Yesterday, we attended an afternoon seminar in Camp Hill, PA where Rev. Bob Farr (from the Missouri Conference) was the featured speaker. Farr presented material from his upcoming book, Renovate or Die: 10 Ways to Focus Your Church on Mission. (Edited to add link for the book, now published.)
Here are a few quotes from the day.
If someone comes to your church, something’s up. Pay attention to the guests!
On the role of preaching today …
We have to become interpreters of Truth; no longer disseminators of information.
On what kind of people we must be …
Be missionaries, not church members.
On the need of pastors to connect with unchurched people …
Pastors, spend at least 25% of your time in the mission field (with people you don’t know).
A good conversation starter to use with other followers of Jesus …
Tell me about a time when you recently experienced God.
An interesting detail on the effectiveness of ordained and non-ordained pastors (just Missouri or elsewhere?) …
(Licensed) Local Pastors have a 30% better chance of growing churches than (ordained) Elders.
In preaching, the goal is …
What do you want me to do with this on Monday?
Overall, it was a good training event. This event is part of the Matthew 28 Initiative, a process that’s being used in our conference to help churches move toward greater fruitfulness. A few members of Centre Grove’s church council attended the training session as well. I’m looking forward to discussing/processing what we heard at our meeting tomorrow night.
Bob, is great guy with a lot of wonderful ideas that work. You have to listen fast as he speaks fast. I would not be shocked if we here in Missouri lose Bob soon, as I think he would make a great Bishop.
Ah, that’s right, Barron, you’re from Missouri. Thanks for chiming in on this one.
As I said, it was a good event, but I may have absorbed more had it not been on a Sunday afternoon, 2.5 hours from home. 🙂