Inspired to Grow

We cannot turn to chapter and verse in the Bible and find where it says that First Baptist New Orleans should spend $6 million on a new entrance and a new space for small groups. The Bible doesn’t get that specific in these matters.

So we are left to process our present circumstances and seek to understand our mission and the will of God for our particular mission, place, and time.

Now is the Time — Our Chronology

The clock is ticking on our mission: the Mission of Jesus, to seek and to save the lost.

• Our mission: “The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love” - Galatians 5:6.

• We are seeking to do something very important: we are linking the Great Commandment to the Great Commission in deliberate fashion so that our actions and words will say the same thing. We are seeking to do this structurally and institutionally as well as missionally.

• We seek to accomplish our mission in three ways: worship, small groups, and missions at home and abroad. 

• We worship with our lives.
• We gather to go to the need. Our small group gatherings are designed to reach new people and assimilate them into the body.
• We disciple in motion. We are reaching out in love to those around us. 

The clock is ticking on our lives.

• We can delay almost anything in our personal lives. We know that sometimes caution turns into procrastination and delay turns into missed opportunity.

• We have approached this moment twice before where we felt the pinch of inadequate small group space.

• Some of us were present in the church when this monumental undertaking of relocation began. I was 44 years old when I suggested to our church that we look for a site that would better accommodate our mission of reaching people. We made the momentous decision to move, knowing that we could not build adequate facilities for our small group ministry but expecting to make temporary adjustments while we gathered our second wind.

The clock is ticking on our lease arrangement.

• We are spending $51,000 per year on the lease. If we could negotiate a lease—and the leaser has no interest—we would undoubtedly be spending more.

• We can build a new entrance now all on our own property. It is costly, but it is the right thing to do.

This is the Place — Our Geography

We are the People — Our Mission

God is still God — Our Confidence