Off the Chain!

Ed Young said "off the chain" a lot at C3.  Meaning "off the hook, far out, excellent, out there, great, fantastic..."  C3 was nice, I was fed, I loved what I heard. Churchplanters.com is Off the Chain! In 3 sessions  (we went 1-5 today) I got more tools and equipping than all of last week.  I'm not knocking Ed or C3 because they really stretched my vision and it was powerful.  But here - I will go home with tools to implement my vision.

Shawn Lovejoy spoke first (everytime I hear that I think of Rev. Lovejoy on the Simpsons).  Shawn is the pastor of Mountain Lake Church in Cumming GA.  His wife is from Decatur Alabama!!!! His main point - Be "Mean" about the vision.  The vision is everything and every plant that dies lost the vision of the planter.  People will try and hijack the vision of the church and the pastor MUST RESIST anyone who would try and move the church in another direction.  Shawn was spot on.

Then I went to Gary Lamb's Breakout on Going all out for the disconnected.  I have emailed Gary a half dozen times and read his blog.  Meeting him was awesome even if it was just for a few minutes.  This guy is a freak for Jesus and the people Jesus loves.  He makes no apology for doing ANYTHING to reach unchurched people.  And he wears flip flops which is pretty cool.   I cant even summarize it effectively - but know your culture, know the target, and relentlessly pursue that.

Next up was Ed Stetzer.  Ed is probably like the Godfather of Church Planters.  I went to a Seminar in 1999 he ran and he's part of the reason I planted a church.  Ed brought it home - The reason we RELATE to people is to RELATE the gospel.  The timing was perfect because Ed used the same text I will use Sunday.

Tomorrow we go from 7:30 - 5:00.  Dave Ferguson, Matt Carter, and Perry Noble batting cleanup.  Im really looking forward to hearing Dave and currently reading his book - The Big Idea.  I've not heard Matt before but Im sure it wont suck.   Perry Noble I have no doubt will make people VERY uncomfortable.  I am stoked.

Gary - if you read this - props to you dude!