WiBo Part One

The Whiteboard Sessions...1 day...8 speakers...30 minutes each to discuss 1 idea...over 600 miles driven. Whew!

Still downloading the conference, but here are some things that hit me from the speakers:

MARK BATTERSON:

"When we think we have God figured out, we lose our spiritual thirst/quest to seek Him, and we develop a theological pride. Our best theories will soon become obsolete."

"When is the last time that you confessed to God that your dreams are too small?"

"We get to a dangerous point when we do ministry out of memory instead of imagination. At some point, memory will overtake imagination."


VINCE ANTONUCCI

"How is it possible that I lived for 20 years right here in America and NOBODY ever told me about Jesus or invited me to church?"

"The church is reaching people, but not lost people. We are reaching "saved" people. 2.2% of churches are experiencing conversion growth."

"In Matthew 9:36...Jesus looked upon the crowds and saw they were like sheep without a shepeherd. It broke the heart of Jesus. What breaks your heart?"

"If you are not close to people who are far from God, then you are not as close to God as you think you are."


TIM STEVENS

"Most churches are not impacting their communities. They are actually getting in the way of the Gospel."

"Leverage the culture or risk losing your impact."


DARRIN PATRICK

"Sin = exchanging our object of worship. You are ruled by what you worship."

"Worship is the natural response of being captivated."

"An idol is the sin beneath the sin...anything in my life that occupies a place in my life that should be held by God alone."

"Most of the time, we are clueless about our own idols (pretty good at knowing the idols of OTHERS). When our idols are threatened or disturbed, we become aware."

"The more you mature as a Christian, the more you realize that you are a bigger sinner than you thought!"


Wow! Or as Perry Noble would say, "DANG!" Or as Matt Fry would say, (well, he said it once) "Boy Howdy!" Or as Mary Ann would say, "OH! OH! OH!"

Anyway, just some things that I wrote down in my Moleskine journal at Wibo. Those are just the first 4 speakers, so my next post will have some of the "gotchas" from the second half of the day...Mark Dever, John Burke, Perry Noble, and Ed Stetzer.