M7 thoughts

We had this thing in Kanasas City a couple of weeks ago called M7. That stands for Mission 2007 and is part of what the Church of the Nazarene considers to be a missionally minded conference for pastors, church leaders and laity. I did a workshop at the conference called "Reaching Families and Children in Your Community." I suppose there were about 62 in the room for that hour. It was a neat experience since I have really not had such a privilege to do such a thing before.

My key thoughts included some thoughts from Don Miller on 13 paradigm shifts when reaching a pagan culture and some simple yet effective ways to impact families and children in your neighborhood. Athough it doesn't seem to 'emergent' or 'postmodern' my feeling is that 1) listening still works in building friendships, 2) no hint of judgement should exude from conversations, 3) when in doubt - go with grace, 4) a plate of cookies still works, 5) keep it real.

While at the conference all I could think about were my neighbors and how much I want them to discover a personal relationship with Jesus as I have. IN all the fanfare, what the conference boiled down to for me was how could I continue a healthy dialog with my neighbors so they might someday know the Christ. We don't the churches permission or blessing to reach our world for Christ. A greater commission has already been given. So, that is about how I feel on reaching a world for Jesus and M7.

Also, I have begun a new company that I'll tell you more about later. I'm excited at the potential though. Stay tuned...and remember...Jesus called us to make disciples not clones.