And daily in the temple, and in every house, they ceased not to teach and preach Jesus Christ.” Daily in the temple and house to house was the key to New Testament discipleship.

For the sake of comparison I calculated how many hours a year the average Christian sits under the teaching of his/her pastor. This will shock you.

15.6 hours per year!

Where do I get these numbers? Simple: There are 52 Sundays in the year – the average message is ½ hour (30 minutes) – and the average church has only 60% of its congregation in attendance on any given Sunday. If you multiply 30 minutes by 52 Sundays you get 26 hours, then take the 26 hours by an average of 60% attendance (some will never miss some will come occasionally) you have that average of 15.6 hours per year…. That’s if the average member of your church attends 31 services in the year. Amazing.

This does not take into consideration the power of the worship experience and the presence of the Holy Spirit…it is purely crunching the numbers….just over  a half of a day per year.

Consider these stats from the Nielson Company – Per year the average American watches 1800 hours of TV, spend 360 hours on the internet, 36 hours watching video on the internet and 36 hours watching video on their cell phones. Wonder why we might be losing the war in the spiritual?

This makes for a great case for small groups, mid-week teaching services and anything else you can do to make disciples of church members.

Billy Hornsby

Staying Power

Staying Power

When quitting is not an option but you are crashing emotionally and financially, how do you stay in the game?  What do you do when you only see your wife and kids between lunch and dinner instead of at lunch and dinner? You forget important personal dates because every week is sermon preparation time and it’s like cramming for finals at college. You cram, preach, cram, preach, cram preach and it never ends…and it never will end.

Then there are staff issues and disgruntled people who want fully developed youth and children programs but don’t want to volunteer. And of course there are the agendas. New people coming in that promise you the world if you will do church the way their old church did church.  Or, they come with a box of teaching tapes from their favorite “televangelist” asking you to listen to them and maybe pick up a few lessons for the church.

Of course we couldn’t leave out meeting space. There is never the perfect place. You are always remodeling, building out storefronts, getting kicked out of the school you started in or the movie theater just doubled your rent…they know they can do it because you just sent out 60,000 piece mailer telling the world that is where you meet.

Then, because you are a young couple with passion for ministry and each other, the pregnancy test comes back positive…you are so happy to add to the family at this stage of your life. Your other four “church plant” children from other attempts to start a church love the fact that they are going to have to share their fourth of the bedroom they sleep in at your two-bedroom apartment.

Staying Power is defined as: the power to withstand hardship or stress; “like the marathon tests a runner’s endurance”

Church planting is a fast-paced marathon. You can’t just lay back and run a slow steady pace and expect to sprint ahead when you fall back. No, you have to stay near to the front of the pack with the newest marketing ideas, sermon series, and tech thing-a-ma-jigs. You can’t stop but you want to. What to do?

1. Remember that He is faithful who called you.
2. No matter how tough it gets, enjoy the journey. You will have tons of illustrations for the future.
3. Keep a written record of all your experiences and discover what you learned from each one.
4. Get lots of counsel and encouragement from other church planters who have “been there, done that.”
5. Renew your devotion to Jesus personally and your commitment to build His Church.
6. Count the number of changed lives that are now in your church because of your obedience and rejoice.
7. Work as hard as you can to make this church plant successful…because you don’t want to ever do this again.

Billy Hornsby

Church Planting Success

For decades the percentage of church plants that survived for 5 year or more was only between 15-20% As a result, there were more churches closing in the USA than opening, All of that has changed. New data by Ed Stetzer shows that there is an average of 68% survival rates for church plants in the first 4 years. This is huge even though the average church plant attendance is less than 80 people at the 4 year mark.

With huge numbers of Americans staying away from church on Sunday it easy to find someone who needs Christ and His Church. Barna reports that nearly 60% of Americans avoid the church building each week. (http://www.gallup.com/poll/113452/evidence-bad-times-boosting-church-attendance.aspx)

How can we increase the growth rate of these churches is the big question these days. I believe that are answers for us to consider. First of all we need to believe that God wants to reach more souls and that we should always be focused on the people for whom Christ died… especially the ones that are not in the church. There are millions of souls that need to come to Christ and let’s face it, we are the only ones that can make that happen. It is our task to bring the Gospel to the lost and hurting world.

We need 1000’s of new successful churches to reach the un-churched in America. Churches that are life-giving, evangelistic and disciple-making at their core. This means there needs to be a whole new breed of pastors that are true shepherds that are interested in the lost sheep. True shepherds would have the following characteristics.

1. Authentic – Give people the real person, not just a “persona.”

2. Compassionate – Love the people more than just the work that he does.

3. Accepting – Loving and accepting people where they are. (This does imply that you approve of their lifestyle)

4. Gospel oriented – He must know that the Gospel of Christ is the only way salvation and freedom.

5. Relevant – He would preach messages that are grace-filled and applicable to everyday life.

6. Equipper – Pastors need to equip the members to “do” the work of the ministry, not possess the ministry.

7. Pray – Pastors must lead their congregation in prayer and fasting.

The hope of the world is the Church… and the hope of the Church is Christ and His under-shepherds. Let’s pray that the Lord of the Harvest will send laborers into the harvest.

Q. How can we get more leaders to plant life-giving churches in the USA?

Billy