Monday, May 10, 2010

MLI retreat 2 notes - pt. 1

Here is part 1 of my notes from the second Missional Leadership Initiative retreat with Reggie McNeal on May 3-5, 2010 at Salt Fork State Park. Some of this is repeated elsewhere on my blog, and many of these may not make any sense outside of the context of the moment. Anyway...

SESSION 1 - (May 3, morning)
  • We were given our next two books to read: The Forgotten Ways by Alan Hirsch, and Strengths Based Leadership by Tom Rath and Barry Conchie. (We're also supposed to do the profile assessment in the second book before the next time).
  • Definition of "missional church" is four parts: 1) The people of God, 2) partnering with Him, 3) in his redemptive mission, 4) in the world.
  • God looks at THE church, not A church.
  • A move from church as a "what" to church as a "who."
  • **Don't set out to "transform" your community; just be the people of God and BLESS your community.
  • *Missional will do away with "para-church." It's ALL church as it expresses itself in the world.
  • Darrell Guder - 'Missional Theology' (book)
  • Go somewhere where people are and pray, "Lord, help me see what you see."
  • **The church doesn't have a mission, the mission has a church.
  • We don't own the mission and God is not waiting on us to prosecute it. God moves as he will. People are not seekers, Jesus is the seeker. If Jesus came to "seek and to save the lost" then where do we think Jesus is? He's not at church; he's among the lost.
  • Our role is partnering with God; the mission is his; our target is the world.
  • The church took in $102 billion last year (down from $107 billion the year before). (I think I heard that right).
  • Hell is a religious place (but where is Jesus?).
  • It used to be that 80% of people would go to church if they were asked. It's now down in the low 40's.
  • India has gone from 2% to 10% Christian in last 10 years (?). With 80 million people that's a lot.
  • Africa has gone from 3% to 47% in last 100 years.
  • Churches grow out of a movement, a movement doesn't grow out of churches.
  • [I put in my notes right here that it may be time for a radical change - either personally, or as a church]
  • We don't trust the Spirit to guard his church.
  • If you want to recapture movement status, it's going to be messy and unpredictible.
  • **What it means to be the people of God is to be the people of blessing (Gen. 12).
  • Benediction - let's practice being the people of God this week.
SESSION 2 - (May 3, afternoon)
  • **Read Gen. 12:1-2, tell people we're going to go out and bless people, and then gather and tell our stories. [preach this]
  • We need to give God the opportunity to show up and show off more.
  • **When we pray for people, ask "How can I ask God to bless you?" or "How can I pray for you?"
  • *Personal note - some Sunday in church ask this of people, "How can I ask God to bless you?" and if someone shares, we will just stop and pray and actually ask God to bless them.
  • When Robin's group (Catholic Charities) shares on May 15 - this is what being the church is about. The MLI thing I'm doing - it's this "being a blessing to others" that the church needs to be.
  • ***Have more "God did this" moments (instead of "sharing praises"). What has God done/ how has he shown up?
  • **We're trying to harvest an unseeded generation. We don't have to "close the deal"... but we need more people planting seeds.
  • How do we give an answer for the hope that is in us?
  • Tituscountycares.org - backpack program
  • Everything that sin breaks, God is putting back together.
  • ***Isaac - contact ABC Disney for Extreme Makeover money that's given, but not aired on show.
  • Bounded set (who's in vs. who's out) and centered set (which direction are you going).
  • Try for critical mass, not majority vote. Majority usually vote to go back to Egypt.
  • Kidshopeusa.com
  • Rather than counting people, how can we help people see that they count.
  • Wine Study and Bible Tasting - weekly gathering in wine country.
  • **How do we give people a chance to give expression to their altruism?
  • How can we "brag on God" for a little bit (rather than sharing praises)?
  • Do more interviews during message time (helps to incarnate the truth).
  • Cohort goal - what do I hope to accomplish (me & God)?

3 comments:

Jim said...

I would like to thank my cohort partner for taking such good notes!

dan said...

The sad thing is, I can't even remember what some of them mean.

Jim said...

Well...maybe, but you've got a lot of the important points - and they make sense to me...