Below are my notes from today’s Emerging Ministries event in Fremont, CA (click here for more info about EM). It was a great time of connecting and reconnecting, and to learn from some great teachers and leaders. Below are my notes from the different talks (sorry Roy, I didn’t have my notes out for your talk… son-in-law #fail). I’ve seen other people do this on their blogs (most recently from Catalyst 09, etc) and have LOVED the info. So I thought I would pass this along. If you were there, what were your notes like? What did you take away? If you weren’t there but are going to go through this copious mess, what are your thoughts/reactions/etc? This is by no means the definitive re-statement of the talks given, nor do I give preference to one speaker over the other. This is just what I was able to get down.
Note: The bolded portions are either speaker emphasis or my emphasis.
Notes from the EM event 10.14.09
Mark Scandrette
-our three components:
a. my story => our story (community)
b. Christ conciousness => The Gospel
c. people and place => society, micro-culture we live in
Real transformation takes place when a-b-c are all connected
-disconnect from c = irrelevance
-disconnect from b = loss of power / transformational potential
-disconnect from a = lost of soul integrity… not a credible manifestation of God
What is most challenging for you?
Revisit these tension points (a, b, and c)
- tap into our own story… vulnerability
- Are you too busy to tap into the Word, Holy Spirit?
- Are you too into work to not get into community?
Discipline: We’re small in comparison to what God is doing in the Bay Area
-we’re plagued by a sense of alienation in SF Bay Area
Tension Points in Bay Area:
-highly educated vs. post-modern, bohemian
-wealth vs poverty
-power vs. powerless
-English language vs. everything else
-movement vs. lethargy
-progressive vs. conservative
-community vs. global
-established vs. starting (not figured out yet, searching)
-gay vs. straight
1) Trust your story
2) Be a deep listener
3) Translate
4) Be open to surprise
Bart Garrett
-How do I posture myself? Posture my organization?
-Chariots of Fire => difference between Harold Abrahams and Eric Liddell
Eric: “I believe that God made me for a purpose … [the mission], but He also made me fast, and when I run, I feel His pleasure.”
Harold: “You’re brave, compassionate, kind: a content man. That is your secret, contentment; I am 24 and I’ve never know it.
“I’m forever in pursuit and I don’t even know what I am chasing”
-gifts become a way of justifying our existence
Mark 8:37 and on… “What good is it if you gain the world and lose your soul?”
-The Father said to Jesus, “This is my Son, in whom I am well pleased”
-The Father says to us, ”Son, in you I am well pleased”
-Parable of the Talents
-Support each other, w/o competition… fight the sense of inadequacy
Nancy Ortberg – Organization
(speaking on previous speakers)
-encourage yourself in the Lord
-be happy for someone else even though you ache a little inside
-diversity of the Bay Area
-we can’t be overly prescriptive
-let God out of the box
-1 Thes. 1 => commending the Thessalonians
-Isaiah 29
-the power of God in us every day
-posturing => why?
-you are worthy to make someone else proud
-community: we tell each other we’re proud of each other
(speaking on Organization)
-tied to culture, tied to God
-community =>collection
Main Points
1) energy
2) expectations
3) entity
1) energy
-moniter, navigate, and steer energy
-be a student of other people
-Who did God make this certain person to be? What can they give to the organization?
-pay attention to energy
-When do you feel the energy of God?
Right people in right place => EASY
Right people working together => HARD
-team = community
-being and doing are inexorable linked
a. What is our purpose?
-transform people spiritually
-serve outside the walls of the church
-vision is a collaborative project
b. How do we deal w/ conflict?
-intimacy leads to community
-enjoy outcome after conflict
-we avoid conflict so we don’t grow
“Mercy to one is tyranny to others”
2) expectations
-transformation… not in a cumbersome way
-the reason we’re a team… b/c we can recruit people and the world can change
-passion can bring arrogance
“You can change the world… except for the part you can’t”
-you want strong leaders in every facet
-sometimes: “I think that’s your call”
-you don’t develop leaders unless you let them make their own decisions
Results: we can posture ourselves based on #’s
-comparison = serious sin
-great leadership is 80% perserverance
-you have to die to your dreams vs. return to the dream that God might have
-hope along with God that there will be results
3) entity
-organization = person
-organization is worthy of attention, just as important as any one person
-understand it’s call and mission
-everybody should understand the importance of the organization
-live authentically in a way that people are drawn in (Acts 2 church)
-our organizations should flourish