The guys at NewSpring have posted videos of the Unleash main sessions online. It was an awesome experience being there, and they did a great job of capturing the worship and preaching on video. I’m glad they included the band in the video, it gives a glimpse of what worship can be like for a new generation.
Some of the highlights from my notes from the main two sessions follow. These are some of the main points that I took home. NewSpring is definitely a strong staff-led church. I have struggled a little reconciling some of his second session with our church’s emphasis on plurality of elders. I definitely see the need for a group of pastors/elders/leaders to share the load, but the importance of a primary leader cannot be dismissed. There is definitely a lot of good stuff in here for leadership, so I strongly encourage you to listen to these when you have some spare time.
Session 1: Go For It!
- Church is an incredibly confusing place if you don’t know the rules
- Out of Chicken, Out of Jesus illustration – powerful
The Church needs 4 things
1. Creative environments
- It took the church 2000 years to make the gospel message boring
- the sermon begins in the parking lot – this was definitely the case with their volunteers who did an incredible job at the conference
- it is better to entertain than to bore people
2. We need to look beyond ourselves
- it’s not the great suggestion, it’s the great commission
- when people need grace the most, we say literally “to hell with you” – this is so true of churches today
- when we say we are going deep, it usually means we are confusing the heck out of people so they feel good about themselves and don’t change
- we need to teach Christians to feed themselves
- everybody can know everybody at church, or everybody can know Jesus. Which way do you want to structure your church
3. We need to pay attention
- we need to plan ahead
- don’t be afraid
4. We need to focus on what matters
- the church needs to focus on peoples relationship with Jesus, not their problems
- preach and lift up the name of Jesus and let him change people
- people need to See Jesus
Session 2: The Leadership Challenge
- It is a common myth that church is all about the style – it’s not, it is about Leadership
- Churches don’t grow by accident
1. Moses listened and obeyed
- leadership is as easy as listening to God
- throughout exodus … and the Lord says to Moses …
- importance of consistently spending time with God
- God never gave vision to a committee
- churches need to trust and ensure that their pastor is hearing from God
2. Moses did not compromise the vision
- Hide it under a bushel “HELL NO” – you just have to listen to the story to get it
- powerful people will always try to alter and change your vision
- we can’t please everyone, so it is better to offend people instead of offending God
- Get a vision from God and make it happen
- just like the body, it’s good to have a back door in the church – funny
- the Pastor “owns” the vision
- you will be tested by money, you can either be a prostitute or a prophet
3. Moses didn’t try to do it all
- the problem is that we think we are needed
- don’t date the church
- staff is there for the pastor
- surround yourself with Godly people
- the best people to hire are in your church
- learn how to rest
- only 5% of pastors retire! the rest leave early. 70% of pastors are depressed
4. Moses was willing to attempt the impossible
- our problem is that we want a vision that is safe
- God does not call us to safe
- Don’t have excuses, not size, not facilities, not money
Related posts:
