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You're on the stage in front of 900 of the best leaders in the country gathered for The Whiteboard Sessions. You've got 30 minutes. Mark Batterson just finished his big idea. Perry Noble is up next.
What's your big idea?
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Tim Keller and Rick Warren shared the stage for Session 5 of Exponential. I'll post notes from Keller later, but here are Rick Warren' s suggestions for building a reproducing church...along with a couple of other quoteables:
Never compare yourself to someone else...
Keys to a Reproducing Church
(Warren had three more points, but ran out of time)
We have to reattach the hands and feet to the body of Christ and start being the church. For too long, we've just been a big mouth.
A funny quote..."Some people don't like me...(wink, wink). I figure if 50 million people can read Purpose Driven Life, then I can handle 4 bloggers. But, the good news is that I'm no longer the anti-Christ - I'm just a false prophet now. This week, Oprah is the anti-Christ."
If you've heard Warren speak recently, you've heard the basics of what he said today. Not knocking it at all...it's always great to hear him encourage pastors.
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Sitting in a breakout session with Tim Keller, Lead Pastor of Redeemer Church in New York City. The title of the session is "How to Accomplish the Jesus Mission," and let me tell you...Keller is laying it on thick. Wanted to share his thoughts on the six factors that must be held in balance for revival to happen:
The trick is that we cannot fully control whether these factors are held in balance. We can lead towards it, but, as Keller said, "leading Americans is like herding cats." It's easy to get frustrated when we think we're doing all we can, but revival is not happening...or it comes and then slows. That shows that we don't really believe the gospel - we think it's up to us.
Keller closed his session saying, "I still think God has a few revivals up his sleeve, but the only revival that will bring full, lasting healing is the last one that's called the new heaven and new earth."
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Late getting session notes up...but, I am posting quoteables as they happen via Twitter. For now, I am only posting notes from the main sessions here. I will post some summary thoughts and notes from the Missional Church track I am participating in at the end of the conference.
That being said, here are notes from Alan Hirsch's main session:
The church is in decline in virtually every corner of the western world.
The answer is not found in faddish practices and ideas - the answer is going deep into our most primal stories and re-discovering the ethos that has been lost.
The potential for world transformation is in each of us.
1. Recovery of the Centrality of Jesus in His own movement
2. Recovery of Discipleship as our Core Task
3. Recovering the ethos/structure of Apostolic Movements
4. Recovering a Missional/Incarnational Impulse
(Hirsch's time ran out and he did not get to elaborate on the last point)
It's hard to reduce Alan Hirsch to a few bullet points. You miss so much of the context, but I hope the statements I've shared will trigger you enough to ask some questions, wrestle with some ideas, and maybe read some of Hirsch's work (The Shaping of Things to Come and The Forgotten Ways).
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Andy Stanley spoke on Making Vision Stick in session 2 @ Exponential. A few quoteables...
"Every Student Pastor is just buying time until he starts his own church..." (funny poke at SP's as Andy told thestory of North Point's beginning - he was the SP on his dad's staff at FBC Atlanta)
"'You're the Christ, the Son of the Living God...' - that is the glue that holds us all together. We may not agree on anything else, but we can agree on that."
Vision always begins as a burden.
The challenge for those of us in leadership is making what's clear 'in here' has to become clear 'out there' or people can't follow us.
Making vision stick is central to leading people.
5 Keys to Making Vision Stick:
1. State it simply
2. Cast it convincingly
3. Repeat it regularly
4. Celebrate systematically
5. Embrace it personally and publically
Andy Stanley talking about vision is like throwing him a slow softball pitch - it's a home run every time. The greatest part of this talk was how frank, open and honest Andy was at the beginning about his personal story and how North Point began. For more, check out his book by the same title.
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Ed Stetzer kicked off Exponential 08 with a load of new research on church planting. The good news is that it's really good. The bad news is that he went through it at Mach 5 speed. But, his notes and presentation will be on his blog later today.
Stetzer then invited a panel on stage that included Bob Roberts, Randy Pope, Ron Sylvia, and Neil Cole. A few quotables:
B.R.::"North America has yet to see a church planting movement."
R.P.::"When you think Kingdom, you think 'What's the best way to reach our city,' not 'What do we need to do to make our church look better.'"
R.S.::"Our goal is to learn and return to the Kingdom."
N.C.::"Multiplication starts at the smallest level. If you can't multiply disciples, then you can't multiply leaders, churches, networks, etc."
"It's not about whether a chimney or a steeple is on the roof - it's about the relational vitality."
"It's a lot easier to bring the Kingdom of God to lost people...it's what Jesus did."
B.R.::"One of the greatest obstacles to church planting is great preaching. Great preaching can feed the idea that church is an event."
R.S.::"You are doing the greatest work being done on the planet. You are engaged in the X-Treme Sport of ministry."
"Link lives with other planters and leaders in your area. Do not go at church planting alone."
It's hard to blog a panel discussion...but, Stetzer is the master panel discussion leader. Great ideas and stories shared by these guys.
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Heading out this morning with a group of church planters from South Carolina to attend the Exponential Conference in Orlando. Looking forward to three days with thousands of members of the church planting tribe...and, temps are going to be in the 80's everyday!
Can't wait to see old friends, meet some new ones, and hear from voices like Keller, Stanley, Warren, and Hirsch among many, many others.
I'll do my best to do some live blogging and twittering so you can attend vicariously...:-)
If you're going to be there, let me know - would love to connect!
See you in sunny Orlando!
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