I’m en route to Tampa for the Exponential East 2015 church planting conference this week and have a few thoughts to share. This annual event, now bi-coastal and twice a year, has unarguably been instrumental in equipping and inspiring and mobilizing people and churches for the imminent future of churches in America and around the world.
For those privileged to be there in person, I’d love to connect with you in person: I have a workshop on Wed 4/29 morning, and/or connect over free lunch on Tues 4/28 hosted by ReGenerant Network + Ambassador Network + EFCA – RSVP at http://expoeastaacp.splashthat.com
At Exponential, the Social Media team will be live-blogging and posting to exponential.org/sharedexperience with Great Conferencing Tips + the official hashtag is #exponential on Twitter and Instagram.
Plus, Exponential will have a free livestream video of all main sessions live.exponential.org– and also a digital pass for archive access. Or, host a watch party for free to exponentially multiply the value of the experience for your whole leadership team!
From recent conversations I’ve been a part of, there’s of chatter in the marketing world, business world, and church world about demographic shifts and what organizations must do to adjust for this new reality, specifically the different values of the next generation known as the millennials. Links: my list of churches reaching millennials, #20s Church: Open Your Ministry to the Power of a Generation book about the author’s millennial church tour. And got to hear Dave Ferguson tell the back story of his new book, Finding Your Way Back to God, co-authored with his brother Jon Ferguson (from their church’s mission of HPFTWBTG), drawing from their years of ministry experience helping millennials (and people of other ages too) find their way back to God.
I found it quite amazing how these two books echoed parallel themes for engaging millennials with an authentic Christian faith. #20s Church described the 5 values that are demonstrated in churches that minister effectively to 20s and 30s, based on their real-life observations of actually going to 32 churches. (I think it’s much more valuable to learn from real-life experiences than reading reports or demographic trends or survey results.)
Finding Your Way Back to God describes the 5 longings in people’s lives & hearts, particular millennials, and the 5 awakenings that are essential to loving & serving them and also for millennials to experience true love that’s more than enough, and connect them to the way that makes life fully authentic, meaningful, purposeful, valuable, and satisfying.
These books are 2 MVPs (most valuable publications) for real practical ways for spiritually engaging millennials. Hoping to meet & greet all these authors at Exponential for their good work.
And the answer to the question posted in the subject of this post? The church is just one generation away from extinction.