WIBO

So i attended the Whiteboard Sessions conference this past Thursday...and let me say it was grear. I will have to say that the guy who hit me the most was a guy who i had heard of in the blogosphere but did not know a whole lot about. His name is vince antonucci. He is pastor of Forefront Church in Virginia Beach VA. You can read the notes from his blog at tonymorganlive.com (just scroll down to the post on vince).

Anyway he talked for a second about his experience of coming to faith. he asked how it was possible for him to live in the US for 20 years and still no nothing AT ALL about Christianity? Yall it is amazing what a simple conversion story can tell us about ourselves.

I am spending this weekend in NYC and process the conference and relaxing before my crazy summer kicks in and then my crazy first semester at seminary kicks in. Today i was standing in a store over looking Union Square and i was thinking "how is that all these people can go all of there lives without knowing anything about christianity?" How is that? seriously, how?

Then i got to thinking about John Burkes talk (again see tony's blog). He was talking about staying connected. Today again while having conversations with a believer in nyc i was stunned about the state of the church (i love the church and help lead it, God help me, therefore i should ask questions about it). How is that that so many christians (and as John pointed out so many of us) can go through live without being connected? John encouraged us, as leaders, to develop systems to help them stay connected. 

If you put John's and Vince's ideas together, maybe we, as a church, really need to consider how to develop systems to teach the unchurched and de-churched about faith and then to develop systems to help the "saved" stay connected.

an answer came from another WiBo speaker. Mark Dever. He encouraged pastors (i will encourage church leadership) to say what must be said from the the pulpit and let the church live it. out. Perry Noble, if you know him then you will expect it, said something similar.

so how do we help solve VInce's problem as well John's? As leaders we need to develop a culture of connection to the vine and develop systems to help people stay connected so that they can live that out in their personal lives (as Ed Stetzer pointed out at the conference too) and evangelistically.

"Mac VS PC" leadership lessons

I was reading an article in the June issue of Fast Company about the marketing firm that has been tasked with "saving" Microsoft from those bullying "Mac vs. PC" ads. At the conclusion of the article it says this

"But Microsofts increasing desire to be all things to all people...means it may have to do more than just make consumers aware that is is the massive force behind so much of their lives. It may need to make people willing, even eager to cede that much control to a single company."

In light of working at a church that is need of revitalization. I can somewhat identify with Microsoft. They have been the driving force behind the Personal Computer world for the past 30 years, but now people seem to be turning on them in droves. Emmanuel Church, has been a driving force for the gospel in the lives of our people for at least 15 years, but it seems like we are having very little impact on the lives of our membership and in our city. There seems to be a disconnect between the leadership and membership. Its different from Microsoft whose leaders are "isolated and unable to move and take corrective action." Emmanuels leadership seems to desire "corrective action" but are not able to impliment it due to a lack of trust by the membership of the staff. Maybe we need to do more than make members aware that the church has been the massive force behind their spiritual lives. Instead we need to get people to be willing, even eager to cede that much control to leadership.

How do you do that? Well I think starts with relationships. I mean look at "Mac vs PC" ads. I understand that Apple has me in strangle hold when it comes to software and utitlites I need to create media for the church, but I don't feel as negatively toward them as I do toward Microsoft. Maybe its because I think I could be friends with the Mac guy in the commercial or in an alternate universe, Steve and I could be pals. I dont fell that way about Microsoft. I think we need to learn from Apples marketing firm.

The first step to leading is realtionships.