Innovative Church Conference - Session 1

After an introduction from the Culps and Move Along performed by Trace Rorie and band, Mark Beeson started off the day with strength. Some highlights from his talk:

• He said, "I flunked my first preaching class." The prof told him he told too many stories and talked too much about Jesus.
• Mark told a great story about Judo Boy -- getting his arms pulled out of socket by a chinese judo expert named Mr. Wu. He decided he wasn't cut out for judo.
• It's important to know who you are. But it's more important to know who you are not.
• Once you know who you are not--you can build a team around you.
• To illustrate that you need people around you who can do what you can not, Mark showed the crowd the iDate video. (Go ahead, click the link, you want to see it).
• If you let people serve how God has wired them up, then it's amazing what can happen with a team.
• Mark: "I'm a professional cheerleader...that's what I do."
• "I used to hire people. But I would hire people just cause I believed the best in them even if they had no ability for the job. Now I let others do the hiring."

Butch Whitmire presented The Shadow drama which led into Unwritten performed by Angie Henry with Kathy Sellers, Dan Vukmirovich and Faith Stevens (yes, my beautiful wife).

• Everyone one in the audience we're trying to reach has a past. They think they aren't worth much.
• Paper plates arent't worth much. We'll use 2 or 3 plates in one meal and the throw them away. Our China, on the other hand, is hardly ever used. When we use it, we hand wash and hand dry.
• Most people feel like a paper plate. They believe they have no value. You have to figure out how to communicate to them that the are valuable...they matter to God.
• If our audience is going to get it--we have to translate into a language that our audience can get. They don't speak God-talk.

Mark ended with a encouraging word for the 700+ pastors and leaders that are gathered.