The Avenue

• Where the broken, hurting and lost are received with open arms…and the religious are challenged to repent of their “perfection.”
• Where JESUS is exalted…NOT a denomination, pastor or a political party.
• That throws the desire to compete with other churches out the window…and does all that they can to help the body.
• That embraces the fact that Jesus originally called “unschooled, ordinary men” to change the world…and He’s STILL doing the same thing today.
• That Embodies disciple making and not people gathering
• That becomes the people of God 7 days a week and not just on Sunday
• That rejoices in each others joys & walks beside each other in our present sufferings
• Where ordinary people are so greatly honored to watch God do extraordinary things
• Where young people who had given up on church & religion find Jesus
• Where Christ is exalted above all things
• That reaches outside its walls in such a way that it becomes a blessing to its community & not a burden on them
• That cares for the orphans & widows
• That has a global perspective of how blessed we are & uses its resources for kingdom purposes
• That creates an infrastructure of reproduction & multiplication
• That recreates leaders
• That recreates artist
• That recreates other churches
• That becomes a family & not a congregation
• Where hope is tangible because Jesus is real
• That believes that prayer is not just a ritual
• Where God is made big & we are made small
• That is so overwhelmed by grace that we can’t help but worship him from the depths of our hearts
• Where Scripture, not Robert’s Rules of Order, govern the Body.
• Where people in the church REFUSE to ignore injustice…and EMBRACE that God has called the church to do more about it than simply pray…but rather to DIVE IN and do all we can to help all we can.
• That champions the next generation instead of teaching them they are insignificant
• Where Christ is all sufficient!  Not excellence, not attendance, not leadership or giftedness.  He is everything!

Join with us in praying that God can make dreams come true in Louisville Kentucky!

“To reach people no one else is reaching, we need to try things that no one else is trying.” – Craig Groeschel – Pastor LifeChurchTV

Around 2 years ago, I was asked to dream about what it would look like if our college-age and young adult ministry at Southeast moved off the Blankenbaker campus. Around the same time a number of things were happening in my own personal walk with God.  I began studying the early church in depth as I was preparing to teach on the book of Acts. I had this overwhelming sense as I was studying that my life did not resemble the life of the members of the early church.  Yes, I was a pastor…and I was preaching, praying, pastoring & shepherding members of our community, but there was a sense that something was missing.  In scripture we get these pictures of men & women who stake their entire life on the words of God.  Men like Noah who built a giant boat simply because he was told.  Abraham who followed God even when he didn’t know where they were going.  Moses who had no extraordinary gifts but simply trusted God.  Joseph & David who kept believing God’s promises were true even when they seemed as if they would never be fulfilled.  The disciples who stood before the same men who crucified Christ and said, “We can not help but speak about Him.” (Acts 2)  My life looked nothing like that.  Sarah and I struggled to even come up with a simple way we had risked at all in our 8 years of marriage.

In a way, our first step towards planting a church came with our adoption. After returning from a trip to Ethiopia with Compassion international, my heart wrecked for the orphans I saw. We knew God had asked us to take a huge risk and adopt. Ultimately, I believe he was stretching us to trust Him more deeply. Over and over again in the adoption process He was there.  When we needed money and did not know how to cover the next bill, He made Himself known.  He became the God who does what He promises.

While I was dreaming about ideas for the Post, God birthed in me a new vision to start a church near the University of Louisville in Old Louisville.  The scripture that resonated with us through the process was Philippians 1. “Live in a manner worthy of the faith and to contend for the gospel.”  So I met with University officials, studied the demographics and began to find the deep need this community has for a new church:

- It is the youngest neighborhood in the city
- Only 8% of its 30,000 people under the age of 30 are attending a church
- 53% of U of L’s student body (24,000 students) said they have not had a conversation about God in the last year (according to a survey done by the University)
- There are no evangelical churches reaching more than 1% of that 30,000 people on any given week

What I discovered was…………..This is the largest mission field in our city!

I began studying church planting and found that:
- 80% of the churches in our country have either plateaued or are declining
- 15% are only growing by transfer growth (moving their membership from one church to another)
- 5% are growing from conversion growth (making a decision for Christ and being baptized)
- However, new churches gain 60 to 80% of their growth from new members and conversions
- New churches grow 12x faster than established churches
- Young people are disproportionately found in new churches
- North America is the only continent in the world where the evangelical church is no longer growing. We lose nearly 4,000 churches a year and only gain 1100 (American Society of Church Growth)
- 70% of American Christians walk away from the church between the ages of 18-22 (Lifeway research)

I fear deeply that we as a nation are heading in the same direction described in Judges Chapter 2.  It says of Joshua’s generation, “The people served the LORD throughout the lifetime of Joshua and of the elders who outlived him and who had seen all the great things the LORD had done for Israel.”  but then says only 2 verses later, “After that whole generation had been gathered to their fathers, another generation grew up, who knew neither the LORD nor what he had done for Israel.”

That is terrifying to me to imagine that we can follow God, we can serve Him, we can see His good works…and then next generation that comes behind us might not Know Him!

I don’t think Louisville needs another church but I do think they need a new expression of the Gospel. In all of my research I have found only one church in the city of Louisville who has set their target audience to be the young un-churched of our community. I believe there are not enough churches in Louisville reaching out to the next generation, reaching out to the University, and reaching out to the Old Louisville community.

My family and I are dreaming about a new expression of the gospel. We are amazingly excited & completely afraid.  We are more committed to prayer than we have ever been. We are beginning to see the great joy in the fact that Jesus calls “unschooled men” and ordinary leaders to do extraordinary things.  We are beginning to dream about multiplication, reproduction and a movement of churches on secular University campuses.  We are finding our tangible hope in Jesus as we are depending on Him for our next steps.  We are trusting Him to provide for our everyday needs.

We aren’t there yet, but maybe we will begin to look like the early church after all! Please pray for my family – for the leaders that will join us – for God’s provision and God’s grace as we go through the ups and downs of church planting.  Pray for the Louisville Project and the thousands of people near UofL & Old Louisville.  Most of all pray that in all things God is glorified!

We will be leaving SECC around the first of the year and partnering with them to plant a new church near the University of Louisville.

For more info about the Louisville Project go to ——- www.benhardman.org or coming soon www.thelouisvilleproject.com