Mountain Lake Conference Wrap-up

My friend Curt told me that the churchplanters.com conference was well worth stopping what I need to be doing to be part of.  He was exactly right.  

Last night we sat at the Atlanta Airport (where I learned that if its within the realm of possibility, I will never fly with that money grubbing delta airlines again) and debriefed the personal and professional gains from our 36 hours in town.  It's hard to encapsulate a conference into a blog, but I would just say that the greatest blessing was the affirmation that some of the values God has been impressing within me over these last 6 months were the exact same values that these cutting edge leaders spoke about.  These included things like the importance of discipleship not as a value, but as the overall purpose for church planting in general, and that there needs to be systematic planning in place for spiritual formation in church plants, an area which has been sorely lacking in many large newer ministries.  Shawn Lovejoy spoke to the question, "how much money does it take to plant a church?" His response..."whatever you have!"  He talked about while "faith is often sexier than wisdom/prudence," it's prudence and wisdom that are championed in the scriptures as the means necessary for long term life success.  As you might imagine, fundraising in the current economy has been a little slower than I'd hoped.  The feeling might be that if you don't reach a certain point financially, there's no way your new church will be a success.  Nothing could be further from the truth.  Interestingly, lots of very large churches have launched with half or less of what we are working with now.  Now this doesn't mean I'm not still going to be asking people to partner with us.  It's just a reminder that God will provide all we need to start this church when we need it, where and how we need it, and I can guarantee you, He'll get the credit for it, because I have no great plans in place to somehow get people to give money in my own strength.

One other little lesson I learned from this conference?  Never go to a conference alone.  Always, always take at least one team member with you.  Even if it costs more than you expect or maybe can afford in the short term, get some of your people in the seats beside you.  I brought along Brad (hopefully our future worship/arts director) and Nate (a partner student from the Anderson University School of Theology and who knows, maybe a long term team member going forward for Catalyst).  Just having the opportunity to hear what they will take away from this experience, relationally, personally and professionally was worth every dime we invested to bring them along.  I know Catalyst Church will benefit from their being in ATL with me this week, and even further, I think that their lives in general were stretched and blessed and encouraged as they move forward in whatever ministry God has for them. 

At some point I want to look back through my notes and review some of what we took in from this week.  As I do, I'm sure this blog is going to see a smattering of thoughts and ideas from these great teachers.  Because I believe the prophetic words they shared will actually be used by God to redirect some of the course of our life and ministry.  And because this blog is the window into our ministry world right now, I hope you can see and hear what's shaking inside of us, and if there's something there that impacts you as well, all the better.