You Can Know God

Unleash Challenge

I heard Gary and Steven have bets as to who will bring more people to Unleash next year.  We're planning on taking 25 people from our church, but if either Gary or Steven would like to pay the registration for our people, we'll be happy to say we are all from your church and help you win.  First come, first serve.  Perry  said it was okay. :)

Church Planters Practicum

I just signed up our team for the Church Planters Best-Practices Practicum that will happen at Mountain Lake Church October 22-23.  I've had the opportunity to learn a lot of good stuff from Shawn and David, and we learn a lot of things from Mountain Lake's example.  It looks like developing leaders, clarifying the vision, money, teamwork and discipleship are on the agenda.

If you're a church planter, you should check it out.  I bet it would help you.  Me and two other guys from our team will be there.

Friday Five

Five things I'm bringing to the blog world table today.

1.  Andy Stanley and Northpoint now have a podcast.  I imagine it will be a big hit around the country.  I think Andy is one of the best teachers out there, and I'm a big fan of Northpoint.

2.  I created a playlist called "Chick Chill" that I have been listening to in the office this week.  I added a whole album by Colbie Caillat.  You need to check her out.  All the songs on her latest project are great and you won't have to skip any of them.  A song from Pink and another from Avril Lavinge made it onto this playlist as well.

3.  I am thinking about taking a last minute trip to the Innovate Conference.  There's been a lot going on around here and I could use a little refresher.  I haven't been to a conference in a while.  I used to like them.

4.  The OLC fantasy football live draft is tonight.

5.  I will have a big announcement for the Oak Leaf family in a couple of weeks.  It might have something to do with the fact that we're packed out on Sundays and need space.  (Come at 8:45 or 11:15, just completely ignore the fact that we have a 10:00 service if possible.) Anyway, stay tuned.

Portable Church

I went to a little bit of the Orange Conference, as Rodney Hunt, the children's pastor at Westridge had an extra registration.  Two things from that conference were cool.  First, Francis Chan was great.  You need to look the guy up and start listening to him right away.  His church is in Southern California and is giving 50% of their budget.  He took 800 people from his church on a mission trip.  800 people!  I had the opportunity to talk to him in the hallway for about 15 minutes and the guy is the real deal.  You could also hear him at Catalyst.

Secondly, we picked up some demo stuff at a pretty decent discount from Portable Church.  I got to meet Kendra, who is a cool girl.  We got a big road case, some sweet sign stands, some kids equipment and a couple of backdrop displays.  They are some good folks and have some pretty cool things for portable churches. 

Blogging at Conferences

I don't really know why I go to conferences because I can just read all the blogs.  I should just save the money and the trouble.  My favorite thing about conference blogging is that we all say the same thing.  People love to say who they saw, who they meet, and who they have lunch with.  So and so is cool.  I really like that guy.  This guy is funny.  And all the little links just go in a big circle, because we all hang out with the same people. :)

I am not at the Exponential Conference, but I'll just read the blogs.  I'm actually not at the Q conference yet  this morning because a sand truck flipped over on 75 and I refuse to take 1 hour to travel 6 miles.  I'll get there when I get there.

Robbie Seay on Consumerism

Some thoughts from Robbie Seay from his presentation at Q.  Good stuff here.

• All the commercials on TV try and convince you that when you get what you want, you'll be happy.  We obsess over what we don't have and think that things will bring meaning.  This just isn't true.  The rush and high that comes from something new fades quickly.  New car smells don't last forever.
• Nobody needs the crap they sell in Sky Mall magazines on planes, but people buy it.
• Adam had so much cool stuff in the Garden...all you can eat fruit and a naked woman right there!...yet he still bought into the lie and wanted more.  And look what that got him.  The Israelites literally had food falling from the sky (manna...how cool would that be), yet they complained it was too boring.  We're so similar.
• Imagine you had four kids.  One of them had millions of dollars.  But one of them had no clean water.  And another had no food.  That's a picture of planet Earth today.
• The average American spends nearly $800 at Christmas.  That's $154 Billion in this country alone.  Just $10 Billion could provide clean water for the whole planet.
• Every year in the US, people spend $18 Billion on make up, $15 Billion on Perfume, and $17 Billion on pet food.   Again, just $10 billion would mean no thirsty. 

Rick Warren on Culture

Here are some thoughts from Rick Warren on culture, from an 18 minute presentation given at Q.

• It's easy to be biblical if you don't want to be Relevant.  And it's easy to be relevant if you don't want to be Biblical.  But both are required.
• There really is no such thing as culture.  There are cultures (plural).  American culture is different from European culture.  And Indiana culture is probably different from hip hop culture.
• The key to engaging culture is humility.  Learn from different people.  Don't be a know it all.  Be teachable.  You can even learn from your critics.
• Two seemingly opposing Bible verses...."God so loved the world", and "love not the world."  In the first one, it's talking about the people.  In the second one, it's talking about a value system. Good stuff!
• A fish lives in salt water, but people still put salt on their fish at restaurants.  A fish swimming in the ocean doesn't get salty - this is a great picture of being in the world but not of it.
• Engaging the culture is not a program, it's personal.  When it comes to engaging culture, it IS all about you.
• The lust of the flesh is hedonism.  The lust of the eyes is materialism. And the pride of life is secularism.  Not sure what this has to do with culture, but it's still pretty good.
• We don't need isolation from culture (boycotts, becoming Amish, etc), and we don't need imitation (adopting world views that aren't Biblical)...we need incarnation.  As the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, we need to penetrate the culture with the Gospel. 

Mind Wandering at Conferences

I confess that my mind wanders a lot during conferences.  It started this morning at the drive through then I saw the sign that said "mean free if you don't get a receipt."  Are fast food receipts really that important?  Do people really need to prove that they purchased a #2 with a Diet Coke.  It would be a much better idea to make the meal free if they forget to put a straw in your bag.

Anyway, I am at the Q conference.  I knew I was getting close to The Tabernacle (which is a most amazing place...a really old church, converter to a concert hall and bar when the Olympics came to town...I think churches should actually build like this in the first place...maybe without the bar) when I saw all the long haired guys with cool earrings wearing expensive jeans carrying messenger bags.  I realize that I am not as cool I as I think I am.

Some of this stuff is a little artsy and esoteric for me, but a few of the presentations have been great.  It's all about how the church should not boycott or blindly accept culture, but can redeem it.  I like learning from different guys and hearing new perspectives.  Believe it or not, Rick Warren has been the best of the day.  He said things like "all cultures die, the church will last" and "it's easy to be relevant if you aren't Biblical, and it's easy to be Biblical if you aren't relevant."  I'll post some thoughts from Him later.

During my mind wandering and access to wi-fi, I've also been e-mailing, planning and jotting down other random ideas.

Conference Week

I finished my message up yesterday because this is conference week. Today, we're going to Westridge for one of the Simply Strategic workshops. I'm looking forward to some practical information.  Then on Wednesday, I'm headed to Q, a conference put on by Gabe Lyons of the Catalyst Conference folks.  I have no idea what to expect from this conference - it's called a "boutique event" on their website.  I'm not sure if I will be trying mascara or what.

But some of the speakers include Rob Bell, Andy Stanley, Donald Miller, the editor of Wired magazine, a dude from BET, music producers, a seminary professor and all kinds of other people.  The conference focuses on the church as it relates to culture...something I really care about.  I'll let you know what I learn.  And what a boutique event really is.

I Only Slightly Disagree with Perry

I love what God is doing at Newspring. I am a big fan of Perry Noble, though I've never met him personally. I brought 10 other people to Unleash and will take more next year. And there was only one thing he said yesterday that was wrong. That's not too bad, I guess. :)

He tossed out a great quote that had to somehow be connected with TD Jakes: "If it's God's will, then it's God's bill." People everywhere started writing that down. He then talked about how he would punch church planters that send letters begging for money.

Listen. I completely understand that the people that own the vision need to pay for the vision. I completely agree that it's all God's money. But I don't think we can sit back and say, "If your vision is from God then He'll pay for it or you guys can figure it out without our help."

Perry closed the conference with an amazing story about a gentleman who gave half a million dollars and pledged another half a million. Somehow I doubt that Perry said "no thanks...God's going to pay the bill." I imagine they ran that check to the bank and thanked God all the way. I imagine that Newspring prayed hard, hard, and then some more for people to buy into the vision with their wallets. I imagine that they would credit God with the financial victory. But it was actual people who wrote checks and made sacrifices. The guy with the million dollar gift WAS the answer to prayer. How would Newspring supporting a church plant or some church planter when they asked for support be any different than this guy writing a big check? I mean...if it's all God's money...we're talking about the same thing. We're talking abotu people stepping up and giving. Is it not hypocritical to denounce church planters asking Newspring for money (which I'm sure there have been hundreds), and then talk about a capital campaign?

I'm a little frusturated when people immediately shrug off the idea of offering support because it's someone elses vision. I think that can lead to pride. Newspring may have gotten started without a bunch of sponsoring churches. But lots of other churches, in fact, I would say that most successful church plants have gotten some funding from somehwere. I am not saying that successful churches have to say yes to every fruitcake church planter asking for money.

I absolutely love what Newspring is doing. Perry is one of my favorite leaders. He says a lot of amazing things. Unleash was great. But provided I understood what he meant wtih that statement, I disagree with him on this one point.