Innovate 09 is LIVE! I'll be blogging my way through the sessions. Dig in and join the conversation. Mark kicked things off with "You Don't Have It All Together, Neither Do I."
Everything is instant, global, and permanent.
Tectonic shift in our culture: Where does virtual intersect the material world?
Gnostics said the immaterial is what counts and materialism is meaningless. That force is pulling at us again.
Yet, can we not gain virtual community and add it material, tangible community? That's the question we're wrestling with.
The only people innovating are not the people in this room.
Our culture is changing rapidly, we better stay savvy, if you don't tweet, text blog..you need to. You might need to quit and consider getting a new job. This is the world that we are living in, if we can't engage the emerging technology, we will lose our moral authority and voice as the Local Church.
People have real friends, but they've never met in the material world. It's not all good, but some of this is redeemable and fantastic.
If we can harness the emerging technology available, and undergird it with a solid theological foundation, we can leverage it for much good.
Many of us are in pain, the very title exposed feels threatening to us. If my people knew how hard it is for me right now, I would lose my credibility.
If you are there, you are not alone. I've been on the floor weeping.
Let's expose ourselves together to God, so He can heal us.
Everyone trying to build a team of artists, student ministry, everyone of you trying to build a great team of volunteers, how do you take 11 people that unique and different, how do you make a team out of people so different, what do you do? Take people he gives to us and bring them into a core, so there is unity, so we can move forward relying on each other, trusting each other.
if every body is in a silo, a federation of subministries, we will fly apart. How do we become one clothe, one team?
We must WEAVE our team together like a threads in fabric.
Weaving: What holds us together? Here are the threads
As you look at people on your team, are you clear about these three things?
MISSION: Why we are here! If you had to describe your mission in a compelling way in 30 seconds, then you don't know your mission.
VISION: Picture that pulls us into the future.
VALUES: How we relate together as we live on mission, moving toward are vision.
When you are inviting people to your team, everyone you meet is moving, and they come with momentum. You can't just look at the snapshot, at the moment. Everyone has momentum. An object in motion has a tendency to stay in motion. What's behind them? What's pushing them? Everyone you see is coming with some kind of momentum, that will continue, unless some other force intercepts their momentum and altar their course.
Two Questions To Ask Today?
1. Why should people go to church?
2. why should people come to my church?
If you can't answer that second question, it's time to sit down and rethink everything.
JESUS: The most important thing holding us together: JESUS! If you're not with Jesus, you're not the church.
YOU: Celebrate the "Yes" votes because most the people in the world won't come to your church
Part of what holds your team together is you. Please know...it is personal. When many people say NO to your church, they are saying NO because of you.
Many people who are saying Yes are saying Yes because they want to pursue the mission and vision with YOU.
TEAMMATES: People are not just doing ministry with you, but with the team mates. So, they can't just like you, they most connect with their teammates.
Many people will look at you and say, Yes, but if you choose your team poorly, they will look at the teammates and say, "I don't think so."
You have to develop a team that is a magnet to others. so others can see WHY they would want to collaborate with the other teammates.
Every team is a free association or a covenant community
Free Association: I was just born here. I didn't do anything to get it. I just showed up and I'm in. Natural born citizenship.
Covenant Community: You can't get into this community without agreeing to the covenant. You agree and then you get in. If you are an immigrant, you have to enter a process to become a citizen.
The church has found themselves in decline because membership is free association with no meaningful covenant.
The early followers of Jesus were covenant people living in community. Even children born into the church were required to keep covenant.
In a few generations, free association becomes anything goes.
i think that is where we are.
We are living in "Anything Goes!" culture. We are the ones who says to a world, " You are invited to covenant community, weave your life into the fabric of the Kingdom, come and let us follow Jesus together in covenant!"
Live Q&A:
IS THERE ANYTHING YOU'RE DOING AT GRANGER THAT MAKES YOU UNCOMFORTABLE?
Almost everything we do makes me uncomfortable. Someone has to put on their big boy pants, take the risks, and pay the price. We bend, not in terms of integrity or our theology. But, how we get at that, the people who have power, have to give the power away. When we grasp for power, it divides. But, if we rightly give power away...my dream is to be a blessing so that all of you have power. Whatever I have, which may not be a whole lot, I want to use it to encourage and bless you. the power of the church is YOU. Your ability to hand it off to others. It's always uncomfortable to give your power away.
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