National New Church Conference

Since I?m new to this whole blogging thing, I thought I?d just jump right in?

Jan and I just got back from the National New Church Conference in Orlando. It was a great time to connect with old friends and make some new ones. This was the largest conference ever, with about 800 church planters from around the country and around the world.

One of the highlights of the trip was discovering that the direction God has been leading us at Life Journey is something that isn?t unique to us ? it seems to be happening all over the country. People are rediscovering Jesus? whole concept of the kingdom of God ? that God?s desire is truly for his will to be done on earth as it is in heaven. I?ve been meditating on that particular phrase of the Lord?s Prayer for months now, trying to soak in its meaning for my life and my church.

As our church tries to figure out what it means to live in the kingdom we know that it means having God?s heart for the poor, the broken, the addicted, those in prison ? anybody who is overlooked by society.

• This isn?t about building a bigger church, it?s about living out the good news of Jesus in actions and not just words.
• This isn?t about getting people to come to church, it?s about us going out and being the church in the world.

It was great to connect with others who have gone down the whole church growth route and have also come up empty, looking for something deeper and more meaningful than mere numbers. (That?s not a critique of the movement as a whole ? it?s just a deep dissatisfaction God has been creating in my life of late.)

At the conference I had a chance to hear Bob Roberts from the Northwoods Church in Texas. I?m working through his new book on Transformation now, and am already resonating with his message. He?s the first guy I?ve come across who is putting together church planting and community transformation. I?m really looking forward to learning from his example.

I?ll share what I find in future posts.

The National New Church Conference by Church Planting Journey, unless otherwise expressly stated, is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.