This was the fourth time I’ve attended Innovate and I have to say it was another home run by the Granger team and all of the guest speakers.

In years past I’ve practically written transcripts of my notes from Innovate, but this year I decided to go with bullet points. Hope that’s ok!

I’ve got notes from Mark Beeson here and here…  Shawn Wood from Secoast here… Tim Stevens here… Steven Furtick here… Rob Wegner here… and the LifeChurch.tv team here.

The theme of this year’s conference was “stop talking… start doing.”

A lot of times in the Church, we do a lot of talking, analyzing and strategizing… and while we do all of that, the world outside is waiting and searching. We have the answer. We need to stop talking and start doing.

All of the speakers and sessions were home runs, and the theme rang out clear througout every session and breakout: find out who God has made you (and your Church) to be, and DO SOMETHING!

And, being at Granger is always an inspiration and encouragement. Their team and volunteers do an amazing job of pouring themselves out and serving everyone who attends.

Some personal highlights from the conference for me include:

• getting to hang with Shawn Wood
• chillin with Tim Stevens
• having ‘therapy’ with Kem Meyer and a couple of other communications directors
• counting how many times Mark Beeson said “Oriental mindset” (I think he meant Eastern)
• playing Simon
• singing Happy Birthday to Billy Graham (via video)
• the Granger Film Fest (sponsored by Jarbyco!)
• the Schwan’s Ice Cream truck
• Chick-fil-a
• hanging with my friends Zach and Jeremy
• playing “guess their denomination” while people-watching
• being totally blown away by Steven Furtick’s energy and passion for God
• the video that made me cry
• being only 1.5 hours away from Granger!

Anyway, it was a total blast and I hope my notes will help you get in on some of the experience!

More from Mark: markbeeson.com

• When you pray, ask for God’s help so you can live to bring Heaven to earth.
• We (as the Church) talk too much and do too little.
• Stop debating – start doing!
• What should motivate the Church is the awareness that there is a real world in real need.
• If you don’t change your course you are going to crash into a mess and it will
  hurt, bad.
• Stop talking. Start doing.
• Balance is static, it’s not leaning. If you want to make progress, you have to lean.
• When you lean in, you need to have the right people around you to catch you.
• There is a ‘mess’ in front of a lot of people and unless we act they will be hurt.
• God has not called anyone else to do what He has called YOU to do. There’s no “Plan B.”
• We are in a culture that wants to see something happen.
• We are required to use story and image to picture the truth and translate the
  message of the Gospel to our culture.
• The Gospel is Good News for RIGHT NOW.
• We have to boil the truth down and communicate it clearly.
• Make it brief enough for people to receive it.
• Something incredible happens when the natural and the supernatural collide.
• We must immediately diagnose reality.
• We are sometimes so removed from poverty that we lose the urgency.
• We must immediately diagnose reality.

For more on Shawn, visit 200pomegranates.com and don’t forget to visit Shawn’s blog.

• We all have issues, and oftentimes our issues revolve around “stuff.”
• “Stuff” is how we tell the story – services, media/technology, web, etc.
• Brand schizophrenia happens when we become more obsessed with “the stuff” instead of Jesus.
• We need to be who we are and not imitate others.
• When people start managing their “brand” or who they are, authenticity leaves the room.
• Stuff is great, but stuff doesn’t define who we are.
• Too often we pursue better stuff instead of pursuing who God has called us to
  be.
• In whatever way you do it, be authentic and be YOU.
• We might be excellent at what we do, but we may not be effective.
• We spend a lot of time being a Church that God never intended us to be.
• What is our unique DNA? What has God called us to do?
• A “brand” isn’t stuff, it’s a gut feeling.
• A brand is built around an experience.
• Experiences come in the form of our web, our people, our services.
• Are we spending too much time answering questions that people aren’t asking?
• Find out who you are and do good things.
• We can distract people by doing good things that we aren’t meant to be doing.
• God uses us and the things we create to see people cross the line of faith.
• What has God called you to be?
• If you are going somewhere, know where you are going.
• Find out who you are do something.

More from Tim on his blog.

• People in our culture are on a spiritual search and are not including the
  Church as a part of that journey.
• Most churches are not impacting their communities.
• There are three categories of people: churched, unchurched, and de-churched.
• Spiritual interest is at an all-time high in our culture; church attendance is
  going down.
• Celebrities, songwriters, authors, etc. are all expressing spiritual questions.
• Is the Church answering questions people are asking?
• Is the Church a safe place for people to ask their spiritual questions?
• The Church needs to enter spiritual conversations that people are having around us.
• We need to use what culture is identifying with to bring about spiritual truth
  and the message of the Gospel (Paul on Mars Hill in Acts 17).
• How do you look into culture and find Jesus?
• Use pop culture to package your topic (message series) in order to attract a crowd.
• Use pop culture to get people thinking or laughing.
• Use pop culture to prove a new interpretation for a popular cultural element.
• Use pop culture to encourage the people who are making ministry happen.

More from Rob on his blog.

• The hardest thing for people living in oppression is to believe that God is
  good.
• God plan to make that believable is us, the Church.
• Local churches have the invitation to make it believable that God is good.
• There’s been a shift in thinking from how do we get the community into our
  churches to how do we get our church into the community.
• The Gospel Jesus preached wasn’t about how to “get out of trouble” with God.
• The Gospel is about the Kingdom of God.
• The Kingdom is the place on earth where God’s will is done, as it is in Heaven.
• Eternal life starts now.
• It’s all about bringing “up there” down here.
• Jesus wants to set this upside down world right side up.
• We need a demonstration proclamation of the Gospel, not just a verbal
  proclamation.
• We need to give people a hand up, not a hand out.
• You have an unstoppable force when you partner the verbal and demonstrative
  proclamation.
• We need to move from a having a flashlight to a laser focus.
• We have a misconception in our thinking that more is better.
• Bigger isn’t always better.
• In Acts 1:8 Jesus defined our mission:Jerusalem = local access; Judea = domestic access; Samaria = cross cultural access; ends of the earth
  = global access.
• Who has God uniquely called us to be?
• You can’t borrow someone’s vision, you have to live out you own.
• Jesus gave us ONE mission, it’s called the Great Commission.
• We need to narrow our focus to make a deeper impact.
• Create big-on ramps for people to get engaged.
• The time has come for the local church to stand up and fight.
• Jesus said He would build His church and that it would prevail.

Church the Swerve blog for more in LifeChurch.tv

• The difference between where you are and where God wants you to be is the pain you’re unwilling to endure.
  
• Your self-awareness is the platform that God builds upon.
• You have to create a safe culture for people to be self-aware.
• It’s often hard to see the picture when you are inside the frame.
• Take the time to understand who God wants you to be and stick to it.
• If our ministries are the same a year from now as they are today, we are living in disobedience.

Read more from Steven on his blog.

• The capacity of leadership will be found at our ability to endure pain.
• It’s oftentimes easy to feel like God has passed us up when we see him visibly
  working in other people’s lives.
• Has time talked you out of the dreams and your audacity – God’s vision for your
  life?
• Is there a gap between what you believe God has promised you and the payoff?
• Between the promise and the payoff there is the little thing we often don’t
  talk about – the process.
• Too often we forget the promise and forget it because we fall under the weight
  of the process.
• David was obedient and served God faithfully in the midst of his ‘process.’
• Sometimes you can hear God before you see Him come through, that’s what it
  means to walk by faith and not by sight.
• Don’t let go of the promise.
• The process is always painful.
• Good things always start small.
• God always starts with whatever you have in your hand.
• What promises has God made to you?
• Some of you have gotten so educated, you’ve stopped believing that God can do
  the impossible.
• Oftentimes, the process is the point.
• God prepares you in the process.

• Too often we see with the eyes of the world instead of with the eyes of the
  Kingdom.
• We need to see with eyes of faith.
• We need to trust God’s promise is with the process – and trust that He will
  enable us.
• We need outside eyes to help us see who we really are.
• Don’t be who you are not.
• When you are under pressure what’s really inside you comes out.
• David’s character and discipline were formed in the process.
• Whoever has the message and the burden to deliver it has the responsibility to
  translate it.
• Find the way, the words, and the story to bring it home for people.
• We’ve got to appeal to the Eastern mindset that craves story and meaning with
  the Western mindset that wants answers now.
• Translate Good News to the real world.
• Are you following Christ? Are you close to Him? Have you been closer?
• Culture expects to feel and experience something.
• You need people on your team who are going the same direction.
• Get clarity on who you are and where you are going.
• You need to get clear on what you are doing.
• We need to tell the story in a way that is illustrated, filled with metaphor
  and meaning.
• We don’t need to be afraid of culture, we need to change it.