Yesterday I had an opportunity to attend the Deep and Wide one day conference with Andy Stanley. Here are a few of my notes.
This will solve every marriage problem.
This is how you become a good employee.
It’s less complicated but way more demanding.
What was a catalyst that caused you to grow in your relationship with Christ?
Your church’s discipleship model is perfectly designed to produce the results you’re currently getting. If you can’t tell me how you are doing it there is no way you can measure it.
An effective discipleship model requires an accurate definition of disciple. A follower of Jesus is one who demonstrates – one another behavior.
What grows prevailing faith? What fuels one-another love?
5 Faith Catalyst that the church must focus on to produce disciples.
Providential relationships – When we see God’s faithfulness in someone else’s life it is easier to to trust him with ours.
Pivitol Circumstances The Churches responsibility is to have a community so strong, that when someone in the congregration goes through a trial there is someone that can care for them and interpret it for them.
Personal Ministry Involvment – Our primary concern is engagement, not attendance.
We measure these 4 things.
I want to build a church of people with great faith and great love.
Nearly one quarter of Americans claim no religoius affiliation. Pew Research 2014 We are a Post-Christian Nation.
A post christian culture has “no to low tolerance” for faith based answers to fact based questions. Today we live in the information age and misinformation age. People have instant access to undermine the faith. The right message with the wrong approach yields the wrong results.
When you care about someone you’re never content to simply make your point.
When you care about someone, your goal is to make a difference.
With each passing year, the percentage grows of people who believe that those that live by the principles of the Bible are religous extremists. (This is the message on college campuses) If you can pull one card away the whole faith comes crashing down. It’s a house of cards.
What should we do? The foundation of our faith is an event! Period. Paul said, If Jesus hasn’t been raised from the dead it’s a waste of time. The foundation of our faith is not the Bile. The Bible was created in the 4th century. For the first 200 plus yrs – not one pastor said the Bible says. Chrisitanity had it’s finest year without the Bbile. The church in Acts didn’t have the Bible. It didn’t become a text based religion until hundreds of years later. A faith that sits and rests on an event not a text.
So many people have left the faith for all the wrong reasons. What you left over, isn’t essential to the faith. Our faith Doesn’t rise or fall on a 6 days of creation view, a non contradictory event. It all rises and falls on the resurrection of Jesus.
1. We decided to think post Christian rather than non-christian. Our target audience isn’t people that never heard Jesus. Our target audience is people that used to believe but don’t. Millinials still have a crush on Jesus.
It is more effective to say, “Here is what Jesus says,” The problem with the Bible says is what else the Bible says. We must adjust our Apologetics and move the spotlight from the Bible to the resurrection.
2. Assume “they” are in the room.
What do they see? What do they hear? What do they experience?
2. Do our facilities look like we are expecting guests and their children Your house looks best when you are expecting guests.
3. Do guests see themselves in prominent places?
1. Do we have a good reputation in the community? In politics you can’t just do good you must be seen doing good. Let your light shine in such a way that people see your good works and glorify your father in Heaven.
2. Is our communication engaging?
3. Is our content helpful?
3. Do we respond quickly, directly, and personally?
By all possible means. (Nothing is off limits) I Cor. 9:19-22 – I have made myself a slave to everyone to win as many as possible. To Jews I became like a Jew (He was a Jew) I am willing to adjust my approach to win some. What is the faith of the next generation worth?
Session #4 The local church should be the greatest place on the planet to work.
I’m here to facilitate your success regardless of where our name are on the org chart. While our responsibilities differ, we are both essential to the success of this enterprise. What can I do to help you? It’s not natural for the person at the top to ask others this question.
Do for one what you wish you could do for everyone. Don’t try to be fair. Fairness ended in the garden of Eden.
Create and maintain a sustainable organizational pace. Without margin you can’t do anything for anyone else.
Celebrate and reward it when you see it. What is rewarded is repeated.
Confront your ego – What’s most important, building a great organization or creating a name for yourself?
Drop the term loyalty from your organization’s vocabulary. Loyalty is earned. If you can’t earn it you don’t deserve it. Forget loyalty just love people. God didn’t call them to be loyal to you.