scotthodge.org

Book Recommendations: CHANGE

 
Was asked in my Exponential session for a few book recommendations on the topic of church and organizational change. I've created an Amazon a-store where you can browse and purchase any of my recommendations.

LINK

Orlando...Austin...Atlanta.....and next, Uganda.

Ok, I'm diving back in to the blog.  It's been way too long.  My lame excuse: I've been running 200MPH since a few weeks before Easter with writing, travel, etc... and blogging just hasn't been that high on my priority list.  Sorry faithful folks.

So anyway...  Rather than try to knock out a bunch of amazing blog posts, I thought I'd throw out a few random thoughts of what's been happening over these past few weeks.  Here we go:

• Easter.  This year's Easter weekend The Orchard was a record-breaking weekend!  Our teams did an amazing job and I think my head is still spinning after a HUGELY successful Helicopter Easter Egg Drop.  All I can say is WOW.  If you missed the video review, click here.
  
  
• Orlando.  Had a great time at Exponential in Orlando.  Exponential is sort of a like a big family reunion (but without the weird uncle and the funky potato salad).  This is actually the largest church planting conference in North America and one that I would definitely encourage all church planters to attend in 2010.  Had fun teaching a session with Gary Lamb (did he really say "wanker"??) and then participating in some great conversations in the Exponential Lounge with guys like Erwin McManus, Francis Chan, Dave Ferguson, Craig Groeschel, Matt Chandler, and others. 
  
  
• Austin. After a couple of days home I found myself in the amazing city of Austin, TX to be a part of Q.  Q is one of my favorite gatherings of the year.  It's small and all about influencing and changing culture.  Think TED format.  Loved connecting with a bunch of friends - both new and old.  People like Kem Meyer, Mike Foster, Jeff Shinabarger, Tim Stevens, Alan Hirsch, Kyle Zimmerman, John Burke, Rick McKinley, Chris Seay, Gabe Lyons, Mel McGowan, Charles Lee, and a bunch of other amazing people. Next year, Q will be here - in Chicago!
  
  
• Austin II.  All I can say is - what a cool city.  And with a slogan that's all about keeping it "weird" what do you expect??  Check out a few photos I posted in Facebook.
  
  
• Jackie Huba.  Writer, Author, Speaker, Blogger, Marketing Guru-ess, co-founder of the Society for Word of Mouth.  Forbes calls her work "the word of mouth gospel."  Anyway....  Had a chance to grab lunch with Jackie while in Austin.  That was worth the trip alone.  If you don't follow her twitter you need to. 
  
  
• Atlanta.  Orange.  It's THE premier and the BEST family ministry conference in the flippin' universe.  Loved being a part of this and having the opportunity to share The Orchard's story and some thoughts/ideas on the topic of navigating change with a room full of Lead Pastors and Senior Leaders.  Just wish I could have stuck around for more than a few hours, but was glad to be able to hang with a few of our staff who were attending and introduce them to some killer Korean BBQ. 
  
  
• Uganda.  In a couple of weeks.  More on this later, but looking forward to getting my heart messed up by this trip. 
  
  
• Study.  It's what I should be doing right now.  So I'm done.  Hopefully back in the groove of blogging.  We'll see.  Thanks for the encouragement folks.

Exponential 2009!

I'm in Orlando, Florida with my good friend, Ted Egly for this year's Exponential Conference.  For those of you who don't know, Exponential is the largest church planting conference in North America.  This year, almost 3,000 people have registered to be a part.  Check out a list of this year's speakers here.

A few things you need to know about...

Tomorrow (Tuesday, April 20th), Gary Lamb and I will be hosting a post-launch session entitled: "The Leader's Capacity to Stay on Course." Really looking forward to this!  It will be at 4:15pm.

I'm also excited about a new addition to the conference this year known as the Exponential Lounge - where I will have the privilege of hosting conversations with a bunch of great leaders such as Erwin McManus, Dave Ferguson, Francis Chan, Larry Osbourne, Craig Groeschel, Matt Chandler, and a bunch of others. 

The best part about the Exponential Lounge is that all of our interviews/conversations will be broadcast LIVE on our conference channel.  You will also have an opportunity to ask questions via text messaging thanks to our friends at Jarbyco! 

Some important links & info:

Exponential Channel (live interviews that I'll be hosting with some great leaders)

Twitter hashtag: #exponential09

My Twitter: @scotthodge

Texting Instructions: "EX + your question" to 24625

Here's Tuesday's Schedule:

• 12:00pm: Erwin McManus
• 3:00pm: Larry Osborne
• 4:15pm: Efrem Smith & Mark DeYmaz

*All times are EST.

You can start texting your questions for Erwin at 11:15am EST tomorrow!

Hope you'll join us!

Alan Hirsch at Exponential

Alan Hirsch
Shapevine | Forge Mission Training Network

To be a creative organization sometimes you have to have your backside kicked...

The church has experienced the weight of tradition....theologizing.....

Sometimes God has to kick us in the ass.

Reality check - when you look at church in the west....  We are in decline in every western city.  Sometimes this happens very fast....  Visit Europe to get an idea of this.

We have to go back to something primal.  Recover a lost ethos...  The answer is not some new fad or new ideas...

Four areas that we have to recover in order to regain this ancient ethos.

1.  Recovery of the Centrality of Jesus in His own Movement

When you study movements, it is Christology that lies at the heart of the renewal of the church.

We must radicalize in order to missionalize.

"unChristian" - why?  Because we don’t look like Jesus.

It is Christology that determines missiology. 

Laodicean church - lukewarm because they live in a very rich culture.  Does this sound familiar?

God created us in his image and we returned the favor.

On the 7th day God created man.....and on the 8th day man re-created God.  “Wow Jesus!  You look and sound just like me!”

You know Jesus is like you when he hates the people you hate.

(Alan presented slides showing ways we have done this...)

Spooky Jesus....  The humanity of Jesus is at stake.

Buddy Jesus - no respect...  no divinity.  This is my buddy and I can do anything...

Sunday School Jesus - Jesus with little children and lambs...  If you want your kids to grow up safe don’t introduce them to Jesus.

Jesus is my boyfriend (stained glass embracing woman) - “touch me Lord".  He’s not my boyfriend - He’s my Lord.

Bearded Lady Jesus (chiseled face Jesus w/ dark tan) - Jesus done over by queer eye for the straight guy....  Doesn’t inspire a revolution...

Suburban Jesus - designing his cross....

We need to be committed to recovering Jesus.

2.  Recovering discipleship as our critical task.

Movements can grow only in proportion to their capacity to make disciples.

Discipleship is the basis of apostolic movement.  Provides the basis for transformation.

It’s quality control.  If you fail here, you’ll fail everywhere.

It’s only the disciples who can change the world.  Leadership is an extension of discipleship. 

Consumerism is killing us (from within)

3.  Recovering the Ethos/Structure of Apostolic Movements

What do movements look like?

What we need are missionally responsive, culturally adaptive, organizationally agile, multiplication movements. 

Agility is not what we’re known for, but it’s whats most needed.

Every believer is a church planter.  Every one carries the capacity for ecclesiology.  Why?  Because we carry the gospel and the spirit.

Is your model reproducible?  If it takes million dollar budgets, it’s probably not reproducible. 

If it takes 7 years, then maybe your leadership is not reproducible!

If you want a movement, it has to be a movement of the people of God.

Employ missional leadership and ministry modes.

4.  Recovering an Incarnational-Mission Impulse

Missional God

Incarnational God.

Missional church - going out.

Incarnational church - going deep.

Caption?

"Yes, Dr. Keller, I understand that you are a speaker, but you and Todd Rhoades MUST have a badge to be in this area. So both of you please, go.  Now!"

Ok....that was my lame attempt at a caption for this photo of me and Todd Rhoades having a brief conversation with Dr. Tim Keller (author of The Reason for God and pastor of Redeemer Presbyterian in NYC) at Exponential last week. 

So now it's your turn....  Go.

Stay Tuned....

Finally getting back into the groove of things...  Sort of.  The "groove", but with the realization that it's time to once again make some adjustments/changes to my schedule/time/priorities so that I can continue to narrow my focus on the stuff I ought to be focused on.  (This is becoming a theme in my life...)

ANYWAY.....that small rant just to mention that I'm planning to throw some more Exponential stuff onto the blog in the next day or two.  I've got some notes from Tim Keller, Alan Hirsch, and a few others that I haven't posted yet. 

Stay tuned friends.

What happened to Andy?

A bunch of you have been emailing me about the video interview we did with Andy Stanley at Exponential and asking why it has not yet been posted. 

Here's the deal...  While Andy was extremely gracious and more than happy to sit down and talk with us, he was not aware that the video was being broadcasted LIVE across the internet at the time of the conversation.  HAD he known that, there is one subject he discussed that he probably would've avoided speaking as specifically about as he did (i.e. overseas missions where Christians are being severely persecuted for practicing their faith.)

So....we are going to send the folks at Northpoint the video first to let them go through it and cut out any names or information that could put people at risk.  As soon as we get it back we'll post it!

Hope that helps!

Now please, stop emailing me about Andy's video.  Sorry Terri (my assistant...)!!  Thank you!

PS - Hope this explanation was helpful.  Andy, if you read this and want to chime in, comment, or clarify at all, please feel free to do so!  And thanks again for the interview!

In case you missed Rick Warren's Interview...

Rick Warren LIVE

We've got the live cam set up for our live conversation with Rick Warren happening around 12:45pm or 1:00'ish EST (Eastern Standard Time).

Comment your questions now.

LIVE VIDEO LINK

Questions for Rick Warren

Working on a live chat with Rick Warren.

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