Exponential Conference 2010
My friend Tom Toner asked me my thoughts on the conference I just attended. I thought it might be worth reposting them here.
Tom,
The conference is refreshing. It gives me time to stop and ponder and listen to thoughtful speakers spur my imagination.
That being said, it was a weird collection in some ways. Several speakers seemed to have attained all they wanted to attain and now hated it. Two examples are Francis Chan and Matt Chandler. Chan has become a very popular speaker and wrote the book Crazy Love. Chandler planted a church with Chris Tomlin as his worship leader so duh, people loved the worship.
They both planted churches, crowds showed up, people loved their churches, and now they want to do something that feels more dangerous and real, like helping poor people. There was a powerful feeling from the organizers (my impression at least) that this was really, really wonderful. And it is... But there is still that feeling of we want to accomplish the success first (lots of people, lots of adoration) and then we will listen to those guys say we should help the poor.
On the other hand, they did have Shane Claiborne speak, who is a Tennessee boy who now lives in a Philadelphia commune in a slum area, who said, "Don't plant churches! Well, ok, plant a church, but live there for 5 years first. And maybe instead of starting a new church, go to a church that is already there." People think that is really cool and admirable, but the church planters at Exponential aren't going to do that. So why did they bring Claiborne in? To challenge our thinking a bit, but not to channel us down that path. To give a shout out to the crazy Jesus lovers, but not to give up the need for a trailer to store all your portable church planting stuff and to hire a payroll company to do all your payroll (these were a few of the sponsors of the event).
It's almost like they (the organizers) have one hand on the golden goal of a big successful church and one on what it would look like for the church to be a dynamic wildfire spread. The breakout speakers all had churches over 1000 in attendance (I didn't check every bio so I could be wrong.) And I'll sinfully admit I want the same thing.
For example, I'm listening to Alan Hirsch say the problem with the Western Church is that it isn't easily reproducible. So he and his partner speaker said, "Here's a model of a reproducing church. It doesn't have services necessarily. But each time a person is baptized, they are an ordained minister. They look for people who are open to God and share the Gospel with them. They share a one page list of what it means to obey Jesus. And they start doing life together. Repeat."
A young man sitting in front of me explained to his friend, "Yeah, and then the theology becomes so messed up as it's passed around without enough explanation and thoroughness. Bad idea."
I suppose that is most of our problems. We each have something we think is essential that won't fit on one page or easily reproduce, and we won't give it up for the good of the Kingdom of God. It's either doctrine or style of music or preaching style or building needs or financial compensation standards or whatever it is. Hirsch says, "Get over all that and let God spread like wildfire."
One breakout I was really excited about was talking about reproducing leaders. I'm under the conviction that this is the single most important thing I am not currently doing and that it would change everything. Scott Hodge (www.scotthodge.org), a young pastor who helped his dad transition an older Assembly of God church in Aurora, IL spoke well on the subject of transition and leadership. He described exactly what I hope to do... except... I asked what size was your church when you started this leadership training. His answer? 600-700. What does that mean for our church of 80-100? He said, "Do it anyway." (Again all the speakers were pastors of huge churches.)
I waited around after the breakout to make a phone call, and a guy named Patrick Grach (www.lifehousechurcheast.org, which may be the coolest site I've ever seen) grabbed me (he's pretty intense though he didn't actually touch me) and told me how he does leadership development and what might work more at our size church. He said to do the same amount of preparation (in other words, prepare as much for this as you do to preach) and then take potential leaders out to breakfast early morning every other week and see how they respond. That was the most helpful thing I heard because he brought it down to my size level (which just happens to be the most common size church in America).
Pastor Brian Miller
The Crossover Church (www.thecrossover.org)
New Life for Haiti (www.newlifeforhaiti.org)
Midwest Church Planting
Labels: church planting, Exponential Conference, leadership, the forgotten ways
posted by Brian at 10:01 AM
11 Comments:
Hey Brian. Thank you for the great post. I attended Exponential once and came away with much the same.
I do think that they try to challenge the status quo at times or they wouldn't have speakers like Alan or Shane and at the same time as a new church planter, you feel out of your league and that you are expected to have explosive growth in just a few months and then become a guest speaker and write a book and have your worship Pastor cut a CD.
It's like a having a convention for new restaurant entrepreneurs and having your speakers be from McDonalds and Starbucks and then their sponsor booths are trying to sell you the newest cooking equipment that cost $$$$$$$$.
I honestly received so much more from the conference that you and Fran put together or even our get-together with CGGC planters/renewers - something for the real people and in the trenches and affordable. Exponential costs (including registration, plane, hotel, etc.) - wow! I went once before moving to Joliet because I won a free pass and plane fare.
Anyway, I wonder if they'd ever consider a conference for "little guys" like us who need encouragement, prayer, simple ideas and challenges, good resources, etc.
Thank you CGGC for being so helpful in these areas. You have been so kind, giving, and thoughtful. Can I say THANK YOU?!
Brian,
Wow! Just wow! That was an amazing perspective.
I would kind of like to echo Steve on a few points.
Yeah, the Grassroots convention was far superior that anything I have been to in Pastor Convention land.
Just one minor tweak on what Steve suggested about a conference for "the rest of us" who need encouragement, prayer, simple ideas and challenges, good resources, etc.
I am not sure I would want to get that from one of the "big guns" of the faith. I mean, fine, maybe one or two, but the moments at conferences that always speak to me are those conversation like Brian had.
So I think Steve's "little dudes" conference is in order and some intentional time forged into the conference for those little chats that mean so much.
I appreciated this, Brian. I share a lot of the same thoughts, I think. Actually, I enjoy going to conferences (though I don't attend very many), but I enjoy the worship times and hanging out more than I enjoy listening to the big-name speakers.
In regard to what Shane Claiborne said... I have actually been thinking about that a little myself. I wonder how church planting might differ if we thought about it more from a "helping things grow", rather than a somewhat forced "planting"? I know there would need to be some intentionality involved, but I'm thinking more of "communities that develop", rather than organizations that are "put together." Not that they would all need to be this way - I liked the Keller thought in the other post about a variety. But this seems to be much more... natural.
Anyway, thanks for sharing this, Brian.
Brian, thanks for the post, and guys for all the good comments. I have gradually come to the conclusion that each of us just needs to do our best to discern what the Holy Spirit calls us to. If you have a deep sense of that, you can go to a big conference like this and not be confused about who to emulate (the guy with the big church or the guy living among the poor?). Even on t he blog here, I see us frequently cross into that territory where we suggest the kind of change "everybody" needs to make (I do it too). But it's not one-size-fits-all, so we need to not judge the choices the other makes about what kind of church to shape and how to go about it.
Brian, your words about leadership development hit home-- that's where I am struggling, and our church can't go much further without some progress on that front. I've developed some good leaders in the past, but it's not reproducible.
A couple of you mused on the idea of smaller conferences for us non-megas. There's been some talk of a CGGC annual conference at least a little like the conferences we've done in the Midwest in years past. Personally, I think this would be great. You could bring in a couple people who are sharp in certain areas, and also have presentations and conversations generated by "the rest of us".
Dan, I was thinking about your "helping things grow" vs. "forced planting" thought. Sometimes the planting feels forced either by the planter's vision (how big, how fast?), and sometimes by financial scenarios (how soon can the new church help the pastor eat?). When there's not a lot of financial pressure, a planter can let things grow more naturally, I suppose. But sometimes the planter thinks the solution to making that possible is five years of denominational support versus two (which is unrealistic). I guess I'm saying I agree with you-- that the substance of what you're growing trumps chasing success based on a certain model or expectations-- and that each planter has to figure out what their balance of all that will look like. Again... I think we each need to be discerning what the Holy Spirit calls us to.
Does anyone know anything about this - 'the sticks: a gathering for those in smaller towns and hard to reach places' (www.thesticks.tv/)? There doesn't appear to be much information there, and I've not heard of it, but it sounds interesting.
I've heard of The Sticks. It looks to me (though I've never been to one) that they also have that mentality of bringing in people who have grown really large churches, as if that is the only goal.
I talked to our elders this morning about the idea of doing our own conference for churches under 150 to 200. They were pretty excited about the idea. There are a couple of things we do very well, and a couple of things we are terrible at. We thought we might make the conference about what we do know and what we would like to know.
Brian: Can't find the like button. (=
LIKE
IstoriaRev,
Do we have to get you a facebook 12 step?
I think I am ready to join one. I just spent a good part of my weekend fending off FB assaults for daring to have emerging thoughts and then I kinda said something nice about Jennifer Knapp.
@Brian. I think this idea of normal sized churches who are cool with being normal sized churches church conference as being a wonderful step. Please keep us in the loop as to the developments.
I'm late to the conversation so I hope this gets out.
There where breakout sessions lead by people who lead churches under 1,000.
Matt Smay and Hugh Halter have a church of 300, their names stick out the most to me. I had dinner with them, Alan Hirsch, and Linda Bergquist Wednesday night.
I think we can learn a lot from the big wigs of ministry. Although a ton of what is provided is "ministry porn" Stetzer's words, not mine). I think we have to be more intentional about our plans, when we go to these conferences.
First we need to figure out who has been in our ministry context for Brian some examples would be Steve Addison, Francis Chan,Darrin Patrick, Ron Sylvia ect. They have all been where Brian is at. started with nothing and were at where Brian is, at one time. Don't go to listen to people where you haven't been at. Matt Chandler started with 160 people at the village. Others in the same boat.
Second if you can ask your question in the break out sessions if not Go SPEND TIME WITH THESE PEOPLE! Blow off main sessions. I personally saw three main stage speakers.
The Best time to Network is during main sessions. Alan and Linda wanted to see Shane speak. So we watched him and then they took me to dinner. I don't know who spoke after Shane. There was an African American woman on stage, and some guy. We stood out in the lobby and I didn't get a good glance at him.
I was lucky they took me out to dinner, why will be disclosed later this year. But YOU can take them out to dinner. But again you must be intentional about it.
I had meetings with Steve Ogne, Charles Hill (founder of the Sticks), Hugh Halter (besides dinner), and Ed Stetzer. Anyone is welcome to hang out with me, when I hang out with these people. Please use and utilize me.
Steve- My biggest complaint about exponential is the cost. Primarily because it is in Orlando it is so expensive. I with some of the expo folks are trying to plan an even in KC that would be able to be utilized by the rest of the country and not cost so much.
As for the Buffet of overpriced offerings, they have to pay for this bad boy somehow. Although I will say I walked away with 15 free books, and had the chance to win a ton of other free stuff.
I think though smaller conferences for people like us would be nice. My one tweak for the GrassRoots would be that we offered more resources for the participants.
Dan, as for the Sticks, I am recruiting the founder (Charles Hill) for the CGGC. He just lost his funding and was kicked from the agency he was planting with. I will on the schedule for the sticks in Nashvegas. I am not listed yet, we just made the deal, but I will be there. I am not a big gun, and their letting me play. The sticks will have both a group of big church people, normal church people, and eccentric church people like me.
As for a normal size church conference, I'm all for it, but I want people to be careful of not shying away from people who are at where you want to go.
Just to add another thought to this (or maybe this is off topic)... Maybe I have a different view on conferences, but I really don't care to hear a speaker just go over what they've written in their book. I also don't really care to hear "how-to" stuff, because I can also read that in a book. However, what I sometimes think I would most like to hear at a conference gathering is something I read in Frost & Hirsch's book 'ReJesus.' It's a little long, but this gets me misty-eyed every time I read it. It's an imaginary meeting between Peter and Paul. Old friends road-weary and worn from ministry and disappointment. Yes, I want to hear someone talk about "him." I don't know if I can make this look like a quote, so everything below is from the book:
And so it goes. Two tired men sharing back and forth, recounting stories of new cells in Asia Minor, new converts in Europe, new developments in Greece.
Finally Paul says, "Peter, I'm not sure when I'll see you again..."
"You say that every time we get together."
"I know, and it's always true. But in case our paths never cross again, can you tell me about him one more time."
Peter smiles sadly, "Oh, Paul, you've heard me tell you those stories a million times. You tell them yourself better than I do."
Paul leans forward toward his friend, "Comrade, I've been beaten, abandoned, betrayed, shipwrecked, and left for dead. It's hard to think of a cell I've planted that isn't in the grip of some crisis, personal or doctrinal. I'm not well. I'm often hungry. And, well, according to some of my friends, I look like an old man. The revolution is unfolding, slowly but surely. Ah, the things we've seen. But at times it feels arduous. I long for the Lord as the watchman longs for the end of night. And there are times when I wonder whether these small, struggling cells we're planting will become the movement we dreamed of. Yes, I do wonder. Even after all I've seen and done. All we've seen and done..."
Then he fixes his eyes firmly on Peter's and says, pleading, "Tell me again."
That is lovely, Dan.
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