The Zone Gathering

I’m here with NCC staff and spouses, plus the Karrers and Scott Aughtmon (our church-planters-no-longer-in-residence). Twenty-one people, yikes! I didn’t realize we were that big.

A lot of cool sessions with really cool people. Here were some of my take-aways that some of you might find helpful.

Margaret Feinberg: Passion + Calling = Innovation. I tried a bit of self-application with that: Musical Theatre + Pastoral Care = ?? Still haven’t figured out the answer. Margaret will be preaching at NCC sometime next April, which should be awesome!

Craig Groeschel: Shared a story about when he began blaming himself for driving a ministry into the ground (from 150 people to 4). One of the remaining 4 told him that he shouldn’t blame himself for his failures, otherwise later down the road he’ll be tempted to take credit for his successes. Great talk on vision. He’s speaking at NCC’s Buzz Conference next year and should be great.

Erik Lokkesmoe: Awesome talk (but then again, Erik’s always awesome) about the need to support artists, including Erik’s top ten list of mistakes the Church makes when it comes to the arts. Obviously a message I love and agree with wholeheartedly, which is why it was especially great to hear it delivered to the Catalyst crowd.

Andy Stanley: Leadership is a stewardship — it is given to us and it is temporary. As a result, we should be diligent (recognize we are put in leadership for a purpose and act accordingly), fearless (if God is for us, who do we need to be afraid of?), and humble (recognize that God can remove us from leadership at any time).

Marcus Buckingham: Great teams are the result of great managers, whose job is to turn one person’s talent into performance. Great managers find what is unique about each person and capitalize on it. Three myths to destroy:

- Personality changes as you grow (reality: it doesn’t)

- You’ll grow most in your weakest area (reality: you should focus on your strengths, not your weaknesses)

- Your team needs you to chip in and do whatever it takes (reality: your team needs you to identify your strengths and volunteer them)

You also need to beware of being promoted away from using your strengths.

George Barna: Church will look vastly different in the future (no longer centered around a Sunday morning service). Spiritual growth will occur in new and different ways. The bottom line is where is the fruit? How are people different? (in terms of spiritual growth)

John Maxwell: People who fall always assume that it wouldn’t happen to them, so he decided he’d assume that it WOULD happen to him and take the necessary precautions: accountability, being in the Word, and having prayer partners (people praying for him).

Gary Haugen: God hates injustice (the abuse of power) and if you look in the Bible, He has one solution for it: us. This was very powerful, but it’s hard to convey. Check out International Justice Mission for more info.

Jeff Foxworthy:  Yes, that Jeff Foxworthy.  He was a surprise guest.  Besides being hilarious, he spoke some great spiritual truths, including that no matter how important you get, you’re still just a sheep leading other sheep.

One final thing that was really cool. Multnomah Publishing gave away 500 copies of Mark’s new book to conference attendees. Exciting stuff!