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

2009 Exponential Conference

I spent the last three days in sunny Orlando Florida. Several CGGCers were there, including Ed Rosenberry (who I only saw at dinner... could he have been at Disney World the rest of the time? :) -- a joke). Thanks to Midwest CGGC for paying for me and one of my leaders to go.

Here are some quotes from the conference I wrote down. They may not be exact quotes. I wrote them down as I heard them.

Erwin McManus

"The church is scared to death of reality." -- Erwin McManus

"Jesus Christ died in the most heroic act anyone has ever done and then asks us to live our most heroic lives." -- Erwin McManus

"The gospel of the traditional American church is the most narcissistic story in our society." -- Erwin McManus (He was speaking of the "I'm a sinner. Jesus died for me. I get to go to heaven if I say I'm sorry.)

McManus said he almost cut his ties with Christianity (at least with organized Christianity) a couple of years ago when he was labeled a heretic for going into the "Marketplace" and discussing Jesus such as Paul did at Mars Hill. He would rather cut ties with organized Christianity than feel any limitation to sharing the gospel.

Alan Hirsch

Alan Hirsch defined what Missional is not.
-Not emerging church
-not simply being evangelistic
-not just social justice
-not church planting

"The church doesn't have a mission. The mission has a church." -- Alan Hirsch

Hirsch spoke of prevenient grace as the ability for our church to participate in mission.

Tri Robinson

"Vision is being who God made you to be and doing what he told you to do." -- Tri Robinson

Bob Roberts

Bob Robert's Ten Things to Learn from the Church Around the World

1. Gospel of the Kingdom of God -- not just the Gospel of Salvation

2. The Gospel encompasses the reconciliation of all things.

3. The focus is on the disciple not the preacher.

4. All religions are all places which makes for a naked public square and thoughtful communication.

He spoke of meeting with muslim and communist leaders all over the world and gaining access to share the gospel by invitation rather than by secrecy.

"Christianity started as a Jewish movement to Jesus. It will end as a Muslim movement to Jesus" -- Bob Roberts

5. Knowing other religions isn't just for experts but for everyone who would communicate who Jesus is.

6. Risk is seen in life and death not nickels and noses.

7. Never, never, never, never vilify another religion.

He didn't finish the ten but they can be found at glocal.net

Bob is always my favorite speaker. I could listen to him for hours. His books don't have the same effect at all unfortunately.

Neil Cole

Weeds in the Garden of Leadership

1. Institutionalism -- elevate institution as only institution doing God's work.
-Over 50% of Christian leaders will not finish well. Their calling became a career.

2. Corruption of Leadership -- the desire for power, fame (being liked by everyone), possessions, or pleasure

3. Legalism -- Protecting the powerful -- non-biblical traditions become equal to God's commands

4. Still in the Dark Ages - contributing to ignorance in an age of scholarship (keeping the Word out of the hands of the people. you do it more than you think.)

5. Bound by Chain of Command -- we're a mess from top to bottom

"Make everybody a disciple of Jesus so they will fall short of Jesus. If you make them your disciple, they will only fall short of you." -- Neil Cole

Efrem Smith

"What was it that disturbed you when you decided to plant a church? You can't live in disturbance. If you live angry, you will be dysfunctional, but that disturbance should continue to be at the core of your vision." -- Efrem Smith

"If you study the roots of most things (Hip Hop Culture for example), you will find "God Thoughts." -- Efrem Smith

Two Keys to turn white churches multi-cultural
1. Preach the Bible as a multi-culturally strong document.
2. United by Faith -- the measurements for multi-cultural church are not as high as you think. Dominate group is not more than 80%.

Francis Chan

"You wouldn't read the Bible and think, 'I need a building, a band, a sermon, and a room for the kids to have church.'" -- Francis Chan