So I am at a conference to learn about church planting.  The entire conference is not focused on church planting, this is just the conference track I am a part of.  So some of what I am going to share is not directly related to chuch planting, as the Plenary speakers are focused on more ministry issues in general. 

So here are some highlights from Day 1: (in bullet points)

• When satan puts an idea in my mind that is called temptation.  When God puts an idea in my mind we call it inspiration.  When I have an idea on my own we call it STUPIDITY.
• Acts 1:8 is not sequential “Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, the ends of the earth.” God wants us to do all at sametime.  Be both local and global: GLOCAL
• Acts 2:1 “When day of Pentecost came, they were all together in one place.” –Holy Spirit doesn’t come where there is division.
• The sign of a good sermon is when the people go from asking about the text: “What does this mean?” to “What shall we do?”
• A crowd is not a church!

Some Points on Leadership & Church Planting:

• Leaders are people that know how to find and build their own strong teams not always depending on someone above to help them recruit (this is in the context of paid employees).
• Non-Delegators always sink a ship!
• Plan to plant churches that are reproducing churches.
• Studies show if you don’t reach 200 in attendance in first 2 years you probably won’t ever get over 200 in attendance.
• When you open up places of ministry God provides people to serve.
• Why plant churches?  Latest studies show that only 17.5% of U.S. Pop is attending church on a weekly basis.  Gallup says higher, but these are numbers from actuall reporting of attendance at churches rather than a phone call to a persons home.  People, especially “Christians” don’t like to admit they weren’t at church last week.
• Churches 10 years and younger grow at a rate of 16.7%; 10-40 yrs. 0.6%; and 40 years + have a negative growth rater of -1.1%
• Younger churches (not demographics of members but actual age of church) reach more folk and isn’t our goal as workers for Jesus to reach more people?  

Can’t wait to start!