INNOVATE - Day Two - Part One

SESSION THREE: Rob Wegner, "Missional Moves"

What is God's plan to show the world that He is good? YOU AND ME... THE CHURCH!

1) What is the Gospel that Jesus preached?
- many of us think that the Gospel is basically "getting out of trouble with God", the "minimal requirements to get to heaven."-
- Jesus' gospel was the Kingdom of God... not a category, like money or sin... but the Kingdom encompassed all of them.
- What is the "Kingdom of Heaven"? Wegner: "where the life of God breaks through in the dark and broken places in this world... starting in our hearts, but moving throughout humanity... bringing up there down here."

1st Move: shifting from a gospel of saved souls to saved wholes
- some of us focus so much on the gospel as verbal proclamation, and that's not incorrect... just incomplete.
- verbal proclamation + demonstration proclamation = the Gospel of Jesus Christ

2nd Move: from "flashlight" to laser focus
- Are we confusing the Great Commission with the great commotion?
- Acts 1:8 (framework for missional activity
- be 30 ft. deep in a few places, rather than 3 ft. deep in many!
- Jesus didn't give us missions, He gave us one mission... a LIFE mission!
- Become an "unstoppable force" for good!-
- Narrowing your focus dramatically increases your impact

3rd Move: from professionals to full participators
- in book of Acts, all the missional activitity was based in the church
- missional movement is about getting people out of their seat
- lower the barriers of fear and busyness, in order to get people mobilized. GCC created 2nd Saturdays for people to get involved: they provide transportation, make it family-friendly, and they get loads of people helping out (even non-Christ followers). They provide opportunities to all kinds of people, from all walks of life, who are all at different points in their spiritual journey... once a month, every month.

The time has come for churches to figure out where they stand. God has called us, not to sit inside in our sanctuaries, but to get outside the four walls of the church and press forward against the gates of hell!

Help bring up there down here...
Don't give poverty and injustice the final words...
Let Him make us dangerous...
Victory is ours...
OUR GOD REIGNS!!!!

INNOVATE - Day One - Part Two

SESSION THREE - Tim Stevens

I'm liking Tim Stevens more and more. Not that I didn't before, but he's quickly becoming the GURU of how/why the Church should engage pop culture. His session was titled the same as his book (which, if you haven't read, run quickly to the bookstore), and - again - Tim delivered a very informative and inspiring message:

* Peppering his talk with video examples (pop culture), Tim showed us by example of how pop culture could be used during our gathering.

* He talked about how most churches are not impacting their communities... and how, although spiritual interest in our country continues to be on a rise, church attendance continues to plummet. We're making very little impact!

* Tim asked the question, "Can we 'mix with the world', and still give an unpolluted message?" And he showed from the apostle Paul's ministry to the people in Athens (Acts 17) how we can use the world's culture in order to reach them (in Acts 17:28, Paul even quotes from a famous secular poet).

* He gave 4 ways that pop culture could be used:

- to package a secular topic in a creative way in order to reach unchurched people...

- to get people thinking or laughing...

- to provide a new interpretation for a pop culture element...

- to encourage the people who are making the ministry happen.

Long and short, the more I hear Tim speak on this topic, the more intrigued I become with it, and the more I want to know it inside and out. I wanna be a guru like Tim. :)

Innovate - Day One - Part One

Holy moley! The opening of the conference was INCREDIBLE!!! There was a pantomine group "in glo-lights", the music was awesome, and DC laid it DOWN! (didn't even know he rapped) They're definitely "bring UP THERE DOWN HERE!"

SESSION ONE

Mark is bringing the opening talk... no matter when this guy speaks or what he's talking about, it's incredible:

* Sometimes the Church talks too much... we need to stop talking so much, and ENGAGE our culture!
* Never forget the desperate need of the masses... THERE'S AN URGENCY! And people are waiting for us to STOP TALKING and START DOING!
* PRAYER: do we know how to STOP TALKING when we pray, knowing that He's God and knows how to handle our situations without our advice? What if, while we're praying (yapping), we heard God say, "Child, please hang up." Sometimes, we need to STOP TALKING.
* Mark is an incredibly gifted (and funny) storyteller... :-)
* There are people around us who are going through life with no vision, no guidance, no wisdom... and they're heading for a major crash... they matter to God, and they don't even know it... and we need to STOP TALKING and DO SOMETHING to help them navigate through the storms of life and avoid the crashes!
* Who wants to be BALANCED? Balanced is static... you can't make progress without leaning. If we're going to move forward, we have to lean into what we're doing!
* Eccl. 4:9-10
* You want safety, stay balanced... you want success, lean in!
* There is no one else in this world lined up to do what God's called us to do!
* NOW, Mark says, we're about to begin! :-)
* Good point of insight from Beeson: from "hal-stock", John Mark's mom was a believer; his dad was not. Tradition says that Mark's father was Roman. Interesting when you realize that his gospel was written primarily to the Romans...
* Not quite sure I understand where Beeson's going... I want him to cut to the chase! :-)
* Mark uses the word "immediately" over and over in his gospel...
* We live in a culture that wants something to happen immediately!
* The challenge is to use story, image, and song
* Vision without action is only a dream!
* We need to take next steps, and begin to change in order to reach our culture with the life-transforming good news of Jesus Christ!
* We must immediately diagnose reality. Our world is driving hell-mell down a road, not realizing they're headed for a major crash. We need to wrap the truth in story, engaging culture, reaching people.

SESSION TWO - Shawn Wood

* Shawn kinda looks like this guy!
* Over 90% of questions he gets are how to get HELP to do creative stuff, more stuff, less stuff...
* We TOO OFTEN let the "stuff of God" become the objects of our affection... instead of keeping it in perspective that the only reason we even HAVE the stuff (creative elements, music, programming, etc.) is to make Jesus famous.
* Brand schizophrenia - when we focus too much on the "stuff" instead of keeping our focus on Jesus... and we don't know who we are anymore.
* Chasing excellence - becomes who we are and what drives us... we perfect our brand, instead of focusing on effectiveness.
* If this isn't about JESUS, we need to go get another job... this has become a HOBBY!
* Where are we driving? What's the goal? Is where we're trying to go going to make a difference in the lives of others?
* We can be excellent, but not effective.
* Some of us are spending alot of time trying to be something that God hasn't created us to be... so we can do things that don't reflect the uniqueness that God created us for.
* Brand - the aftertaste left after a person has had an encounter/experience with you.
* I totally zonked out for about 15 minutes... not Shawn's fault, though. Can't sit in the cafe doing this... :-)

Plum

I'm Going Back to Indiana!!

Actually, we're here! Arrived this evening... LONG drive... but good company! ;-) Great to be here with some of our team this year... last year I was here with only a pastor friend of mine... mo' vision, mo' better! :-) The ride back is gonna be off the chain, just getting a chance to talk and dream about the takeaways... MAN!! This is exciting stuff!

Wish you were here... are you?? If so, give me a shout out!!! :-)

Tonight... and Tomorrow

... was great! Spoke to about 60 students at the Inter-Varsity Fellowship at University of Maryland. I LOVE speaking to college students... and, having gone to UMD, it's always special when I get a chance to speak there. Cheryl Molinatto, their campus director, is doing an awesome job... it's great to see the student leaders taking their roles seriously and connecting the students to "the big picture." Can't wait to get back there with those guys!

Tomorrow, seven of us head out to Indiana for the Innovate Conference... which is going to be simply incredible... I can feel it! :-) Can't wait to hear three of my favorite speakers... Mark Beeson, Craig Groeschel, and Steven Furtick - three distinct styles, three awesome ministries, three mighty men of God! Plus, I get to hook up with my brotha from anutha mutha!! It's going to be an awesome 2 1/2 days! ;-)

I'll be away from my internet-deprived-by-Verizon home for a couple of days, so my blogging should pick up. :-) Hopefully, I'll live-blog from the conference... we'll see. Gonna miss my bride and boys BIGTIME... AUGH!! Pray for me...

D-PLUM

INNOVATE '08!!

If you've never gone to this conference, you don't know what you're missing! I went last year with a friend of mine, and I was BLOWN AWAY! Granger Community Church knows how to reach people in relevant, creative ways... they're one of the most innovative churches in the country... and every year they pull out the stops in order to help other churches understand the value and necessity of leveraging culture to reach people far from Christ!

This year, we're taking at least seven people to the conference! And we might have some more sign up before the end of the summer! I can't even tell you how excited I am about that!! Because we're serious about reaching people... and we're serious about reaching them in more and more effective ways - being relevant and leveraging culture all throughout the process.

Check out the website for the conference... and then ask yourself this question: "What are we (your church) doing to leverage culture and reach people far from Jesus?" If that's a tough question to answer, then don't even try to answer it. Just sign up...

And take your team.

This is too big for you to do alone. ;-)

Mr. Chicago

Mr. Chicago!

Nope... not Rex Grossman (LOL!!!)

It's Scott Hodge! Pastor of The Orchard Community in Aurora, IL... outside of Chi-town.

Scott gave a tremendous message on being innovative in leading change. I had some things to post about the message, but my notes weren't as good as Dave Ferguson's... so see what he wrote! HA!

I've been following Scott's blog for a couple of months now... he's become one of my regular reads. I know some of you are familiar with him... and, then again, there are some of you who read this blog that aren't. So, show him some love and visit his site!

Okay... get ready... tomorrow night... from Mosaicland... another SUNDAY NITE SPEAK!!!

Showin' Some Link Love!

It's 2:04a.m. and I literally just walked in the door about 20 minutes ago... and I'm not tired because I slept on the plane ride from Chicago to Atlanta, and then from Atlanta to Baltimore. So, I thought I'd shoot out a quick post before I hit the sack!

I had a GREAT TIME at Granger!! Think I'll be making the annual trek out there for awhile... if you've never been there, you're missing a real treat! I met some really awesome peeps at the conference... as well as also having the opportunity to formally meet some that I'd only interacted with through the blogosphere. So, I just want to send some quick SHOUT OUTS to a few of them...

Dave Anderson - You get the first shout-out, man... sorry you weren't able to make it to Innovate... but thanks a butt load for encouraging me to go!! It definitely was well worth it! :-) Get better soon, buddy.

Scott Hodge - it was great meeting you in person, dude! AWESOME MESSAGE!!!!!!!! Thanks for the transparency... you really challenged me in being courageous and stepping out to obey God... thanks, my brother! Looking forward to hanging out when I come to Chicago... ;-)

Kem ("G-Ma") Meyer - LOVED your blogging session... and your charismatic personality! :-) Look forward to reading your blog more regularly! Thanks, too, for the pic!

DC Curry - DC... glad we connected, man! Looking forward to getting to know you... I'll be keeping up with your blog, and I'll be in touch! ;-) YOU'RE IN A GREAT PLACE, MAN!!

Lindsay Wasik - First... what's up with the pic on Kem's site? LOL! But she's right... you were DEFINITELY the hardest working person at Innovate ("Flash"!) Great to meet you in person... looking forward to continuing to connect through the blog world! I'll see you next year!! And, yes, I do love your blog. :-)

Jim Henry - My brutha from anutha mutha!!!! Dude... it was great to finally meet you in person... you and your entire 80-man crew! :-) Glad we got the chance to connect... you've really got to get down here to the DC area soon. Let me know when that's a go! (for some great pics from the conference, check out Jim's site)

Last, but not least, Larry Paige (who doesn't have a blot YET, but is working on it... maybe as we speak!!) My brother, it was great traveling with you... you are STUPID, boy! :-) Really... to think we go back over 20 years, and are now on the same journey... man, it's only a God-thing! Glad I was able to plant a seed back in '89 at P.G. Plaza! Look what God has sprouted since then!! ;-) Love you, bro... and we're gonna have to create our own movie, Conference Crashers!!

Day Two, cont'd

In the breakout session with Kem Meyer and a couple of cohortsher , on blogging... the in's and out's of blogging. So, for all my readers who subscribed only because you know and love D-Plum... and you've asked me numerous times what a blog is... now you'll understand a little bit better. At least, I hope so. :-)

BLOG TERMINOLOGY:

*Blog: a "weblog"... a journal of sorts, about what you do, or desire, or dream, or dig.

*Blogosphere: "The universe of blogs!" But you knew that, didn't you??

*Blovel: A SERIOUSLY long post

*Blogworthy: something worth blogging about

*Blahg: something NOT blogworthy

*dooce: getting fired for something you blogged about

*lurker: when you read blogs, but don't participate (post comments)

*post: a blog entry

*doppelblogger: someone who plagiarizes content from someone else's blog for personal gain

*trackback: when your blog lets you know that someone else has linked to a post

* ping:

* blogroll: a list of blogs you currently read (this usually changes)

* moblogging: mobile blogging

* link love: 2-way love... lovin' on the person whom you're linking, and showing your love to your

* troll: someone who leaves comments solely to antagonize the author

* flamer: someone who is inappropriate in their commentes

* blogna sandwich: someone who spends their lunch hour reading blogs

BEST PRACTICES of BLOGGING:

Jason:

1) Be yourself... through pictures, maybe be transparent, what you like, etc.

2) Provide value...

3) Is it YOUR stuff??

Kem:

1) Know that your blog is personal... BUT IT'S NOT PRIVATE!! ;-)

2) Use common sense and respect.

3) Don't apologize for light blogging.

4) Make sure you comment on blogs... and interact with people that comment on blogs... when you can. :-)

5) Don't jump and dump. Blogs are not a place to pick a fight.

Darryl:

1) Don't ask people to show you link love.

2) Don't "quick link." ("Go here"). At least, give a couple of sentences about what and why you're directing them to where you're directing them.

3) Make sure you link to things that are LONG TERM!

One last thought from Kem: DRIVE PEOPLE AWAY!! When you use links, it makes people want to come back because they expect you to have info that they want.

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That was from the morning breakout session. The first session after lunch was with Troy Grambling and Scott Hodge. I'll be showing Scott some love on this blog at other times, so I'll share some of Troy's thoughts for now.

TROY GRAMBLING ON "INNOVATION in LEADING CHANGE"

* Innovation comes from collaboration, not isolation!

* Limit who I listen to! I can't be overwhelmed with ideas and still be innovative.

* Focus my eyes, but broaden my influence!

1) Protect the vision

2) Produce the product

3) Push out the values

* Execute today for tomorrow's benefits! If I see fruit tomorrow, it's going to be because I've executed today!

Innovate, Day Two

First order of business: I never got back to finishing up with the Day One info... and I'm not going to... because you can get it from DC. Thanks, dude! :-)

Okay... so, on to day two.

First up was Rob Wegner. Rob's a great communicator, who has mastered (at least, better than most of us) the art of narrowing down the message to its core component. And that's what his session was about! He said that our goal as communicators is to get the truth of God to stick in the lives or people... and that there are five questions every communicator needs to ask before he can say his/her message is ready to be given:

* Is it simple?

* Is it unexpected?

* Is it concrete?

* Is it story-driven?

* Am I Spirit-dependent?

And that LAST POINT is so important! We can have everything all together, but it's Jesus alone that can resurrect the dead! People come to our churches... and their finances, marriages, relationships, and souls need to be resurrected... and we won't see that happen if the Spirit doesn't blow his power on our messages, and give them life! We MUST depend upon the power of the Spirit!

Dang, Rob... you've got me wantin' to go preach right now!!!!!

Innovate, Day One

An awesome first day... Granger rocks, baby!! Got to meet my blog buddy, Jim Henry, in person... always good to place a name with a face! I also met DC, who is the Student Ministry Director here at Granger, and Stephen Hawkins, who's the AV guy at Jim's church (looking forward to doing some work with you, Stephen!)

I have been BLOWN AWAY by all of Granger's innovative technology and their passion to reach people!! Totally incredible... wish it didn't end tomorrow!

Well, I have much more to write about Day One, but I'm tired and still have to finish my message for Sunday! :-) So, I'll post more tomorrow...

Until then...

I'm Here!!

I'm here, at the Innovate 2007 Conference, blogging LIVE! And you know what?

Granger Community Church is just like that! This is an INCREDIBLE PLACE... I'm really diggin' this sanctuary, too!

Guy Kawasaki is speaking now on "The Art of Innovation" (from a book that he wrote which is really good and that you need to pick up if you are at all an entrepeneur). He's a funny guy, and he knows his stuff - the in's and out's of innovation. One of the things he said that really stood out to me is that we should not be afraid to polarize people. Too many churches try to please everybody... reach everybody... without having a target, and without being uniquely innovative. But when you have a target... and you pursue that target in the unique way that God's called you... you actually reach more people - and you will (unintentionally, of course) alienate some people who just don't like what you do.

So, be innovative... find your unique niche... be who God's created you to be and do what He's called you to do. Some people won't like it, and will feel polarized... and that's okay.

Go ahead... polarize them.

And, in doing so, you might just find that you're pleasing God. :-)