This year at General Council they are starting things off with a Leadership Seminar. I attended a session tonight entitled “Carpe Digital” with Mark Batterson. It was a great session – here are some of the high points:
“As ministers, we need to be not just practicing biblical exegesis, but also cultural exegesis.”
If you don’t know what exegesis means, you can read about it here.
“We live in a completely different world today – does that affect how we do church? It should!”
One of my favorite mainstay Batterson quotes, “There are ways of doing church that no one has thought of yet.”
Five Distribution Channels for the Church
1. Podcasting
2. Digital Discipleship (Blogging)
3. Postmodern Stain glass (Video)
4. Websites
5. Word of Mouse (Online Invites/Evotionals)
Tomorrow I’m attending a session with Ed Stetzer on the current church planting culture in America and then a church planting round table with none other then Pastor Jeff, Brad Leach, and a few others. Now it’s off to bed, so I can actually be awake to remember half the stuff these guys have to say!!
Nick Poole 
“We live in a completely different world today – does that affect how we do church? It should!” –
The problem is that when we “do church different” we usually so exegesis different too. Or we just forget about correct exegesis altogether. This is best demonstrated by the best-selling “Christian” books on the shelves today. They are primarily written by uneducated men who take potshots at the educated in order to propagate their ideas.
I have no problem with “doing church different” as long as the message stays the same.
Unfortunately I have not noticed that being the case most times.
Just my opinion.
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I completely agree with you that we should NEVER change the message. When that is watered down, we have lost our purpose. But how that message is communicated should always be changing. That’s what Mark was explaining in this seminar – the importance to exegete culture.
Those in today’s world that write books and take pot shots are definitely in the wrong – we are all on the same team!! But I would say there are others on the other side of the fence that are guilty of the same thing. Taking pot shots at new ideas or approaches to reaching people. We all need to learn to build each other up and not tear down simply because we don’t like HOW they’re doing something.
Thanks so much for your thoughts – I really appreciate the diaglogue!
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