The Courageous Pastors Podcast

When you meet Brandon Bilbo two things strike you:

• He’s a bit country, and
• He’s a brilliant leader

Back in 2014 Brandon was a financial advisor, managing a $30MM portfolio. Then he felt called to plant Cross Church in Houma— 20 miles south of New Orleans.

For the first 18 months, he pulled double-duty, pastoring during the nights and weekends while working full-time during the normal 9-5 workweek.

In its first 6 years, the church grew to 1,200 in attendance.

Recently, Brandon’s area was hit by Hurricane Ida— a high-level hurricane that produced flooding as far away as New York City. The wind was so strong in “blew out” the wind gauges.

As Brandon says, “It was catastrophic. Everyone was touched by the trauma.”

The day after the storm, Brandon saw his church in action. Turns out, they could move faster than the government because they weren’t hamstrung by bureaucracies and processes.

And, very quickly, churches began working TOGETHER to help people in need.

Brandon makes an observation, “Pastors in the US pull together when there’s a disaster. In other nations where I’ve been on mission trips, they pull together all the time. That’s just how they do it.”

He encourages us to make those connections NOW— knowing that, at some point, troubles are coming.

Develop the relationships, nurture them... and enjoy them.

Eventually, we will need them in other ways.

The recent storms provided a platform for the church to reach everyone, everywhere. Literally.

“Everyone had some degree of damage,” he says, “and so everyone was reachable in some way.”

One day, in a distribution line, 79 people gave their lives to Jesus. Even though there was no sermon. Even though there was no altar call.

On another day, they asked people who came for help if they wanted prayer. Not a single person turned them down.

An elderly woman had multiple trees down in her yard. She’d just survived Covid and was now devastated by the disaster. Whereas tree companies price-gouged, volunteers from the church arrived at her home and helped her free of charge. She began weeping. It was the tangible love of Christ in action.

“Problems become our opportunity, our chance, to love people,” Brandon reminds us. “That is, if we can keep our poise when those things happen.

We still preach the same message we were preaching 2 years ago. But, in some way, it’s a bit different. It’s less about “come and see” and more about “we’re coming to you.”

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The Killer Teams Crash Course = www.CourageousPastors.com/cc

Schedule a free Strategy Session:

Brandon’s Church, Cross Church = https://crosschurchhouma.com and https://www.facebook.com/crosschurchhouma

Brandon is a coach with CourageousPastors.com = https://www.courageouspastors.com/brandon

Adam Weber shares words of wisdom with us in this episode of The Courageous Pastors Podcast.

“Control what you can control,” he says, “and trust God with the rest.”

We often do the exact opposite. We fret about the things outside our reach, but don’t handle the things we can truly manage.

Adam has been using words, like these, to encourage pastors as he speaks with them. More than any other time, he reminds them to take care of themselves, and to acknowledge their limits.

One leader recently told him, “In 18 years of ministry, I’ve never wanted to quit... until now.”

“Focus on where you ARE, not where you were,” he says.

Again, you can control things in the past. You can only live in the present.

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Read more + find the links to the show notes at www.CourageousPastors.com/blog/014

In his own words, “It’s been both better than I thought AND harder than I thought...”

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Read more at www.CourageousPastors.com/blog/017

Jeff stepped into the interim role, then became the lead pastor.

Today, he leads the same church— now a multi-site congregation, spanning 6 physical locations, in the PIttsburgh area.

During this season he enjoys looking back and serving young leaders, pastors who stand in the position he found himself three decades ago. More so, he especially likes serving young leaders who want to plant a church.

In this episode Jeff mentions “the good ol’ days.”

It’s easy to look back and live nostalgically. But that’s not what he refers to at all. He doesn’t suggest we should just look back in order to complain about the present, either.

Rather, looking back is a way to remind us of God’s goodness, His faithfulness...

Recently, Jeff rode through a nearby area with the leader of one of their first church plants outside the Pittsburgh area.

“We drove through the streets,” he said, “and I remembered our drive years before— when the church didn’t exist, when it was just an idea, a dream...”

He adds, “As I sat on the front row of that church, celebrating that first decade, I was moved to tears. None of this was here just years before.”

(We can also learn lesson when we glance in the rear view mirror. People say that experience is a great teacher, but mere experience isn’t. EVALUATED experience, on the other hand, truly is.)

“Looking back,” Jeff says, “offers the opportunity to celebrate the faithfulness you can easily forget.”

Many pastors faced a “crisis of faith” coming through the pandemic.

(Some are still feeling it, in fact.)

Jeff refers this to “pruning in the pandemic.” And, he reminds us that “God’s pruning is always for our good AND for future fruit” (see John 15:1f.). “Even when it comes in odd ways,” he adds. “Even then we can look back and see his past faithfulness...”

What does this pruning include?

Jeff refers to something MANY of the guest on the podcast have referenced: “We’ve been measuring the wrong things.” Or— “We’ve measured the right things in the wrong ways...”

Jeff endeavors to transform his church into a “Barnabas house,” that is, a place of encouragement— sacred space which launches people into their calling.

Barnabas is the Apostle who sold a plot of land and gave the proceeds to the early church. He’s the leader who stood by Paul, effectively endorsing him when everyone else was still nervous about his recent conversion. He’s the sage who believed in Mark, also, even though he’d bailed on Paul and Barnabas amidst their first mission venture.

You know the outputs of these actions...

• The church had resources to feed the widows and expand its footprint.
• Paul led mission trips, planted churches, and penned the letters which became the Scriptures we often read.
• Mark wrote what many believe to be the first Gospel.

At each beginning of each of these stories stands that character Barnabas, the one who breathed life into people and pushed them— in a healthy way— towards their call.

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Links:

Allison Park Church

Allison Park Leadership Network = AllisonParkLeadershipNetwork.com

Gears of Growth = www.CourageousPastors.com/ogg

Schedule a free Strategy Session = www.CourageousPastors.com/strategy

Did you know, in the next decade, that most people will be holding their wealth in non-cash assets instead of their checking & savings accounts? This shift is crucial for the local church to understand, especially when it comes to giving encouragement. As times change, we must adapt our approach to align with the evolving financial realities of our congregation.

Vance Roush is the Founder/CEO of Overflow, whose mission is to inspire your church with a faster, simpler and more accessible way to give. He dives into the changing landscape of wealth and its impact on the local church.

Overflow.co

Vance Roush Instagram

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