Today I heard Alan Hirsch speak at the Missional Track. It’s great to go back to where my whole vision started: simple, missional, incarnational. Basically what Alan Hirsch talked about was reaching the Western Culture for Christ. He started off with a simple illustration of cultural distance (in reference to knowing Chirst).

Cultural Distance

/—–/—–/—–/—–/

0 1 2 3 4

Each integer represents a cultural barrier to the gospel such as:

• Worldview
• Belief system
• Language

Thus, “0″ equals being a Christian, and “4″ is as far aways as can be from Christ.

The point that Alan made is that Western culture is moving further and further away from “0,” and that most church methods are based on reaching people by bringing people to the church (church as center, or “0″). While this is still well and good because some percentage of Amercan culture can be reach this way, we still need to figure out how to reach the other 60% (or more).

He made the point that the church growth movement has been around for 40 years, and has contributed (made evangelism more present), it still hasn’t been the answer for the decline of churches in America (and in Europe). In fact, the church is still in decline in America, and we must watch to make sure we don’t end up like Europe.

I can’t wait to find out what is next!

Well, the first day of the Exponential Conference is over. This conference is basically about starting churches, whether traditional or not, which gives you a mixed bag of folks. People like Neil Cole, Andy Stanley, and Rick Warren are there. There is definiately a clash of methodologies present, but at least we can all agree that the overall goal of everyone there is the same: we want the world to really know Jesus Chirst.

• I just finished a Speed Reading Book by Robert Zorn  which gives an excellent overview of speed reading (I’ve gone from 472WPM to ~600WPM so far).
• I just started a more in-depth Speed Reading Book by Peter Kump which I will be reading in Tandem with the oh so popular Seven Habits of Highly Effective People
• Also on order after a recommendation by Dan Mastrapa at our Orlando church will be:
  • The Shaping of Things to Come: Innovation and Mission for the 21 Century Church
  • Breaking the Missional Code: Your Church Can Become a Missionary in Your Community (Hardcover)
  • Planting Missional Churches (Hardcover)
  • Soul Cravings

The cool thing is…I’m an Amazon Associate…so these are ads as well.  I’m going to buy my books through my ads :).  (Also, if you buy one through the advertisement it will help cover the cost of my web site ;)  

Last Wednesday Matthew came over and we talked about InFlux and small groups. He’s giving me the green light to run with it.

Green light=scared and exited

Well, it seems that noone is ever equipped fully for any task that God gives them. The hypothesis goes that if you were confident in your ability to do it, then you wouldn’t have to depend on God. I know that God has been preparing me for this, but now that it’s starting to happen it’s a little more strange. Studying house churches for two years is one thing, actually practically doing it is another.

It’s almost like going to school for two years and then finally getting a job in the same field. You may know all that you can about a subject, but the real world is always different. Add that together with the fact that this group isn’t really starting as a house church, but as an extension of a traditional church and things get really interesting.

The thing is, I know that God put me here, at least for a time. I know I’m going to be learning, and this seems to be a safe environment to do it. Also, the associate pastor at The Gathering Place Chruch, Pastor Dan, is a great guy and I really feel on the same wavelength as him. He’s very educated, knows all the church theories and statistics, and has a heart for the age group we are involved in (18-24).

We had a “leader’s meeting” for all the heads of ministries in the church (though were are classified not as the leaders, we were invited), and Pastor Dan actually said that one of the problems with the church is that we are portrying the Sunday service to be the “be all, end all” of church, and it shouldn’t be! This is amazing to hear from a pastor.

What would happen if the church leadership decided, “Hey, lets only have service every other week. We’ll have small groups on those weeks instead. This way, you can all still have time to accomplish all your responsibilities and spend time with your family.” Crazy? I think not.

Anyone that knows me understands that I think Sunday services are a very unefficient use of peoples time. Even pastor Dan admits that although The Gathering Place is one of the friendliest churches around, people aren’t well connected. Sunday services don’t function that way unless you are a very outgoing person who likes to start up conversations with complete strangers.

It seems that Sunday church’s intention is to “equip the body” at most churches, but it’s hard to equip everyone in a service with a general message that is tailored to reach the most people. You can’t equip someone that way. In fact, the next few Sunday services are going to be dedicated to “end times prophesy,” which I think is great in terms of helping people to get out of a “the world is going to end and I don’t have to worry about the next generation” mentality. I’m sure the messages will be encouraging and I will enjoy them, because they are Biblical and will teach on the Victorious Chruch. Still, that is teaching and giving understanding, and can only “equip” from a general point of view.

So, anyway, I say all this to communicate the fact that I think the church is a great place to grow. I’m excited to see what will happen.

Any thoughts?(more in next post)