2011 AND ConferenceTag Archive -

2011 AND Conference Keynote Mark Beeson

  • You don’t have to “qualify” in God’s economy because you are loved by God
  • Mark Beeson’s birthday, turned 58
  • Our days are cherished and valuable, time is continuing to pass by- what will we do with it?
  • All of it is really Attraction… 
  • Often a church can be a mis-match where the experience doesn’t match the message of Christ
  • When new people that come to a new church can be a bother-  As the Sodality is working there better be a plan in the Modality…. small is beautiful… bigger gets tougher…
  • Church Planters:  You need to decide how big is too big…. there’s no wrong answer but know what comes with growth…  There are requirements and big challenges to growth…  Or you can make it capped at 10 people and then start another group
  • You don’t get to choose problem free living, you just get to choose your problems- big or small
  • Jesus was the most attractive person that ever existed- crowds followed him…  As Christ-followers living in His way, so should we also become attractive…
  • Where am I on the character scale?  Those with high character you can trust to do good work and be reliable.  The reality of humanity is than there are volumes of people with little or no character…
  • God invites us to a higher character… low character people are not attractive…  You’re not attractive just because you have Jesus in your life- you’re more attractive the more you become like Jesus…  Am I like Christ?
  • Story of Jacob and Esau… Jacob deceives his father Isaac pretending to be his brother… Isaac ends up blessing Jacob instead of Esau…  Despite all this, why did God still choose Jacob?  What did he do?  Absolutely nothing.  The hero in this story is not Jacob, it’s God.  God uses messed up people, even those with low character…
  • Jacob worked 7 years so he could marry Rachel, instead he’s given Leah- Jacob gets a taste of his own medicine… a lesson of character…
  • But God doesn’t leave us with low character, he gives us opportunities to build it, take steps, become like Him, with more character…
  • Low capacity vs High capacity-  80/20 principle  Move from low character, low capacity to high character and high capacity to become more like Christ…
  • High capacity and low character people can be very dangerous
  • The bucket/vomit list: High capacity, high character-  pour into these people!
  • Dinosaur’s vs Mice….  Most churches have one or two key leaders that if they go down, the whole ship goes down…  This would be the dinosaur….  We want to build the Church on the mice, hundreds and hundreds of leaders empowered …. Mice can reproduce faster than you can kill them… Mice may be able to lead 5 or 10 people…
  • This is the model that will revolutionize the world for Christ, the missional model…
  • 2 Peter 1:5-8   What are the steps that God wants His people to take? This is where you can find them to build in our character and attractiveness…

AND Breakout Video: Behind the Scenes

  • Sites to check-out:  vimeo, youtube, motionagrapher, superfad, trollback, theronin, devour, fubiz, worshiphousemedia, and spotify (all .com)
  • Reference videos are helpful in the Idea stage- examples to help the team translate the vision in your head
  • When you see great video (or commercials)- share with your team to see examples of what worked (Chrysler video about Detroit during the SuperBowl example)
  • Plug-ins:  After Effects, aescripts.com
  • Sites to learn from:  creativelive.com, videocopilot.net, grayscalegorilla.com, creativecow.net, lynda.com, fxphd.com, aetuts.com, videohive.net
  • The Details:  Think about your story before you shoot it (storyboard, visualize, write it down) otherwise you may find holes in your story.
  • The more you prepare, the more flexible you can be….
  • Action verbs by the script to help with the intent of the lines for actors
  • Get great audio when you shoot video… it has a critical impact on your video- don’t forget the audio because it’s often missed- use boom mics, don’t rely
  • Be intentional with your lighting-  a cheap route would be the big china globes for $10 from Akia if you have no budget- that would be better than nothing
  • Color Grading can add a unique look to your video- most video editing software has some options- usually the last step to make something  look great… Go with manual as much as possible if you have the time to do it… Be a student about it and play with the presets when you’re first starting out…
  • Most people don’t light or color grade and would be an immediate diffentiator to your quality
  • Questions?  Twitter: dustinmaust  (Dustin Maust- in case you didn’t figure that out… :)

 

AND Conference Breakout: Alan Hirsch

  • 60% of the US Church will not go to the current model of the Church
  • Keep doing the 40% well as a church currently- don’t stop what you’re doing but think in a way that the 40% will be “sent” into the 60%…
  • How you see reality is how you’ll be communicating and influencing others about their realities…  How do you communicate to others what a church is?  It matters.
  • The paradigms and assumptions we make today will have a dramatic impact on what will or will not be in the future- It is critical we get our paradigms right and defining reality.
  • Alan Hirsch:  “We are operating on an old paradigm that the church is a privileged position in our society….  I’ve bet my life on the need for a paradigm shift to an apostolic model…”
  • “The Age of the Unthinkable”- recommended book by A.H.
  • How the Bible defines the Church: #1  Can be quite small, a house (Local), #2 then city-wide, #3 across the empire (Regional/movement), #4 Theo, entire  body of Christ…..  All of these are “the Church”… Too often we think of a local church meeting in a building…  We must change our thinking to a movement, multi-location, regional, and global…
  • If you don’t change the paradigm- you won’t experience the changes that are needed.  What got us here is not going to get us there….  We must work to change the paradigm…
  • Yes, you’re going to have to go on a journey- it’s hard as we want to have a quick-fix, but it’s critical we slow down and work to understand the fundamental shifts that need to happen…
  • You have Innovators who always want change- and you have Resistors that will never change…
  • All you need is 16% of the population to eventually reach the “tipping point”- that’s encouraging to the journey ahead to shift the paradigm needed in the Church
  • Plant the Gospel and the story of Jesus, not churches, and let that seed grow… Need to think like a missionary again…
  • Imagine then Shift then Innovate= MOVE
  • Paradigm at the Core (where change needs to occur), Ethos translates the core into what the practices should be (Strategy), then new Practices exist  (3 circles)
  • The Church needs to risk engaging the culture, not seeking safety and security where are large volume of the church and middle class exists today

AND Breakout: One Church Where You Are Mark Waltz

  • We actually sat on the sideline to see what type of success other churches were having with multi-site
  • We went back to our roots with a 2nd site approximately 20 minutes away- all by video
  • In a movie theater, it would seem that people would be used to experiencing video only at a theater
  • Theater works if it’s up-to-par with the expectations of your standards, cleanliness, audio, video
  • Then moved to the RV Hall of Fame, 12.3 million dollar building
  • Before you start multi-site:  who you are should already be decided
  • Autonomy works when identity is clear
  • If there isn’t buy-in to your DNA- it won’t be one church, it will be something different
  • Launch multi-sites or plant new sites- should be determined what the intent is upfront
  • We decided on launch because we felt like we knew who we were and what was working- in “this” area, GCC was known for certain attributes (arts, etc…)
  • Clarify what’s what- clarify campus “constants” constantly- noted on andconference.com site
  • You’ll never have everything resolved when dealing with multi-site- new questions will always arise
  • Course correct early or you’ll end up setting a new course  (always balancing Autonomy/Community with DNA and One Church mentality)
  • Keep talking “why”- vision always informs the why and the what…. vision leaks and we always need to recast the vision
  • Multi-site is missional; be missional minded- we were intentional about being in a temporary space, but there were some issues…. we were going to build a million dollar commons space at the main campus while telling the multi-site it was to stay mission-minded… it was tough to navigate
  • Verbalize “one” often- we are one church with one mission
  • Think “region”- planning to launch 3 more multi-sites within a 30-45 minute radius- we want to take that step before we go beyond the region to work to stay as one church
  • Go “home” often- to the hub- helps remind people it’s one hub- one single printed program, helps… “The Feed”- information/announcements- consistent at multiple sites
  • Shared cross-cultural experiences
  • Many dotted lines in your org chart when dealing with multi-site- collaborative effort in shared ministries, kids ministry at one location collaborating with kid’s ministry of the other site
  • Say “we” a lot, and work with parallel programming
  • Acknowledge “our” pastors
  • It’s probably easier to do plant vs. multi-site

What would I do with the plan in the next launch to do it better?

Find tangible ways to find ways to impact and raise the bar in the communities.  More partnerships in the area we launch with other churches and organizations- that those sites would be growing to have an expectation of reproduction to launch another site.

  • We now have been given a building at a new location from a church that was closing- the timing was of God as it may have been viewed in a different context prior to our AND Vision process

How does budget work?

  • We have a unified split- 70% of the giving goes to fund staffing, 20% to the hub, 10% into a fund for future multi-sites

Branding:  Considering “A Granger Community Church” as a tagline to a different name

 

AND Breakout: Slaying the Dragons Jack Magruder & Rob Wegner

  • Your church has both centralized and de-centralized functions
  • We have people that may serve in India that will help them learn some structure that could translate elsewhere- a boot camp of sorts…
  • In 2012 book coming out:  Missional Moves
  • Process: Entermission coaching- 18 month process to breakdown their mission processes and then rebuild the model- 15 churches get together to help each other with best practices, etc.
  • Nobody goes out to slay a dragon passively- you better know what you’re doing
  • Fear and Busyness are two of the biggest dragons
  • Fear- People look at you differently than others when you work at a church- people see you as this elite minority… people are petrified to have you ask them to actually get engaged
  • People have a fear to do something outside the walls
  • Busyness-  People are exhausted and then we’re asking them to do more…
  • How do we deal with these dragons?
  • Focus-  80% of our focus is on one local, depressed neighborhood in South Bend and one region in India…. Focus has brought 120,000 people in India attending over 1000 churches…
  • The lie- more is better… The great commission can turn into the great commotion… think a flashlight, can do much… Focus can create a laser-light that can cut through steel….
  • Small interventions- Focus= Little or No Impact
  • Small interventions + Focus= Opportunity for Great Impact
  • All we have are small interventions and work to train
  • We look both at the needs and the assets of a community
  • Spectrum of Involvement: 
  • Acts 1:8, we’ll be local, regional, international
  • Scalable steps for people to get involved-
  • Access, Project, Ongoing Teams, and Leadership at each of the local, regional, and international
  • Children, Students, Families, Adults- other categories of focus
  • Access events- lowest barrier of entry, lowest risk, you don’t have to be a Christ-follow
  • No matter now many people show up, it’s simple, accessible, and scalable
  • “I don’t want to be roped in to suck my life away… “
  • Value volunteer time, don’t have people show up with nothing to do….
  • Project events:  There is a clear start/stop- maybe a weekend event
  • Have a party for those leaving a team- celebrate, let them know there is a start and stop
  • Leadership is giving full support and autonomy with reasonable guardrails
  • We did 2nd Saturday for about 6 years- it was working but people get used to it…  Re-launching the opportunites to serve to help people re-engage…  When we reach the “wallpaper” effect- it’s time to shake things up…

What wording do you use to the aspiring young missionaries in your church?

  • When you’re focused, a lot of those questions are handled on the front end with our focus on India and Monroe Circle.  We’ll help train people to raise money but we don’t support things outside our focus.  They carry our DNA to whatever they do…

Was 2nd Saturday all year long?   Took July/August off

How does your off-ramp work?  Leaders get together quarterly

  • When you’re in for the long haul you see more of the results over time…  Volunteer comment

How do you do development work?

  • Vertical development tends to focus on one issue and hope the other issues will work themselves out
  • Horizontal development think inch deep and mile wide- hitting multiple fronts- water, education, food, literacy, etc..  GCC advocates Horizontal…

AND Breakout: Jason Miller- Arts

  • “The world around me wasn’t as confusing as the world inside of me… The world of art helps me make the connection…”
  • Art wakes people, shakes people, and makes them alive- it allows us to take a message and wrap it in humanity again
  • It’s OK to admit that having a bunch of artists in your church can be challenging
  • We’re having to manage 3 tensions:
  • Andy Stanley says that some tensions should not be solved, are you trying to reach new people or make disciples? That would be an example of tension not to solve- it’s something to manage and live in that tension
  • Tension #1:  Freedom vs. Parameters
  • Brainstorming meetings- any idea sticks, try to let ideas flow- 7 to 12 ppl typically in those
  • Programming meetings- When they flush out the ideas brainstormed
  • No office hours, just be at your meetings…
  • They have morning huddles at 9AM- what are you up to today?  How can we help?
  • Simply setting an agenda takes the creative out of artists
  • Tension #2:  Relational Proximity vs. Just Getting the Job Done
  • When we focus just on tasks we take withdrawals from the relational equity
  • Builds one on one’s with each person on his team- very little on his agenda, mostly there to listen
  • Works from home one day a week to focus on email, projects, and teaching prep
  • Closed doors in GCC offices mean nothing, hard to get stuff done and hinders flow
  • Offsite time- did a retreat for 2 1/2 days… spent the whole time to navigate how to connect relationally with an outside voice to lead the discussion
  • Tension #3:  Giving the Spiritual Benefit of the Doubt vs. Being Spiritually Vigilent with Your Team
  • Just because someone’s an artist doesn’t mean they have spiritual issues, sometimes a stereotype with artists
  • Artists are opinionated- if they weren’t there wouldn’t be any art to express the feelings and emotion
  • Create an environment where artists can use the “dark” parts of their journey- some of the greatest art comes from what once was our greatest pains or hurt
  • Create an authentic place for artists to express their true spirit
  • Principle #1  Ask Great Questions:
  • Ask them in the creative process, how people are doing, keep pressing in…
  • Made the mistake of assuming something without getting all the information
  • Ask questions at the right time, don’t ask a singer how her marriage is going right before she goes on stage
  • Principle #2:  Provide Great Tools
  • Invest in those who are fired up about what they do and invest there- maybe it’s a computer, technology, instrument, etc…
  • Don’t ask a master chef to create with poor tools in the kitchen or serve great dishes on cardboard plates
  • Don’t put a great vocalist to sing with a poor mic, poor sound mix, and poor back-up support… It matters to artists… They feel valued with excellence…
  • Principle #3:  Communicate Well
  • Error on the side of providing too much information- even on stuff that’s “half-baked” so the team has all the information
  • Centralize a planning center so you don’t have version control of your key programming documents, etc…  Your central location needs to be accurate, they use Google Docs for brainstorming and holding ideas…
  • Spotify- music service for 9.99- helps share music files and idea bucket of song ideas is shared
  • Assistant simply emails notes for all the key meetings out to everyone

Q & A:

How do you deal with people who come unprepared?

We’re counting on leaders to have conversations with people- it’s critical to value your teammates and the vision.  They need to know they’re letting the team down when that happens…  They’ve actually had to let go of a few artists that weren’t coming prepared… but dealing with it helps elevate the rest of the team when they know you’re keeping the bar high…

Do you have a set of standards that artists need to meet spiritually?

Visible artists have more assumptions placed on them than someone running a camera… We don’t have a list of policies, we rely on relational proximity. 

Do you ever have a problem with the programming meeting turning back into a brainstorming meeting?

Sure, sometimes- but often the deadline dictates what needs to be shutdown.  Usually try to work on an 8-week lead time on schedule, currently running tighter than that.

Breakout Session: “The Visioning Process of AND..”- GCC Leadership Team

  • In 2007 we felt like the major vision we had set-out for was losing steam- we even felt like we were floundering for a period of 2-3 years
  • January 2010, each member of the SMT (Senior Management Team) spent a few hours in a cabin writing down the individual perspectives of what the vision could be- we were amazed at how unfied the different pieces of the vision were
  • We shelved it for about a year- instead of rolling out the big vision to the church
  • From February-April of 2010, we asked hundred’s of people in the church, “what’s your dream”- hundreds of leaders involved with the dreaming process
  • In May- we took it out to another circle, Mark Beeson talked about it on the weekend and asked for input/dreams that people would have
  • In June, we took it out to our community- those who go to church, don’t go to church- what would it look like for this community to be everything you would want it to be?
  • In August- we rolled up pages and pages of the input- then the SMT crafted another one page draft
  • We were looking for commonality?  What was God saying that aligned to the vision we had?  We also were curious on what people were saying that were completely missed by our team…
  • Went back to the leaders in August/September a draft to respond to- we got 41 pages of feedback
  • Finally in January of 2011 GCC consolidated the vision for the church, “not our vision….this is your vision… our vision…”
  • March/April doing the campaign to help fund what ended up being a 5-year vision

Q?  Were you worried about a flurry of different opinions to the vision?

  • Mark Beeson, “Yes, I was terrified, I had no idea what we might  hear- it was quite chaotic…”
  • Tim Stevens, “I think there was a value for people to be heard… even though some of the ideas were not going to happen.”
  • Mark Waltz, “Great that other opinions were lifting the heartbeat of getting outside our 4 walls…”
  • Kem Meyer: “Listening can be a very disturbing experience- it would have been a lot easier and faster to just drive the vision home…
  • Rob Wegner: “We were educating through the process, The Forgotten Ways, created a lot of great conversations about the Church…”
  • DC Curry: “It gave people to opt in or opt out… we were comfortable if people chose to opt out… the vision would give people the opportunity to decide…”

How much of the original vision they shelved in 2010 came into the actual vision of 2011?

  • Jason Miller: “Tremendous to see in overlapping impulse with the feedback….”
  • Rob Wegner: “7-8 different trends came through clear…”

How did it impact the energy of the Church?

  • Tim Stevens: “Energy was tremendous…”
  • Rob Wegner: “Biggest push of momentum in nearly 20 years”
  • Mark Beeson: “The ‘want to’ was critical- people are willing to do what it takes because they ‘want’ it bad enough… I think our energy level has gone up every month for the last 4-5 months…”

How was staff involved in the process?

  • Tim Stevens: “We really started there and helped train them to do the same process with the groups and teams- most of the brainstorming was led by staff and volunteers…. We gave them handles on how to steer the conversation to keep it positive and not in teaching mode…”

If you started the process all over again, what would you do different?

  • Kem Meyer: “There are things we could have done more efficiently but the chaos and process was essential…”
  • Rob Wegner: “I had to tell myself to relax, the process was critical..”
  • Mark Beeson:  “I wish I had a better ‘me’ to bring to the process…. I want to do whatever it takes to bring the best of me to a process like this… I don’t want to be in a place next year wishing I was bringing a different me…. I want to be in God’s rhythm…”
  • DC Curry: “This was one time we were completely wide-open, we were completely transparent, we didn’t try to manipulate the conversation, it was uncomfortable… hard to do something different when we were simply vulnerable in the process…”

Tim Stevens: “We’ve had 3 major vision processes in the life of the church:  First vision process, the from the mountain model, second time- team model, third process was a crowd-sourcing model….”

  • Mark Beeson went on a sabbatical- everyone was a bit nervous he would come back with lots of new ideas, new vision

DC Curry:  “The reality is that we knew our people knew their community better than we did- how in the world do we reach your world?  How can we help?  What do you need?  If we’re going to be a force in the community, we should ask the community…”

Mark Waltz: “Our congregation knew the air was coming out of the tires… the feedback came out of the tremendous need and vacuum our people were already feeling…”

How did the Reveal study help cement real shifts?

Rob Wegner:  “We knew we had to reboot our discipleship strategy… Our community and partnership in India exploded when our local model was struggling…  We’ve learned a ton from India…”

Kem Meyer: “How have I changed in how I lead my team- here’s the vision, now what do we need to change?  What are 3 filters we need to make sure we’re furthering the vision?”

Jason Miller: “Leading with ‘being the church’ rather than simply trying to tell people you’re going to be mature…”

Rob Wegner: “Shift from we can do it and you’re going to help us, now it’s you’re going to do it and we’re going to help you…”

Mark Beeson: “How can I become attractive and be like Jesus so I can effectively lead a missional community?”

 

Hugh Halter- AND Conference Session One

  • The early Church was viewed as being “inclusive”- how is the Church viewed today?  Certainly exclusive…
  • The early Faith community was all about blessing- they were incredible “givers” helping people wherever they went… “blessing the socks off people”
  • He started a small community that was modeling the early Christians- but then it grew and attracted a lot of “church” people
  • Call this your “Faith community” not a Church
  • What’s dying is the pure “Attractional” church- it made a lot of sense when the culture was “looking” for a church
  • There is no “balance” of the AND… it’s the genius of AND
  • You will never fix church by asking how should we do church?
  • Church is something that God builds, through disciples
  • Sodalic- the sending part of the Church (think Paul)- charting new course, go make disciples, not go and start churches… For a church this would be Missional, decentralized, scattered- Evangelist, prophet, apostolic- this represents the smaller group/need- 15%
  • Modalic- Make disciples- pastors, teachers, the people that remain…  After you reach people, there is the hard work of helping them…  Bigger numbers and giftedness here, 85%… more people are needed for this piece
  • You need both Sodalic and Modalic
  • Most seminary training is Modalic- focus on Proclamational
  • We tend to land in Modalic land and when numbers shrink, we wonder
  • We know you put a lot of time in your teaching, but there’s no correlation between “Church” time and people taking on the life and call of Jesus- Willow Creek Reveal study
  • If you keep doing “Church”, the numbers going to continue to shrink
  • Modalic first decision, second decision sodalic- first decision Navy, anyone can get in, second decision, Navy Seals- when people are running away, the Sodalic goes running in…
  • Holiness is not coming out of or away from the world, Jesus engaged the world- was with the sinners, engaged “in”
  • We need to work to help people in a two step process- show up, but then go and make a disciple outside
  • 85% of our money and time go into the Modalic- we create a consumeristic need and crowd
  • Most of the things you want and need in your Church are Incarnational, in the flesh, being the hands and feet of Christ
  • When people sit in Modalic too long, under teaching, often they become Pharisees, judgmental
  • 6 quick thoughts:
  • You need both Modalic and Sodalic- who do you have on your teams?  Often we only have Modalic- Do you have Sodalic leaders on your team?
  • God’s Church was not meant to be peaceful, it’s healthy chaos, ebb and flow managing the tension in the Modalic and Sodalic
  • Where do I start?  Don’t start at the level of church, start at the level of disciple- what does it mean to make disciples
  • You can do your small house church until it works- then pesky Modalic trained Christians start showing up that need to be retrained…
  • We need to re-orientate Evangelicals back to the mission of God
  • Reinvest more of your time and money to the Sodalic
  • Most of us could stop doing 25% of the “dumb” stuff we do and no one will notice- we can start making a shift
  • What you draw people with is what you’re going to draw people to become- Are you trying to build a large gathering or training and modeling?
  • Work from where you are… Most are in Modalic- to move Sodalic- start coaching and piloting Sodalic, Kingdom mentality
  • You may have to “stealth” for awhile, gradually working through people to transition the change
  • Get ready for a fight in a good way…  “AND” wakes up the enemy…  You got to ask yourself do you really want the “AND”?  It’s not easy…