02 July 2007

This past weekend my wife and I were able to attend the Buzz Conference at National Community Church in Washington DC. We (along with a team from Granger) experienced two days of leadership training, cutting edge information from progressive church leaders and encouragement to take steps toward guarding that area in your life that could be exploited – eventually causing your downfall. Here are simple summaries:

Mark Batterson – National Community Church ("I Spy"): From Joshua & Caleb to Maxwell Smart to 007, Mark shared the top ten spy tactics that keep leaders on the right track. To get these go here.

Tim Stevens – Granger Community Church ("Buzz"): How do we leverage the culture to bring the Truth to those around us? Tim talked about the buzz generated during the puresex series at Granger and gave other examples of ways to harness pop culture effectively (not for entertainment – but as a hook to get people open to the Truth presented during your messages).

Craig Groeschel – Lifechurch.tv ("Innovate & It"): Craig spoke twice at the conference. The first message encouraged leaders to remember that Truth and the Bible are the real hooks – the things the Holy Spirit uses to capture our hearts. He said that he used to err on the side of cultural relevance but in the recent past has chosen to err on the side of the Truth – at times even choosing to drop media from a service and allow the Bible to capture the hearts of those in attendance. His second session titled “Confessions of a Pastor” challenged leaders to find that one thing that could snag them and make sure there were things in place to keep this from happening. He talked about “practical atheism” and the way it could creep into your ministry – very powerful.

Tony Morgan – Newspring Church ("Blogging"): Tony offered his top ten reasons to stop blogging at the Ebenezer Coffee House Friday morning. Funny as always and again I learned that I blog too infrequently and at times my posts are too long…

All-in-all a great conference, good team time and an excellent time away with my wife.