The journey begins all the way back in 1997. I was 15.

I had grown up in Christian home, attended a Christian school and had accepted Christ at an early age. For whatever reason, though, the connection and understanding that God wanted to have a relationship with me hadn’t clicked yet. I started going to a new youth group and one fateful Wednesday night my heart was captured by what it meant to passionately pursue Christ. That night I went forward and responded to an altar call and that’s when I say I began having a relationship with Christ.

They were playing a song during the time of response that really seemed to echo the emotion of the moment for me.

The words to the song were simple: My Jesus, my Savior, Lord there is none like You… All of my days, I want to praise the wonders of Your mighty love…

I went up to the youth pastor following the event and asked him what song it was. He took me back to his office and handed me the Shout to the Lord CD. He told me to make an attitude of worship a lifestyle and gave me that CD to get me started. [There again, the influence of youth pastors!].

I pretty much played that CD until my family couldn’t tolerate it anymore. I loved it. The songs and the music were giving a theme to the new life and excitement I was experiencing. I read on the back about the church where the CD came from, it was a church in Sydney, Australia, called Hills Christian Life Centre.

Later that year, for my birthday, my parents got me a few more of their CDs and a video of one of their live worship recordings, All Things Are Possible. I was mesmerized by it.

Circa 1997

To look at it today it is a bit dated and silly… brass instruments in worship, choreographed choir in silk fluorescent shirts, the 90s hair…  but what I loved about it was that I saw church that was being creative and trying new things. There was a heart behind what they did that resonated with me and I couldn’t get enough.

The rest is history.

Hills Christian Life Centre is now known as Hillsong Church and their songs are sung by churches and believers around the globe. And if you know me or have read my blog you know how much I am influenced and inspired by the work Hillsong is doing. More than the music, though, it’s the heartbeat of a local church that’s committed to reaching people in new and creative ways and that is committed to empowering the next generation that inspires me. Their songs are literally an echo of the work God is doing in and through their church.

Hillsong Today:

So What’s the Big News?

I’ve been invited to speak at a national church media conference in May in Australia and will be spending about a week in Sydney with some of my friends at Hillsong Church.

I have dreamed of going there for a visit and never imagined it would come on the heels of having the honor of speaking to a group of national church media leaders. I’m so excited, humbled, and even more excited. I can’t wait to see first-hand what’s happening in the church in Australia and at Hillsong Church. It’s going to be surreal to have the chance to hang out with some people who have had a huge impact on my life from afar.

I’ve been bursting at the seams to share this news and am truly humbled and thankful for this great opportunity.

I’ll post more details about the conference when they are available. And believe me, I’ll be keeping you updated throughout the trip! I can’t wait!

So now, the countdown begins to my journey down unda’!

As I had mentioned in a post leading up the event, I’m a bit of a mutt theologically. I was raised an the Assemblies of God, worked for a reformed church, and have been attending a United Methodist Church. I don’t belong to one particular camp or denomination. My faith, for better or worse, is influenced by many different Christian traditions.

That being said, one of the things that frustrates me the most about Christians and more specifically, church leaders, is the endless debate and bickering that goes on about trivial things. I believe theology is important. I believe that we must defend what is true and present the Gospel with all boldness and without hindrance, but I think we can get lost in so many of the minor conversations that we miss the point.

When Jesus was asked by the disciples what was most important He could have said many things, but what He said was: Love the Lord your God with all of your heart, soul, mind, and strength, and love your neighbor as yourself.

Love God. Love people. It’s pretty simple.

Too often, though, we complicate the message.

The Church Isn’t Growing… That’s a Problem

The reality is, the Church in America isn’t in a good place right now. For all of the megachurches, conferences, resources, and everything we have going on in our world today, Christianity, as a whole, in America is not growing. The numbers and studies prove it. Many people look across the ocean at Europe and say that’s a picture of our future.

I find it so interesting that while our churches continue to decline and  as faith has moved from the public square to the periphery of culture, that we, as church leaders, continue to argue. We continue to debate. We continue to point finers. We critique. We judge. We get prideful about “our way” and “our theology” and “our beliefs.” We spend so much time and energy debating and arguing about things that really don’t matter in the grand scheme of what’s happening in our world today. We focus on the minor things while the major work ahead of us goes neglected.

I’m guilty of it. We all are. But it’s got to stop.

For me, The Elephant Room, offered a glimmer of hope for what our future could look like.

Around the table were some polarizing leaders who definitely have MAJOR differences. I went into the event imagining that the boxing gloves were going to come out. Instead, I found great candor and humility, and a desire among everyone there to find the common ground in the places where it matters most.

We Need to Talk One Another

James MacDonald shared openly about his friendships with pastors Bill Hybels, Mark Driscoll, and Steven Furtick. All of them have different convictions and theological standpoints, but he shared how in taking time to get to know them, he learned to not be quick about making judgements about them our their ministries.

He said,  “I’m going to get in a room with people, and I’m going to hear them before I make conclusions about them.”

How often do we make conclusions about people, pastors, ministries, or churches, without taking the time to actually hear them and get to know them? We can become so tainted in our views of people because we’re listening to what other people say about them instead of actually taking the time to get to know them ourselves.

We need to talk to each other and get inside each other’s worlds. We need to get to know one another as human beings, before we are pastors or theologians or whatever title we may claim. We need to listen before we speak and understand before we seek to be understood.

Jesus Prayed For This

In John 17, we read the account of one of Jesus’ final prayers for His disciples and those who would believe [that's you and me]. He prayed, “protect them by the power of your name, the name you gave me, so that they may be one as we are one (verse 11),” and later prayed, “I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one— I in them and you in me—so that they may be brought to complete unity. Then the world will know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me.” (verse 22,23). 

Jesus prayed for our unity as believers and as leaders. He prayed we would be one has He is one with His Father.

Why?

Our unity and brotherhood shows world the love of Christ. It should show them a selfless, humble unity that binds us all together. It should show them something unlike they’ve ever seen before.

But is that what the outside world sees when they look at us? Or do they see us bickering and arguing over things that don’t matter? Or we known more for what we are for, or for what we are against?

Do You Want to Make a Point or Make a Difference?

Andy Stanley said, “As a leader you’ve got to always ask if you want to make a point or if you want to make a difference.”

I value solid theology. I believe we need to preach the reality of sin. We need to tell about our eternal God who was and is and is to come. We need to admit the hopelessness we have without a Savior. We need to tell people about Christ, His sinless life, death, and resurrection. We need to teach about repentance of sin and forgiveness that’s found in Christ. Those are all things that are non-negotiable. Anything else isn’t worth fighting over. Our work is too important and the need around us is too great for us to argue or critique things that are trivial.

I admire the fact that in The Elephant Room some tough issues were faced head on and in moments where the boxing gloves could have come out that, instead, there was mutual respect and understanding. Convictions didn’t change but perceptions did. There was far more talk about what matters and far less talk about the things that could have divided the speakers. We all have more in common than we think.

Modern-Day Pharisees

The sad truth is, we have a lot of modern day Pharisees in our world today. They claim they are defending the Gospel but in truth they are just like the Pharisees in Jesus’ day who were defending the Law. They just substitute the word ‘biblical’ for the word ‘law.’

While they debated about whether it was lawful for Jesus to heal people on the Sabbath, He went about healing and transforming lives. He followed the will of His Father and focused on what mattered.

There’s a Price for Unity

I admire Pastor James MacDonald and the team at Harvest Bible Chapel for being courageous and modeling for us what we should do for the sake of unity among our brothers and sisters in Christ. They’ve taken some hits over all of this, and I think that’s very sad. It’s undermining the exact reason of what this event was all about. It’s sad that people are still missing the point.

For me, personally, this event was a great example of what it’s going to take for us to band together. Our world needs us, as the church, to be unified and on mission, together. Christ and His call unite us. We all have different roles to play and every church has a different function, but we are all part of the body of Christ.

The cost of unity is humility and the admission that we don’t know it all. We need each other. Along the way people may criticize you, but when you’re seeking to what God is asking you to do, you can’t go wrong.

Practicing What I’m Preaching

Ironically a few days after The Elephant Room I was in Charlotte home to Pastor Steven Furtick and Elevation Church, one of the speakers at The Elephant Room.

I’ll be honest, I thought what was happening at Elevation was pretty cool but I did think it was a bit flashy and hyped-up. I didn’t doubt great things were going on there, but I didn’t necessarily look at it all very positively, either. So while I was there I went to a service to experience it for myself. Let me tell you, I was blown away. Everything about the service centered around Jesus, the worship and message were fantastic, they treated me like a VIP (that’s what they call all of their visitors), they’ve called and emailed me since I was there to thank me for being there, and all of the staff were humble and quick to ask how they could help.

My perception = changed, for the better.

Long Rant Short

The Elephant Room modeled conversations and a spirit of humility we all need to have in our lives. We need to be willing to believe the best in one another. We need to take a stand for what’s true, but do so in way that brings unity. We need to spend more time getting to know one another and seeking the unity that Jesus prayed we would have with one another.

We need to learn shelve the silly arguments, and get about the great task that’s ahead of us, together.

Let’s be an answer to Jesus’ prayer.

• Well, January is just about over. Seems like yesterday we were just setting our goals and making resolutions for the New Year. How are you doing on your goals?
• Coaching begins! This week kicks off the start of my church communication coaching group. I’m so excited for what these next six months have ahead and am praying they make an impact. I’ll keep you posted on how things go!
• This weekend I was in Charlotte and absolutely loved it. I hung out with the team at Lake Forest Church for their leadership conference with Donald Miller and as they opened a new worship space AND kicked off a new series “Hope in a House of Blues” [it was quite a weekend!]. The team at Lake Forest is doing some outstanding work and it was an honor to be there with them. Donald Miller did three sessions talking about evangelism, pain, and the blues. Check out my notes!
• It just so happens that Ben Arment was in Charlotte this weekend for a Dream Year Weekend, so I had the chance to sneak in and catch some sessions. I was so inspired by the dreams that were inside of the people around the room and was so impressed with Ben’s heart to help them come to life.
• I’m still processing what went down in The Elephant Room last week. I’ll be doing a blog post on my thoughts tomorrow. In the meantime, be sure to download my Elephant Room Conference Notebook to catch up on what you missed.
• Communication can change the world. Check out this great post from Jeff Goins on the power of communication.
• Stuff Chicagoans Say. I know the “Stuff … say…” videos are a bit overplayed right now, but this one, as a proud Chicagoan, is pretty awesome.
• While I was in Charlotte this weekend I also had the chance to check out a Saturday night service at Elevation Church. They are kicking off a new series, inspired by Donald Miller’s A Million Miles in a Thousand Years, on the power of our stories. They built a website, MyBetterStory.com, for people to share a one-sentence synopsis of the story they believe God wants to write through their life. It connects with Twitter and Facebook, which is pretty awesome. Love it. What a great and creative way to get people engaged around a message series.
• I’m about to start drawing circles and being praying in them. If you haven’t checked out Mark Batterson’s The Circle Maker yet, you need to. It’s a powerfully convicting book on prayer. Review coming shortly.
• Does your church need a private online community? Kem Meyer shares how Granger Community Church addressed growing connection and communication gaps as a church by coming around The Table. Check it out.
• In church communications? In or near SoCal? Don’t miss your chance to spend the day with me, Dawn Nicole Baldwin, Drew Goodmanson, Josh Burns, and Curtis Templeton as we talk church communication at the 77 Events Gathering for Communication/Media on March 14 at First Christian Church in Huntington Beach. Details here.
• Challenge for the week… Think about what you know God wants to you do. Now look at your to do list. Now, focus on the things that will move you closer to what you know what God wants you to do.

• If you think about the tradition of blues, it’s honest music.
• It is the root of our spirituality.
• It’s an incredibly honest, soulful dialogue.
• We’ve lost that.
• Christianity is glossy today.
• The history of our faith is incredibly soulful, angry, and cries out to God.
• The Psalms were incredibly honest dialogue with God.
• David was painfully honest in the Psalms.
• We are flawed, lonely, and have coping mechanisms so we don’t have to feel our pain… that’s a human experience.
• With God, we don’t have to pretend.
• God is familiar with our pain.
• There are so many blues songs about unrequited love.
• God’s Story is about unrequited love.
• God is crazy about humanity and He’s crying out to us.
• God came to us through Christ.
• He loves perfectly.
• There are times when God has the blues.
• You can see His longing for humanity.
• Jesus got the blues… going off on His own to be with His Father.
• Jesus has been where we have been.
• He’s felt the pain of unrequited love.
• Jesus knew we were worth it.
• There’s hope.
• There’s longing.
• When you feel that, know God is with you.
• He feels your pain.
• He has empathy.
• Be honest in your dialogue with him.

• How does God use our pain?
• I believe that God intended for us to experience pain.
• It’s the anthesis of what we understand in our culture.
• We are taughtthere is not supposed to be pain in our lives by our culture.
• That’s not consistent with a Christian worldview.
• Don talked about Toy Story 3 and how he was impacted by it.
• I think Toy Story 3 is the greatest screenplay ever on film.
• It’s not my favorite movie but it’s a flawless screenplay if you study story.
• The story is about a group of characters who are separated with their owner.
• They were created for relationship with their owner.
• They are trying to find their way back to their own.
• Pixar spends 3 years cultivating their stories before the start animating.
• The human epic we are in is reflected in Toy Story 3.
• The most traditional story structure obeys a 3 act structure.
• Act 1 is about 10 minutes.
• At the end, something happens that launches the character into the story.
• That’s an inciting incident.
• Act 2 is the bulk of the story.
• The last 5 minutes are Act 3.
• Act 2 is trying to resolve the conflict that happened because of the inciting incident.
• Something usually happens to go back to Act 1 but then is resolved and runs into Act 3.
• Something happened in our lives that disrupted our emotional stability.
• The Christian worldview says that’s the fall of man.
• When we understand the structure of story, we can understand where we are at in our lives as humans.
• There is a point in a story where all of the conflict is resolved through one single action.
• Why is there an Act 3 climax in stories when there is no Act 3 in real life?
• Conflict and Characters exist in life. The climax doesn’t
• Everything in a story is represented in a story except for the climax.
• If you can convince people that there is an Act 3 climax in life, you can manipulate and control them.
• Advertising does that. It says, “Something is wrong with you, BUT if you do this, you’ll get better…”
• The cultural scripts that run through our commercials are interesting.
• They all say the same thing: if you buy this, this will happen.
• We as humans, especially as Christians, need to accept the reality that life is hard.
• As Christians, we need to teach people that life is hard.
• The most happy country in the world is Denmark. [America is 32nd]
• The common characteristic of people in Denmark is that they have low expectations in life.
• If you have low expectations you’ll be surprised when things go right.
• When we look at Scripture we see people facing difficult, painful realities.
• Romans 8, Paul talks about the Act 3 climax that will take place in your life, when you go to Heaven.
• Most of the verses on hope are focused on hope later, not hope now.
• If you believe that you are supposed to be experiencing the climax now, your focus is off.
• You will go through life very disappointed.
• Where we are is in Act 2. Not Act 3.
• We are in the struggle.
• We are post, mid-act climax.
• That’s the cross and resurrection.
• That was the event that will engage the Act 3 climax.
• We are betrothed.
• We are engaged to Christ.
• Your troubles will never end.
• What you do have in this life is hope.
• We can climb through the mountains of life and struggle together.
• The sufferings of this present time cannot compare to the glory that’s going to be revealed … – Paul
• Christ’s glory is to be revealed. Not has been revealed.
• In the midst of our pain, we are to wait with patience and have faith it will happen.
• What should our posture be?
• How does someone act when they are engaged?
• They are excited about the what’s to come.
• They are hopeful.
• If you are 30 years old, you’ve had 12-15 significant positive and negative experiences.
• God redeems the hard things in life.
• Sometimes God embeds things in our lives.
• We are born into conflict.

• Joseph has a dream  [positive]
• Joseph tells his brothers [negative]
• Joseph is thrown in the well [negative] – “I blew this…”
• There are mistakes you can make in this life that will cause churches to exempt you from helping them fulfill their mission. But God can still use you.
• Joseph is rescued [positive]
• Sold into slavery [negative]
• Run’s Potiphar’s house [positive]
• Thrown in prison [negative]
• Meets baker and cup bearer [positive]
• Cup bearer forgets [negative]
• Joseph meets Pharaoh [positive]

Bringing it Home

• Write down the positive and negative turns in your life.
• Spend time doing this.
• Your positive experiences are points to celebrate God’s faithfulness.
• When we look at our negative experiences, we need to let God redeem them.
• What the enemy intended for evil, God can use for good.
• Mine those experiences in your life.
• Do something with them.
• Through writing the book about growing up fatherless, Don has created a non profit to mentor fatherless boys.
• The things God can do through the hard things in your life can be the things that bring hope to others.
• Create a storyline of your life.
• Ask yourself, “With these negative things, what can happen?”
• Each negative turn in your life can create a seed that can grow into something great that can bless and feed others.

Q&A Session with Mitch White

• There are different kinds of conflict. There’s conflict that God embeds in our stories.
• This idea that we can be completed in God is untrue on this side of eternity.
• Some of our needs are there because God wants them to be there.
• God took Adam’s conflict and made it worse by asking him to name to the Animals.
• God uses conflict to make us appreciate what He is going to provide.
• It gives us respect for what He gives us.
• It causes us to fear and honor Him.
• There’s conflict that comes from the fall of man.
• It’s not what God likes or wanted for us.
• Control is the root of all sin.
• God does not make you love Him. He gives you a choice.
• Authentic, real loving relationships are made between people who have a will to love one another.
• Freewill is an act of love from God.
• People fill their lives with false, Act 3 climaxes.
• Most people realize those are empty when they get them.
• Put the Act 3 climax at our reunion with Christ.
• That makes all of life about heading toward that climax and taking people with us. That’s evangelism.
• Your motives change.
• It’s less about the praise of people and more about the advancement of the mission.
• On his next book… it’s going to be a CS Lewis Screwtape-style journal of God’s account of creation and the fall.
• On the Blue Like Jazz movie… we hope it changes Christian media. It releases in April.
• The Bible is a great narrative of flawed people who chose to give their lives for the love of God that captured their hearts.
• We need to learn to accept the beauty of people’s flawed humanity.

Donald Miller became best known through his New York times bestseller, Blue Like Jazz, the story of his experience at Reed College, voted at that time as “the most godless campus in the country.” Since then Don has written other best sellers: Searching for God knows What andA Million Miles in a Thousand Years (the story of his writing of the screenplay for Blue Like Jazz-the movie).

In the fall of 2011, Don created The Storyline Conference, a two-day event to help individuals, churches and business staff write a better story for their life and work. We are excited to be a part of what Don does best—help you find your story, see how God is redeeming it and allow this to help you see the story of others that God longs to redeem. Learn more about Don at www.donmilleris.com.

• 2% of the population of Portland regularly attends church.
• Don recently relocated his office above a bistro in Portland.
• He developed a great relationship with the owners of the restaurant, and they discovered that he was Christian.
• Their reaction was, “how in the world could you possibly believe that?”
• It’s hard for the world at large to believe that Jesus is alive today.
• Wouldn’t it help you, as a Christian leader, if Jesus would come back every 5 years and did a press conference? Just to let people know He’s alive, that we aren’t crazy, etc?
• Our narrative is quite mysterious.
• Our Savior comes in a manger.
• He spends 32 years on earth.
• He only does about 3 years of ministry.
• Then He ascends and disappears.
• He’s gone.
• He leaves the rest of it to us.
• What happens when Jesus is gone?
• Time magazine asked: “Is God dead?”
• Portland is statistically 25 years ahead of the country.
• If that’s true, only about 2% of the people you know will attend church in 25 years.
• That doesn’t mean that people won’t know Christ, it’s just that their engagement with their faith will look different.
• We live in a culture that assumes God is dead.
• One of Don’s friend went to Rwanda and saw a tribute to the genocide that happened there.
• Most people would see that and say it’s evidence that God is dead.
• Rather, his friend had the opposite experience.
• She felt God saying, “See what happens when I leave? See what happens when nobody brings the light?”
• Is Jesus gone? Where is He?
• Colossians 1:27 – Christ is in you, the hope of glory.
• Every day your feet hit the ground, it’s Christmas morning.
• Jesus chooses to take up residency in you.
• Jesus doesn’t take up residency church buildings.
• He lives within you.
• We bring hope into the world because Christ is in us.
• Colossians 1:28; Colossians 3:11; Galatians 2:20
• Christ is all and in all.
• It is wrong for us to look for hope in the world externally.
• We have the tendency to take someone to church instead of taking people to Jesus that’s inside of us.
• Bring yourself, all of you, to the people in your life.
• Confession is really helping people understand the difference between Jesus and me.
• My real ministry is not writing or speaking, I love to practice hospitality.
• Last year he had over 100 overnight house guests.
• Writing and speaking is fundraising for me to do the ministry I feel like Jesus is calling me to do.
• What is Jesus doing inside of us?
• Don shared this iconographic image of Christ:
• 
• Jesus’ left eye is convicting you of your sin.
• Christ divides.
• He comes with a sword.
• And He’s the Prince of Peace.
• His right eye is designed to represent His forgiveness and grace.
• He convicts us and shows us grace.
• Why does our culture have so much trouble seeing God?
• It’s because Jesus does not look like what evangelical culture in America wants Him to look like.
• If we were to create a Jesus that would build our churches and represent our community, He would not look like the actual Jesus.
• Who do we like to have represent us as Christians?
• What do our politicians look like?
• Jesus had no form or comeliness that we should look upon him; no beauty. (Isaiah 53)
• Often in our strategy we want to say, “you can have everything the rich young ruler had… you can live your best life now.”
• I don’t think that’s true.
• When I look at pre-fallen man, there’s only one defining characteristic: he walked around naked and was not ashamed.
• He was hardly self aware.
• When we are naked, we know.
• You will not live your best life now.
• You will live it when you are reunited with Trinity.
• We invite people into hope.
• Christ is so difficult to recognize because He isn’t offering people what they want, He’s offering people what they really need.
• He’s not offering people a coping mechanism; He’s offering people hope to endure.
• When we translate our theology through the filter of the lies of marketing we make people believe falsely about their faith.
• It’s not your best life now.
• It creates false expectations.
• Jesus is operating in the world in beautiful ways.
• Evangelism no longer looks to me like the sharing of information.
• It’s not about sharing truths.
• It’s about bringing people to Jesus.
• “I set people up on a blind date with Jesus and hope they hit it off.”
• We all have mysterious relational encounters with Christ.
• But then we rationalize our experience and boil it down to a formula.
• We are not saved through right theology; we are saved through Christ.
• We don’t need to depend on a church program to bring Jesus to the world.
• Jesus will go places I don’t want to go.
• Jesus will forgive people I don’t want to forgive.
• Are we bringing Christ into our house?
• Are we bringing Christ into our neighbors house?
• Do we believe that Christ is within us, or are we looking for Him externally?
• He’s inside of you bringing hope to the world.

Read more about Lake Forest’s story here.

Lake Forest is hosting a leadership weekend congruent with the other festivities, welcoming pastors and church leaders from 11 different ministries and churches across the Charlotte area.

The goal of the weekend is to remind leaders of the power of hope and the fact that we need to not only cherish it but share it with those who do not have it yet.

I’ll be blogging notes from those sessions.

“Hope in the House of Blues” is an annual series hosted by Lake Forest addressing hurt, hate, hope and healing with an inspiring, blues-based musical backdrop. Lake Forest has literally built a ‘house of blues’ in their foyer! Pretty wild.

Stay tuned throughout the weekend for updates.

Thanks to Pastor Mike Moses and his team for the opportunity to hang with them and to see first-hand the great things that are happening here.

Click here to download my Elephant Room Conference Notebook.

Feel free to pass this along and share it with others.

Huge thanks to Luke MacDonald for letting me serve as a blogger, and to Pastor James and the entire team at Harvest Bible Chapel for making this event possible! Be sure to visit TheElephantRoom.com for more resources from this event.

Also check out other Conference Notebooks I’ve put together from many of the other conferences I’ve attended. Enjoy!

How did you come to know Jesus?

• Crawford: I was 13.5, my sister surrendered to Christ and invited me to church…
• Steven: I got dragged to a Baptist revival when I was 16 and I was confronted with what it meant to have an authentic relationship with Jesus.
• Wayne: I thought Christians were freaky but God used a Christian music group to open my heart.
• James: When I was 7, February of 1967, after a Sunday night service with his family.
• Mark: In my dorm room reading Romans.
• Jack: When I was 6 years old at a tent revival.
• TD: Right after my father passed away when I was 16.

In my moments of honesty, the thing that furstrates me most about myself is…

• TD: I have a passive-aggressive personality. I’m loyal and loving to a fault. I’m quicker to embrace than to confront.
• Jack: The inability to let things go. As a leader, you’re constantly try to fix things… it’s hard to let it go and give it to God or let it go and let it go away. I’m an obsessive fix-it person. It’s really the need to control a situation.
• Mark: My selfishness.
• James: I’m more easily wounded than I let on and I can forgive but I don’t get over it.
• Wayne: The difference between caring deeply instead of worrying.
• Steven: Being grateful. I’m very, very grateful and insatiable for progress. It slips into the wrong motives easily.
• Crawford: My heart will write a check that my calendar cannot cash. Don’t be a prisoner to need.

The Gospel is our greatest treasure. It sparkles like a diamond. Which facet sparkles the brightest for you right now?

• Crawford: The wonder of the Savior dying on the cross in my place.
• Steven: God’s favor. I always thought it was a sidebar, but it’s synonymous with grace. I know God is with me, but God is also for me. I always felt like God loved me because He had to, but I have learned that God likes me, too.
• Wayne: God is pleased with me. Sometimes we think we can do more to get God’s pleasure… but God is pleased with me.
• James: I’m comforted and blessed by the imputative righteousness of Christ in my life.
• Mark: Expiation… we are forgiven and made clean.
• Jack: The call of the Gospel. After 40 years, I’m more passionate about this Gospel and my call than I was before.
• TD: “Oh that I may know Him and the fellowship of His suffering…” knowing that there is fellowship in the suffering with God. We don’t go through our struggles alone. The antitheses of success is sorrow.

My one concern about young pastors would be…

• TD: They would allow their ambition to underestimate the price that is paid to be who we are. I’m concerned that they see us on our platforms and our stages and don’t see the suffering behind the stage. They don’t know the cost of the oil in our alabaster boxes.
• Jack: That they don’t sell out the Gospel or their own lives for something cheaper. I hope there would be a purity of thought in action and in their lifestyles.
• Mark: I would like to see their passion to reach people exceed their passion to review books.
• James: Our sense of timing is messed up. Give your life to Christ. It will be worth it.
• Wayne: The danger of making a calling a career. Don’t use Christian stuff to advance your career. Don’t take any shortcuts. Pay the price. There’s much depth to gain in that. We don’t want to pray we want the blessings of someone who did. We don’t want to study, we want the affirmation of someone who did.
• Steven: We can fall prey to being entitled. We need to be a generation of honor. Honor comes from value. Everyone wants to be a rockstar but no one wants to learn the chords. The antitheses of honor is entitlement.
• Crawford: Faithfulness is undervalued. Previous generations have paid the tuition for the platforms we have today. The power is in grabbing the baton and realizing you’re living for a time you cannot see. We are disconnected from our faith rhythms.

What do you see the church looking like in 20 years given its current trajectory?

• Crawford: I’m conflicted. I’m scared by the movement away from truth. On the other hand, I see the great leaders and believe the future of the church is in great hands. I believe the next generation is going to do some incredible things. I just hope they will embrace the long haul, be holy, and not disqualify themselves.
• Steven: “The future cannot be predicted because it’s waiting to be created.” By God’s grace I’m intending to carry it forward. I will speak good things over my generation. I won’t let anything go. We’re gonna move forward. We are going to raise up a standard.
• Wayne: I have hope because of things like this and telecommunications that enable us to reach other people. If we don’t make changes we will become a subculture instead of a counter-culture.
• James: I believe preaching that emphasizes the word of God and the Gospel vs felt-need preaching is important. It isn’t impossible that North America will become like Europe. We’d be foolish to think that’s not possible. We just have to serve God faithfully.
• Mark: Some of the future leaders of the church may not even be saved yet! Our hope isn’t in our networks or institutions, God can take anybody and do anything!
• Jack: Praise God it’s getting gloriously dark. Things are not getting better, they are getting worse. We need to prepare for what’s coming. The future will look different. The Gospel is in good hands with the generation that’s carrying it forward. We know the last chapter, bu the church of the next generation must prepare for much tougher times.
• TD: My hope is that 20 years from now this coming generation will have found a way to translate the integrity of the Scriptures into the language of the times and not make the mistakes that their predecessors made. Don’t limit the platform but infect the culture with Gospel using technology that’s available.

What did you learn today?

• TD: Do not be so consumed with the busyness of your schedule to go beyond your borders.
• Jack: There is rampant anger and that disturbs me. I haven’t thought about how much anger is in the pulpit and in our pews.
• Mark: This was fun. I wonder if fun is one of the attributes of God? I had fun. I liked having fun.
• Wayne: I realized how much I don’t know. I learned so much. It reminded me how much I need to sit at Jesus’ feet and learn.
• Steven: “I don’t know what I think about that, I need to think about that for a little while…” – Bishop Jakes. We don’t have to have all of the answers right away.
• Crawford: I have to sit and marinate. That’s when I really learn. We need to learn to listen with our hearts. It’s amazing how we can spiritualize our insecurities and our fears. Why are we threatened to talk to one another? The older I get, the more passionate I get about what I do know, and the more free I feel about what I don’t know.
• James: I have learned a lot. I will process a lot. And look forward to see what will come from this.

What responsibilities do we have to local pastors who exist outside our theological boundaries, but within the body of Christ? How do you confront a brother in error while showing fidelity to truth, and to the truth about biblical relationship? Given the freedom to preach your conscience, is there anywhere you wouldn’t preach? Does a pastor’s association really communicate endorsement, or is that just a carryover from fundamentalism? How can pastors practically encourage/challenge those who are different than they are? How do the benefits of broader community weigh against the dangers of confusing people about your own convictions?

James MacDonald

• We have national borders and state borders when it comes to our theology and methodology.
• When you are so proud of your state is when you start to get into trouble.
• It took me 25 years to see the trappings of fundamentalism.
• People see minor things differently.
• We all handle pressure differently.
• The idea for this started with Bill Hybels.
• Bill rallied 10 pastors from the largest churches in Chicago to get together.
• “I love Bill Hybels.”
• We have different methodologies.
• He deserves my respect.
• Meeting Bill and becoming his friend changed my tone… not my methodology or my convictions, but my tone.
• James initiated a friendship with Mark over the past few years which led to a trip they took to Haiti which started Churches Helping Churches.
• Though my convictions didn’t change, my tone changed drastically through these relationships.
• James’ initial reaction to Steven Furtick was, “oh, that kid is just a punk.”
• My disposition was to doubt.
• So much of fundamentalism is rooted in fear.
• James invited Steven to meet with him in Chicago and was blown away by Steven’s humility.
• Hear people before you make conclusions about them.
• Those friendships are what started The Elephant Room.

Steven Furtick

• It’s sad that it’s rare for pastors to show affection for one another.
• It’s sad that the conversation shifts to borders.
• A lot of people may be called to draw borders and barriers, my calling is to affirm the center.
• That doesn’t mean there is not a need for boundaries.
• When we say things like, “…they aren’t a big fan of you,” we sound silly to God and to the people that God is calling us to reach.
• James is putting the “fun” back in fundamentalism.
• I was self-righteous in my own opinion of you [James] when I met you.
• We could stand to encourage, build one another up, and honor one another more.
• Boldness isn’t speaking to your tribe.
• Real boldness is to stand with someone, even if it costs you something.

Mark Driscoll

• There are people who love the same Gospel and believe the same book and follow the same Savior.
• Revelation 1:2 – the word of God and the testimony of Jesus Christ.
• Step back from the theological constructs.
• All that matters is the Word of God and Jesus Christ.

Steven Furtick

• People who say they are defending the Gospel are just crappy friends.

Wayne Cordeiro

• We have to develop a new construct where love thinks the best.
• We often believe the worse until you prove me different.
• We have a tendency to want to identify with a tribe, but we need to move closer to the center… around the Cross.

Crawford Loritts

• The legacy of fundamentalism has tainted evangelicalism.
• Unfortunately, it’s a legacy of fighting.
• You define yourself by who you are against.
• All truth is seen in the center of tension.
• Lead with all of the truth of the Gospel.

Jack Graham

• One of the greatest joys I have is introducing my friends to other friends and to connect people.
• Connect and be connected.
• Leverage your friendships to encourage and mentor one another.
• Everyone needs connectors.

T.D. Jakes

• I come from a world that has it’s own, different problems.
• I come from a world where fellowship is taken for granted and unity is commonplace.
• The things you struggle to do we do easily; the things you do easily we struggle to do.
• Minorities don’t have the luxury of bickering.
• Our survival hinges on our ability to come together.
• We esteem people over our principles.
• Jesus died for the people, not principles.
• What excites me is breaking of a pathology that produces the false ideology that you need to unite around what you’re against instead of what you are for.
• Let us not confuse anointing and substitute it with anger.
• In the absence of the pursuit of God’s presence the only emotion we can display is anger.
• Don’t use your power to coerce people or speak out in anger because of the lack of God’s anointing in your life.

Steven Furtick

• We’ve perverted boldness and confused it with anger.

James MacDonald

• The subject of civility and how Christians need to learn how to talk to other people is important.

Mark Driscoll

• Andy Stanley said, “As a leader you’ve got to always ask if you want to make a point or if you want to make a difference.”
• In the instant, constant, and permanent age of communication, you can garner a tribe of critics.
• You don’t need to make any effort to make a point.
• To make a difference, you have to work.
• Sometimes you need to make your point privately.
• Sometimes you need to make a difference before you make your point.
• The wounds of a friend are trusted much.

Steven Furtick

• Love paves the way for us to have the right to speak honestly and with candor to others.

James MacDonald

• This event has cost me some relationships.
• I’m wounded by how others have felt that they needed to respond.
• “Just because someone doesn’t want you to be in their circle anymore doesn’t mean that they can’t be in yours anymore.”
• It always seems to be easier in relationship with people who are the left of you.