Apr
25
2012

Exponential Day One

An article by Matt

It has been a great couple of days so far at Exponential. As I mentioned on Monday, one of the things that I love about being here is having the opportunity to reconnect with old friends and meet new ones. Yesterday was a great opportunity to do that, and I enjoyed getting to meet a bunch of people that I have known through the internet, in person.

After two days in Orlando, here are three things that really have me thinking:

Church Planting Movements: After learning from leaders of Converge Worldwide and the Assemblies of God’s national church planting efforts, I have been really thinking about what it looks like to create a regional church planting organization that operates across denominational lines. Is it possible for an organization to operate as a regional church planting catalyst, mobilizing planters from different denominational tribes and streams? I am not sure about the answer to this, and would love to hear your wisdom.
DiSC Profiles and Church Planters: There was a brief discussion of how The Orchard Group is leveraging DiSC profiles in order to help planters better understand the kind of church that they are best wired to plant, and how best to resource those planters. I am looking forward to learning more about this today.
The Twitter/Facebook Effect: As I walk through the halls at the conference I am struck by how many people look familiar to me. At first I thought the fact that I was recognizing so many faces without remembering names was the result of my advanced years (I did turn 36 in February), but I later realized that many of the people who I am recognizing are people I follow on Twitter (and sometimes Facebook). While on one hand I am grateful to know that I am not totally losing it, I am wondering what effect this is having on how I relate to people, and how we relate with one another as a whole… thoughts?

What are YOU pondering these days?

About the Author: Matt Steen

Over the last fifteen years I have been a Church Planter, Youth Pastor, Executive Pastor, and now I serve as a Church Concierge with churchsimple.net. I love Jesus, my wife, the Redskins and Capitals and am currently living on Long Island striving to properly pronounce the word G'island.