Exponential 2012

Kairos has ten people at Exponential, the largest church planting training/gathering event in the States. Here's some of the big teaching points I'm gaining.

Day 1 - Exponential: Reproducing at all Levels to Create a Missional Church Movement (Dave and Jon Ferguson, Community Christian Church)
1.  Know your leadership development system so your people know how to grow.
2.  Multiply your small groups. Every leader has an apprentice. Multiply when your apprentice is ready to lead, has their apprentice, and has a host.
3.  Multiply everything: leaders, groups, celebration services, churches.

Resource: The Apprentice Field Guide at newthing.org

Day 2 - Church Plant Killers (Matt Keller, Next Level Church & Shawn Lovejoy, )
1.  Work Your Vision. Vision is a hard-data preferred future of accomplishment. When it happens you can measure it and know it.
2.  Doing it Alone. Your success hinges upon your dream team. Create your farm system:
  - Pick up ducks
  - Give them responsibility--not a title
  - Debrief/train them regularly
  - Spend time with your $5 ducks, invest in them
  - Stretch them, it's how people grow
3.  Don't Lead Yourself. The hardest person to lead is yourself.

Quotes
"We're church planters, we don't take no for an answer, we figure it out."
"Leaders have to grow at a pace faster than their numeric growth or one day your leadership gap will become unmanageable."
"Don't plant at the neglect of your very lives."

Resource: The Up The Middle Church by Matt Keller. The Measure of Our Success by Shawn Lovejoy