Dave Gibbons leads the Newsong Global Alliance, which catalyzes new churches all over the world. He serves on the Board of World Vision and is the Chief Vision Officer of Xealot, an organization that develops leaders of movements. Dave is the author of The Monkey and the Fish: Liquid Leadership for Third Culture Leaders. He has been married to his wife Rebecca for 25 years and is the father of four children.
- We have a deep desire to connect.
- Not only in relationships, but with a person and a dialogue.
- A true, meaningful conversation where you know and are known.
- We need to know the connecting points.
- The conversation starters are different for each generation.
- We need our new nomenclatures.
- We tend to only communicate with one language.
- We need to communicate from a platform of pain.
- There’s a great emphasis on strength and size in culture.
- Like flexing our might will deter people from fighting with us.
- We’ve defined successful churches by size and budgets.
- The way we spend our money is in hiring professional staff and building.
- What would happen if we turned that around?
- What if our budget was focused on helping with the needs in our community?
- Would it make a difference?
- What if our capital campaigns were done as a city church for the city?
- What numbers define your success?
- Our metrics are skewed.
- What are the real numbers.
- What are the success metrics in your community?
- What if they were descending, not ascending?
- Less people in need; fewer orphans; etc.
- We’re so consumer focused we’ve become barbarians in how we treat the marginalized in our communities.
- The church has the potential to eradicate poverty and to care for orphans and widows.
- The Eastern people view the way we treat the elderly as being barbarian.
- Our communication gets skewed.
- We put up good stories all the time.
- Most of the time what we say or share about ourselves is positive.
- Isaiah 6How many times have you head this message in the context of reaching out and loving your neighbor?
- The story doesn’t end at verse 8.
- God gives Isaiah a message to preach to the people that’s tough.
- A stump will become a seed and it will grow.
- When there are personal revelations of your weakness reveal the power of the Holy Spirit.
- If you don’t talk about the pain, we’ve got some problems.
- Superficiality will continue to propagate in our contexts.
- The holy seed can be planted and the Holy Spirit can begin to work.
- There’s liberation in our weaknesses – the Holy Spirit is able to do His work in our lives.
- As we are honest with our pain, while offering the hope we have, the holy seed is planted in people’s hearts that can make a true difference in our cities.
- It’s not when you speak a story, but when you’re at a private level listening to a story.
- We often use assessments to get people engaged in volunteering/assimilation.
- We use them to tell people where they can serve in our church.
- We don’t have everything people need to grow.
- We need to be listening to meta-narratives of person’s story, they are key in understanding who they are.
- Assessments are merely windows.
- Use tools to get to the real story.
- You want to see the strengths, but you want to know people’s timelines [ key people, person and places in their life. ]
- People’s pain guide them – it leads them to where they want to focus.
- If you focus on their strengths, you’ll just reach the same people.
- Spiritual formation is a scared journey.
- We’re not listening to people’s stories and intersecting the Holy Spirit’s voice with it.
- In listening to other people’s stories we can better understand ours.
- We “don’t have time” to listen; but if we do, we can help people find healing.
- It’s not one-sized-fits-all… people are complex.
1 – Let’s re assess our assessment process.
2 – Include a person’s story, intersected with the Holy Spirit’s voice and create a customized path for people to follow that our connected to your resources.
- What if we developed a theology of suffering?
- We often focus on what makes people feel uncomfortable, what if we focused on what makes them uncomfortable?
- It’s not a choice.
- Do you think Jesus felt like going to the cross?
- God allows us to go through times where we are at a stump to produce a holy seed.
- We can feel cut off, dried up or not seeing any fruit, but remember God is producing a divine seed.
- Be real with pain.
- Confess sin.
- Listen to people’s stories.
- The revelation of your brokenness will release the power of the Holy Spirit in your midst.
