Exponential: Quotable!

Here are my favorite quotations from the week.

• "Christianity started as a Jewish movement, it will end as a Muslim movement." Bob Roberts
• "We use the gospels to tame our children into well-adjusted middle-class individuals. But these are revolutionary texts!" Alan Hirsch
• "In the spark is the pontential of flame. In the flame is the potential of the conflagration that overtakes the forest." Alan Hirsch
• "The barn has been spruced up for the last 30 years and the wheat is still not harvesting itself." Ed Stetzer
• "Too many church planters plant a church in their head, not their community." Ed Stetzer
• "Most churches choose their traditions over their children/communities." Ed Stetzer
• "Jesus never told us to plant a church, he said to make disciples." Neil Cole
• "You've learned how to lead from business leaders and you lead businesses!" Neil Cole
• "See the lost as the leaders of the future." Neil Cole
• "The reason God uses me is because I volunteered." Rick Warren

Exponential: Rick Warren

Growing a Reproducing Church
Rick Warren

How to grow a reproducing church:

1. Keep growing personally.
2. Take care of your family.
3. Develop a kingdom mindset.
4. Focus on building people, not the church.

He wants this on his tombstone, "He served God's purpose in his generation and then he died."

Let all the church planters in an incredible prayer of commitment and then prayed for God's blessing on everyone.

Exponential: Alan Hirsch 2

Missionary Movement
Alan Hirsch

• The church is in decline in every Western setting.

4 Areas We Need to Recover

1. The Centrality of Jesus

• Christology lies at the heart of the renewal of the church.
• Jesus sets the template for what it means to be a Christian.
• Jesus' harshest criticism is for the religious people.
• It's easy to take Jesus out of the church because it's hard to live with a Lord.
• Christianity minus Christ equals religion.

2. Discipleship

• Becoming like Jesus.
• Embodiment is critical to transmission.
• Movements only grow in proportion to their ability to make disciples.
• Consumerism is killing us from within. It is an alternative religion and we've wedded ourselves to it.

3. Ethos/Structure of Apostolic Movements

• missionally responsive
• culturally adaptive
• organizationally agile
• mobilize the whole people of God
• every believer a church planter
• reproducible
• structurally networked

4. Missional-Incarnational Impulse

Orlando Tuesday Morning

I got up at 2:45 this morning after going to bed around 11:30, but I made it to Orlando and even got some sleep on the plane. I'm really excited for how God will use these few days in my life and the life of Infuse. I've already connected with some people, and I'm especially excited about one in particular (the last one below).

1. Jeff Nichols: A friend from seminary and fellow church planter who lives in Denver. We bumped into each other in the registration line and got to catch up a little bit.
2. Hugh Halter and Matt Smay: The leaders of the MCAP training I'm doing are here for the conference and to promote their new book, The Tangible Kingdom.
3. Scott Whiting: I was next in line for the registration and was making small talk with one of the volunteers. He asked me where I was from, so I told him I was from Aurora. The guy behind me in line said, "No way, me too! Where in Aurora?" So after we both got our bag of advertising flyers we talked for a few minutes. He used to be a pastor at Calvary Church in Naperville, but five years ago he left to plant a church. They are now in the process of morphing into a network of groups, something similar to Infuse. I'm pumped to get to know him better over the next few days and to have found another kindred spirit in Aurora!

Praise God that some great things are happening before the conference even starts.