1st day at Orcas Is

This is out of order, but these are the first day's notes from the Advance with Bill Easum at Len & Elizabeth Sweet's home on Orcas Island in the Puget Sound.

Here are John Megyesi, Darryl Moulder, Harry Eberts and Russ Goldner of our peer group talking with Bill Easum (propped up against the pole) at the Sweets'.

Bill Easum -
Our pupose is not to build churches, but to change the lives of the city.
We need to focus on going deep rather than wide...immerse ourselves in scripture before we focus on getting more folks.

Small groups are not the big issue in churches. Multiplying small groups so more people can learn, grow and experience in the reality of Jesus Christ is the issue. And in developing leadership for small groups and thus the church. We need monthly leadership gatherings to have the leaders support one another, to focus on the purpose of groups, and to make sure we are within the DNA of the church.

Some good church models:
Imago Dei in Portland, OR
Dream Center in LA

Good books to read: Blue Like Jazz: Nonreligious Thoughts on Christian Spirituality by Donald Miller
Birth of the Chaordic Age by Dee Hock
Rules for Radicals by Saul Alinsky

Small group leaders should provide weekly updates to the pastor of how lives have changed within their group and who needs more personal follow up. Bill had a stack of these reports on his desk every Sunday from small group leaders.

[At this point the idea came to me of Adam Kukuk and myself starting a worship/music leader training opportunity for churches that want to learn about this, but haven't had the opportunity. I also see as a future vision for my life as I get closer to 60 and can audit for free classes at U of A to learn more about computer and visual technology in communication and to help churches that don't have the resources or opportunities to learn about this.]

Fractals - get right what it is from the horse's mouth, Wayne Cordeiro
Potential teams for the functioning of the church and to fractal to help it function
worship
lay mobilization/equipping
outreach
administration
look at Acts 6 and Ephesians 4:11-12

Try to shift your church from a "what" (to do's) to a "who" (relating)