2008 Orange Conference Session 2

2008 Orange Conference by ReThink Group

Session 2

Francis Chan:

• Is the success in churches from God and the Holy Spirit moving, or is it good marketing?
• With the right team, Francis can build a Mormon church, a Jehovah’s church, maybe even a Baptist Church
• Francis doesn’t want to preach another message, he wants to experience something supernatural…something God! – Acts was of God.
• Does it bother us that we walk into our neighborhoods and the lost have more evidences of the fruits of the spirit than those in the church? Shouldn’t there be a difference between someone without the Spirit and the one who is the Temple of the Holy Spirit?
• We can create church attenders and some disciplined people, but we cannot create Christ lovers, people filled with God’s spirit.
• Is it God that we are experiencing in our ministries? Are we sure? Are we experiencing God because we know its God, or are we just excited because “we” pulled something off.
• There is a huge difference in what the Bible says and what we see in the church – yet we are crippled to say anything because everyone seems so happy. So we do not even try to hold our churches to the Biblical standard. (Yep!)
• **Francis: If Jesus planted a church in Semi Valley California, Francis’ church would be bigger, because people do not want to follow the standard that Jesus calls us to. (Lose our life for his sake, deny father and mother, sacrifice, death)
• [Luke 8] – I love Francis’ explanation of this story, awesome! – The disciples questioned Jesus, “What was that?” – Jesus “I’m going to speak in parables so they get to hear the message, but they would not understand.” – The disciples got it, that is why they questioned and came after Jesus. – Jesus had the attitude, “If you get it, you get it!” – Those who get it will come, but those who do not will go their own way anyway. Jesus will draw all men unto themselves.
• We preach things like Acts 4, we conclude that “it would be neat” but in the back of our minds we determine that it could not be done here, Francis “It has to happen here!” – We have to know that it has to happen here, this is how God wants his people to live. – Its not optional. God’s desire was not for individual followers; even with Israel (Deut. 4:6) He wanted the nation to follow him…the group of people to collectively be a light to the world. (We, Nation, Us, etc.) (1 Peter 2:9)
• The church must be a light to the world as a body…a group of people. – Its not a blackjack following, where the individual only cares about himself at the table.
• (1 John 12:4) – No one has seen God, but if we love each other, His love is made complete will dwell within us.
• We strategize and we think through all of the things that will reach people or grow the church, but Jesus told us to “Love Our Neighbor as ourselves.” – This is the movement that we need – Christ may want you to start the movement, don’t worry about anyone else – What keep us from living in community and sacrificing everything for others? This is how we will experience God.
• What are we doing that is Biblical and what are we doing that is American in the church?
• 2 Timothy 4:6 “The time has come for my departure…” – We will come to a time where we will complete the work he has given us to do.
• Is there anything else in the world that you would want to hear other than God saying, “Well Done!?”