Tuesday at Exponential
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More entries from Exponential Conference series
I was incredibly encouraged today. That was after about 40 minutes of discouragement in the first plenary session of Exponential.
Ed Stetzer began the conference’s first main session, and his “presentation” consisted of statistics and research. Terrible way to begin a conference that should be inspirational and encouraging. In addition to that, everything he shared seemed targeted for the megachurch, in essence telling them that they need to be planting churches instead of growing monstrously large. (I agree with that but see no problem with them doing the latter if they’re diligently and sacrifically doing the former.)
In short, I give Stetzer’s presentation a D-. Seriously. The content was good, just inappropriate for the context.
However, the second half of his presentation was a panel with different pastors of large churches who were modeling church planting. That was what was encouraging. To a “T,” all of them had wonderful words of encouragement and affirmation for the gathering of almost 3000.
Ron Sylvia, pastor of The Church at the Springs (very cool, Mac-like website) said some very deeply encouraging things to the group, as did the other panel members which included Neil Cole, author of Organic Church.
Then came Andy Stanley, pastor of Northpoint Community Church, and he hit a home run. Not only did he speak with humility and complete candor about everything from his dad’s divorce to his church plant/split, but he shared some profound insights about vision - mainly from his book Visioneering, which I am continuing to read and drink deeply of. I’ve read dozens of books in the past 18 years about vision, and it is hands-down the best.
Throw in some wonderful one-on-one visits with Mark DeYmaz, pastor of Mosaic Church in Conway, Arkansas; Tim Smith, (former campus ministry buddy) executive pastor at Pinelak Church in Brandon, Mississippi and numerous conversations with others in the hallways and organizational booths, and it was a great day!
I spent the evening reading Visioneering by the pool in the gorgeous central Florida weather.
April 22nd, 2008 at 9:34 pm
Maybe you can convince Justin that Florida is a good idea. Glad you’re having a good time… yeah stats in the first 5 minutes… every basic speech class would tell you that’s a no-no!
April 22nd, 2008 at 10:59 pm
I will have to try harder next time…
April 23rd, 2008 at 7:51 am
Ed, it wasn’t that your presentation was “bad” by any means. There were guys all around me nodding their heads and obviously enjoying it.
However I came with a low tank - looking for encouragement, hope, and help, and it wasn’t really designed for that. Everything you said was “spot on” but it was scratching where I didn’t itch.
I am very grateful for the panel you facilitated, however. You did a fantastic job bringing out of those guys some things that really encouraged me.
April 23rd, 2008 at 8:26 am
Shame on you Jeff. You judge to harshly. BTW please don’t make a habit of taking pictures of your feet, they made me sick to my stomach!! :)
Later
April 23rd, 2008 at 8:47 am
Glad to help (some). Grin.
And, I was not offended by your comments. But, like Ryan, I am offended by your feet.
Ed
April 23rd, 2008 at 8:47 am
Glad to help (some). Grin.
And, I was not offended by your comments. But, like Ryan, I am offended by your feet.
Ed
April 23rd, 2008 at 2:48 pm
uh, jeff, you should be putting those white things in the sun, not the shade. please, for everyone’s sake….especially if you’re gonna take a picture of them and then post ‘em!
May 6th, 2008 at 10:23 pm
Hey Jeff,
You didn’t tell me you graduated from PA?! I have three there now … and you may know, the school’s bought Fellowship’s old digs, including the 3.5 million dollar student center I had the privilege of designing while I was the student minsitries pastor there. Anyway, look me up at Mosaic the next time you’re in town; by then, perhaps, we’ll own the old KMart at the corner of University and Asher. M-
May 7th, 2008 at 10:18 am
Mark,
Thanks for stopping by! I’ll definitely try to connect with you soon! I’m an ‘86 grad, and my mom recently retired from teaching at P.A.