"Jewels" of the Exponential Conference

I told you to stay tuned for some more highlights from the Exponential Conference in Orlando. These were some of the "jewels" of wisdom that I received last week. They may or may not mean anything to you, but they do to me. Here they are and feel free to comment any thoughts.

Craig Groeschel

• "What you believe about church is how you will do church."
• "The church needs to be dangerous again! The message of Christ is a dangerous message!"
• "If you plant a church without humility, you will turn alot of people away."
• "Don't push people to your vision, but God's vision."
• "People don't want to know how many people you bring in or how much money you raise. They want to hear a vision on how many people you send out and how much money you can give away."
• "Don't blame yourself for the attendance decline or you'll be tempted to take credit for the increase."
• "We [Life Church] are not a mega church! We're a small church with a mega vision."
• "The only numbers we should care about are the the numbers of people we have NOT yet reached."

Ed Stetzer - "Building an Indigenous Church"

• "Often we attend a conference and we plant a church in our head and not in our community."
• "Find God's unique vision for your church."
• "Adjust that vision as you learn the context [culture]. Don't fall in love with an "era" or you'll lose the mission!

Derek Duncan

• "Church planting is a difficult experience, but God is faithful and you're not alone."
• "You will not be allowed to do it on your own because you would receive the glory."

Francis Chan

• "How can we be so educated and yet so afraid?"
• "ACTS CHURCH equals uneducated and bold. TODAY'S CHURCH equals over-educated and not bold."
• "Where are the modern day Elijahs? Could the Holy Spirit simply be too worn to engage with us? Elijah boldly stood down all 450 profits of Baal. What has happened to us and the church? James 5:17 teaches that, “Elijah was a man just like us.” And we’d all agree that the Holy Spirit is still the Holy Spirit."