Creating Comunity out of nothing presentation from YA Summit 2008

I want to thank the fellas who presented this. I have to say this conversation was one of the best presentations that I have heard recently. I want my Sr. minister to hear this and all Sr. ministers to hear this and talk about this creativity with congregations.

(at around the 4:30 mark there is an excellent time to reference lipstick on a pig, but it was not utilized. I imagine for political reasons.)

9 Needed Fundamental Shifts of Christian Living

Presented by Gary at the Young Adult Summit

We need to shift from:

1. Being Church focused to Kingdom focused
2. Maintenance leadership to Missional leadership
3. Fear of failure to embrace failure (fail often to succeed sooner)
4. Codependency (people have needs, we need people to keep the institution alive) to worship (aka: giving) and service
5. Talking at people to Talking with people
6. Counting money and people to counting relationships and missions
7. Dualistic worldview (there is sacred time and there is secular time) to sacred worldview (all time is sacred)
8. Judge and savior to Cultivator
9. Attractional (church growth model) to Missional (ministry with people)

YA Summit observations

The Fall Summit of the CTC in 2008, focused on young adult ministry. I met D.G. Hollums who is a "Cultural Architect at Th3 Waters" in Kentucky. He was a fascinating fella and I learned a lot from him. I cannot begin to type all that I learned but I know that his influence in my life (for the day it was) will shape my future. He has several blogs (the one to the left is his) and several podcasts (they guy podcast and praxis podcast are the ones I am most interested by). He and his Sr. minister, Gary, told me that if I had to read one book I should read:

The Shaping of Things to Come: Innovation and Mission for the 21 Century Church by Michael Frost

So I want to read that (I think that I added that to my goodreads book list, as well as organic church, and if the Buddha dated).

In another line on this summit, I ran across some quotes from people:

"I think altar calls are crazy. Asking people to come to the front and give their life to Jesus in one moment. I have never had a single relationship begin that way in my whole life."

"We live in a world of best guesses and not yets."

"For the word of God among us. For the Word of God within us. Thanks be to God."

"Third places are thin places"

Spiritual Entrepreneur

Spiritual: of, relating to, consisting of, or affecting the spirit

Entrepreneur: one who organizes, manages, and assumes the risks of a business or enterprise

David Kinnamon spoke at the Fall Summit this past Saturday and he spoke very well. Of the many things which he brought up was the idea of we need to be and allow others to be "Spiritual Entrepreneurs". That is we need to allow people to imagine ways of doing ministry in their context. The great and scary thing about being a spiritual entrepreneur is the energy that is involved with it. There is so much energy which goes into creating something and that energy is exciting and can inspire others to also become passionate. The scary side of this energy is the amount of work it takes and how it forces each of us to be involved in growing. If I am growing a business I would need to know not only my product but also marketing, advertising, sales, taxes, employment, etc. So if I am going to be a spiritual entrepreneur, I need to know not only things about Jesus but also Buddha, Bible, MLK, politics, history, etc.

If I am going to be a Spiritual Entrepreneur then I must be willing to study and go into areas which are not just about theology.

The problem is I have a limited time and energy. This means that I really need other people to teach me and show me other areas which I do not (but need to) know about. Dialogue, conversation, and relationships must become the center of what I am doing as a minister if I really want to be the best spiritual entrepreneur.