missio

Man, I love listening to this guy. He’s so “old school” it’s refreshing. He keeps it simple; which means He keeps it God-centered. He was the first to have us open to our Bibles since the conference began!! He talked about the second part of Acts 1:8 (You will be my witnesses), after interviewing Levi of Street Life Worldwide. Some great stuff from Levi about how the invasiveness of hip-hop culture across racial and economic lines presents a problem for the entire Church, not just African-American churches. Here’s some notes from Stetzer and Levi:

• People have an innate need to be saved.
• Believers have to be multiplied in order for churches to multiply.
• The proof text for Acts 1:8 is Acts 16:6-10
  • COME
    • We are sent just as Jesus was: in the flesh.
    • John 3:16 leads to John 20:21
    • Church planting is normal in the New Testament
    • Don’t plant with just a vision for the church, but plant with a vision for the people as well.
    • The how you plant is determined by the who, when, and where of your community.
    • Go into your community not someone else’s! Don’t have community lust.
    • Plant the Gospel. This leads to a church, which leads to change.
    • Plant in your culture, not someone else’s culture.
    • We’ve got to bring Christ, not just the Church.
  • HELP
    • It’s all about Jesus.
      • Start with the Gospel.
      • The bloody cross and empty tomb must stay.
      • Read God Who Sends (Dubose).
    • Being Missional Must Provide Help of the Gospel
      • Too often we’re sympathetic with culture, and we’re just identifying with it, not changing it.
    • Be Like Jesus, Do Church, and Tell the Gospel.
    • Relevance is a tool, the Gospel is the goal. Not the other way around.
    • How do we often express a loss of confidence in the gospel?
      • Personal transformation, not gospel transformation, becomes our goal.
      • Sermons are so practical they neglect the Gospel.
      • We are practical more than Biblical.
      • Outreach demeans others that preach the Gospel.
      • When you are the hero, not Jesus.
      • Personal evangelism is an oxymoron.
      • Invest and invite doesn’t lead to evangelism.
      • Attendance is a greater value than conversion.
      • The cross is lesser than the church.
      • Not offending seekers has higher priority than the cross.
    • US
      • Lost people matter to God.
      • Go therefore and make disciples….of lost people.

Great stuff from Stetzer as usual.

Track: Networking

Speaker: Ed Stetzer

Topic: Trends in Church Planting

This is where Ed Stetzer presents missional research goodness. You can download the entire powerpoint and presentation here: Missional Research. I will highlight things here that are not in the powerpoint.

• 200 million Americans don’t know Christ; 120 million are ‘unchurched’.
• Typical church plant attendance is low: around 50. We have to keep our expectations realistic.
• 4yr Survivability = 68%. 4yr Survivability in 1988 = 67%. Improvement? Nope.
• Stan Wood has done some mainline research, and Todd Hunter has done interesting stuff with church ‘pathology’/autopsy reports on why church plants fail. I’m looking them up soon.

Good stuff as usual from Stetzer.

This conference has started off with a bang! The worship band came out swinging along with a couple of artists who painted while the band played. It was wonderful to be led into a place with God like that. The host then pulled out some kind of gimmick with the gold sponsors (some kind of tournament, more info later), and then the band came out again and played a weird song including a xylophone. It was cool, just kind of out there.

Following that, a short video was played that showed that Jesus wasn’t a Christian, He only called people to follow Him. Wayne Cordeiro started us off with the theme, dissecting the first part of Acts 1:8, “You will receive power”. The theme was “spirit-led”.  Here are my notes:

• The world is crying out for genuine people and authenticity!
• In order to achieve authenticity, there is one profound thing that is simple, yet necessary.
• Don’t substitute largeness for depth.
• We have to remember that although we can teach what we know, we will always reproduce what we are.
• As the leaders of the church in the coming century, we have to realize that with great privilege comes great responsibility.
• As church planters, we often get arrogant and prideful, and yet when we start the work, we don’t have what it takes to finish. That is, wisdom.
• People don’t come to Christ because of lights and bands.
• We don’t know the tests that are to come that are stumbling blocks to people coming to know Christ, but the Holy Spirit does.
• How do we get wisdom?
  • Personal experience. Yes we learn from experience, but we don’t have that much time, or leeway in making mistakes.
  • Others’ experience. A single book full of experience and insight is priceless; yet God, in His infinite wisdom, has given us 66 books of experience and insight, raw and unedited. (Psalm 119:98-101)
• The Spirit is concerned with our root, which determines how permanent our fruit is/becomes.
• Our root is this: daily time in the Word with God.
• The Holy Spirit, at His bottom line, is our divine mentor, constantly with us daily, guiding us through our daily decisions.
• We have to hear the heart and voice of the Master, not just one hour a week on Sunday am, but an hour daily.
• One of the greatest things that Wayne did at New Hope was to teach the people to feed themselves at home.
• But how, practically?
  • Have a study time including a Bible, a dedicated place, a pen, a journal, and a daily planner (to keep distractions minimal.
  • The method Wayne uses in journaling is S.O.A.P.
    • Scripture: Write the key Scripture down.
    • Observation: Write down what the Spirit has brought out in the Scripture to you.
    • Application: How can you put it into practice now?
    • Prayer: Write a prayer including the observation and application for the Spirit to aid you in.
• With no roots, we rot.
• And remember this: our individual time with the Spirit provides our genuineness, so don’t mimic, just tap into the same source: the Spirit-guided Word.

Great stuff from Hawaii. More in the future, of course!