Alex McManus has a new book coming out soon called Making the World Human Again this January. Check out this video:
It looks quite interesting! I like the main premise, that Jesus came not to start a religion, but to realign people to follow Him. Reminds me somewhat of Charlie Peacock’s book New Way To Be Human. I’ve only recently become familiar with Alex McManus, knowing only of his brother Erwin, who pastors a church in LA called Mosaic. Alex is definitely a progressive thinker when it comes to the church and his blog is always thought-provoking.
Today was my first day at the Exponential Church Conference in Orlando, FL, a church conference for church planters. I almost came to the conference last year and at the last moment, decided to come this year. Having my family living in Orlando made it an easier decision, since I can stay at their house instead of driving an hour and a half back and forth from Tampa.
The conference offered a number of different tracks, depending on what focus a church planter might want to take. I decided to go with the Reproducing Churches track, but likely would have gone with the Missional Living track if it wasn’t totally booked.
Besides the different tracks offered, everyone at the conference attended a number of main sessions. Today’s main session was kicked off with Ed Stetzer sharing some statistics about church planting…his PowerPoint from his talk available on his website (at least they should be). Ed then talked with a number of church leaders who are involved in planting churches: Randy Pope, Neil Cole, Bob Roberts, and two other people who I can’t remember. Their dialogue was good, but I didn’t hear anything earth-shattering.
Andy Stanley was the speaker for the second session and he who talked about Vision. He basically summarized the main points of his book Visioneering, which is an excellent book. His talk was a great reminder of how incredibly important vision is in a church. As the proverb goes, where there is no vision, the people perish.
After Andy spoke we all broke out into our various tracks. Bob Roberts spoke about Visioning for an Apostolic Movement Locally & Globally. I took notes as he talked, and though he shared some interesting ideas, I walked away from the session wondering “What was that all about?” I probably need to go back over the notes again, but nothing stuck out to me.
I also met up with my friend Dave, who is planting a church in Springfield, OH this fall. It was good to catch up with him and so exciting to see him getting ready to start a church. I’m looking forward to seeing what tomorrow brings, hopefully it will be a little more insightful than today
I have some big news in my life and today is the first day I am able to share it publicly. Yes, it’s true….I am moving to Tampa, FL! I have been invited to join a team planting a church there and will be moving down right after Thanksgiving. The church is called Coastland Tampa and is being started by Steve Sjogren, who planted and pastored the Cincinnati Vineyard church and sparked the whole servant evangelism movement. I’m very excited that God has led me to be a part of this church and can’t wait to get down there!
This is a bittersweet day, though. I have been attending Far Hills for seven years and have been on staff for the last five. I’ve been very involved in the student ministry, especially in the last 9 months where I’ve been serving as the interim student pastor. I shared with the volunteer team this morning that I was leaving, and that was difficult. Pete Schwalm, our interim senior pastor, shared with the congregation I was joining Coastland, while I shared with the students during our worship service about my transition. This church and these students have been through quite a bit the last 18 months, and knowing my departure will cause more grief is hard. I love the students and volunteers and want the best for them, but I know I must be obedient to where God is leading me, and I have to trust that He is in control.
I have two more weeks at Far Hills, with the 18th being my last Sunday there. It’s going to be tough to leave, but a new experience awaits me in Tampa, and for that I am thrilled. I’ll be sharing a lot more about how I got connected to Coastland over the next several weeks. Stay tuned!
Tomorrow’s the big day for Porn and Pancakes here in Dayton, OH. My church is hosting the event and partnering with Apex Community Church to bring the XXXchurch guys in. A number of other churches and ministries are bringing guys as well. This is the first time a XXXchurch event has been done in the Miami Valley, so we weren’t sure how much of a response we’d get. Just today we sold our last ticket for the event, which is so awesome! I’m really hoping and praying God uses this event to be catalytic moment in the lives of the guys who attend.
I’ve been the point person for Far Hills to make this event happen and have some last minute things to setup today to make everything go smooth tomorrow. This is the first time we’ve done a breakfast for a bunch of people like this, so I’m hoping there’s no glitches when the pancakes are served.
If you’re wondering what the heck this event is all about, check out this video:
Australian missiologist Michael Frost talks about what it means to be the missional church, addressing the 2007 Presbyterian Global Fellowship Conference in Houston, TX. It’s a 50 minute video, but well worth it!
