Movements Move

In March of 2006, I started blog stalking Steve Addison. Since then, his insights have continually had a tremendous impact on my perspective on leadership, missions and students. Yesterday, I got to meet Steve face to face as well as sit in on a session with him along with the Ember interns and about 30 other people. Hearing him speak live on "Movements that Change the World" was an absolute treat. If you've ever served on a team with me, Steve has made an impact on you too. My rough notes are below.

Movements start with the unraveling of leaders - issue of who is Lord.
There is no formula - focus on God, may the Lord unravel us for his service.
See the people of God as a missionary movement. Jesus is the founder of it.

What did Jesus do.
- He moves. 175 towns/villages in Galilee. 200K people. Either he or his team had direct contact with each village and each person. Jesus moves on after the seed has been planted. Very unlike our model of settled pastor/teacher.
- Speaks to thousands as well as one on one.
- Whole nation is touched by the end of his life.
- No finances, no org, no manual, no power - nothing except God's power.

Acts 1:1 - Jesus is the key character in the book of Acts.

Must see through movement eyes. How you disciple the first convert is paramount.

Woman at the well - only stayed with her for 2 days - no follow up. Movements move.

People of peace
- not trying to convert everyone, just find the people of peace
- a harvest model
- the end game is the Gospel planted - person of peace fits the culture better than you do. we are focusing too much on ourselves.
- Zaccheus
- Matthew - Jesus says I want to meet your friends.
- Demoniac - go back and tell your friends
- Rich young ruler - looking for the responsive and turn away the unresponsive
- Lydia
- Phillipian jailer - tell your families
- Cornelius - is the church planter that plants the church in his own house.
- Movements move=meeting lots of people - vs Western model=love them for a long time into the Kingdom

'What we suffer from today is humility in the wrong place.' - Chesterton

Western suburb of Melbourne is the graveyard of church plants.
If you can control it, it's not a movement.
Overwhelmingly, heresy is the product of white learned men.
Insiders don't think about incarnation - they are living it.

We like to: churches -> gospel -> disciple.
book of Acts: gospel -> disciples -> churches

Studio of the Arts - Annapolis MD.
Met twitter friend @bcmddavid in real life - Team Strategist for Church Multiplication, Baptist Convention of Maryland/Delaware
about 50 people there, mostly church planters, pastor types. almost all white - no women there. JTimmons and AR were the youngest in the audience.

Steve: top notch speaker - great interaction with the audience. Loved that there was built in times for interaction and reflection on the material with your team. There were also a few times he made up some specific interactions on the fly - all in order that the material could be reflected on immediately.

Thank you Steve - you've impacted much more than we can see.

[Related: Book notes - Movements That Change The World]