SEND North America Opening Session

Currently I have the opportunity to sit at the SEND North America conference which is put on by the Southern Baptist Convention.  While the group is unapologetically Southern Baptist, it is a group of men and women, focused on training and 'penetrating lostness' in 30 point cities across the country.  They are doing this by sending church planters from across the country and the globe to reach these influential, unreached, de-churched cities.  My brother Chris (www.chriscomstock.com) is one of those planters looking to plant a church in Baltimore in the Fall of 2015.  

Below are some notes from the Opening General Session:

--Your not sick in sin, your dead in sin....there is not opportunity for recovery.

--Christ set me free from my sin, not for my sin

--When you understand GRACE, you will forsake ANYTHING else...if you don't understand this, you don't get it!

DUSTIN WILLIS:

-- We are saved from our sins, but saved FOR a mission!  Jesus changes everything.

How do you get in on what God is doing?

1) Identify (Acts 17:26)
2) Invest (in sharing the Gospel) (1 Thes. 2:8)
3) Invite (John 13:35)
4) Increase (1 Corinthians 3:7)


DR. JACK GRAHAM:

--We are not here to relive history, but to make history

--Were not trying to get back to the good ol' days of the 1950's but we ought to get back to the 1st century

--It is imperative to unite as believers

--The mission is bigger then Prestonwood...and bigger than all of us together.

In defense of Multi-Site movement -- It doesn't matter what teacher is in the house, but that Jesus is in the house.

Gospel is bigger than you, your church, your community, your city, your state, your country....the Gospel is bigger than the WORLD & Generations.

Lessons From 'Greater' by Pastor Steven Furdick

I recently completed the book 'Greater' by Steven Furdick.  There were a lot of great principles and lessons that spoke into my life and as anyone reading this knows, my blog exists as a 'digital catalogue' of lessons that I have learned about leadership.  This makes it easier for me to review what I have learned when I take personal leadership retreats to evaluate personal growth.

Here are some great thoughts and lessons I picked up from this short, easy, yet effectively written read:

"The thing is, most believers aren't in imminent danger of ruining their lives.  They're facing a danger that's far greater:  wasting them." pg 5

"There is a price to pay for Christian complacency.  If you keep living on this level, your heart is going to shrivel.  It might already be shriveling.  Your dreams are going to die.  They may already be on life support.  Will you look up one day and be overwhelmed by the stack of regrets staring back at you?  The frustration that's simmering on the back burner right now might boil over one day, and you'll be bitter about the opportunities you missed.  Opportunities to be used by God, to touch lives, to get outside yourself and be a part of something greater.  I know it's not easy.  But don't tell me it's not possible.  Jesus Himself said it was." pg 7

"He's more interested in your full obedience than your full understanding."  pg 46

"In other words, a big dream without a small start is nothing but a daydream." pg 62

Referring to 2 Kings 3 -- "Only God can send the rain.  But He expects you to dig the ditches."pg 66

"We've established that the path to greater things is rarely the path of least resistance." pg 92

"Great opportunities later require immediate obedience now." pg 133

"When you have the highest power, you can take the lowest place." pg 138

"God isn't present only for my epic showdowns and life-altering crises.  He's also superintending my everyday struggles." pg 149

"Elisha doesn't pray that God will send down fire as Elijah did on Mount Carmel.  And he doesn't pray that God will send a larger army to their rescue.  He just prays that the servant will see what God already has in place." pg 168

Catalyst 2013: Mark Discoll

Driscoll is a Pastor of Mars Hill Church in Seattle, WA.  He most recently has written a book entitled Who Do You Think You Are?  These are some of his thoughts from Catalyst 2013.

Identity:  Who do you think you are?

Complete this in your mind:  I AM ____________.

How you complete this, and who you think you are determines what you will do.

Who does God say you are?

1 Corinthians 15:25 outlines the 2 most important people that ever lived.  1) Jesus 2) Adam.

You need an identity that is life proof. The difference between a normal person and leader is the impact their decisions have on others.

Whatever your job description includes, make sure it doesn't include anything on Jesus job description...

"When your leadership role becomes your identity, it becomes your idolatry."

For many young leaders, we have a full tank of gas, and no map or direction.

Catalyst 2013: Louie Giglio, Dave Ramsey

Louie Giglio

Pastor, Passion City Church

Founder, Passion City Movement

He is also the author of  I Am Not But I Know I Am which is a great book that radically transformed some of my thinking patterns.

Louie preached a basic Gospel message and reminder on our Power Source. 

1 Peter 3:18 – Jesus brings you to God.  There is NO participation on our part.  We do not serve God by propulsion from our own effort by by the counterweight of the great exchange in our lives that comes from Jesus Christ alone.

We don’t have to ‘pad’ our testimony…our testimony is not about what you have done, but what God has don’t in your life.  Its not about YOU!

Too often we are so busy scaling through our contacts that we don’t even realize that Jesus is all we need and we have direct access!!

Dave Ramsey

National Radio & TV Host

Recently, he is the author of EntreLeadership an excellent book on leadership.

According to Dave, he believes that Luke 10:38 outlines 3 spirits when it comes to wealth...

1) Pride -- hard work makes us money...wealth does often result from hard work, but God gives everything we need along the way.

2) Devil provides wealth -- this is simply silly but many individuals believe it..

3) Graditute  - this is the spiritually mature approach.

--The final spirit says that God has given me wealth and He still owns it!

Money is not a pleasure, it’s a responsibility. 

Catalyst 2013: Andy Stanley (talk 2)

Andy Stanley – Senior Pastor, North Point Ministries

Team requires something beyond a paycheck or an office position.  Team requires Synergy. 

Synergy – when a combination of elements produces an effect greater than the sum of individual elements.

If you don’t know why something is working, you can’t fix it when it breaks!!

To Create A High-Performance Team

1)   Select performance-oriented people and position them for maximum impact.

High performance teams are action oriented people with clarity.

Seminaries attract thinkers, NOT doers.

a.     Recruit DOERS not THINKERS.

b.     Its much easier to educate a doer than it is to activate a thinker.

“If you have the right people on the bus, the problem of how to motivate and manage people largely goes away.  The right people don’t need to be tightly managed or fired up.” – jim Collins

RENT thinkers -à Hire Doers!

c.      Position Individuals for maximum impact

                                              i.     Put people where they can make their greatest contribution

                                              ii.     Connect the Dots

2)   Clarify the “what” and the “why”

a.     Performance-oriented people like to win             

b.     Team dissolves when the problems are all solved.

c.      Organize the what

                                               i.     Create an organization where the lion’s share of  time and resources is allocated to the ‘what’

                                              ii.     Don’t force people to work around the organization

1.     What is the problem your team ahs come together to solve?

2.     What is the task your team has come together to accomplish?

3.     What is the opportunity your team has come together to leverage?

4.     What is the what around which everything should be organized?

d.     Create terminology around ‘why’

                                               i.     Why is where the team finds its inspiration.

                                              ii.     Why addresses the issue of ‘whats at stake’

3)   Orchestrate and evaluate EVERYTHING

a.     Orchestrate: “This is how we do it here….until further notice”

                                               i.     Orchestration brings consistency and predictability to all your processes and environments

                                              ii.     This will actually make your organization feel more, NOT LESS personal

                                            iii.     You already do this in some areas.

b.    Evaluate EVERYTHING

                                              i.     Evaluate formally and systematically

1.    With the people involved.

2.    As often as the event occurs

                                            ii.     Create a feedback loop that keeps you close to critical events

1.    Growth distances leader from the events that matter most

2.    Numbers don’t tell the entire story

3.    Information is often filtered as it makes it way up the org chart

CONCLUSIONS:

1)   Select performance oriented people

2)   Clarify the what and the why

3)   Orchestrate and evaluate everything!

Catalyst 2013: Reggie Joiner

Reggie was a part of the North Point Church plant in Alpharetta, GA and is an expert in family ministry.  Reggie's talk centered on the future, and what people would remember..here are some of this ideas:

You will only be remembered by the people you know now.

Make your time count over time.   Psalm 90:12

When we keep time on our forefront, it makes us make our time count.

With limited time, we make what matters, matter more.

Investing in the next generation is so important because of our limited amount of time.

"Your going to die, and no-one will remember you.  But that's ok, because its not about you."

"Your sweet spot if the intersection of passion and talent."

Catalyst 2013: Lysa Terkeurst

Lysa is a New York Times best selling author and national speaker.  Her latest book is Made to Crave. Following are a few of her thoughts from Catalyst 2013:

Your Reactions determine your Reach.

4 Types of Reactions:

1) Exploder who blames others.
2) Exploder who shames themselves.
3) Stuffer who builds barriers.
4) Stuffer who collects retaliation rocks.

In any of these reactionary types, the growth question for us, is "Am I trying to prove I'm right, or improve the relationship.

'There are a lot of people in the world who would love to have our problems.'