Draw from the Well

3 Reasons I Am Going to Repossess

1. Worshipping with 3000 young people is awesome!
2. Pastor Mark Driscoll is a powerful & provocative preacher who says challenging things!
3. I need to turn in my $50 for Haiti money!

Why are you going to Repossess?

More Insights from the Conference

Talked about this with my interns last night.  Very simple, but understandable process of reproduction(totally stolen from this place), it's simply brilliant.

A process for reproducing leaders:

• I do. You watch.  We talk.
• I do. You help. We talk.
• You do.  I help.  We talk.
• You do.  I watch. We talk.
• You do.  Someone else watches.  You all talk.

I realized that I often leave out the "we talk" part.  I expect people to "get" what I'm trying to do (foolish - because they usually don't.)  Several of the interns shared that they felt that people had skipped the "I do. You help." part with them and simply expected them to go straight to the "doing" step.  Interesting.

I love the intentionality.

Last Day of the Conference & Play Time

Yesterday we finished up the conference by sleeping in a bit.  We were exhausted. Sometimes you just need to sleep!

For the last two main sessions were done by Tim Keller and Rick Warren.

Tim Keller emphasized the power of the Gospel and how it must be given in a holistic way.  We all tend to emphasize part but not all.  What are the three parts? Counter Cultural life (kingdom of God); Grace and Atonement; Return and restoration of the second coming.  Jesus represents these through his incarnation as man, his substitution as savior, and his consummation as returning king.  Heady stuff, yet I could clearly see how important it is to keep a balance and know which one you learn towards.

One of the most profound things he said was this when speaking on the difference between Christianity and other religions: "If you repent only for your sins you are only a pharisee (they repented for their sins as well.  Christians are called to repent for their righteousness as well."  What he meant by this was that we are Called to forsake all, both our evil works and our good works - none of them save us.  That's a key thing to remember.

Rick Warren is definitely larger than life.  He shared about the Saddleback story and his heart for pastors.  His speaking style is similar to his writing style.  Two things he said that I thought were insightful:

He was talking about process and he asked:  "Do you want your church to be a mushroom or an oak tree?  It takes God about six hours to make a mushroom, but 60 years to make an oak tree."

He also quipped: "Don't pay attention to either criticism or compliments...treat them both like bubble gum: chew on them, but don't swallow them."

Three things he focuses on in his ministry to avoid the traps that stumble pastors:  integrity, humility, and generosity.

They did some cool stuff at the end of the conference for church planters (it was a church planting conference after all.)  It was a little lost on me because I'm just not there. 

They ended with this cool worship song about cities (which I can't find) and as we sang the song they listed all the names of the cities of people who attended the conference.  It was really touching to sing a song declaring God's love and work for people in our cities and to see "Olympia, WA" flash on the screen.  Way cool.

After the conference, we headed to Downtown Disney for the afternoon.  It was fun - the most fun being the Lego Store.

We had several more adventures, not all of them fun, but I will have to write more later because my battery is almost dead and I soon board the airplane to head back to Seattle.  More later!

Drinking from a Firehose #2

Today has so much in it that it will take two posts to capture it all. 

One of the great things about this conference has been how tangible concepts have been for me.  There are several specific action steps I'm going to be able to take when I return home.  In fact, today I have three very productive conversations on the phone with fellow ministers about implementing ideas.  I've actually been very encouraged about where we are, even though we have farther to go.

Jon Ferguson and Dave Dummit gave some practical tips during the afternoon about creating a culture of reproduction.  "DNA is passed on through relationships not information," commented Jon.

Three very tangible concepts:  1)  develop an across the board common language for your leadership pipeline, 2) jump start reproduction by using "pregnant" small groups (perked your ears up didn't it!), 3) celebrate what you want repeated.

A surprising end to the day was Greg Surratt.  He began by saying, "Our future depends on our ability to develop new leaders." (Do you sense a theme?)  He shared that we need to develop "Tom Sawyer" leaders.  There's more to it than this, but basically we need to find leaders who can convince other people to "paint fences on their day off" and think it's the best thing in the world.  A huge distinction was made about not hiring people to "do" ministry, but rather to create a culture of reproduction. 

Surratt had this brilliant picture of levels of leaders, which deserves it's own blog post (tomorrow - I'm bushed!)  Absolutely brilliant.

So a few things I've realized about myself during this conference:  1) I really am a shy, non-networking person.  (I will work on that next conference.)  2)  My methods and ideas are too complex to pass on...must become simple. 

The day ended with Janice and I trying to take an airboat ride out on a lake and see some gators.  We saw 5-6, with the largest one being about 7 feet long.  Then it started to rain.  Really rain.  Wet and tired, it's time for bed.

Drinking from a Firehose #1

As a person who has been to many conferences, I have to say that Exponential 08 has been one of the best I've ever been to.  I think it's because all they are talking about is discipleship & leadership.  I love it.

Randy Pope reminded us that "what we become, we reproduce."  He emphasized discipleship as a main spiritual disciple.  But the most profound thing he said came at the end of his talk.  He said, if told he could only do one of the following two things:  lead his mega church of several thousand or continue to disciple a small group of men, that he would choose the small group of men and that he believes he would be more effective in ministry.  He said it emphatically.  Wow.  Just let that sink in for a bit.  [He also said that he has been leading small groups focused on discipleship for 40 years!]

He emphasized that discipleship is a process and we must help people move through the process through coaching.  Going from "directions to delegating" without coaching and support will create disillusionment.  (Yikes!  Guilty!)  In fact, he said training without coaching is a "waste of time."

"It's hard to live with a Lord - it's disturbing"  This is how Alan Hirsch began his session.  Alan is an Australian intellectual whose thinking is way outside the box.  He triumphed the centrality of the cross (or Christology) and suggested that our missiology should drive our ecclesiology, not the other way around. 

My favorite part of his talk was when he showed cultural stereotypes of Jesus and described how those failed to express the fullness of who Jesus is. My personal favorite:  "boyfriend Jesus" as usually emphasized in songs where we express our "romantic" love towards Jesus and invite him to "touch" us back.  Yeah, that's a bit weird when you write it out in black and white. 

In the end he said that "movements can grow only in proportion to their ability to make disciples."

I'm all about Jesus and I empathized with his remarks about how we've tamed the lion of Judah, or as he pointed out, relegated Jesus' message to the children.

Yeah, my lips have been ripped off.  Pretty much.  My brain is tired.

Stimuli Overload

This was my day:

Bill Carroll said, "Leaders reproduce small groups.  Artists reproduce large groups." 

Then Ed Stetzer said, "Your church is only as healthy as it's last disciple."

Then Andy Stanley said vision is "a mental picture of what could be fueled by a passion that it should be."  [He also said many funny things.] [He also talked about China, which you know hits a soft spot with me!]

Then Bob Roberts, whom I'd never heard of before, yet I found to be a very smart and international guy.  He said a lot of things which made me feel like I was sitting in a seminary class but a few things stuck out:

"Discipleship is the elephant in the room."

"Converts grow the church, but disciples change the world."

"Faith is present wherever a disciples is..." 

He also made this very interesting statement about women in ministry...it was very intriguing and I'm still pondering it (as I gather material for my seminary term paper.)  Really, this isn't doing justice to 1/10th of the things he said.

Remember these quotes are just the mere tip of the iceberg when it comes to what was shared today.  My brain hurts.

As if that wasn't enough, Janice and I headed down to Universal's Citywalk for dinner (and people watching.)  Then it was time for something I've wanted to see for a long time:  The Blue Man Group.

Have you ever seen the Blue Man Group?  I'm a bit overstimulated right now.

Dave Matthews is not part of the Blue Man Group.

Dangers of Life on the Raod

Even in America you can find yourself out of your comfort zones.

A few experiences yesterday that were interesting:

Janice locked herself in the hotel bathroom (I had to rescue her!)

Janice turned to me at one point and said, "Why is there a piece of carpeting in the microwave?"  I go, "Uh...that's a safe."  In her defense, we were really tired yesterday.

We went to this very interesting pizza joint called Brooklyn Pizza.  I had a "giant" calzone.

Actually, that's a medium. Note the hand for size reference. No, I couldn't eat it all. 

Best Quote of the Day

(so far)

"The central leadership task of teh church, after hearing from God is to develop leaders." Carl George

BTW, Carl George is a big small group guy.

On the Road Again...

Okay, I know that people have been a bit concerned about the lack of content on my blog lately.  It's amazing to me how much preparation it takes to be gone for a whole week of work.  Yup, I'm at another conference.

So before you freak out too much and wonder if I'm ever going to get back to work, let me explain a few things.

First, you are right, I've been to a few conferences lately.  As things would have it, with stars aligning just right, if I knew then what I know now...and all that, I'd say that I've been to one too many conferences this past season.  Unfortunately, it was the very first one I signed up for.  The others came later and with a bit more purpose.  Enough said about that!

Second, I feel that this season of my life has been very in-line with my personal "word for my year."  (Yes, I actually do it each year!)  After some evaluation, I purposely set out this year to do a few things:

• Learn more.  My seminary classes have been part of this, as well...more to be explained in a future post.
• Travel more.  Living in China accustomed me to enjoying travel, I felt that I had lost that and all my excuses were pretty lame.  Gotta love frequent flyer miles!
• Risk to see my dreams happen.  In recent years, I've felt myself slipping too easily into a work routine that becomes draining and having a list of things that I will do "some time later."  That stops this year.

So, that's some of how I find myself in Orlando right now (hey, what's that big, bright, yellow, shiny thing in the sky!?)

I'm pretty excited about this learning opportunity.  2800 people are attending at this huge Baptist church.  I get to hear speakers like Rick Warren, Andy Stanley, Tim Keller, Ed Stetzer, Dave Ferguson, and more.  The theme of the conference is The DNA of Reproducing Churches. 

The repeating theme I'm hearing through this conference is 2 Timothy 2:2: "And the things you have heard me say in the presence of many witnesses entrust to reliable men who will also be qualified to teach others."  On of the speakers today called it "discipleship for four generations."  From Paul to Timothy, Timothy to others, others to still more people.

I am more and more convinced that reproducing leaders (and churches) is what I'm supposed to be doing with my time and calling.  This conference has been a good time to evaluate some of the ways I do that (I feel that I do somethings well and other things have missed the mark.)

Stay tuned for more updates...

BTW, a few things I've learned so far:  red eye flights are hard; bad customer service by Budget rent-a-car has lost them a customer; good customer service by Days Inn has gained a future customer.

Season of Conferences

In the next two weeks I'm participating in two conferences. It's fun to learn new things.

Favorite things so far:

Seeing Marc Driscoll speak.
"You can't beat relationships."

Update:
more great things from the conference

Less women than men - no lines in the bathroom.

Living Hope band just covered U2's Still haven't found what I'm looking for. Awesome.