Conference

sixtyforty

Feb/24/2010 10:49 PM

A group of us spent an awesome couple of days at the Velocity 2010 Conference at Mountain Lake Church. It was my second time to this conference. I learned so much, and came back with my head just SWIMMING with stuff to process.

One of the single biggest things that really stuck with me was something that Alan Hirsch, one of the speakers talked about while we were there. He gave a long, highly intellectual, academic discussion about who the church really reaching with the Gospel... He had studied and studied, and had come up with some very interesting results.

Alan stated that in our culture in the United States today, “The Church” has a pretty clearly defined target: people who are LIKE THEM. Most churches fit within a clearly established “norm,” with similar dynamics of family, socio-economic context, style, and other factors. In other words, the way we “do church” really appeals to a CERTAIN group of people within our population. His calculations put this group at around 40% of the whole. Churches are “attractional” to this group. We attract approximately FORTY percent of the population... Those that are similar to us. ALL churches do this.

In other words, ALL churches are working hard to try to attract the SAME 40% of our population... Which means that NOBODY is fighting for the OTHER SIXTY! Are you serious??? Can that really be true?

It really made our group head back to the hotel and question what we are really all about, and who we are trying to reach.

What we discovered is that in reality, we don’t need to be just planting “a church.” We need to be planting THE GOSPEL. THE GOSPEL RESULTS in the church. It isn’t that the Church has a mission... The MISSION has a church! We are the result of the Gospel being planted, and our job is to plant the Gospel.

So, in our community, WHO IS the “Other Sixty?” How can we plant The Gospel for these people? We’ve got some great ideas, and we even have some things going on already... Do you have any thoughts on that? Email me!

Sunday Rundown from Montana

Nov/02/2009 09:30 AM

Well, I got in the car right after the service yesterday, and spent the next nine hours traveling to Missoula, Montana for a church planter conference! What a day.. Lots of car time, airplane time, and now experiencing a little jet lag on my first morning here on the other side of the continent! Here is the view this morning out my hotel window. Some of the mountain peaks around here have snow on them.

Well, here is the Sunday Rundown, from my perspective here in Montana:

We saw several decisions for Christ yesterday!! THAT is what we are all about! Praise God!
The big room felt pretty full yesterday, but very few kids in Preschool/Nursery! I know we have a lot of kids out sick right now. I hope all our families are doing well and returning to health quickly.
Casey is really doing a GREAT job picking songs... I feel like our crowd is responding more and more each week!
BIG SHOUT OUT to JOHN CRAWFORD! He provided us (temporarily) with the electric drum kit that REALLY made a huge difference in the sound quality AND he helped us tweak out the sound board for optimum sound enjoyment by all! I actually received several comments on the response cards about how good it sounded yesterday.
I am still LOVING the series we’re doing... Normally I get pretty tired of a series after a few weeks, but I am having a blast going through the book of Mark.
We had several first-time visitors yesterday, and it was great to meet them.
Our cleanup crew is doing a FANTASTIC job on Saturday nights. They make life SO easy for us on Sunday mornings. You guys are our heroes.
Chuck Vautrot just sacrifices for Saturday nights to happen... His truck suffered serious injury in the movie theater parking lot just because he was there. You are the man, Chuck. God will honor you.
I am really excited about the next two weeks in our series. NEXT week, we are going to talk about what GOD does when we LISTEN and UNDERSTAND! The week after, we are going to look at the story of Jesus in the boat during the storm. That will be a great time to invite your friends to church. Everyone needs to hear about what to do when the storm comes.

Exponential

Apr/21/2009 06:20 PM

Doug and I are down here in beautiful Orlando, Florida (my home town) at the Exponential New Church Conference at First Baptist Church of Orlando (my home church) It is CRAZY! We got to hear Erwin McManus (great author and speaker) talk to us about what is really important. We’ve been in breakout tracks learning about some of the nuts and bolts of church planting. Favorite quote of the conference so far: Alan Hirsch (church guru) says “Holiness is not about withdrawing from the culture. It is about how we engage the culture. In fact, it creates culture.”

As good as the conference is, my favorite part has been reconnecting to some great old friends and seeing what God is doing in their lives. I really had a blast talking with some of those guys, and I feel like God is really reconfirming a lot of things in my heart and mind about all the stuff we’re doing in Ellijay! Check back in the next day or two for another conference update!

Transforming Power

Feb/27/2009 01:54 PM

The Church Planters Conference in Cumming, GA on Monday and Tuesday was great. Mountain Lake Church simply does an awesome job at what they do.

The worship times were unbelievable, and I learned a whole lot. Summer, Doug, and I really loved hearing from Bob Roberts, who really encouraged us that God leads through broken people. He asked 500 church planters, “Is the Gospel powerful enough to transform your community?” Of course, the resounding answer all over the auditorium was an enthusiastic “YES!” We’re church planters... Planting the Gospel in a new, different way in communities is what we are all about! These are people of vision and drive. They dream of what God can do in a community through the power of the Gospel.

Then, he asked them, “Is the Gospel powerful enough to transform YOU?”

A hush fell over the crowd. Everyone paused, as the question sunk into our minds and hearts. Dr. Roberts said that church planting is not about our ability to speak, build teams, or put systems into place... It is about the ability of the Gospel to TRANSFORM ME into HIS image. Nothing else really matters.

What he said really lined up with the words of John the Baptist, who, toward the end of his ministry, verbalized the process by which we all glorify God: “He must become greater and greater, and I must become less and less.” (John 3:30) That’s what our process is all about. At The Orchard, we’re all about engaging in the process of CHANGE, GROW, and SERVE. When we do that, it results in less and less of us, which allows for more and more of HIM to consume us. It is a lifelong endeavor that will result in our being transformed into HIS image. (Romans 12:1-2)