Without getting too dramatic 2008 has turned into quite a defining year in my personal life and ministry. Over the last few months God has given me the privilege of being around some of the greatest Christian leaders and voices of our time. He has used these men to speak into my life…not always directly…but many times indirectly through their private, candid conversations concerning ministry, church leadership and legacy.
My grandmother used to say, “Any idiot can tear down a bridge…it’s takes a genius to build one”. It’s a thought that ran through my mind all week at Exponential as I watched diverse church styles, structures, leaders and age groups. I watched a young leader like Bobby Triplett exhibit the same passion for the Word of God as Tim Keller…a not-so-young leader…and both excited me…and gave me hope for the Church of tomorrow.
There is still a long road before us…before me…but I no longer feel satisfied to sit on the sidelines as some kind of travelogue commentator. Life is short…at 42-years-old I”m in the locker room at half time…there is still more of the game to come…but things are half over…I better get busy. I think I’ll spend the third and fourth quarters of my life figuring out how to help others make the journey. I do not yet know what that looks like…or feels like…but I love being in the midst of change and risk!!!
On Monday I will begin several days of posting my thoughts about the people I met and conversations I had at Exponential. After that…who knows…I’m feeling restless…boxed in…ready to run free…and speak.
Over the last 24-hours I have received a lot of calls and emails all asking the same three questions concerning Exponential:
1. What happened to the Andy Stanley video?
2. Why didn’t we do an interview with Tim Keller?
3. Is it true that Rick Warren missed his plane to do an interview with Scott, Todd and I?
Here are the answers:
1. Yes, the Andy Stanley interview went out live via streaming video…was also recorded with better equipment…and I do have a copy of the raw footage. For the truth (there’s some crap floating out already) behind the removing of the interview from the Internet…go over to Scott Hodge’s blog for the answer. There is no spin…Scott’s explanation is dead on. At some point in the near future (a couple of weeks at the longest) we’ll have the video up on our YouTube page. Andy was incredible to work with…answered every question we asked…never dodged any hard questions…was very candid…and the video allows people to see another side of him. I can;t wait for you guys to see it!!!
2. Dr. Tim Keller was very sick…yet still spoke at Exponential three times in a single day. In between sessions he rested his voice…an interview with us might have prevented him from speaking at all of his scheduled times. His schedule was pretty tight…he had to do a “quick out” after his main session in order to catch his flight. He was gracious enough to spend a few moments with us before he left…but it was obvious he used all of his voice to bring the Word of God to the conference at large. In all honesty…Dr. Keller’s knowledge of the Bible and church leadership is so far above mine…I might not have understood anything he was saying had he been able to do an interview.
3. Rick technically didn’t miss his flight on accident…he chose to miss his flight in order to do the interview with us. I’m not kidding. He has such a heart for young pastors and church planters that he wanted to be able to speak to those that were not able to actually attend the conference. We had a BUNCH of people watching the live feed…and Rick answers were rich with knowledge. I was blown away by his accessibility and his desire to see the Gospel of Jesus Christ preached in every corner of the world. To know that he could have been home a few hours earlier…and yet stayed to talk with those that didn’t make the conference…was inspiring!!!
So there are the answers. If anyone tells you anything else…they are full of bull excretion…because only a handful were “in the know”!!!
Scott and I just finished an AMAZING interview with Rick Warren…he made some pretty special arrangements to make the meeting happen. I was impressed by his deep desire to invest in young church leader’s lives…in fact I’ve been seeing him do it all week. I was at an “invitation only” function the other night…no one knew that Rick was going to be there…but he showed up with no fanfare…no entourage…just a seasoned pastor wanting to fellowship with newer pastors. I was shocked that he was not the keynote speaker…in fact…he wasn’t there to speak at all (and only led the closing prayer)…he was just there to hang out. He was just “one of the guys” talking about social justice, the future of church planting and things that affect pastors from all backgrounds. I gotta tell you…if you didn’t know who he was…you would have never known he was a best-selling author and megachurch pastor.
People make so many judgment calls from far off…make assumptions without never really being around the person. I’m not saying that I know Rick Warren…far from it (though I would like to)…but I was around him quite a bit over the last few days. Rick has a genuine love for God…love for the local church…love for people globally…and a desire to see people come to Christ. For a man that could easily rest on his laurels…he still has the fire in his belly for the Kingdom of Christ. I was blown away and moved by that!!!
Dr. Tim Keller is done…and God help Rick Warren for having to follow him. Dr. Keller took a pretty big risk by quoting Brian McLaren…also laid some ground work for the idea for more multi-ethnic church…and for how to preach to multi-generational churches.
Compass Point is multi-generational…one of the biggest difficulties is making each Sunday’s message relevant to all ages. Thanks to Keller…I no longer feel the need to do so. He said he deals with it at his church…and had people getting frustrated when he wouldn’t preach to them. His response…preach the Bible…eventually you’ll get around to hitting everyone in your congregation…it was a real “whoa” moment in the Wondeful World Of Elrod!!!
On a personal note…we’ve been interviewing some of the “voices” of the Boomer movement of church planting…pastors of large mega-churches. One theme has been running through our conversations with them…”I use to be hip and cutting edge and now the young church planters are pushing back from my style of leadership, pastoring and church growth…I’m no longer a voice” They seem very bothered by the fact that they aren’t really influencing today and tomorrow’s church leaders anymore. Dr. Keller is very quiet…very unassuming…and very humble…and a HUGE influence on present and future church leaders. It’s amazing how guys that care nothing about being hip, cool, popular, inspirational and influential…are the ones that are.
Sorry guys…Keller is saying SO MUCH AMAZING STUFF that I can’t keep up. Scott is doing his best to keep up…so he’ll be blogging the notes in a little while. Let’s just say…Dr. Tim Keller is BRINGING IT HARD!!! My toes are killing me!!!
There is so much rich information being thrown around Exponential 2008 that Scott, Todd and I can’t possibly keep up with all of it. We’ve been stuck…for the most part…down in a basement room interviewing Christian leaders one right after another. Over the next several days I will be posting a BUNCH of videos…some fun…some serious…all great…to the Exponential Backstage site on YouTube.
Yesterday Lifeway released some pretty depressing research results about the Southern Baptist Convention…my denomination. For the first time we are a denomination that has ceased to grow…at the top of the bell curve…and could be in decline. Also released yesterday was a commentary by Dr. Ed Stetzer on his blog about the reasons why this is happening. I personally feel that the results presented by Lifeway and Dr. Stetzer’s blog post are of historical significance to the Southern Baptist Convention…one of those “where were you when you heard the news” kind of moments. For me…I can answer that question this way…I was sitting next to Dr. Stetzer when I heard it…on the day it was released.
Below is a video of a 30-minute candid conversation that Scott Hodge, Brad Lomenick, Todd Rhoads, Greg Surratt and I had with Dr. Stetzer just hours after the story broke and he posted his commentary. Due to the limitations of YouTube…and my feeling that none of Dr. Stetzer’s words should be cut…I posted the entire interview in three 10-minute sections. I would encourage anyone in SBC leadership to take the time to view them…they are alarming, comforting, prophetic…and incredibly important to the future of the Southern Baptist Convention!!!
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