Exponential Day Two

Today was a great day to be in Orlando. I was able to interact with several people I hoped to meet with as well as met some new people. Perhaps the best session I attended was Alan Hirsch talking about the mission Dei, or mission of God. More accurately, it is God's mission. The one that Jesus told the church to join in. I really appreciated his blunt approach to sharing the mission and applying it to the church.

 

This being my last day at the conference, I am going to make one astute observation and then pack to go home and get in bed.

           

There seems to be two main strategy camps present at this Exponential. The first camp, represented by people like Alan Hirsch and Neil Cole, is focused on the organic nature of the church. Call it house church, simple church, or organic church if you like. The primary focus is on simple rapidly reproducible church structures. The second camp, represented by people like Dave Ferguson and Bill Easum, is focused on launching as big as you can and then moving quickly to establish satellite campuses. To be fair, Ferguson did suggest going to multiple services before going to satellites, but the point is that these two camps are basically opposites. Organic churches are relatively small, loosely networked communities of believers. Satellite campus churches are essentially decentralized mega churches.

 

My thoughts on this observation are that I feel sorry for the church planter who is uniquely called to plant a church of about 100 to 300 people, and I wonder at the wisdom of the satellite strategy. It seems prone to pastor ego inflating.

Exponential Day One

This first day of Exponential in Orlando Florida has been very productive. Ed Stetzer gave some great insights for church planting based on research. You can find that research here. He then moderated a panel discussion among pastors effective at church multiplication. I had an opportunity to speak with Neil Cole and the strategy guru – Jack Allen.

 

Andy Stanley taught a good lesson on communicating the vision. I am going to review the LifeTree Church vision and see if it needs tweaking.

 

I am staying with my good friends, Ron and Stacey. They have been gracious enough to let me stay in their home for the next couple of nights. Tonight, we laid sod in their front yard. I volunteered to help because (a) I enjoy doing that kind of work, and (b) I think that this is what the church should be about. A fellow brother has work that needs to be done and not enough time to do it. Another brother is perfectly capable of helping and so he does.

 

I am looking forward to a great day tomorrow. More on that later.

 

Meating of the body

Tonight the Farmer family enjoyed an evening meal with our friends. We met at a great Brazilian restaurant on Delk Rd. It is called Carne no Espeto. I don't know what that means but it sure was good. The family we with whom we ate dinner have been attending LifeTree Church for about a month now. They truly are wonderful people. We enjoyed a great meal and several hours of conversation. On our drive home, I was thinking how a meal cements relationships. There is something about sitting around a table in a relaxed atmosphere that drops defenses and builds cohesion. I think we will try to have a meal with LifeTree Church families at least once per month.

 

Next week I will be in Orlando for the Exponential Conference. I am praying that I will learn a lot while there.