Posted by Matt Markins in I have spent the last three days in conferences. First the PCPA (Protestant Christian Publishers Association) then yesterday and today at the Connecting Church and Home Conference at Brentwood Baptist Church in Brentwood, TN.
I should not be allowed to attend the Connecting Church and Home Conference because I am like a kid in a candy store. This is not work for me, this is play. Everyone who is attending this event is essentially trying to figure out how to apply D6 in their local church context (which many times requires changing the DNA of your church ministry strategy & heart the beat of your church)…obviously a place for us to hang out, spend time with ministers, learn about what God is doing in different churches, and make new friends/relationships. We are having a blast, learning from others, and doing some serious networking (yesterday we received an invitation to go up and visit John Piper’s team in MN). Check out some of the pics form the PreCon.
This is Steve Wright, author of ReTHiNK speaking to a Lab group (open floor dialogue). It was a great time for people to share about what God is doing in the faith at home movement and how they are shifting their ministries form the “silo” mentality to an integrated strategy of equipping parents to the the primary spiritual leaders in the home…essentially, churches partnering with parents by equipping and resourcing them.
This is a shot of the smaller group that attended the PreCon. The Main Conference began Friday night and had a crowd about twice this size (about 150 in all). Great event.
I look forward to what God is going to do at this event today.
Hey, Matt -
Just saw this entry – I was actually keeping up with this event through the towers online live blog. It sounded like a really good event with some great ideas. I loved the quote about family ministry not being a six step program. I am glad you went. D6 using any of these speakers for your conference?
Oh yeah – I was also glad to just see that Dr. Moody will be in Dallas, he’s a great choice.
CC
Hey man, good to hear from you. Yes, we are using 2 of these guys. Jay Strother is the emerging generations pastor at Brentwood Baptist (he oversees birth – 28 years old) and he has done an amazing job of helping them transition their ministry to where everything they do is build around equipping families & equipping parents to be the primary developers of spiritual formation. He has shown me their strategy and it is simple, biblical, and it’s working. They have been doing this for a few years now, so it will take a while to see exactly how well it is working. Brian Haynes is another guy who spoke there who we are also working with. He is the Student Minister at Kingsland Baptist Church in Katy, TX. He is the creator of the Spiritual Milestones Model. He and I exchanged some emails this week…my adrenalin get’s pumpin’ just interacting with this guy because I think he is dead on. He is calling for a cultural redesign…the home embracing the Shema. He has a book releasing soon and I think it’s going to be pretty powerful. I met Randy Stinson of STS and we plan to go up and meet with him in April/May. He is an influential voice in this conversation (obviously). Back in December I sat down with Steve Wright (author of reTHiNK) for a few hours in his office in RDU and we had some great conversation. He had to decline the opportunity to come and speak at the D6 Conference because he is already speaking at another event that week, but he is very supportive of what we are doing and has been cooperative in other ways. Solid guy with a message that is very similar to ours.
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