Friday, April 20, 2012

Mega -> Missional: Decentralized Shift


Rob and i will be presenting a workshop on the topic of "Mega to Missional", and we will do it in one of two parts, depending on what the people in our shop feel is the most helpful. In our upcoming book, Missional Moves, we talk about three general categories of change that are significant for any local church seeking to make the leap to more Missional thinking. The first of these changes is Paradigm, and includes deep foundation theology and thinking around the concept of God's mission in the world and how we are to join Him in advancing it. The second relates to Centralized shifts in thinking and tactics that relate to how local churches like GCC organize and program their activities to make them more accessible, efficient and effective as an institutional structure. Finally, the third shift is Decentralized, and involves moving from Attractional Megachurch style thinking to also including decentralized responses and pathways for people to embrace the Mission of God in the world wherever they are and however God has wired them. While Rob and i will go over either the Centralized or Decentralized Shifts during our Workshop, we're also including Livescribe audio and pencast of each so that we can direct participants here to retrieve whichever one we did not cover, or to hear/see again the one we did cover. As a result, if you would like to know what we're saying about Decentralized Shifts, you can click here to watch the LiveScribe pencast.

Thursday, April 19, 2012

Mega -> Missional: Centralized Shift

Rob and i will be presenting a workshop on the topic of "Mega to Missional", and we will do it in one of two parts, depending on what the people in our shop feel is the most helpful. In our upcoming book, Missional Moves, we talk about three general categories of change that are significant for any local church seeking to make the leap to more Missional thinking. The first of these changes is Paradigm, and includes deep foundation theology and thinking around the concept of God's mission in the world and how we are to join Him in advancing it. The second relates to Centralized shifts in thinking and tactics that relate to how local churches like GCC organize and program their activities to make them more accessible, efficient and effective as an institutional structure. Finally, the third shift is Decentralized, and involves moving from Attractional Megachurch style thinking to also including decentralized responses and pathways for people to embrace the Mission of God in the world wherever they are and however God has wired them. While Rob and i will go over either the Centralized or Decentralized Shifts during our Workshop, we're also including Livescribe audio and pencast of each so that we can direct participants here to retrieve whichever one we did not cover, or to hear/see again the one we did cover. As a result, if you would like to know what we're saying about Centralized Shifts, you can click here to watch the LiveScribe pencast.

Exponential Conference!

Rob and i will have the privilege of visiting and speaking at the upcoming Exponential Conference in Orlando, FL, next week! We were able to go last year as well with a small team from GCC, and look forward to having the opportunity to hob-nob with some 5,000 innovators, church planters and pastors from around the globe who are attempting to figure out how to advance, proclaim and demonstrate the Kingdom of God in contexts as varied as US/Urban to International/Remote-Rural. I will attempt to post a bit as we have the privilege to learn from Mark Batterson, Francis Chan and others, and will look forward to reporting back about what we learn along the way!