Exponential 10

Last week I attended Exponential 10, a national New Church Conference that was held at First Baptist Church in Orlando, Florida. This was the second year in a row that I’ve gone to Exponential. Over 3,000 people from all over the country attended. The Big Idea from the conference is “Transformation Starts In The Heart Of One.”

The workshops I attended were “The Checkpoints of Spiritual Vitality” led by Brian Bloye, “The Jesus Adhesive: Disciples that Stick” led by Matt Chandler, “Worship Ministry from the Ground Up led by Mark De Ymaz & James Wafford III, “Sticky Teams” led by Larry Osbourne, & “Fostering Age Appropriate Spiritual Formation through Small Groups” led by Rick Howerton. The Pre-Conference session I attended was called “Simply Strategic Volunteers” led by Tim Stevens of Granger Church, a United Methodist congregation near South Bend, Indiana.

As with most conferences my head is still swimming with all the information I received. I am still typing up all the notes I took. When I finish them I’ll put them on the Chain of Lakes Scrbid site so anyone can access them. During Exponential I attended five plenary sessions, five workshops and a pre-conference session.

I very much enjoyed hanging out with Ray Jones and Craig Williams. Ray leads the Evangelism Ministry for General Assembly and Craig serves New Church Development in San Clemente, California.

Last Tuesday night a group of Presbyterians from the Presbytery of Tropical Florida. Many of their leaders gathered to talk about church transformation and what they could continue to do as a Presbytery. That Presbytery had a large gathering of people attend Exponential. I was very encouraged to see their commitment to new church development.

This conference just continues to light my passion to see churches, especially main-line churches, start new churches and redevelop churches.