Allegheny Church Planting: Closing Sessions at expoconf ‘08

Closing Session of www.exponentialconference.com

What an intro to Tim Keller! Wow! By Sound

DNA of a reproducing church must be the gospel – Romans 1:16-17. Gospel doesn't produce power – it IS the power of God. Gospel is always a verbal proclamation in the NT.
See April 2008 issue of Leadership Magazine for much of the content of this talk.
Modern evangelical world has lost sight of what the gospel is, and we are unsure.
Matthew, Mark, Luke – gospel is about Kingdom of God, but in John it is about eternal life, Paul makes it about justification. They take such different approaches to the same gospel. Referenced to Brian McLaren who, in one of his trilogy books, brings us back to the Kingdom of God.
Keller – there is one gospel with several forms. Galatians 1 – the cursed who preach any other gospel. 1 Cor. 15 – we all preach the same gospel. Gal. 2:7 – shows the difference of approach to the circumcised and to the uncircumcised.
1 Cor. 1:22-25 – Weakness/power. Chinese guy and Japanese guy see a bird – one sees beauty, the other sees lunch. 2 cultures, 2 gospel forms.

What is the One Gospel?

Simon Gatherhold – God's Power to Save – IVP UK. Gospel tripod =
- In Jesus Christ, God emptied himself
- In Jesus Christ, God died as our substitutionary atonement…
- At end of time, In Jesus Christ, God will return to restore all things.
Not just about individual salvations, about restoration of all things…much bigger than what we tend to look at. It is both/and. Both personal conversion and changing the world and ushering in the "at hand" Kingdom of God.

Three Aspects of the Kingdom of God

Upside Down Kingdom = reversal of values from world's values…serving, caring, reconciliation
Inside-out Kingdom = personal salvation and sanctification. Repenting of not just our sins but also our righteousness…salvation is by faith. This is what makes us different than Pharisees.
Right-side up Kingdom = working on the world's restoration because of salvation…the new heavens and earth.

Producing converts, growing the tribe just to grow the tribe becomes cancer. In our bodies, cells without purpose become cancer.
John's gospel put emphasis on individual change, the Synoptics place the emphasis on the broader Kingdom corporately, societally, and perhaps Paul blends both. It stems for a systematic approach to the Gospel in the Gospels and Paul's writings. We use many approaches at the gospel.
PREACHING EXPOSITIONALLY THROUGH THE GOSPELS AND PAUL, WE WILL PREACH THE GOSPEL IN ALL THE FORMS. He showed how preaching each aspect of the Kingdom of God impacts different people. Preach stories, preach structure all of which is found when we preach the Bible. You must be able to preach all 3 passionately:
- Incarnational Preaching – how God reveals Himself through the revelation of His Book. The only way for Hamlet to experience Shakespeare is for Shakespeare to write himself into the play…and that is exactly what God did with us (C.S. Lewis responding to Kruschev).
- Substitutionary Preaching -
- Return of Christ Preaching – resurrection becomes good news for the whole world that change not just lives, but even society and creation.

Before marriage, opposites attract, after marriage opposites attack.
Listen to your wife. The Holy Spirit will speak through her.
Never compare yourself to anyone else…always someone doing it better, and always someone doing it worse…discouragement & pride.

HOW TO BUILD A REPRODUCING CHURCH-PLANT

Never Stop Growing Yourself…Have Polaroid vision…the longer you look at it, the clearer it becomes.
Pay attention to your family. Call it a Sabbath, not a day-off. Build your family before you build your church.
You must make disciples…it takes years to grow an oak tree, you can't grow a solid sizeable church overnight…don't be interested in audience, rather be interested in raising an army.
It is all about SURRENDER…what God wants is right.
Develop a Kingdom mindset…learn to love not just your own church, but learn to love everybody else's too…we are not each other's competition, our competition is the world, the flesh and the devil…THE KINGDOM OF GOD IS WHEREVER JESUS CHRIST IS KING!
It is God's people doing God's will wherever. The KINGDOM OF GOD IS INEVITABLE. Every time the disciples wanted to talk about prophesy, Jesus changed the subject to EVANGELISM.
Focus on building PEOPLE not THE CHURCH. As we build people, God builds the church.
You must have a process, a paradigm, and plan and follow it.
Acts 13:36 – David did the timeless in a timely way…served God's purpose in his generation, then He died. 8 Laws of the Spiritually Mature Church (mp3 by Warren available at www.pastors.com )