Stay in the Boat by Judah Smith

October 20, 2010 By nick Leave a Comment

This is the message by Judah Smith from the New Spring Leadership Conference I attended several weeks ago. The actual title was “Matters of the Meantime” but the overarching theme of the message was “Stay in the Boat.” I was following Judah on Twitter, but I had never heard one of his messages. I was kind of blown away by his attire, I had never seen a man wear leotard before (okay they were skinny, skinny jeans), but he preaches the Word with boldness and blew me away with his message, so he can wear leotards if he wants :)

Check out more videos from the New Spring Leadership Conference.

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Velocity 2010 – Alan Hirsch

February 22, 2010 By nick 4 Comments

alanhirsch-buttonVelocity 2010 Church Planters Conference

Speaker: Alan Hirsch

More of the same will not bring fundamental change.

Our decisions make a difference in the world.

Why do we need to be Missional?

It’s not a cute new term. Not another cool buzz word.

Concepts:

1. Cultural Distance:

m0…….m1………..m2…………m3………..m4

Each ‘M’ signifies one significant cultural barrier to the effective communication of the gospel
(M0 is easier – M4 is more difficult)

Significant Cultural Barrier to Communicate the Gospel Meaningfully:

  • Language
  • Worldviews
  • Other Religions

Culture is heading in the direction of becoming more difficult. Closer or at m4, not at m0.

Church must become cross-cultural missionaries again. (This is HUGE for Grovetown)

“Attractional” Church works well in sector m0, however it doesn’t work as well in sectors further out.

When people plug into church, they have less connection in the sectors outside of m0. This is a problem.

“Extractional” Church – It extracts people from their networks of people outside the church.

We are asking the disconnected from Christ to do the cross-cultural work and move from their sector to the m0 sector.

Christians are all missionaries, we are obligated to take the gospel message to other sectors.

*Research in Australia, what non-churched people thought of: God, Jesus, Spirituality, Church

Results: God; positive, Jesus; positive, Spirituality; positive, Church; negative*

The Church can work with the fact that the “basic message” of the church is viewed as positive.

What has to change? The Church. – It must adapt itself to deliver the message.
(My note 1 Cor 9:19-23)

The contemporary church is carrying the load.

America: 40% of Americans would be attracted to the contemporary model of the church.

Strategic Problem… 95% of churches are trying to become what will only reach 40% of the population.

2000+ Churches have over 2,000 people in attendance. There are over 400,000 churches in America!!! Big strategic problem.

Missionary Problem:

60% of Americans will not go to the contemporary style church.

Plus…the 40% is not increasing, its decreasing.

**More of the same will not get fundamentally different results**

More of the Same?

  • Organizational Insanity
  • “The problems of the world” – The problems in the church cannot be solved by things that created the original problems (What got you to 40% will not get you the 60%)
  • Digging holes

(The church of Christ was built for ADVANCE, not Defense)
(A message makes you a MESSENGER)

Solution – The church will have to look different than the contemporary model of the church.

The in Western Culture battle will be won at the level of imagination…or it will be lost at that level.

Einstein – “I value imagination more than I value knowledge.”

Missionary has to go amongst the people. “You know nothing about church”

Ask 2 basic questions:

1.    What is church to these people? – You cannot assume the answer to this.
(Churches have to be much more diverse – A thinking of the church vs. a model of the church)

2.    What is gospel to these people? – You cannot assume the answer to this.
(The church does not have a mission, the mission has a church)

If the only thing you have is a hammer, everything begins to look like a nail.

Will the reformation model work? It was formed from a culture where people felt guilty for their sin. Do people now feel guilty for their sin?

The church is supposed to be the Good News people, not the guilt bearing people. That makes us become the Pharisees, which Jesus reserved his harshest criticisms for.

You plant the gospel, not churches.

People are enslaved to idols: work, money, sex, etc…that offer everything and give nothing.

The churches decisions matter!

Church planters should be missionaries first before we are planters.

Velocity Conference: Main Session 1 Highlights – - Main Session 3 Highlights – - Breakout Session 2 with Pete Wilson Highlights – - Main Session 4 Highlights – - Breakout Session 3 with Tony Morgan Highlights – - Main Session 6 Highlights

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Velocity 2010 – Shawn Lovejoy

February 22, 2010 By nick 2 Comments

shawnlovejoy-buttonVelocity 2010 Church Planters Conference

Speaker Shawn Lovejoy (Twitter)

Satan knows if he can get the leader to doubt themselves, he has them on a slippery slope.

When leaders get insecure in their own skin:

1. We start comparing ourselves to other leaders –

The Challenge is, with technology, we can look all around the country and see what is happening everywhere else and start comparing our church to others and ourselves to other leaders. This brings a great deal of negativity.

2. We start copying other leaders -

We’ll use their logos, their sermon series, etc.

We become afraid of becoming or being the leader God’s called us to be.

Copying leads to envying other ministries and leaders.

3. We Condemn other Leaders -

When condemning others does not make us feel better, we start getting down on ourselves.

(Either God called you, or he didn’t…If he called you…don’t quit, don’t give up!)

2 Timothy 4:1-5, 6-7

[Francis Chan] “I can build a church bigger than Jesus with enough money and slick marketing. (Large crowds are not always attracted to the commitment Jesus calls us to)

  • Be Patient
  • Do Your Ministry
  • Use Your Gifts
  • Be Self-Disciplined

1 Samuel 17:38-40

Pastors try to wear someone else’s armor:

  • Copy their personality

(God wants to use MY personality in MY community)

  • Copy their gifts

Someone else’s armor could be someone else’s testimony

A lot of churches look good and look the way they do, because they reflect the testimonies of the leaders of that church.

(We cannot duplicate the testimonies of other churches)

**God wants to use OUR testimonies in OUR community!**

Could God be limiting our voice in our community because we are trying to duplicate everyone else in our church?

Are you willing to take off someone else’s armor?

Velocity Conference: Main Session 2 Highlights – - Main Session 3 Highlights – - Breakout Session 2 with Pete Wilson Highlights – - Main Session 4 Highlights – - Breakout Session 3 with Tony Morgan Highlights – - Main Session 6 Highlights

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The 2008 Orange Conference Final Thoughts

May 2, 2008 By nick Leave a Comment

The 2008 Orange Conference Rocked!

I posted highlights from each of the main sessions on my blog: (Sessions 1, 2, 3, 4, 5) it was the first time I blogged anything live, it was challenging keeping up with the likes of Louie Giglio and Francis Chan, because while you type they can throw out like 3 huge thoughts that are essential to their talk.

Modeling Leadership: The over all message that I heard throughout the conference was that our children and students need adult leaders to model being the kind of church they are to be when they take on the roles of the adult leaders in the future. – The big issue I see here is the need for adult education, because if you are awake and a leader in the church, you may have heard by now that the church is in decline, that’s because our adults are modeling a church they were shown, and its disconnecting with this generation.

Being Versus Doing: I think Louie Giglio ended the conference with a great message. He opened by asking the crowd, “What if we decided to just BE the church?” He did a great talk about how the church cannot make relevancy its “golden calf,” but his fear is, that the contemporary church has already done so, and that the modern church will make social justice their “golden calf.”

I think the best point was that we should choose to be a transcendent church, being the church of Jesus Christ as our goal, versus trying to always be relevant. The problem with relevance is that you will always be a step behind, because the person who is setting the pace for “relevancy” is always going to be a step ahead, but with the church, we have Jesus and He was before us, He is with us, and He will be after us. It doesn’t matter what happens with culture ahead of us, because Jesus will be there.

Breakouts: Were good minus 1. I did not care too much for the UNEDITED: reThinking Student Ministry. Then again I have been to some of the top notch student ministry conferences in the country and I get to hang out with the absolute best youth pastors in the country and Doug Fields once a year, so I may be a little spoiled? In this breakout it felt like the session never gained traction!

Breakouts “Engaging Parents of Teens” with Chap Clark, “Mobilizing the Next Generation” with Stuart Hall, and “College Prep: Protecting our Investment in Kids” with Chuck Bomar was absolutely awesome. I am going to have to email these speakers to get their notes as I could not keep up. Every single session was top notch. [Read more...]

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2008 Orange Conference Session 5

April 30, 2008 By nick Leave a Comment

2008 Orange Conference

Session 5

Louie Giglio

New Question: Can the church influence culture or lead culture?

  • The church is not poised corporately to take the lead in culture.
  • A whole new idea – What if we decided together to be the church of Jesus Christ? What if that was our Goal?
  • The church that Jesus said He would build…the one that Jesus said that even Hell would not prevail.
  • What if  we chose to be instead of just do?
  • John 1:1-3, 14-?
  • It’s an incarnate church – The Message “Jesus put flesh on and moved into the neighborhood” – We are the presence of God in the neighborhood.
  • The church is transcendent – We, “the church,” can transcend culture.
  • Jesus was before us, He is with us, and He will be after us.
  • Relevance is to be in step with, so to strive to be relevant means that we will always be behind someone. Trying to be relevant is tiring because you can never catch up.
  • One extreme is to completely avoid being culturally relevant…the other is to be oversaturated with cultural relevance. Relevance may have become the golden calf of the contemporary church. The golden calf of the future/emerging church may be social justice.
  • Because of Christ, we transcend culture…I cannot even type the notes for what Louie just said…Wow!
  • It doesn’t matter what is going to happen…because Jesus “Will Be…” – We can relate to people even if we do not have a lot in common, because Jesus “Is” [Read more...]

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2008 Orange Conference Session 4

April 30, 2008 By nick Leave a Comment

The 2008 Orange Conference

Session 4

Reggie Joiner and Andy Stanley

  • Tensions – There is a lot of similarities in the life of believers and non-believers. Christians are of the mindset that we have a lot of differences in our lives, but on everyday levels we all face the same stuff.
  • If you create irresistible environments, people will come.
  • When you capture “the tension” you have everyone’s attention.
  • Churches have to define what spiritual growth is. – Ask yourself, how did you grow spiritually?
  • 5 Elements of Spiritual Growth Identified by North Point:
    1. Practical Teaching
    2. Providential Relationships
    3. Private Disciplines
    4. Pivotal Circumstances
    5. Personal Ministry
  • Small Groups are Pivotal to living out these 5 Elements.
  • Do what God calls us to do without criticizing other models and other churches. That is not the way to get traction for your ministry.
  • Jesus, “Who do people say that I am?” – “Who do you think that I am?” – Peter responded that Jesus was “the Christ, the Son of the living God” – Jesus said that he was going to build his church on that…
  • Compassion, Missions, Social Justice, Etc…are all great, but at the core of all these movements, and what we do to answer those issues have to come back to Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God.” Evangelism cannot be removed! – The hope of the world is the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
  • Choosing to Cheat: Your only Unique role is a Father/Mother and Spouse. Your church work was probably being done before you got there and will be done by someone else at some point. Don’t trade what is unique to you for something that is common and average.
  • If our marriages are in trouble then we become a part of the problem in our culture and society.

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Do

April 29, 2008 By nick Leave a Comment

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ziOG_GHNVq0]

I’ve been thinking about this commercial for a while now. I have had the privilege of attending some of the greatest conferences in this Country for church leaders, yet it seems that year after year we discuss some of the same issues with ministries in the church and in the Christian culture as if nothing is changing. Research data shows that nothing much has improved. This is in no way to take away from what a lot of churches are doing, trust me, there are a lot of churches who are rocking it for God! However, we as an “unified” body are doing nothing, and it bothers me.

This post or video is not to take away from what I am learning at the Orange Conference. Some of the key words reminded me of this commercial today. “ReThink” “Programs” “Processes” “Innovate” “New Ideas” – All great terms, but meaningless unless there is substance to back them up. There was one breakout that confused me today, but that is not to take away from the conference as a whole, everything will not be 100%, but it seemed that people were sharing a lot of their Ideation, but no solid “hows” to move the Church and Christian culture in a direction to answer these issues that we are focusing on. I think there has to be a time and place to quit discussing and thinking and start doing.

I think it is time that we as the “Church” stop Ideating and start DOING! I am passionate about this, but feel I do not know what I can do to influence people to ‘do,’ except post this on my blog. Will you start doing with me? Maybe if a few of us join together we will see some changes. I heard Rick Warren say this past week that he wants to be a part of starting the 2nd Reformation of the church. The first Reformation was about Creeds (we know what we believe now) so the 2nd Reformation will be about “deeds.” – If your ministry, or if you are doing something personally to “Do” versus “Ideate” please share with me what you are doing…If you are Ideating and not doing, please share with me what you are praying God will use you to do – Then we can do it together…

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2008 Orange Conference Session 3

April 29, 2008 By nick Leave a Comment

The 2008 Orange Conference
Session 3

Donald Miller:

On Leadership…

  • How Donald sees Leadership: A person who gets to know you in such a way that makes you want to take ownership or part in their vision.
  • Jesus influenced many, but led 12.
  • A leader gets to know people.
  • A leader invites people to own their vision and to take part in the vision…gets people involved in fulfilling the vision.
  • Leaders need to be following someone, if they are not being led, we need to be cautious about following them.
  • A leader’s ambition should be huge and absurd.
  • Attempting BIG things will emulate a process of thinking big in those that we follow (I.E. Our Children)
  • Leadership does not allow people to watch “the vision” happen, but to be a part of “the vision.” (Donald told of a story with an annual San Diego Parade and how it began…great story!)
  • Leaders speak something into nothingness.
  • God has asked us to lead; he has invited us into the vision.
  • Eventually when you have an idea, you give it away to the place where people don’t even know that the original vision and idea came from you, it grows and expands because of ownership.
  • My Challenge: To lead like Jesus led.

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2008 Orange Conference Session 2

April 29, 2008 By nick Leave a Comment

2008 Orange Conference by ReThink Group

Session 2

Francis Chan:

  • Is the success in churches from God and the Holy Spirit moving, or is it good marketing?
  • With the right team, Francis can build a Mormon church, a Jehovah’s church, maybe even a Baptist Church
  • Francis doesn’t want to preach another message, he wants to experience something supernatural…something God! – Acts was of God.
  • Does it bother us that we walk into our neighborhoods and the lost have more evidences of the fruits of the spirit than those in the church? Shouldn’t there be a difference between someone without the Spirit and the one who is the Temple of the Holy Spirit?
  • We can create church attenders and some disciplined people, but we cannot create Christ lovers, people filled with God’s spirit.
  • Is it God that we are experiencing in our ministries? Are we sure? Are we experiencing God because we know its God, or are we just excited because “we” pulled something off.
  • There is a huge difference in what the Bible says and what we see in the church – yet we are crippled to say anything because everyone seems so happy. So we do not even try to hold our churches to the Biblical standard. (Yep!)
  • **Francis: If Jesus planted a church in Semi Valley California, Francis’ church would be bigger, because people do not want to follow the standard that Jesus calls us to. (Lose our life for his sake, deny father and mother, sacrifice, death) [Read more...]

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2008 Orange Conference Session 1

April 28, 2008 By nick Leave a Comment

The 2008 Orange Conference

Opening video…Wow!!! Makes you proud to be a part of the “Church”

Steve Fee – Loved the new song!

Sue Miller

  • After last year’s conference she was challenged in a new way, she was told she had cancer.
  • After arguing with God, she was compelled that God asked her, “Who’s driving?”
  • Challenge to ask God to show us what investment/impact we’ve made.
  • God started to reveal to her how he had used her. – God told her she did exactly what He told her to do.
  • Challenge to realize that you do not need a cancer diagnosis to give your all to God.
  • A note to volunteers…Sue usually hears people say things like, “I just hold babies” “I just lead a small group” “I just greet people”
  • Don’t ever say I just anymore.
  • You get to be Jesus with Skin on to people who are walking through the doors of the church, who needs someone to hug them, to relate to them.
  • This is a very important responsibility!

Reggie Joyner – “Uncensored” Reaching a Prodigal Generation

  • There is one thing that is important in our ministries.
  • Its not truth or message – It’s not family – It’s not leadership.
  • Without this one thing, you do not have a basis for genuine community.
  • Going through a paraphrase of the Prodigal Son
  • This is definitely the Message version of the Prodigal son!
  • Only two people were unhappy about the younger son returning, Older and the fatted calf.
  • What if the older brother got to the prodigal son before the loving father? How would the story be different?
  • Reggie grew up in an “older brother” church! (Me Too!) – This produced a mindset that it took time to unravel.
  • Luke 15:1-2 – “But the Pharisees and the teachers of the law muttered, “This man welcomes sinners and eats with them.” – Jesus hears them and tells them 3 stories; the final story was the Prodigal. He showed them 2 different perspectives to the Prodigal.
  • There are 2 different approaches to sinners: 1. The Pharisee way (The older brother) or 2. Jesus’ way (The loving father)
  • Challenge: Treat every prodigal in the way a loving father would treat his own son! [Read more...]

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