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Ecclesia Church Planter Bootcamp: Aggelos 2011

A theological and practical trajectory for missional church planting

aggelos is unique in comparison to other church planters training opportunities available.
First, there will not be hundreds of people here. More than likely, there will be somewhere between 20-30. This means plenty of room for dialog, conversation, and questions amidst all of the planned training.
Second, everyone stays, eats, and prays together for the week. Most people leave with better friendships, some of which will be life-long, because they started the church planting journey – in this way – together.
Third, there will be a host of different equippers with unique planting stories. This gathering (as in all we try to do) isn’t dominated by just a few individuals or models of church planting. You’ll hear from a variety of planters, both seasoned and new, and learn from their experiences and approaches.
Finally, we hope to provide a good balance of theology, theory, and practicality. Each component is vital
We hope you’ll join us in May!
Chris Backert (Director)
Details
Registration:
Contact Chris Backert: chris.backert@ecclesianet.org
Date
May 9-13, 2011
Richmond, VA
Location
Richmond Hill Urban Retreat Center (www.richmondhillva.org). Richmond Hill is a former monastery, located in the heart of the city of Richmond. Most people will be sharing a room with one other person throughout the week. All meals are all included as part of our stay and will take place on the grounds.
Registration
Email info@ecclesianet.org to confirm your spot followed by payment. A 20% deposit is required within two weeks of registration to qualify for rate and space.

More info here: http://www.ecclesianet.org/equipping/aggelos-2011

Why Church Planter Conferences are SO much better than Church Growth Conferences.

I've been incredibly blessed over the last couple of months to be able to attend two gatherings of Church Planters. The first was the Ecclesia Network's National Gathering and the second has been Christian Associates International's Leadership Summit.
I'll blog more in depth about both soon, but for now- it's got me thinking about why Church Planter conferences are so great and church growth/pastor's conferences are so not.
(By church growth/ pastors conferences I'm thinking of the big, national events with lots of big names, big ticket prices and big... Well, big EVERYTHING.)

Some reasons:

1. Church planter conferences tend toward collaboration, Church growth/pastor conferences toward competition.
The big question at pastor conferences? How big is yours? (Church that is). The feeling is very middle school, with people sizing themselves and others up, clear pecking orders, cool kids, nerds and outcasts... And plenty of comparing yourself against the superstar A-listers on the stage and the B-listers who get invited to tell how cool what they've got going is at the various breakout sessions.
It tends to be a different world at Church planter conferences- everyone is either at the same place or only one or two steps removed and can remember clearly and identify with where everyone else is at. The spirit tends to be sharing of stories and wisdom/ resources, rather than the "Let me tell you how I innovated our way to WINNING and how you can too!"

2. Church planter conferences are about encouragement- pastor conferences try, but because of their emphasis on celebrity, end up being demoralizing.

I'll say this- the big conferences TRY to encourage pastors/leaders, they really do. And often, in spite of the lasers and smoke machines, God does show up and brings encouragement. But because of the very nature of the big stage, the inaccessible superstars, the cutting-edge everything, the end result is often men and women who leave thinking "If only I could speak like that. If only MY church was like that. If only..." they go back not necessarily encouraged in what God is doing in their community/context, but determined about what THEY are going to do next- driven to "take it to the next level." And when, year after year, the "next level" is not reached, but growth, if at all remains slow, a certain "Why does this work for everyone else but ME?" tends to set in.
Church planter conferences, however, tend to do the opposite. They confirm God in the slow and steady, they help us see God in what is now- however small, however seemingly insignificant. And because of that, while I leave church growth/pastor conferences determined and with a list of things to change and to implement, I tend to leave church planter conferences not with new level of drivenness, but new levels of clarity- clarity about what I'm doing, where God is in it, and what I long to see God do next.

3. Church planter conferences are about connection and you meet new people, while growth/pastor conferences tend to be about resources and programs.

Church planter conferences, at least the ones I go to, tend to be smaller, and that means a different relational dynamic. I went to a large conference in Southern California for years, heard many amazing speakers, got a ton of great ideas- but never made a *friend* I didn't have already when I walked in the door. And generally, at the end of the day I came to realize- I could have saved a lot of money, listened to all these talks on the internet, bought the books the A and B Listers were inevitably selling, and gotten largely the same result and maybe better if I'd just taken those books and MP3s and sat by a pool somewhere.
But over the last three years of attending small church planter-oriented conferences, I've actually made friends. People who know my name, who pray for and encourage me when I need it. People who get the unique challenges I'm facing and that I can pick up the phone and call when I need to... And believe me, I have. I've found not just the latest resource or model, but an actual learning community I hope to be journeying with for a long, long time.

4. Church planter conferences are about the small ways we see the Kingdom breaking in, both personally and corporately. Pastor conferences tend to be showcases not of what God is doing, but the best and the latest of what WE are doing.

Gather with five thousand other pastors, pay hundreds of dollars to be there and you have a right to expect exactly what you will get: The best speakers and the latest methods and technology. Watch Ed Young Jr ride an elephant onto the stage? Heck yeah! See some guy dive off a hundred foot tower into a bucket of water? Why not? Listen to one of three sugar-stick messages this superstar is touring the circuit with this year? Absolutely.
This isn't to say there's not a sense of inviting experienced and authoritative people to speak to the church planting conferences. But those folks come for a lot less money, they tend to actually hang around and have conversations with people, and all in all, it ends up feeling like someone who actually wants to contribute to your ministry- not fly in, do their thing, grab their check and jet out.
The planter conferences look more like what we actually do- simple worship, dialogue, sometimes bad PowerPoint. But in spite of (and maybe partially because of?) all that, they tend to deepen - not distract you with THE SHOW. The church growth conferences dazzle, but they don't tend to deepen. They show you what you can have if you just spend more money, hire the right staff, adopt their model...

Am I exaggerating? Sure- a bit. But I'm editorializing here! :)
Does small mean better? No, not necessarily. Ive been to some great larger conferences and some scary smaller ones. Can and does God show up at Catalyst Or some conference with "!" in the title or "Q"? Sure (but even HE has to pay $800 to get into Q). If you can go, go. Have a good time- get out of things like that everything you can.
But understand- we try to convince people that what's flashy, what's new, what appeals to our consumer instincts isn't always what's best- that God (as Elijah found) is often heard in the still silence, not the flash and bang... And then we often turn around and choose exactly that. The glitz, the show, the "experience."
I've simply become convinced that there's a whole lot more to the small and non-slick than meets the eye. That maybe my time and money are better spent in smaller environments that can't "compete" with these big mega-conferences, but also offer some things they could never hope to.
And maybe, if you are in ministry, yours too?

7 years ago today...

Last year on this day, March 11th, right around this time, I was standing on the roof of a clinic in a village in rural Haiti, using a borrowed phone to try and call home.

This morning, one year later, using terrible hotel wifi, I finally managed to place a Skype call from Spain back home to Portland.

It wasn't long after we were married that Amy was prophetically saying to me, "I know someday you are going to be traveling- I can tell that's what God is going to do." At the time, it sounded exciting...

This week, as my plane left the Portland airport on its way to Madrid, Spain, I began to wonder how those men and women who basically travel for a living do it. Each time I leave home lately- it feels as though it gets harder and harder. More and more of my heart is tied up in every little Janie smile, every new Josie word, every Jack hug and every Amy kiss.

But, as she predicted, God has been taking me places. A few weeks ago it was an incredible time at the Ecclesia Network National Gathering with some of our elders from Evergreen. This week, it's Christian Associate's Leadership Summit here in Europe, where I'm taking the time to connect with church planters and learn from some new streams and new relationships. In a few more weeks, to Richmond, VA to help teach a church planter's bootcamp with/for Ecclesia.

I love new places, I love to see new things- it stimulates my brain in ways that are so very needed. But sometimes, like today, I feel acutely that pang of missing out.

Seven years ago today my son Jack was born. I love him more than he can know- and am extremely proud of the boy he is becoming. His heart is becoming wonderfully soft and he's proving quicker than most I know to turn a corner after getting angry, to come and say he's sorry- often cooling down way before even his daddy! He's got a generous spirit, a quick mind, and a fun-loving nature that doesn't stop.
Jack- I wouldn't want any other boy but you! I love you, guy- Happy Birthday!

Daddy will be home soon.

"She, out of her poverty, gave..."

"Calling his disciples to him, Jesus said, 'Truly I tell you, this poor widow has put more into the treasury than all the others. They all gave out of their wealth; but she, out of her poverty, put in everything—all she had to live on.'"

This morning, during a group lectio divina meditation on this Scripture, the line the Holy Spirit highlighted for me was this: "She, out of her poverty..."

As we sat with this passage, the question that came up for me was "Where is MY poverty?... And what would it look like to give out of it?"

I suspect that too often, in our context, we are overly-focused on giftedness. We want people to know their gifts (and ours) and, in a sense, to operate out of their "riches." When it becomes clear that someone is good at something, or has resources in a particular area, we want them to begin serving, giving, worshiping God with that. And so the musician who plays well is encouraged to play for God. When it becomes clear someone can speak and communicate well, we encourage her to use that gift for God and for us. The good graphic designer is pressed into using that gift for the community, the natural leader to lead, the one with the gift of hospitality to be hospitable. And there's nothing wrong with that. God has given those gifts to us for a reason.

But giving out of our gifts, out of the riches of what we do well and willingly is easy. Maybe too easy, in many ways.

In sitting with the question of where my poverty lays, I realized- we all have areas within ourselves of relative riches and relative poverty. And God wants it all. He created us, bought us at great cost to Himself, and desires that we give to Him our whole selves- that our worship of, devotion to, service of Him be wholistic.

But I wonder if, like us, God tends to smile at certain gifts more than others- not that He doesn't take delight in all service, all worship honestly given, but...
In the same way we value the hand-made gift, the hand-written note, the thing that shows effort and thought, I wonder if God sees gifts given out of our riches a little differently than gifts given out of our poverty? The easy gift of operating out of our strength vs the harder gift of having to dig deep into our less-comfortable and less competent places.

For me I know I am very comfortable in certain areas of ministry and less so in others.

And as I sat today, meditating on this, I became convinced that God wants me to worship Him not simply out of my surplus- to give to Him what costs me little because I have so much of it, or am good at it. He does want those things- but perhaps what is more worshipful of Him, more forming for me, and ultimately maybe even better for others is when I take stock of the areas where I am poor and decide to give God everything I have there- to step out, and as an act of worship, do what is less comfortable, less likely to end with the positive ego-enhancing feedback we all so love.

God, this Lenten season, may I learn to value my poverty more than my giftedness- my weakness more than my strength. Because it is in my weakness that Your strength and grace are shown and bring me to maturity.