CreativePastors Blog & Podcast

Countdown to C3

In less than one week, we'll be opening the doors of Fellowship Church to thousands of church leaders from around the world. We're in the thick of our preparations for next week's Creative Church Conference and we're all looking forward to the opportunity to interact with the bright, energetic and idea-filled attendees. This year's event is shaping up to be an incredible experience, with a lineup of gifted speakers, the addition of C3 Nights, and a few other things we've never done before. We hope you'll be amongst the friendly faces at C3 2008—be sure to stop by our CreativePastors booth while you're there and say hi (we'll have some fun giveaways too!). And if you haven't signed up yet, it's not too late. Online registration will be open through February 19 at 5 pm. See you soon!

Unleashed at NewSpring

Several years ago, Ed heard about a young pastor named Perry Noble whose church was setting attendance records that were unthinkable for the small town of Anderson, South Carolina. With roots in that region, Ed was amazed by his story and had to hear more.  It became clear that God was doing incredible things at NewSpring Church and He hasn’t stopped since!

After getting to know Perry, Ed invited him to speak at Fellowship Church in the summer of 2004 and called on him during the 2005 C3 Conference to offer his perspective on church leadership:

If you operated an airplane like you operate most churches, you'd have a pilot and his crew in the cockpit, and they know how to fly that plane, they know every instrument—that's their job.  But if it was run like most churches, these pilots, or this crew, before they needed to make an important decision, would have to come out of the cockpit and go into first class and meet with a plumber whose cousin was a pilot at one time, an electrician, a housewife, and a doctor and then after they met with those guys, they would take it back to the coach section for a "business meeting" and a vote. Then after they voted they could go implement what the coach section had told them to do. Now my question to my congregation is, "How many of you want to fly on that plane?" But you want to go to that church?  That's why so many churches are crashing and burning—because they are not properly structured.

Not only is Perry one of our featured speakers at this year’s upcoming Creative Church Conference, but this spring, he and his team will be hosting Unleash 08, a conference designed to challenge, encourage, and motivate church leaders to take action to reach their communities for Christ. This one-day conference takes place on March 13 in Anderson, SC. Early bird registration deadline is February 11—learn more here.

What to expect at C3 Kids Conference

We just released a new C3 Kids website to give you a good idea of what you can expect at the upcoming C3 Kids Conference on February 20-22. You can look forward to:

• A tour of the Grapevine campus, featuring an out-of-this-world children's environment.
• Dinner with the FC Kids staff—a great opportunity for real dialogue.
• Five general sessions on topics as diverse as our "3-D"model of leadership, core values for children's ministry, and the importance of our personal spiritual life.
• Three breakouts covering the nuts and bolts of children's ministry, brought to you with a fun and interactive approach.
• Much more! Get the whole scoop here.

Our FC Kids team is incredibly hard-working and creative. You won't believe what they're planning for this conference until you see it!

More for you this year at C3

We met with our Conferences team last week and they are hard at work developing a Creative Church Conference like you've never experienced before! We'll be packing a lot into February 21 and 22, so plan for a time of intense learning and creative renewal. One difference you'll notice this year is that we're including breakouts in the cost of the conference. That's right - for no extra charge you'll be able to attend two breakouts of your choice on Friday afternoon. Make sure you allow time in your travel schedule to catch some interactive time with FC staff and fellow attendees! We'll have some more exciting details to share over the coming weeks, so stay tuned.

C3 News

Excitement is building for the 2008 Creative Church Conference! We're lining up speakers and making plans for a C3 like you've never experienced before. While we're hammering out the details, we'll share the latest developments with you right here on CreativePastors. Today's news is big! We've confirmed three speakers so far who will bring unique and insightful perspectives to this year's conference. Brian Houston, Tommy Barnett, and Perry Noble lead dynamic churches around the globe and are sure to contribute a diverse blend of ideas, encouragement and teaching. Look for more information on speakers, sessions and more in the coming weeks.

Our favorite part about C3 will remain the same - you! The enthusiasm and energy of the attendees has always made the Creative Church Conference a great place to meet some of the best and brightest individuals in ministry today. We can't wait to connect with you!

The early registration discount ends tomorrow - don't miss your chance to save on both group and individual rates!

St. Louis Regional Conference

The Creative Church Conference is touring the nation during 2007 and our next stop will be in the St. Louis area on Monday, March 26th. Join us for one power-packed day of learning, life-lessons and leadership principles in an intimate setting where your team can realize new possibilities for your church. The day begins with General Sessions led by Ed Young followed by a senior pastor's luncheon with Ed. The day concludes with breakout sessions facilitated by the Fellowship Church Staff.  You can bring your entire staff and volunteer leaders for one low price. Register now online or at the door on the day of the conference and get ready to turn "what if" into "what is" at your church!

Sessions Five and Six

C3 2007 came to a close with two sessions today. The first session featured Bishop T.D. Jakes, who spoke on leadership using Exodus 4:1-12. His talk was in part a continuation of last year's incredible session. He focused on how God used Moses because of his stutter, not in spite of it. We may wonder why God would want to work through our greatest weakness. But it's when we realize that we absolutely cannot do it without God that's He can truly use us.

He also addressed how to prevent the vision God has given you from being diluted or polluted, as well as how to stretch your staff so they can do great things for God. The response to Bishop Jakes was phenomenal, both before and after his talk. The Q&A also featured some great insights into how he develops messages, handles negative people, and more.

Ed Young closed the conference with a message on personal evangelism, featuring an interview with a man he helped lead to Christ at a baseball game. Personal evangelism was one of the twelve core values Ed discussed that he has learned from his father. The others included the role of leaders, discipline, the priority of study, the power of being absent, the role of hospitality, why you should promote your church, and much more. For the second half of his talk, Ed was join by his father, Dr. Ed Young, and mother, Jo Beth Young, to discuss how these lessons were lived out in the Young household.

The worship, teaching and sharing over these three days was incredible. We can only imagine what God is going to do in each of your communities and churches as you return home with a fresh vision and renewed spirit. Thank you for being part of this wonderful event and inspiring us to never stop creatively reaching our culture for Christ!

Note: The Creative Church Conference, featuring Ed Young and Fellowship staff, is coming to a city near you during 2007. You can bring your entire staff and volunteer leaders for one low price. Check out the full schedule.

Sessions Three and Four

The afternoon sessions were terrific. First, Mark Driscoll of Mars Hill spoke about the two enemies of the gospel: idolatry and religion. He described how easily we make good things into God things. We end up worshiping created things, turning them into functional saviors.

Believers are more likely to fall prey to religion when we begin to believe that salvation is about what we do instead of what Jesus did. When religion enters the picture, we see God as a pinata and religion as the stick.

The Q&A was again excellent, including discussions about the emergent movement, idols in ministry, critics, and what it's like to pastor in one of the least-churched cities in America, Seattle.

The final session of the day was one of the most emotional as Dr. Ed Young, Ed's father and pastor of Second Baptist in Houston, cast the vision for reaching children in the church. His talk, based on Isaiah 54:2, focused on how as church leaders we must strengthen  our stakes and lengthen our cords in order to reach people and grow.

After first covering how me can strengthen our theology, ecclesiology, and eschetology, he turned to the core of his talk - the church's failure to care for, minister to, and reach the children and youth in our country and around the world. He challenged pastors and church leaders to invest in the next generation through time and focus, resources, and talent. Once parents believe that a church truly loves kids, they will be drawn to it.

Nearly 75% of all believers became Christ-followers before they were 18, yet we focus most of our energy on everything but children and students. Dr. Young received a lengthy standing ovation at the conclusion of his moving talk.

A blog post gives such an incomplete picture of these sessions, or the conference overall. If you weren't able to be here, be sure to keep an eye on the site - the conference recordings should be available in 6-8 weeks.

More pictures have been added to the C3 2007 photo album, including some of the incredible time of worship. C3 concludes tomorrow morning with two more sessions.

Sessions One and Two

C3 2007 launched with a spoken poem about what if and what is, followed by a high-energy worship set featuring "Solid Rock". This set the stage for the first session by Ed Young.

Ed's talk focused on delegation, which has been a key part of Fellowship Church since it started 17 years ago. Most people think that delegation is exiling something to oblivion so you can forget about it, but delegation without investigation is relegation. Delegation is entrusting and empowering what if ideas to those who can turn them into what is.

He then addressed five questions, filled with a number of recent ministry lessons and examples:

1. What keeps us from delegating?

2. What are the things you can't delegate?

3. Who do you delegate to?

4. How do you delegate?

5. Why do you delegate?

The session was the first to feature two innovations at this year's conference. First, each message is followed by a panel discussion with the speaker. The panelists are pastors and leaders from churches of various sizes and approaches who can help flesh out and apply the lessons learned.

Also, attendees can text message and email questions during the talk which are then incorporated into the Q&A! This format produced a lot of great follow-up as many different people were able to share ideas and struggles from their own ministries.

Session Two was Craig Groeschel of LifeChurch.tv. His message continued the conference theme as he provided an answer to this question: Who does God most often use to turn what if into what is?

The answer? Insecure, risk taking, pain enduring idiots.

Craig explained how God has shown him this in his own life and ministry in painful, sometimes humorous, ways. His message was based on Acts 4:13 where the disciples are described as ordinary and unskilled. What God is looking for is people stupid enough to believe that anything is possible through Him.

He then challenged us to think and pray about these three questions:

1. In what area of ministry have I become dangerously secure in my own knowledge and ability?

2. What faith risk is God calling me to take?

3. What painful decision have I been avoiding?

Craig admitted that at one-time he had become a full-time pastor and a part-time follower of Christ. We must never serve the church more than Him.

In the Q&A, the question, Craig was asked about his biggest idiot moment. Time and time again, he said, he's insulted God by dreaming too small.

What an incredible start to the conference! Everywhere you turn, there is energy, excitement, and questions as pastors or leaders download what they just heard and begin to process what God wants to do in their own churches.

The First Photos

We've started a photo album to give you a look at this year's conference. You can check out the first batch here. These are from earlier today as teams from across the country started arriving. Look for more photos soon.

The evening sessions are just about to begin. The feedback from the afternoon breakouts has been terrific. From Worship to Volunteers, each session was full of discussion and great questions. Thanks to all of you who came a day early to dive deep into your ministry.

The CreativePastors booth has been buzzing with activity. It's been wonderful to finally meet so many of you! We've been able to learn a lot about your ministries and how we can best help you continue to reach your communities.

The full conference starts tomorrow morning at 9am with what promises to be a ministry-changing message by Ed Young. Stay tuned to CreativePastors.com!