More Takeaways From Exponential

The following are some of the takeaways Jeremiah Gomez has graciously allowed me to share with you:

Thanks again for the opportunity to go to Exponential last month; there were a number of takeaways on quite a few levels:

The Bridge--Both Rick and I felt that the time at the conference affirmed/confirmed the steps taken thus far: our passion for having a multiethnic makeup which is consistent with the community the church is in; positioning The Bridge right now to daughter (and continue multiplying--Ed Stetzer shared a statistic that a church is most likely to daughter within three years of its launch and outside of the three-year mark, a local church is much more likely to never daughter); our selection of communities in which to live (we met other planters from Pittsburgh who see both Penn Hills and where Sarah & I are living now as prime planting locations); even our model of staffing and budgetary focus. It was an incredibly meaningful, encouraging thing for us to walk away thinking, 'we are on the right page!' Another area we saw strong confirmation in was the drive to make The Bridge and following plant a multiplication center equipping and sending other church planting missionaries.

Personally--I was challenged and engaged, and the Holy Spirit took the opportunity to do some work on my heart. Part of this involved continued healing from past experiences and a fresh-and-new challenge to trust God with everything, including my future in ministry; the challenge for me was to move to a place of greater submission and basically say, "if me doing this thing right now costs me my dreams/whatever future I think I should have, I'm okay with that because I'm following Jesus." I know it sounds cheesy, but it was profoundly meaningful for me. More than this was the confirmation that, at least for now, I am right where I need to be doing precisely what I need to be doing.

Relationally--It was a great thing for Rick, Eunice, Trevor, Stevan, and me to spend so much time together; it really helped fuse The Bridge team. We connected, also, with a couple of church planters from the Pittsburgh region; these, I believe, will prove themselves to be meaningful network connections with the potential for friendships among people who 'get' what we're doing.

Tactically--The very nature of Exponential is that it is not a methods-based conference (I talked with some who were frustrated at this), but a principles-in-action kind of gathering. I appreciated the lack of 'try this program' or 'use this structure' mentality and felt we walked away with tools to help understand and engage our communities so we could develop tailor-made ministries which would have the greatest Kingdom impact. One tool I appreciated and am already trying to employ is a four-stage approach for engaging people who are being stirred by God's Spirit and teaching them to lead others to Christ even as they are being led and allowing the Holy Spirit to drive discipleship and church formation; it's a tool that, once I'm comfortable with it, will multiply well without being 'canned.'

Despite the busyness and sometimes overwhelming nature of the information/tools coming at us, we came home feeling refreshed, energized, and ready push hard into God's design for where we serve. This was an enormously valuable training/learning opportunity and I genuinely believe a worthy investment.