Get the full video and show notes here.

PS: Do you Twitter? Let’s follow each other! I’m @zoecarnate

This is a few days after the Arts Conference, but if you’re interested a few more tidbits, here goes…

The first session was a presentation by Chip and Dan Heath, authors of the very successful book Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Other Die. You wouldn’t think a couple of professor-types would share some fascinating ideas, but I enjoyed the session from the perspective of teaching and communication more than anything. A “sticky idea” has several qualities: Simple, Unexpected, Concrete, Credible, Emotional, and Story-oriented. The big takeaway here (for me, at least) was a concept called “the curse of knowledge” — as we become more knowledgable in our field we forget what it’s like to not know what we do. (Example: when you go to the DMV to renew your car license and the people behind the counter are very irritable because you don’t know the 87-step process of getting your sticker. They forget that the general public is confused and frustrated by this process. Apologies to all the DMV workers out there.)

Additionally: When we communicate with people, what do we want them to know/feel/do as a result? This is applicable to any kind of teaching or preaching, and asking this question gives focus to our communication.

The speaker for the last session was Efrem Smith, Pastor of Sanctuary Covenant Church in Minneapolis. Wow, was he fantastic! I loved this quote: “Arts is a kingdom-advancing movement.” Think about the potential in that statement.

Perhaps my favorite moment of all the speakers’ messages came right at the end of this one. He shared the example of the African Impala, an animal that can jump very high and long. Yet when it’s put in a zoo it can be retained by a mere 3-foot high wall. Why? It won’t jump because it can’t see what’s on the other side. What does the wall represent for us? Fear, brokenness, doubt, etc. That is an incredibly powerful image for me.

A few random thoughts and points of application from the conference:

- At conferences like this, it’s easy to feel inferior to the “big name” speakers, authors, artists and musicians. Over the years I’ve had to work my way past these kinds of feelings. One important thing to remember is that looks can be very deceiving. When we look the people who have fame, book deals, big churches, and are asked to speak at conferences, it may seem like they have an ideal life. They have “made it.” They are “successful” (whatever that means). But we only see the “glamorous” side of having notoriety, and that’s a pretty limited perspective. I love John Maxwell’s definition of success — that those who know me the best would love and respect me the most.

- In addition, I’m convinced that God has placed me where he wants me for the time being. I am where I am because I am the only person in the world who can fulfill my specific calling in that place. Other people cannot carry out what I’m called to do in the specific way God has in mind for me.

- One of the best things about the conference is the chance to see a diverse community of people giving their attention to the arts. I see an expanded vision for how SLCC can be a catalyst for thinking about the arts — a network that brings together artists, students, teachers, church leaders, theologians, good thinkers, and others who have something to contribute to the discussion. I don’t know what this might look like, but there’s no reason to limit our thinking. (The concepts of “thinking” and “thought” are not usually associated with music and the arts, but that’s shouldn’t be the case. The areas of music, worship and the arts should be filled with the best thinking we can produce.)

- There is a human tendency to accept the status quo. If you serve in a small setting, it’s easy to become victim to a mindset that says, “We’re just little ‘ol (name your church or organization); we’ll always be small and there’s no reason to think we will ever improve substantially, so why even try?” It’s very easy to think this way in a time when budgets are small and you have a whole lot of reasons to give up. But you know what? I don’t accept this. At all. Are we here to be the absolute best we can be, or do we just surrender to our circumstances, and roll over and play dead? Can we find the resolve to see beyond the “3-foot walls” that limit our thinking? I’m betting that in your setting it’s easy to think this way also. But let’s do better, shall we? God and those we serve deserve our best.

We are excited to let you all know some of the featured speakers for Innovative Ministry Leader this year. This is just the beginning, where each week we will be adding more and more speakers for the upcoming months.

Here is the current lineup for the first few months. We are still scheduling exact dates for some speakers, but all of these listed will broadcast before the end of the year.

Leadership

Mark Batterson,  Jud Wilhite, Dino Rizzo, Troy Gramling, Anne Jackson, Glenn Packiam, Skye Jethani, Dave Ferguson, Kevin Harney, Matt Chandler, Steven Furtick, Ron Edmondson, Matt Keller, Tony Morgan, and Geoff Surratt

Worship

Jeff Deyo, Jonathan Lee, Carl Cartee, Ross Parsley, and many more on the near horizon. We will also have Sheri Gould, providing professional vocal training each month.

Culture

Tommy Kyllonen aka Urban D, Efrem Smith, JR Mahon, John Acuff, Matthew Paul Turner and Carlos Whittaker

Technology

Various Teachers from Yamaha, Shure, Martin Lighting, Media Shout and other cutting edge technology leaders. We will also have some great leaders from churches and ministries share insight on technology and how it relates to your ministry.

Marketing

Greg Stielstra will starting off on a series of Marketing Messages for the church based upon his book Pyromarketing. We will also have some other guest speakers this year that will share insight of how to effectively marketing and reach new people for Christ.

When you register you will have access to all of these videos each month. There is no licensing, so your entire church can view and access. Memberships start at $34.99 a month.

Also if you are one of the first 150 to sign up, for either a six month or 12 month commitment, you will receive all 8 of the Leadership Network Innovation Series books from Zondervan. That includes titles form Mark Driscoll, Geoff Surratt, Dave Gibbons, Dino Rizzo, and others.

Be sure to check it out, and share the word. The book deal is going fast so be sure to sign up today!

Team IML

I thoroughly enjoyed the Willow Creek Leadership Summit today.  Nine of us from Cityview are attending the simulcast at Coquitlam Alliance Church.  As always it took me a while to get adjusted to watching it on the big screen, but I settled into it about 30 minutes in.  At the end of the day I do wish that more of our leadership could have the opportunity to experience this together.  I deeply appreciate the earnestness and zeal for Jesus and for the leadership gift that can be caught from the staff of Willow.

I won’t try to summarize all of the content of the bio’s of each presenter.  You can get the bio of each presenter here.  

Bill Hybles started off slow but admitted as much.  Again I was moved by the content but also by the depth of care and passion he and others demonstrated for each other and for Jesus.  His focus was on HOW leaders make decisions.  “Leadership is about decision making.”  Indeed.  He presented a four-part framework that leaders use. 

1. Does the Bible say anything about the matter?
2. What would smart advisers advise?
3. p/g/e  What have I learned from past Pains, Gaines, and Experiences?
4. What is the Spirit prompting in me?

From there Bill moved onto the compression of learnings into short pithy phrases accelerate decision making for leaders.  He called these Axioms; which by the way is also the title of his most recent book.  But before considering the axioms, a few things that I took away from his talk.

I would like to journel more or chronicle not just my devotions and study, but also my decision-making processes and events.  In this way I can capture more of the voice of my own heart as I interact with God, His Word, His church, and His world.

Make a “trial decision” before d-day and “live with the decision” for a few days; does it bring life and peace or worry and anxiety?

When it (a decision) works well, thank everyone involved.  When a decision does not go well, blame no one; instead, take full responsibility–so learning can happen.

Axioms can influence the shaping of an organization’s culture by becoming code for values, behaviours, attitudes, and experiences that learn from the past but create desirable futures.

I am very challenged byGary Haugen’s talk.  Gary is the founder and direction or International Justice Ministry.  Wow!  “Leadership that matters to God is leadership that in endeavors that actually mater to God.”  Do Jesus and I actually share an interest in the same thing?  1.  God’s passion for the world.  2.  God’s passion for justice.

It is difficult for the world to believe that God is good because their life is filled with so much pain.  God’s plan for helping them know that He is good…is us.   ”Let you light so shine before me that when they see your good deeds they will praise their Father in heaven.”

Injustice.  The Bible has in mind a particular kind of sin.  An abuse of power; to take from others life, liberty, dignity, and the fruit of their life and labours.  God has give us the work of justice.  If you want your leadership to matter, lead in the things that matter to God.  The problem is that we are intimidated by the size of the task, by the hard work of the task, and the danger of the task.  Four lessons for leading when the task is big, hard, scary.

1.  Leading when the task seems hopeless…we lead by re-centering the basis of our hope.

2.  When the task seems scary, threatening… we must be willing to exchange our safety for the experience of God.  Jesus came to make us brave.  We lead by revealing for people that Jesus came to make us brave not safe.

3.  How do we lead others on a more demanding climb?  Choose not to be safe, pursue deep sp. health, choose excellence, seize the joy!

I felt very challenged.  OK, so I’m forty and could settle in, play it safe, yearn to play more golf…but the truth is I am easily bored without a clear challenge before me and a deep need to pray and trust, abandon myself to God.  This is a timely message.

Bill Georgeblessed me by just being a good man.  I was reminded of the ancient greek concepts of man in society who is good and influential on the basis of such goodness.  Jesus has done a wonderful thing by raising Bill George up.  And I am thankful for him.  His motto and question for us, “Am I doing all that I can with my leadership to make the world a better place?” reminded me of my friend Harvey McKinnon, who also says much the same thing, and seeks out people who share that desire.  Bill George obviously loves Jesus and has gained much wisdom for us.  The matter of leading from who you are is such an adventure to get to and I appreciated his call for us to give thoughtful and deliberate work on drilling down to clarity about such. 

Leaders today must seek to Align people, Empower people, Serve people, and Collaborate with people.  George has 6 principles for people in leadership:  1.  Understand the purpose of your leadership.  2.  Gain Self-Awareness; 3. Practice good values.  4.  Follower you motivations–intrinsic and capabilities; 5.  Build a support team; 6. Lead an integrated life.

Most failed leaders…failed because they were not well grounded and failed to lead themselves.

Wendy Kopp, founder and leader for Teach for America was a fascinating study in reluctance to be highlighted publicly as the leader, but who has all the determination, passions, and learning openness to be a great leader.  This is particularly important I believe in our context as I feel that many around me in Vancouver have a reluctance to lead, but have both gifting and passion.  It is a mix I do not fully understand yet.  Well it’s a mix I am not sure about how to empower and encourage well.

She truly believes that sacrifice adds value to one’s life.  She believes that University graduates on the verge of graduation will respond to a clear, time-arced, call to extraordinary service and leadership in the city setting.  They place more people with leadership shape than just teacher shape.  They are looking to create a movement that creates extraordinary change in the education inequity that exists because of place of birth.  Public perception of the education challenge is that it is because of poverty, parental involvement, or home life.  Teacher perception after two years in Teach For America is that it is because of teacher quality, principle quality, and academic expectations.  “This is a solvable problem; if it is then we have a moral imperative to do so.”

John Burke blessed us by encouraging us that messy spiritual leadership is required to develop the messy soil or environment where people whose lives are a mess can be transformed by Jesus Christ.  He reminded us that God causes change, growth, or transformation (1 Corinthians 3:6-9).  Leadership is required to add the nutrients to the soil that create the most helpful environments for people to respond to God.  Three aims for leaders:

1.  Grace-giving acceptance.

2.  Authentic confessing community.

3.  Inspiring constant connection with God’s Spirit.

The 60/60 experiment reminded me of Laubach’s intention of being aware of the presence of God all the time. 

Efrem Smith of Sanctuary Covenant Church was singing the song of the multi-cultural,ethnic,techno,caring, global church as God’s response to a diverse world in Christ.  I was pumped!  Its Acts 11 and Antioch coming alive again!  So encouraging… God is not calling you to be a cultural expert…He is calling you to invaded by a force that makes you loving across cultures, race, class, and place.  Wahoooooooooo!

From 1 John 4:7 Efrem helped us see that

1.  We must become a beloved leader.  He refereced MLKing and the call to be a beloved community.  But before the community becomes beloved, the leaders must become beloved.  We must be invaded by the love of God through Jesus Christ.  If you can’t lead across race, class, and place, then you can’t lead today.

2.  We must be an abiding leader.  Vs. 12  We abide, dwell, where the hurting people are–the schools, parks, offices, recovery houses, because the love of Christ is dwelling in us.

3.  We must be confessing leaders.  Vs. 15.  Conses where we get it wrong.  We prefer our cultural, racial, place-ial comforts and that creates STORMS.  Jonah.  A storm is a high pressure coming down against a low pressure.  The storms around us–the high presure of what God wants to do hits the low pressure of what we want to do.  Race labels is not really who we are.

4.  God is working that we may have confidence…the perfecting leader.  Vs. 17  We must sometimes take an organic approach and at other times we must take a programic approach.  But you must be who you are…and who you really are in Christ is His child!

–a great day–and plenty to process–Oh, Lord please take the good seed sown in my heart and bring about the fruitfulness you intend.  AMEN!

The 2008 Leadership Summit sponsored by the Willow Creek Association is under way. Today’s speakers included Bill Hybels (pastor of Willow Creek Community Church), Gary Haugen (Founder & President of International Justice Mission), Bill George (former CEO of Medtronics), Wendy Kopp (Founer & CEO of Teach For America), John Burke (pastor of Gateway Community Church in Austin), and Efrem Smith (pastor at Sanctuary Covenant Church).

Bill Hybels in a message last year entitled “Who can leaders learn from?”¹ posed the question, “Is your range narrow or wide?” Many leaders today have a narrowed view: they surround themselves with people who talk like them, vote like them, and pray like them. Bill explains that followers influenced by leaders who have a narrowed view are “cut off from a whole world of information and a world of powerful ideas that God could use to challenge that leader: to stretch them, to grow them up as a Christ follower and to grow them up as a leader.” Bill explains of the Leadership Summit speakers that it is his “fiercest determination to put faculty line-ups together that make a portion of [people] get [their] underwear in a bundle.” Hybels clarifies to church leaders that “We think you’re big boys and girls, we think you’re discerning, we think you can separate wheat from chaff, we think that you can balance stuff out, subject it to the witness of the Holy Spirit and the Word of God, take the good and leave the bad.” With that said, it’s only appropriate to see what each leader had to offer with hopes that our leadership “bandwidth” would widen.

From the messages this year, it is my prayer that there is a genuine response from the hearts of church leaders across the nation. In my own heart and among my own local church staff we are already asking ourselves tough questions to examine our current heart conditions.

Today, Gary Haugen challenged us to ask questions like, “What is it going to take to positional ourselves in a place of complete desperation for Jesus? Am I settling for a spiritualized mediocrity? Am I passionate about the same things Jesus is passionate about?” Bill Hybels explicated his axioms spurring us to examine, “Are we as leaders aware of the growing disconnect between growing Christians and Christ-centered community changing Christians in our midst? Do we ignore the ‘funkiness’ when we feel it or do we engage and confront it?” Bill George incited questions about authentic self-leadership and the ramifications of value-centered, servant leaders. The interview with Wendy Kopp revealed an honest question inside me: “Am I willing to do what it takes? Am I willing to go through the trial, frustration and heartache in order to promote Kingdom-valued communities?” John Burke’s message on leading in today’s culture begged the question of our staff, “What kind of soil have we cultivated in our midst? Is it filled with grace-giving acceptance? Are we an authentic-confessing community? Are we consistently connecting with the Holy Spirit throughout the day?” To wrap up the day, Efrem Smith challenged me to ask, “Do I truly understand and abide in the transforming love of Christ that transcends racial, ethnic, socioeconomic, and sociopolitical biases. Do I have ‘low pressure’ comforts that are painfully pressing against God’s ‘high pressure’ kingdom values?” And lastly, “Am I willing to be an integral part of being the church that provides a ‘sneak preview of heaven’?”

Today’s speakers were thorough, intentional, and full of vision to see transformed communities in our nation. The speakers challenge today resonated with Paul’s plea to “not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of [our] minds” (Rom 12:2) in order that we would understand our role as change agents where we are. I believe Efrem Smith summed it up best in a vision piece written for his own community in North Minneapolis: “We believe God is looking for people to be his hands, his feet, his justice, his mercy, his compassion, and his love to this community.”²

SOURCES:

1. Hybels, Bill. “Hear From Bill Hybels.” The Leadership Summit
2. Smith, Efrem. “Our Community.” Sanctuary Covenant Church
   

Session 3

Bill George “Finding Your True North”

Professor – Harvard Business School / Former CEO – Medtronic

Am I doing everything I can to make this world a better place?

Are you developing your gifts as a leader?

We were born to make manifest the glory of God that’s in us.

Choose leaders on:

• character vs. charisma
• substance vs. style
• integrity vs. image

What Bill believes the 21st century leader must do:

• Align around vision
• Empower others to step up
• Serve others
• Collaborate – know how to bring organizations (not just individuals) together

No one wants you in a leadership role if you don’t take time for anyone else.

6 Things to do to Develop as a Leader:

1. Understand the purpose of your leadership.  Follow your compass not your clock.
2. Gain/build self-awareness.  Get feedback. Go through a period of introspection.
3. Be true to your values
4. Follow your motivations/motivated capabilities
5. Build a support team around you
6. Lead on integrated life.  Be the same person in every environment.

******************************************************

Session 3 cont.

Interview with Wendy Kopp – CEO and Founder of Teach for America

Because this was an interview style I found it difficult to take great notes so instead I created a list of my observations of Wendy.

• Extremely passionate about improving education
• More focused on the cause than what others or the media are saying
• Believes in this cause to her very core
• Stays focused on the main initiatives
• Confident, comfortable, relaxed, compelling
• Shies away from the title of leader
• Inspirational!

******************************************************

Session 4 Part 1

John Burke “Leading in New Cultural Realities

Lead Pastor of Gateway Community Church

John spoke about how we as leaders need to cultivate the soil for people and it’s God’s job to grow people.  So with that in mind he gave us some insights into how we should be cultivating the soil.

Cultivate the soil with grace giving acceptance.

Cultivate the soil with authentic, honest community

Cultivate the soil by inspiring constant connection with God’s spirit

******************************************************

Session 4 Part 2

Efrem Smith “Leading in New Cultural Realities”

Senior Pastor of The Sanctuary Covenant Church (this church has a hip hop service – would love to see that!)

1 John 4:7

How do we engage culture for kingdom purposes?

In order to lead in a multi-cultural world, we need to become a beloved leader.

If you can’t love across race, class, gender, etc. you can’t lead.

We also must be an abiding leader.

We must be confessing leaders.  Confess where we got it wrong.

What if we came to the conclusion that race labels aren’t really who we are?

You are more than your racial label, you are empowered by a force from on high!

******************************************************

Lots of great stuff today!  I think what I am most wrestling with is defining my uniqueness as a leader.  From several different angles today I was reminded that I don’t need to try to be another leader or mimic the characteristics of another leader… I need to be the leader that God designed for me to be.

More tomorrow!

More notes from The Leadership Summit.

Session 3 – Bill George

Bill George is the former CEO of Medtronic and is currently a Harvard Business School Professor and author.  At the age of 8, his father began encouraging him to strive to become a CEO of a major corporation.  Bill spoke on Finding Your True North.

• There is nothing enlightening about shrinking around around other people thinking that it will make the more comfortable.  Always be yourself.
• Getting people aligned with the vision is much harder than getting the numbers right.
• Passion to lead comes from your life story, not from your talents and competencies.

Bill’s keys to leadership:

• Understand the purpose of your leadership – “follow your compass and not your clock”
• Gain self-awareness
• The real test of your values is when things are going down the drain
• Follow your motivation and capabilities
• Building a support team around you is important
• Lead an integrated life – be the same person in all environments

Session 3 – Wendy Kopp

Wendy Kopp is the founder of Teach for America. Bill Hybels interviewed Wendy on her passion for education, and unfortunately he did most of the talking.

• Sacrifice adds value to your life
• Disparity in education is a huge problem, but a solvable one

Session 4 – John  Burke

John Burke is the lead pastor at Gateway Community Church and author of No Perfect People Allowed.  John spoke on Leading in New Cultural Realities. 

• “How many sexually-active, drunk atheists do you have in your church?”
• Jesus came for messy, broken people.  We have to get our hands dirty to reach them.
• Am I leading more like Jesus, or more like the Pharisees?
• Don’t make it difficult for people to find God.  Don’t be a barrier to God’s grace.  Are we teaching people to hate others?  Gays for example.
• Authentic, confessing community is important
• Our job is not to change or grow people; our job is to cultivate the soil so God can grow them
• All we have to do in order to bear fruit is to stay connect to God

Session 4 – Efrem Smith

Efrem Smith is the senior pastor at The Sanctuary Covenant Church and is freakin’ hilarious.  He spoke on multicultural leading.

• God wants to love the world through us
• “When Jesus comes back, it’s ultimate justice.  Until then, it’s ‘just us’.”
• We must be able to love across race and class and place
• Rather than saying “God told me this…”, Efrem says “I think I heard God say…”
• The best thing a leader can say is “my bad”
• The high pressure of what God wants to do bumping up the low pressure of what we want to do is what causes storms in this world
• Efrem promotes socially innovative churchs

More to come tomorrow…  Who knows?  Maybe I’ll blog live…

connecting with the movement shaping our culture

If I were to ask you what Hip Hop is, what would your answer be? Is it music, is it fashion (a style of dressing), is it an attitude or a language? Yes, hip hop is all of the above and more. Hip Hop is a culture, and for the most part it is one that is often misunderstood. (Even by some of it’s own members)

Thirty years ago Hip Hop was thought by some to be a passing fad. These days that “passing fad” has spanned the Globe and it’s influence can be seen, felt and heard just about everywhere. From the suburbs to the city, the urban to the rural, hip hop’s influence can be seen and felt. It’s in commercials, movies, fashion and obviously music all are influenced by the phenomenon known as Hip Hop.

Hip Hop’s growth has not been without it’s challenges and currently it seems to be on a collision course with the Church. Both the Church and Hip Hop are after the attention of young people. Many in the Church identify Hip Hop as negative and repulsive, and blame Hip Hop for misleading and corrupting young people. On the other hand Hip Hop addresses issues and concerns that for whatever reasons the Church has avoided or said very little about.

To further complicate matters some members of the Church have embraced the redeeming qualities of the Hip Hop Culture in an attempt to take the Gospel Message to a Generation in Terms and Methods that they can relate to. These attempts have been met with resistance from the Church, raising a lot of questions;

• Is Hip Hop and the Hip Hop Culture Redeemable?

• Can anything Good Come out of the Hip Hop Community?

• Is God repulsed by Hip Hop and the Hip Hop Community?

Pastors Efrem Smith and Phil Jackson tackle these questions and more in their book, “The Hip Hop Church.” Without alienating or bashing either group, The Hip Hop Church successfully attempts to bridge the gap between the Church and the Hip Hop Community.

This is a must read book for everyone, and especially for those in urban or youth ministries. Regardless of whether or not you are located in our involved with the urban culture, there is plenty to glean from The Hip Hop Church. Check out the complete review of The Hip Hop Church by mmog37.

I could write pages and pages and pages tonight. I won’t, but I could. It has been one of the most eventful and interesting days of my life – but more than that, it’s been surreal in its combinations.

[In case you're new, I'm blogging a little differently than usual as I TRECC from Portland to North Carolina. You can see what I've been up to - and what TRECC stands for - at the TRECC Itinerary.]

This trip’s biggest days are not like steak – one great big, solid slab of food that richly satisfies. Instead, most of the most memorable days are like stew – real satisfying, but with a multitude of complimenting or even contrasting flavors.

Today was like that, only like stew with the most varying ingredients you can imagine. You might remember I had a pumpkin-lamb enchilada in the Bay Area a while back. Today was kinda like that, only with peanut butter added, and then the whole think dunked in a bowl of gravy and apple jacks. Today was a stew like that. Only scrumptious.

It was awfully “extreme” and diverse, is the point.

To set up the day, let me remind you that I’ve already been to 2 church services this weekend – The Rock and Bethlehem Baptist. The Rock is a Great Commission church, a denomination that has an interesting and sometimes checkered history. Bethlehem Baptist is where John Piper preaches, and he and his church are abundantly well-known and very influential in certain quarters, as you probably know. So I was coming in with an already-interesting church weekend.

Both of those churches – and the churches today – gave me amazing thought-fodder. I always like that. I enjoy any church that’s unique. I enjoy churches that are famous because it’s fun to think about why they’re famous and to explore how they do everything. I enjoy seeing churches that are clearly intentional, even in the little things.

I’ve seen an awful lot of famous churches on this trip, and I’ve seen a lot of other churches that are really interesting for other reasons, too. Good times.

As for today…

I actually decided to “sleep in” today, which still only meant 6 1/2 hours of sleep instead of 4 1/2. I missed an additional church service I could have visited, though. I’m really glad I slept, however, ’cause it’s been a really long day.

First stop this mornin’ was Sunday school at Bethlehem Baptist at 10am. (This was actually a really late start for my Sundays.) They have three campuses, and a college Sunday school at each. The Downtown Campus study is a traditional, teaching-only Sunday school, before they all head to the 11am worship service. I got to meet a few of the leaders, too.

When that finished, I had to book it across town to get to The Sanctuary Covenant Church in time for the 11am service. (I do a lot of “booking it” between churches on Sundays.) I think I got inside around 11:10.

Apparently, Sanctuary Cov. is #25 on this year’s Most Innovative Churches list, and I can certainly see why it might make that kind of list. This was, in style and content, pretty much an African-American church – only the audience was very diverse (with a bunch of college students, too), and the church was clearly a new, modern church plant meeting in the auditorium of a Minneapolis Middle School.

Efrem Smith, the Senior Pastor, will apparently be speaking at Willow Creek’s Leadership Summit this fall. He was good, that’s for sure.

This wasn’t Hip-Hop Worship Sunday at Sanctuary (that’s next Sunday), but this style wasn’t too far off. It was a fun morning.

One other big reason for visiting Sanctuary today was because of an event they were holding this afternoon. I “just happened” to be in town the day they were holding their “College Ministry Roundtable” – a meeting to draw college students (and they have lots of them attending, that’s clear) to chat about what a college-focused ministry might look like at Sanctuary.

Do you think that kind of meeting is up my alley? I think it is. Any chance I have to hear how churches are thinking about college ministry is a HUGE privilege.

Another ingredient in the stew.

I had emailed to ask about coming to the Roundtable, but having not heard back, I figured I would show up and ask about sitting in.

No students showed up.

So we – three of their volunteer leaders and I – spent an hour and a half talking about what they’re thinkin’ and what I’ve learned that might help them. It was one of the best couple of hours of my entire trip.

I can not tell you how awesome it is to see this trip really and truly be used to help real-life college ministries. And I’m not even very good at “consulting” yet – I talk too much and have too much rattling around in my brain. (That’s why book-form or blog-form helps – because there’s just SO MUCH to think about.)

But it was a great time with some cool people, and we all felt – definitely, me included – that God blessed us in working that out.

Next stop on my Sunday: Circuit City. For no obvious reason, my new-ish laptop AC adapter started beeping last night. Though they seem to have built in a beeper, the engineers didn’t put anything in the manual about what beeping is meant to indicate.

I think it’s still under warranty. We’ll see. But either way I had to get a new one today. Arg. Computer problems are the worst. After all that, it was about 4pm.

Do you notice any time in here for lunch (or breakfast) so far? No? Yeah, I don’t, either. I did get a few of those handy Special K bars and a Boost, but those don’t work for three meals in a row, generally. I got hungry today.

But churches do NOT wait for me to get Taco Bell, so instead it was on to Solomon’s Porch, my fourth activity for the day. Solomon’s Porch is an Emergent Church pastored by Doug Pagitt, one of the big, big leaders of the Emergent movement.

If you’re unclear, “Emerging” and “Emergent” are used differently by lots of people. Both denote a “new way of doing church,” and methodology between the two camps is often similar. They differ theologically, though, with “-ent” leaning far more “liberal” theologically than “-ing.” (Yeah, it’s kinda weird the way those words sound the same, but I didn’t make ‘em up.)

Anyway, Solomon’s Porch is definitely one of the most unique churches I’ve ever been in. It appears to “out-emerge” many others of the same genre, too.

We met on couches and comfy chairs in a circular, “in the round” set-up – all in the spacious renovated sanctuary space of an OLD Presbyterian church. After the series intro (they’re starting a new series), the rest of the “message time” was spent hearing thoughts from members of the audience.

If all that’s not pretty Emergious, I don’t know what is.

Golly, I could write about Solomon’s Porch for days. But the same goes for everything ELSE I saw this weekend. So I continue.

After we took communion and received the benediction, I booked it once again – this time to Wooddale Church, one of America’s most influential. Their pastor, Leith Anderson, is the president of the National Association of Evangelicals now. And he was preaching, too. (It was a really good weekend of having all these famous preachers in their pulpits, by the way.)

Only this was Wooddale’s “The Gathering” service, the most “edgy” of their three service styles. They call it an “alternative worship experience” or something.

Truth is, it could be one of the BEST examples I’ve seen of a pretty traditional megachurch doing the “young adult style worship service” thing. Anderson is not young, but he pulled it off marvelously and with a willingness to stretch – down to letting attendees text-message questions DURING the message that he answered toward the end of the service. (I’ve seen that before – but it was at Mosaic and Mars Hill (Seattle). It’s a little more surprising when you see it in Eden Prairie, Minnesota.)

It was during the worship toward the end of that service, when the turntable artist started scratching his turntable, that I finally recognized just how amazing this day had been. (I even teared up a little.) This was turntable (and rap, eventually) for worship in an unlikely church. The same day as hip-hop worship in a middle school and Emergent church in the round. The same weekend as seeing John Piper on his home turf, in the traditional-but-intentional Bethlehem Baptist Church. And then the chance to see fruits from my labor in a real church, with real college ministry leaders, who really want to impact this generation.

This surreal day, of blessings and providence and locality and uniqueness and analyzation and sleepiness and hunger and booking it and scheduling and seeing, which is a microcosm of this whole surreal trip, is such a blessing to get to experience.

It’s surreal. It’s stew.

The activities of this long Sunday ended at the “Vespers” weekly student worship service at Bethel University. This was an hour of almost entirely singing in Bethel’s dark gym.

Funny thing is, there were several hundred college students there – and that was the second service of the night. It’s not just Bethel students, either – but guys and gals from UMinn and, I’m sure, other schools as well.

I’m worn out, but part of me feels like driving. In fact, for the first 30 minutes of the trip out of Minneapolis, I got to chat with a new seminary friend, who’s working on a report about Vintage Faith, the famous Emerging Church I got to see in Santa Cruz. It was really fun to get to share.

I made it deep into Wisconsin; now I’m finally going to sleep.

I don’t know my route tomorrow – I could end up in Louisville or thereabouts; I could end up in Pittsburgh or thereabouts. Really – there’s not the HUGE time difference you might think. So you can pray for direction on that one.

One final note: I DO plan to return to Minneapolis during the Road Trip. So if you wonder why I only ended up seeing one campus there and didn’t get any interviews there, it’s because I knew I’d be coming back for a bit longer visit this summer. This weekend was really beneficial for scouting it out, meeting people, and attending churches; I’ll probably just spend some time midweek when I come back.

TRECC stats

• Today’s T-shirt: University of Oregon (“I am a Duck”)
  
• Today’s states: 2 – Minnesota & Wisconsin
• Miles driven today: 182
• Campuses visited today: 1 – Bethel University
• Total TRECC states: 7
• Total Trip states: 36
• Total TRECC miles: approx. 2046
• Total TRECC campuses: 6
• Total Trip campuses: 97
• Time left until start of College Metro in Wake Forest, NC: 2 days, 4 1/2 hours as of 3:30am Central Time

Written from the Eau Claire, Wisconsin, area

Alright…Just got back from the New Conspirators Conference featuring Tom and Christine Sine, Shane Claiborne, Efrem Smith, Mark Scandrette, Mark Van Steenwik, Karen Ward, etc…

Too many folks have already blogged into meaninglessness at this point…that having been said: it was awesome!!!

There was such a sense of conversation, open and honest sharing, participation, challenge, inspiration, realism…etc…

Highlights for me were: Dwight Friesen, professor at Mars Hill Seminary in Seattle.  As he was leading a break out session called “The Dance Between Emergent and Established Churches” he gets to this one part where he gets incredibly choked up and he says: “I just want to know how to honor my father and my mother ecumenically speaking.  Because if this is about carving out a new thing and racing past them then I don’t want any part of it. But if this is about joining hands together in God’s kingdom then that’s where I want to be.”  It was incredibly touching.

And it resonated, at least with me.  I’m tired of living in reaction.  I’m tired of standing on my esoteric high horse and preaching at people who have loved Jesus longer and harder than I can imagine.  The truth is that we’re all heretics and we’re all orthodox…and I’m not able to say the one who meets in a house is somehow more holy or closer to Christ like simplicity than the one who meets in a school or in an auditorium or in a cathedral.  Anyhow…it resonated.  I like what Shane said in a different breakout session: “People used to ask me if I was Protestant or Catholic and I would answer, ‘NO!’ because I was so fed up with the system.  Now people ask me and I say ‘YES!’ because they are my brothers and sisters and I am one with them.  It’s a subtle difference but its there.”  Once again that resonated.

Efrem Smith  delivered an amazing message on the Beloved Community of Christ. Jessie and I found it deeply challenging and moving…there is much work to be done in the mission of God which Paul said was reconciliation…wow!!! What a message…what a call to arms in God’s kingdom.

The final workshop I attended was “Enter the Jesus Dojo” with Mark Scandrette.  This guy was a riot, a revolutionary, and a lyrical beat poet wrapped up into one dynamic and challenging session calling Christians to cease being simply believers and start being disciples (apprenctices of Jesus in the 21st century).  It was a great time.  His work in San Fransisco with Re-Imagine and Seven is intruiging and similar to the path the Lord seems to have Jessie and I on…hope to learn from them in some way.

But right now…listening to the National. and loving it…