Dave Ferguson – Session 3

Here's how we count today: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5…

This wasn't always the case. 1000 years ago we counted this way: I, II, III, IV, V…

Why the change? Fibbonaci was the mathematician behind the change. The change came because of a question/problem that could not be solved using the system in place. The math problem concerned rabbit reproduction. He ended up having to create an entirely new system in order to solve the problem. By solving the problem of rabbit reproduction, Fibbonaci forever changed the way we do math and count.

Acts 1:8 "But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth."

How do you think the disciples reacted to this proclamation by Jesus? How do we react? Either we chalk that up to grandiose, naïve dreams that are nice to talk about but which we know will never happen, or we admit that there is something fundamentally wrong with our systems, and that we have to start counting differently in order to solve this problem.

Fibbonaci gave us the problem of rabbit reproduction. Jesus gave us the problem of rapid reproduction.

Rodney Stark believes that Christianity grew from approximately 1000 Christians in 40 CE to approximately 31 million Christians in 350 CE (Cities of God, 67).

How did this happen?

What's it going to take for each of us to see rapid reproduction in our own churches?

We need to start with a big dream. Jesus gave us a big dream in Acts 1:8.

1. Dream BIG
   
2. Talk about that dream all the time. People need to know about it.
   
3. Dream big, but start small (2 Timothy 2:2)
   
   1. Start with yourself – we reproduce who we are; if we want people to be intimate with God, we have to be intimate with God
      
   2. Reproduce leaders – for small groups and teams
      
   3. Reproduce artists – for larger worship gatherings
      
4. Set goals
   

   
   

Characteristics of big dreams

1. The bigger the dream, the more profound the questions you are going to ask.
   
2. Big dreams will begin to change your prayers. You become more dependent on God. There is no way that you on your own can accomplish what you feel God wants you to do.
   
3. Big dreams are contagious.
   

How do you know when you have the culture of rapid reproduction?

1. When you're more concerned with the lost than the found; Jesus left the 99 sheep to go in search of the 1 lost sheep
   
2. When you begin to love the edge (risk) more than the center (safety)
   
3. When you begin preferring the going more than the staying
   

One of CCC's sayings: Treat them like Christians until they realize that they're not.

Bill Hybels – Session 4

There was once a community of people who were completely devoted to God. They were so devoted to God that when He told them to go, they went. They would do whatever God told them to do. In this community there was a radical love for one another that broke down every kind of wall there is. Each member used his or her spiritual gifts, and they knew that they were dependent not only on God, but on one another as well. They believed that God could perform signs and wonders, and because of this, they regularly stood in awe. The people in this community of faith burned with passion to take the gospel to their world. When they were threatened and told to stop, they met in an open room and prayed not for God to stop the Romans, but for courage to spill their blood. There was once a community of faith like this.

Hybels' Counsel for those thinking about Church Planting

• Understand the difference between a hankering and a holy discontent.
  
  • A hankering doesn't last. A true holy discontent cannot be put out. God has stirred something in you that cannot be quieted.
    
  • David – he got the point where he could not take any more trash talking by Goliath about his God.
    
  • Bob Pierce (World Vision) – He saw children dying because of a lack of food. This wrecked him for the rest of his life, and he decided right then and there to devote the rest of life towards providing food for children.
    
  • Martin Luther King, Jr. – His dream for racial reconciliation eventually killed him.
    
  • If church planting is simply a hankering, then when the hard times come, you will quit. If it is a holy discontent, then nothing anyone can do to you will stop you.
    
• Understand how God has gifted you.
  
  • Who's got what gifts?
    
  • Rank order of giftedness matters.
    
  • There are times when we have to do lots of things to keep things going, but we need to make a habit in the beginning of doing things based on our giftedness.
    
• Understand the connection between leadership and faith.
  
  • We walk by faith and not by sight (2 Corinthians 5:7)
    
  • There are going to be countless times when the money is not there, the people are not there, and problems are all around us. If we walk by sight, we are going to lose heart.
    
  • We have to walk by faith, believing that God will do what only he can do between here and there. That's what faith is.
    
  • Faith is walking in the direction that God has told you to go, believing that somewhere between here and there, he is going to show up in power and He's going to help you do what He has called you to do.
    
  • Moses and the Red Sea
    
  • Joshua and the Jordan River
    
  • Jesus at the wedding in Canaan (faith of the wine tasters)
    
• Figure out early on if you're going to take the high road or the low road.
  
  • More than anything, people desire for their leaders to have integrity and character
    
• Ask God to let you finish with a few of the people with whom you started.
  
  • It's naïve to believe that everyone you start with will be here in twenty years, but ask God to let you finish with two or three of them.

Ed Stetzer – Session 2

Missional DNA



Acts 16:9 During the night Paul had a vision of a man of Macedonia standing and begging him, "Come over to Macedonia and help us." After Paul had seen the vision, we got ready at once to leave for Macedonia, concluding that God had called us to preach the gospel to them.



Come over to Macedonia and help us.

• Come Over
  
  • What/where is our Macedonia? Forty times in the gospel of John refers to himself as "sent." We are a sent people, and so we are to GO. As the Father has sent me, I am sending you (John 20:21). John 3:16 leads to John 20:21. The NT is a book about a God who sends, who then sends his people on mission.
    
  • Paul had a vision for a people. We have to have a vision for a people, not a vision for a church. The how of church planting is going to be influenced by the who, when and where of church planting.
    
  • We have to bring Christ, not just a church. We are planting the gospel that gives birth to a church.
    
• Help
  
  • What does "help" mean? The most important help we can give people in our neighborhood is to help them understand that it's all about Jesus.
    
  • The answer can be found in the text. It was the preaching and the proclamation of the Gospel. It's at this point that Luke begins writing "we" instead of "they." It was at this point that he joined them in this "helping."
    
  • 2 Corinthians 5:11-21 Here we find words like persuade, compel, appeal, implore, reconcile, ambassador.
    
  • The totality of the Christian message is not that we can be saved from hell. It is much bigger than that. However, if at any point we remove a bloody Cross from our message, then what we are planting is not a church.
    
  • Francis Dubose, God Who Sends
    
  • If being missional is reduced to simply helping people with their physical needs, then this is not the complete help that they need.
    
  • We must BE, DO, & TELL the Gospel (good news). We must do all of these in a relevant way.
    
  • Relevance is a tool. The Gospel is the goal. We must not mix those two up. Relevance should never be our goal.
    
• Us
  
  • The "us" here refers to a lost world. Lost people matter to God.
    
  • Augustine: "My heart was restless until it had found its rest in Thee."
    
  • People have a God-shaped hole.
    
  • John Knox: "Give me Scotland or I die."
    

Ways to Determine Whether Relevance Has Become the Goal Rather than the Tool

1. When we focus on personal transformation and not gospel transformation. Gospel transformation will always include personal transformation. The same is not always true for personal transformation.
   
2. When our sermons are so practical that they do not contain the gospel. We should not preach any message that would not be true if Jesus had not died on the Cross. This is what separates us from Dr. Phil.
   
3. When we talk more about practical than we do about biblical. Do we believe that the Bible shape who we are?
   
4. When our outreach demeans those who are preaching the gospel.
   
5. When our approach makes us the hero rather than Jesus.
   
6. When personal evangelism is an oxymoron at our church.
   
7. When Invest and Invite never leads to Evangelize.
   
8. When attendance is a bigger value than conversion.
   
9. When the cross gets less focus than our church.
   
10. When not offending seekers is more important than telling the gospel.
    

National New Church Conference

This conference was going on at the same time as I was in Atlanta for Q, so I'm grateful that they have the audio from their main sessions available for download. You can download them here. I've listened to two of them so far, and both have been very thought provoking. I thought I'd take some notes on both of them.

Donald Miller - Storytelling

Jason sent me this article from Christianity Today.