I've Been Thinking About This…

Wrapping up thoughts:

1. An excellent conference and opportunity – worth a lot more than the price of admission. You sometimes do get more than you pay for.
2. There wasn’t a whole lot of new information for me – its value to me was in what was repeated and confirmed. Sometimes you need to hear something over and again for it to sink in (well, I do anyway).
3. The single most frequent repetition was – “Spend less time ministering to your congregation and more time ministering to your family.” (Perhaps a third of the speakers said this, either in the form of regretting they hadn’t or glad that they had.)
4. I was deeply impressed by the honesty of the speakers. Many of these people had made mistakes that they were sharing – that was gold they were mining and handing out.
5. I was also struck by how many speakers there are out there – people I’ve never heard of – who are excellent teachers.
6. One note hit a chord in me: the speaker (and I’m afraid I don’t remember which) said that people – including pastors – think that the most important job a pastor has is to lead the congregation. Not true. With every pastor, the thing God is building is the pastor, not the congregation. (That is: The most important relationship is the one a person has with God, not with the people God has called us to work with – and this applies as much to pastors as to anyone else.) This was a heavy thought, since we have always heard that the shepherd must be willing to sacrifice everything for the sheep.
7. Sound quality has been improved a little over the original “The Nines” conference, where the level was not balanced across the videos. This time it was – for the most part. However, the sound control for the live portions was very poor, and between that and the 4 or 5 videos that were not recorded at the same level as the rest we were running back to the sound board more than a dozen times during the session.
8. There were also some transmission issues that surfaced, which – considering the complexity of the project, and that it was pretty much a one-off – were understandable; they also gave us a chance to catch up, so they weren’t as frustrating as the sound issues.

My one wish for future conferences: Youse guys run all the videos through level-balancing software to limit the sound levels to one range (an easy step to improve the quality of the presentation). I’ll set up closer to the sound board. Next time will be even sweeter!

All in all, an experience that I (and others at Praise Christian Fellowship) really appreciated. Thanks, Leadership Network.

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David Loveless

• Don’t overload people with change – Gen 33:13
• Don’t be a person more convinced about outcome than the way to achieve it.
• Ask yourself – do we really need this change? Is this the right time? Are the right people involved in the change, or are acting ‘So Low’? Is this sustainable – can others keep up?

Robert Lewis

• Concentrate more heavily on foundation-building. I’d be ruthless about developing Godly men & women; Godly marriages; a children’s program that trained parents too; evangelism programs.

Dale Burke

• less really is more – be a boxer rather than a street-fighter (skillful)
• please others less, but focus on pleasing God more.
• Do less, but focus more on the main things.
• Do less, but focus on YOUR main things (gifts).
• Do less, but focus on the main people. Jesus spent most time with the 3; then with the 12; then with others.

Eric Swansen

• Talking about sin and the fall – didn’t really catch anything about what he would have done differently.

Mike Slaughter

• People are bringing Christ into their world-view, but not moving into Christ’s world-view.
• wish I’d shifted from attractional model to missional model earlier.
• There are 2,000 passages dealing with justice and the poor. If it’s not Good news for the poor, it’s not the Gospel (Luke 4:18).
• Make a commitment to put marriage before the church.
• Make connections with Godly mission people.

Elmer Towns

• Dream big, but look at the downside of the dream.
• Sometimes chasing what you think is the dream takes you to other places you don’t want to go – there’s more to the reality that the dream represents.

Michael Duduit

• I’d spend a lot more time making my sermons clear and less in making them clever.
• I’d leave out the impressive bits, no matter how much I liked them.

Walt Kallestad
‘Being the church’ vs. ‘doing church’
Simple, sustainable, significant.

• I would keep it simple – loving God, building community and being missional.
• Make sure that ‘doing church’ is sustainable. Teaching people the Bible and praying. (I’d pray more and work less.)
• Move toward significance – transformed people who move to Christ.

Carl George
Wrote “9 keys to an effective small group leader”

• (didn’t catch anyhing about what he would have done differently.)

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Charles Stone

• Half of all pastors act like a turtle with problems – they process pain and hurt alone. Became closed, guarded and protective. Wish I’d found a couple of men with whom I could share and have speak into my life – mentors.

Anthoney Trufant

• place a premium on being open and honest.
• invest in the stewardship of self
• Keep your family first.
• develop some holy friends
• you may be the key leader, but you’re not the sole leader
• take risk.
• learn that the first ‘no’ may not be the final ‘no when you propose something.
• learn that conflict is not an enemy, but an ally
• learn different styles of coping with conflict.
• enter your ministry with an exit strategy – don’t leave baggage behind.
• deal with your own baggage immediately. Otherwise it will come up at inconvenient times.

Andrew McQuitty

• Success in ministry is not defined by numbers & money
• focus on faithfulness not results.
• obey God, don’t work for Him. Otherwise, God becomes your PR agent – it’s His job to make you look good.

Jim Herrington
3 wrong steps:

• We need to stop seperating sacred from secular.
• We need to stop thinking that information transforms – only experience transforms.
• We need to stop condemning failure.

Cal Jernigan

• Have a mentor.

Dennis Keating

• Can’t be father to the world. Can’t ‘do it all’. Just because the ministry calls you, doesn’t mean God is calling.

George Cladis

• It’s about management
1. Self-management – loving God & loving your neighbor
2. Family & friendship relationship management
3. Calling management – know your gifts and those around you; what makes for good team management?

Mel Lawrenz

• move close to the office ASAP
• Read ‘Getting things done’
• work with worship tema more
• connect with other pastors locally
• be more selective in reading
• be more regular in days off – with family
• handle criticism more directly
• delegate more organizational leadership
• collect more stories

Dick Alexander
A gravelly voice and some tremendous honesty!

• Make absolutely sure your focus is on family; seek counselling when necessary; protect your marriage and children.

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Bruce Wesley

• do you want speed to reproduce or strength in generating leaders?
• Develop 2 bars of leadership – a speed bar & a strength bar.
• Have yearly increments to move speed people to strength.

Tammy Kelley

• Ask more questions; make fewer declarations
• good things can become intoxicating; intoxicating can become toxic
• live a life more ‘fool for Christ’ and less ‘impress’.

Jason Barr

• I wish I’d never compromised
• I hired people too fast; should have done more due diligence; wish I’d hired on chemistry more than credentials
• noone can teach to be good stewards better than lead pastor – Don’t delegate this.
• I would rather do things for people than with people; I wish I’d been a better shepherd. “People don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care.”

Craig Strickland

• church plants tend to be a magnet for dysfunctional people
• I seriously underestimated the importance of generous giving
• It takes 3-5 years to change the DNA of the church

Matt Hannan

• Avoid unnecessary wars
• lead from the middle not the edge, even though the edge is attractional because it looks ‘edgy’
• Don’t think that spiritual leadership is distinct from strategic leadership
• God’s core agenda is ‘YOU’
• People who model false values instill false values in their disciples (if you teach that prayer is important without actually being a prayer warrier yourself, people will learn to say prayer is important without actually being prayer warriers themselves.)

Jeff Jones

• Wish I hadn’t tried to do it all. Missed out on a lot of things, so did my family.
• Wish I’d tried to do only the things no one else could do, instead.

Kevin Harney

• Having people keep sending money and prayers is fine, but not enough.
• Having committees that plan outreach is fine, but not enough.
• Organic Outreach is the target lifestyle.
• Elders should be held accountable for outreach themselves.
• Budget needs to reflect giving and outreach – what God’s call us to do.
• Train and equip all people – youth, men & women.

Steve Stroope

• Wish I’d guided the church to live that ‘family’ is the spiritual formation driver
• Church must remind, resource & equip the family to do it
• Developed kiosk & online to resource the family
• Ensure that no ministry unintentially left the parents out

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