Frank sang about it. Burger King promoted it. But this isn't about hamburgers or contrarian jazz. This is about a most unusual approach to participating in a conference. And a church conference at that. You know the usual approach: sit through a day-full of general sessions and hope at least some of them relate to your specific area of responsibility or lifestage in your local church journey. Attend a workshop or two because that's all that's offered... or actually look more interesting than checking your email at Starbucks down the street.
This is different. Really different.
- For starters, as staffers at Granger Community Church, we're planning to share all we've learned and are learning over the past three years.
- We're in the thick of a new vision, a new normal, that's changed and is changing who we understand ourselves to be... who we understand the church to be. We've stumbled along the way, discovered some amazing surprises, experienced some astounding victories and scratched our heads more than a couple of times. We intend to share all that.
- Here's how my friend, Tim Stevens, summarizes where we've been:
-
- We took a full year gathering input from the entire congregation about their dreams for the future of the church–which resulted in the 2016 Vision.
- We began shifting the church from a focused come to us model to an intentional focus on the AND — both come to us and go to them.
- We asked the congregation to own the vision–and they bought in big-time. In fact, we received our first-ever $1 million gift…more than tripling any previous single gift.
- The New Normal Project was a stewardship campaign unlike any we had ever attempted before.
- We decided to invest about $400,000 over the next two years as seed money toward starting 2,000 missional communities and essential churches.
- We decided to shift the purpose of our 55-acre campus from a church facility for the congregation…to a center for the entire community. We will develop the property and facilities so the community can benefit throughout the week–not just for church services. This launches next month when construction begins on a 10,000 sf “Commons” area, and next year when we open a high-quality preschool.
- We made it through a recession (20% unemployment locally) that included layoffs, 6 budget cuts, while finding creative solutions for continuing the ministry priorities.
- We launched our first multisite location in a movie theater, then moved it to the RV Hall of Fame. Then, just last month, we received a donation of a $1.2 million building on 4-acres of land which will become the new home of the Elkhart campus.
- In this conference, or conversation, we're also reducing the number of main sessions - down from a 127 (ok, it was never that many) to only 2 (that's a factual number). And both of those will be 60 minutes. No more.
- We're offering 70 workshops. Practical. Conversational. Open and honest. We'll repeat many of them over the two day conference, so you can customize your schedule and avoid swearing 'cause you had to choose between the only two sessions you wanted to attend.
- We're limiting the big arts showcase - assuming you can experience the inspiration of artful medium through the weekend service, yours or elsewhere. Instead we'll capitlize on interactive learning environments that allow you to be an active participant.
- Finally, we're calling our entire staff to be available and accessible to you. We'll be in every session, participating, interested in how we can dialog with you - not just about where we've been, but where you're going.
It's just a month away, but there's still time to register for this 2-day conversation. Go here. Do it now. Do it your way.
