Unleash Conference Videos Online

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