cogcatalyst

Engage 21 Conference

I got a call from Tony Lane in the Youth Department for the Church of God about an upcoming conference for emerging, missional pastors in the COG.  We talked about what needed to be done to connect with this group.  It was a good, engaging conversation...thought I'd pass the ad for the conference along as published in the Covenant Resource Magazine.

 

Acts 29 Church Planting Notes on Eldership

Tadd Grandstaff is a church planter, blogger, and genuinely super guy.  Blogging from the Acts 29 conference, he shares some great notes on Church Elders.  It is worth the read and interaction.  Read it here.

posted by travis johnson

Momentum-Portable Church Conference

Bob Franquiz of Calvary Chapel Miami Lakes is hosting Momentum, a conference for portable churches March 1-2.  They meet at Regal Cinemas at Mainstreet USA and in a rented church building on Sunday nights for a second identical service.

When LPC was moving to the theater, we sent some people to check out Calvary.  We collected priceless tips for making our portable setup work well.  If you are portable or will be soon, this is a conference you won't want to miss.  There will be some great speakers at the conference, including Bob Coy and Bob Franquiz.  As a bonus, if you are portable, that means you might be broke also.  I'm thinking that I might throw a pre-conference bash at my house if any of you guys are coming down.

tagged: Bob Franquiz - Bob Coy - Calvary Chapel - Momentum - portable church

Target the Fringes

At the Friday pre-conference conversation at The Point Church, we were discussing the role of our churches and change in the Church of God.  I cannot remember who brought up the idea of influencing those most open to change.  But, the comments were so appropriate. 

Presently, we are closing more churches than we are opening.  There is no denominational strategy for church planting to speak of.  The sums of money spent maintaining denominational bureaucracy has never been greater.  Several states are experiencing major league insurance emergencies resulting in closed churches.  Due to the nature of our centralized governance, we are selling off those properties without any plan to reinvest those monies into establishing new churches.

So, what do we do?  First, we need to understand the heart of what was said at the pre-conference meeting.  Those words are the expression of Roger Everett's idea diffusion curve.  Godin gets it and articulates it better than the rest.  Stielstra says to burn it.  I try to sum it up leveraging the words of Burke.  The bottom line is that we have to embrace it and target the fringes, the early adopters, and live in it if we are going to see our church set up for future Kingdom growth in the USA.

by: travis johnson  tagged: seth godin - greg stielstra - idea diffusion - edmund burke - leadership and innovation - church of god

Continue the Re:Formation '06 Conversation

The COG Catalyst has not been publicized other than a bit of word of mouth at Re:Formation.  Still the traffic is decent.  I've been receiving some emails from some guys since then and thought this would be a good venue to have those conversations so we don't have to repeat them and so that we can involve as many people as possible.

I will be leaving to Orlando for two days and will not really have a lot of opportunities to add a lot of thought.  My contribution will be the conversation starter. 

• What was your take on Re:Formation?  Positives?  Negatives?
• What implications does this emerging conversation have on ministry in the COG?
• What are your thoughts on the contributions from our denominational representatives (Palma Hutchinson, Tom Madden, Don Walker)?
• What are your thoughts on the stories of the pastors (Jonathon Martin, Chuck Ramsey, Brian Hunter, and me)?
• Were there any significant moments in your table conversations?
• Were there and significant moments in discussion with anyone attending Re:Formation?
• What would you do to improve Re:Formation in 2007?

Other conversations concerning Re:Formation can be found here, here, here, and here.  I look forward to the talk.

tagged: church of god - emerging church - travis johnson - COG Catalyst

Re:Formation '06

Last night, Alex McManus spoke at Re:Formation '06.  Jerry Redmond from City Church passed some of his notes to me...some highlights of Alex's comments.  Here they are:

-God is changing the world, and He will reclaim Western culture, with or without my church’s help.
-We are good at building programs, buildings and budgets. We are bad at building people and relationships.  
-Jesus was not a proclaimer of Christianity, but rather a proclaimer of the Kingdom of God.
-The Church has been emerging for about 2,000 years now. The future belongs to those churches that will drop its nets and follow Jesus.  
-Style will not make you missional.
-What am I doing to make the world a better place? 
-If I want to reach people outside the Church, do something important.
-If I want to reach people inside the Church, all I need to do is add hip music.  
-The only kinds of people who are interesting enough to follow, are the ones who can’t sleep at night. Everybody else is just doing church.

tagged: alex mcmanus - church of god - emerging church