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Multiplication, discipleship and relationships at Exponential 2016

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Exponential 2016, a three-day event held in Orlando, Fla., drew more than 5,000 church planters from around the world, including more than 30 people from the Baltimore-Washington Conference. The event focused around the theme “Becoming 5ive,” an allusion to five different types of church.

This series of articles presents some of the BWC experiences and observations at Exponential 2016.

At the Exponential Conference in Orlando, Fla., April 26-28, 181 speakers and teachers shared insights on God, the church and faith. Among them:

The church is proof that God dreams.
– Erwin McManus

Hope in the past is called regret. You are designed by God to create the future. … What would happen if the church became an incubator of humanity’s best future?
– Erwin McManus

We’re too focused on our little kingdoms ‘here,’ and not focused on what God wants us to do ‘there.’ … Every church has a life-cycle. You’re not getting tweets from Laodicea. Ours is a there-kind-of God. We’re called to go there.
– Dave Ferguson

The best question is, ‘If I knew I wouldn’t fail, where would be make the biggest Kingdom-impact for God?
– Dave Ferguson

Most people are bored in our churches. They have a nagging sense they should be doing meaningful mission. They sit in church and wonder if God will rebuke them for not doing the meaningful thing they were supposed to.
– J.D. Greear

Mega-churches make a big bang.  But the future of the church is in multiplying leaders who carry the Gospel wherever they go. Raising up leaders doesn’t make a lot of noise. But it will change the face of the church in the United States. … This is too urgent to ‘play church.’
– J.D. Greear

Kingdom things happen at the speed of a seed.
– Mark Batterson

You’ll never be ready for what God calls you to do. God asks you to step out in faith and take a risk. You’ll never be more than 80 percent certain. At National Community Church, our mantra is ‘Go, set, ready!’
– Mark Batterson

Think of Moses and the burning bush:  ‘God has a reputation of tapping you on the shoulder just when you get comfortable. God didn’t call you to comfort, God called you to Kingdom. It’s time to begin again.’
– Albert Tate

Your God is bigger than your problems. Open your eyes and see that the Truth is bigger than the facts.
– Albert Tate

All God needs from you is a ‘yes’; a ‘thank you, Jesus’; and a good old ‘hallelujah!’
– Albert Tate

Exponential Conference focuses on Level Five chuches

By Melissa Lauber
What happens when local church leaders from the Baltimore-Washington Conference immerse themselves in learning how to plant new churches? Hopefully, multiplication. Read more »

 
BWC members inspired at Exponential Conference

By Erik Alsgaard
More than 30 clergy and lay members from the Baltimore-Washington Conference attended Exponential 2016, an ecumenical conference for church planters in Orlando, Fla. Read more »

 
Fasten your seat belt – thoughts on Exponential 2016

By Christine Kumar
After fumbling to get my seat belt fastened on the plane, I was ready to go to Orlando, Florida, to attend the Exponential Conference at First Baptist Church. My colleagues, Olivia Gross, Melissa Lauber and Erik Alsgaard, were on the same early morning flight. Read more »

It’s not just about big churches…

By Mark Batterson

In 1983, a physics professor named Lorne Whitehead published an article in the American Journal of Physics, titled “Domino Chain Reaction.” The domino effect is nothing new, but what Whitehead discovered is that a domino isn’t just capable of knocking over a domino the same size as itself. What he discovered is that a domino can actually topple a domino that is 1.5 times its own size.

So a 2-inch domino can knock over a 3-inch domino. A 3-inch domino can knock over a 4.5-inch domino, and I’m not real good at fractions so we are going to stop there.

Here’s the amazing part, by the time you get to the 18th domino, you could topple the Leaning Tower of Pisa! Of course it is leaning so that’s cheating. With the 21st domino, you could take down the Washington Monument, and with the 24th domino, you could take down the Empire State Building.

I think you get the point. It is not linear progression, it is geometric progression.

Check this out, the gravitational potential energy of the 13th domino is 2 billion times greater than the energy that it took to knock over that first domino. So, if you try to start with domino number 13, good luck with that, it’s not going to happen.

But anybody can topple a 2-inch domino. So don’t despise the day of 2-inch dominos. One little yes can change everything.

Now imagine the steps you take. In 30 linear steps, you’ll travel 90 feet. But in 30 geometric steps you can circle the earth 26 times. Faith is geometric. When you take one little step, you never know what the domino effect may be.

What’s the risk you need to take? What’s the two-inch domino you need to push over?

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