Ever feel invisible. No, not some superhero kind of invisible but a feeling that no one really cares if you are alive or not. It's easy to feel alone...at any age. And if you always feel like people notice you, then stop and take a moment to notice the people who are around you...and really see them.
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I was back at Doubling Gap Center, (Camp Yolijwa), near Newville, PA for the day. Craig Sider spoke again and was once again inspirational. Also today, the Church Planting Commission that I am a part of gave its report to all of the people in attendance. It went well and I hope that people will want to plant new churches to help people begin a relationship with Jesus. For more info about this check 2020 Initiative here.
I was at Doubling Gap Center, Newville, PA (near Carlisle) today and will be back there tomorrow. The annual ERC meetings are there and I have the opportunity to talk with old friends and meet some new ones. Today I got to hear the main speaker twice, once for the whole crowd and once for the seminar he taught. He is excellent and really inspirational. His name is Craig Sider and he is currently VP and Executive Director of the Center for Leadership at Evangelical Theological Seminary in Myerstown, PA. The setup at conference is the best that it's been. The people running sound/video/lighting, etc. are doing a great job and set up for a conference of today. There is a big screen so you can see the speaker even from the back of the gym and good sound and well-lit and creative lighting of the stage. The best though is the chance to talk with people. Today I got a chance to have lunch with church planters and people from their churches along with others, like myself, who are ov...
O.K. Exponential '09, the largest gathering of church planting leaders in North America, is over. It ended yesterday. I am back home in Dover, PA and glad to be home. It was great to get home from the airport last night and see my wife and kiss her. And great to see one of my daughters this morning and talk with her as I drove her to school. I walked into my church this morning and said, "I'm home." It's great to be back home and I look forward to this weekend's worship and my life in God's service. I am embedding this sermon player one more time right here so that you can hear the opening and closing messages at Exponential. It was loaded in a few days ago but I will save you having to scroll down. You will also be able to download the messages so that you can share them with others or listen at a different time. The first two messages are from Exponential and the following ones are sermons from Pastor Dennis Hall here at Friendship Community Ch...
I'm back in the worship center. After my last session I got a chance to talk with Tom Clegg. I had met him a dozen or so years ago at a Church Planters Bootcamp when my wife and I were looking at planting a church in Virginia Beach. He would have been our coach. Anyway, that didn't work out for us to plant the church and a lot of interesting experience have come my way this past decade. But hearing and talking with Tom brought back a lot of memories. I believe in church planting so strongly even today. I want to help accomplish the mission of reaching people for Jesus. I really enjoy serving as Worship Pastor. But I am hoping that we can expand our ministry to reach more in different ways. It takes many people to work together to reach the community and world. Francis Chan is sharing next to close out the conference.
Tom Clegg is very inspiring. He has talked about how God is setting a fire in many people today that may/can lead to revival in the church, in the country, and in the world. I remember a bootcamp I attended a dozen years ago and have been looking back on the intervening years. Tom is a church planter, a coach of church planters, and a trainer of coaches. Fire produces hope, that's why a campfire is so powerful in a person's life. Big question: Do we really believe that God's power is in each believer? God is able to lead people. Our job is to equip them. Sustained momemtum on the journey of church planting comes from coaching. Coaching can seed a movement. Tom challenged us to find one thing we can do from what we learned/experienced at this conference. Then develop a plan for doing it. What are the obstacles? When & Where? First achievable steps? Who do you want to go with you? How will you measure and celebrate? Who can join you on your next adventure? A gr...
Now I’m continuing with Kevin Giddings' seminar “using the internet to gather, disciple and create community.” A lot of people are looking at the church website first. 13-24 year olds spend more time online than in front of the TV. Building a missional web presence: The url needs to be searchable. Your name must be able to be searched and found online. 3 kinds of websites: Brochure, dynamic, interactive (church websites should be interactive) The rest of this will be available later (that's the plan :)
I’m still blogging here at Exponential ’09 in Orlando, Florida. I just got back inside from sitting outside in 80 degree weather for lunch. It was nice to be outside. My seminar this morning was Rick Howerton on “Selecting a small group system that is right for your culture.” He has served churches as Small Groups Pastor, was a church planter, and now works at a publishing house of small group materials. His outline and powerpoint presentation can be found at serendipityblog.com It was a good overview of the various ways that churches can have small groups. Then he gave us a way of evaluating the systems and looking at the one that would be best for our particular, or your particular church. Right now there is an introductory video of a church in Indonesia and Eddy Leo, pastor of a dynamic growin from there is speaking next. After that Bob Roberts will be speaking. Bob Roberts shared passionately that the American church has a lot to learn from churches around the world and relig...
Marc Choi from Korea and now planting a church in New York City and looking to plant in New Jersey has introduced the next speaker Craig Groeschel, senior pastor of LifeChurch. 1) Craig is sharing that a movement will never be safe and clean. It must be dangerous. The seeker sensitive movement had its place. But now the church needs to preach a dangerous message of full commitment. Trusting in the power of God's Word we need to take some risks. 2) A movement is not about our ministry but about His kingdom. We can't affect our city by ourselves. Build a church based on what you are, not on what you are not. Don't put down other churches. We are all in this together. 3) You will not lead a movement based on the old measurements of success. The scorecard has changed. Old: attendance, offerings, commitments, baptisms, small groups. New: identity is wrapped up in who you are in Christ, not numbers. Don't blame yourself for the declines, becaus then you will want...
The theme this week for this conference is "The Art of Movements." Not just having one new church but a movement where many churches are birthed. The first speaker this morning is from Korea and is part of a movement there that began with a church, Onnuri Community Church in Seoul of 12 members and is expanding from the 53,000 members there now to planting churches globally. His name is Mark Choi and he was on the staff of this big church. 29% of Koreans today are Christians. Korea is #2 in sending missionaries. U.S.A. is #1 Marc planted a church in New York City 3 years ago called "in2 Church." Marc spoke of 3 movements/principles for Christians. 1) Daily Quiet Time 2) One-to-one discipleship. 3) Small group. They have weekend worship also, but people need to grow so they need these 3 principles.
At Exponential 2009 New Church Planting Conference this afternoon I got to hear Erwin McManus speak and then attended two seminars. Both seminars were not what I had planned to attend, but I believe they were what God wanted me to hear. The first one was about raising money for doing ministry. Sharing vision and inviting people to participate in the vision through prayer and financial support. It was a very good presentation. The second one was Top 10 Mistakes made by Church Starts. As someone who planted a church a dozen years or so ago that ended about a year and a half later this was an interesting talk for me. At first I felt bad that I had made most of those same mistakes but then I felt better because others had done the same (misery loves company) and the fact that the guy shared ways to fix the problems. Good stuff. The notes are here so if you want them you can look for them here. Good luck downloading them :) At the end of the afternoon our group went out to eat--we are eat...
5 Lessons To Save You 5 Years [to start a multi-site campus]--part four More Extra Credit: Churches that had a launch team of 41 or more are more likely to have an opening of 300 or more. Make sure you have a big enough launch team and the right Campus Pastor. Next in the seminar is a question and answer time. One time they linked adding on to the facility at one place and launching 7 new campuses.