Conferences

M

Matt Chandler of The Village

• John 1:1-5
• Life outside of the faith is not as horrible as the church paints it to be, but you will never enjoy the fullness of that life apart from Jesus
• Problem #1: "and the darkness has not overcome it."
• Problem #2: Grammatical issues with he light
• Exodus 3:5-12
• God MO: When God wants to flex his muscles He chooses some to be His voice and conduit.
• We are bored out of our minds.
• Why would you only want to practice and never play?
• There seems to be a disjoint between what we know and what we do
• The goal is not to be cool
• We have got to go counter-cultural
• God told a group of guys that had the Torah memorized that they did not know Him
• Knowledge is meant to empower

E

: Living God-sized Dreams

• What if we made our lives a gift to humanity?
• The Mythology of Greatness vs. The Discipline of Greatness
• Some people live a life that they are obligated to live instead of a life they are passionate about. I identify with that statement far too well.
• Instead of doing more we are consuming more.
• Freedom gives us the opportunity to give and give and give.
• What would happen if we became a movement of dreamers and visionaries.
• If your greatest dream became your life would the world be a better place?
• Don’t waste your life in a dream that is not worth your life
• What dream is burning within me that will make the world a different place?
• What dreams are trapped under the rubble of your past?
• When you were a child you dreamed outlandish dreams and when you grew up your stopped dreaming. This makes me think of the movie BIG with Tom Hanks.
• Erwin basically wrote Unstoppable Force in 45 hours.
• What life could you pursue that would produce the most good for the world?
• What dreams are waiting on the other side of your fears?
• Will your dreams live past your last breath?
• There is a difference between a risk and a thrill
• Sometimes God won’t move until we commit
• There are some things that God will not do for you, these are the things that He is waiting for you to do for Him and for the world
• Jump head first

B

Todd Phillips, pastor of Frontline in Washington, D.C.:

• What percentage of energy and time do each of you as leaders give to:
• Leading Inwardly (leading yourself)
• Leading Laterally (team members of peers)
• Leading Up (those over you)
• Leading Down (those under you)
• What are you neglecting?
• It is God that gives and God that takes away; He is the sources of any and all blessing we experience in this life
• God is not concerned with success as we define it; rather He is deeply concerned that we become more like Christ.
• All of our pursuits on this earth pale in comparison to the importance of developing the inner person.
• "A Christian leader will be crushed under the weight of his own gifts and talents if he does not develop his inner man." -Lon at McLean Bible Church
• "Leaders need internal strength to handle the load of modern leading" -Alan Nelson
• Pursue developing your inner life over everything else
• We need:
• Aloneness, soul-making solitude and contemplation
• Journaling
• Fasting
• Sabbath
• Observance
• Extended Prayer Times
• Prayer
• Most spiritual leaders have work very hard at their prayer life. Reasons:
• They are self-reliant and action-oriented
• There are many demands on their time
• Spiritual talk can be confused for spiritual practice
• We cannot compensate for a lack of time in prayer by developing our strengths in other areas. A deficiency in prayer can only be countered with time in prayer
• Communal and Mutual Ministry
• Engage in ministry with others
• Communal living allows others to pour into us
• We are meant to be in community
• Incarnational

Tim Ross, Potter’s House Young Adult Leader

• Cross Pollination
• Expand your perspective and mind-set to other points of view
• Be bold, Be beneficial, Be brilliant
• Not everything you are going to hear is going to fit with your group of people.
• Know what your congregation needs, not just what everybody else is doing

S

Erwin McManus: Acts 17:16-23 – The Third Space

• First Space: Outside world is invited in The Church’s Space
• Second Space: The Marketplace of Ideas, Job
• Third Space: The place where the outsider invited you into his space. A place where you are the outsider.
• Paul got invited by outsiders to come inside and speak into their community. We are not getting invited to the table because we haven’t earned the right to be heard.
• Paul shows where God is at work in the Third Space.
• Paul uses the culture at large to explain to them the truth of God.
• Are we too busy reaching Martha and Mary to engage with Dionysius and Damaris
• Erwin is teaching from notes and emails on his Blackberry

Francis Chan:

• Why are we more likely to be courageous over physical things, but not over spiritual things?
• Do you want to be a hero or a coward?
• Courage comes from intimacy with God.
• It is during suffering that we become our closest to Christ.
• The more courageous we become the more intimate we become with God
• Jeremiah 1:4-5
• God thought ahead of time about what He wanted you to do. Francis’ mother died giving birth to him, giving so much value to this Jeremiah passage. God know that his mother was going to die giving birth to him and that God had a purpose in all of it.
• God made me the way I am for a specific purpose. We have been purposed and consecrated before we were even born. We are not accidents.
• Jeremiah 1:6-8
• LIVE IT, GO FOR IT

& Greg Atkinson, Kent Shaffer, and Chris Forbes were there sharing their wisdom. Many thanks to Greg for bringing us all together and to EasyWorship for providing the free lunch.

     My favorite part of the meeting was when Kent would share on a subject. His is a very wise person and I think that many of us took several things away. His insights into the balance between using and abusing technology were great and his call to know who you are as a church and who you are called to reach were rocking. We talked about how we are using technology to further the work of the church, twitter, the emerging role of online community pastor, and social justice. I several new friends at the gathering and enjoyed getting the chance to network with these guys.

Greg talked a lot about www.unifyer.com and how they are using for small groups and the Church 2.0 group. Check it out to see how your church or community could use it.

&

The Rock Church and he is blowing me away with his message on the topic of "How Community Transforms." Miles is speaking about how the community found in small groups must go and share with those outside the church. We have got to get out of the church so that we can love our neighbor.

What can your small group do to take "in here, out there?" How can your group work to transform your community? Get your small group together and do some good works that others may experience Christ through you and praise our Father in heaven.

I want to say how much my small group means to Sydnie and I. Before we came to Arrow Heights we were at a church that only had Sunday School and we served during that time and weren’t really able to get into a group. Since coming to Arrow Heights we have found a group that we are able to meet with on Sunday evenings and share life with. These guys have become our closest friends. We share our hurts, our joys, and so much more. It is great to be able to grow alongside these couples. You need to be in community.

How has being in a small group changed your life?