Greg Atkinson

What are you doing November 3-5? How about joining me in beautiful San Diego? I’ll be speaking again this year at the National Outreach Convention and enjoying the worship, fellowship, networking and learning from various gifted speakers.

I’ll also be teaching THIS class where you can learn about what I (and visitors) look for when they come to your church. I’ve attended and taught at #NOC10 before and can assure you this is one of the premier conferences in the country. The focus is outreach, but the takeaways are numerous.

Just look at THIS lineup and all the quality speakers. The hard part is choosing which breakout to attend. Each one is taught by speakers that could give a keynote – they’re truly gifted and insightful. The general sessions are powerful, too and will fill your tank.

If all you heard was Christine Caine in a breakout and Mark Batterson’s and Matt Chandler’s main session, it would be worth the price of admission, but there’s 3 days full of programming. This conference is packed full of great content, challenging topics and even discussion groups.

The discussion groups (which are in addition to the breakouts and main sessions) are led by friends of mine like Charles, Hill, Carlos Whittaker, Phil Cooke, Shawn Wood, John Bishop, Dino Rizzo – plus even more led by homerun hitters like Dan Kimball and Christine Caine, to name a few.

Act now and get $50 off ALL tickets right now. People should use NOCOCT as a coupon code to get early bird pricing. I hope to see you in beautiful San Diego – where you can rest assured it will be 72 degrees.

Today, I’m meeting with a social media client in Atlanta and then hanging around for a board meeting with Parable Creative. I encourage you to get to know Josh Webb and the folks at Parable Creative, if you haven’t already.

Wednesday through Friday, I’ll be at the Catalyst Conference. If you’re going to be there, be sure to connect with me and say “Hi”. Saturday, I’ll be attending the West Ridge School of Church Planting. This week will be busy and full of meetings and late nights, so I’ll blog again when I can.

Today I leave for my good old hometown of Dallas, TX. I’ll be hanging out at the ECHO Conference for the next few days. If you’re going to be there, please find me and say “hello”. I’m looking forward to being back in a city that I love and getting to see several friends from around the country that are coming to the conference.

Friday, I’ll be leaving Dallas and flying to Salt Lake City, Utah to hang out for six days with my friend, Charles Hill (founder of The Sticks Conference). Charles is planting a church near Salt Lake City, Utah (which happens to be the most un-churched city in the US) and I’ll get to attend his second preview service this Sunday. I can’t wait to share with you all what God shows me from my time with Charles.

As you know, I have a big heart for church planters and church plants in general. I love all church planters, regardless of where they plant, but I’m very passionate about hard to reach and unchurched areas like the Northeast, Pacific Northwest and where I’m going to be in Utah.

I’m also praying through some big decisions these days and would appreciate your prayers, as I believe God is leading me to start a church planting movement. I’ll be blogging more about the vision of this movement in the near future, but for now – please just pray for me. I feel God is up to something and stirring something inside of me and I feel my time with Charles in Utah is going to mess me up (for good)!

Can you believe it’s almost August?

Catalyst 2010 | The Tension is Good from Catalyst on Vimeo.

You won’t want to miss the Catalyst Conference this year, happening October 6-8, 2010 in Atlanta, where 13,000 young leaders will converge for the leadership experience of the year, including high-octane speakers, powerful worship, innovative programming, and an experience unlike any other. I’ll be there and I hope to see you there, too.

Hear from leadership authorities including Andy Stanley, Seth Godin, TD Jakes, Craig Groeschel, Francis Chan, Beth Moore, Perry Noble, and Christine Caine, along with several innovative thinkers and practitioners like best-selling author Daniel Pink, charity: water founder Scott Harrison, Gabe Lyons, First Response Team founder Tad Agoglia, and Rani Hong, winner of the United Nations Human Rights Award.

Plus, Catalyst Labs will feature innovative thought leaders like Michael Hyatt, Pete Wilson, Mark Batterson, Anne Jackson, John Ortberg, Mike Foster, Jud Wilhite, Reggie Joiner, Jamie Tworkowski, Alan Hirsch, Gayle Haggard, Chris Hodges, Jon Acuff, Tim Elmore, Charles Lee, Chris Seay, Chris and Phileena Heuertz, and others.

Best Rates on Catalyst tickets end this Thursday, June 24th, so register now. Call 888.334.6569 to speak to a Catalyst Concierge, or register online at www.catalystconference.com. You can use Rate Code FOB for an additional discount off your ticket price. Catalyst will sell out, so make sure and register early!

I hope you’ve enjoyed the variety of guest posts lately. I’ve enjoyed them and they’ve really freed me up to write. My book has 40 chapters. I’ve written 37 of them and will hope to finish the book this week.

I’ve also been traveling. Last weekend I did a secret shopper in Kansas City and last week I spoke at the National Church Music Conference in Indianapolis. This weekend I’ll be doing another secret shopper in Sacramento, CA.

The church in KC was a medium size church of 300 people. The church in Sacramento is a church of over 10,000. Large or small – the secret shopper is a wise investment. You can always do what you do better and be more sensitive and effective to reaching lost people. If you’re interested, contact me – I’d love to help your church.

Tomorrow, I’ll be writing (today, too) and I’ll let you enjoy another guest post.

The following guest blog is by Charles Hill, church planter in Salt Lake City and founder of The Sticks Conference

I have been engaged in “vocational” ministry for over a decade now. I have read the church growth, church health, theology, polity, simple church, mega church, church history and church future books to name a few. But it wasn’t until I held the dying bride that everything changed for me.

God blessed our first plant in the middle of nowhere, cornfield, rural, small-town [2,800 people] Ohio. Our last Easter there, we saw 1,500 people just at our first campus, and we had 2 other regional campuses and 1 in China. Yes, God blessed beyond our wildest dreams despite our stupidity. [By the way, if you are called to the middle of nowhere, you might want to check out this gathering of radicals who are called to the same thing at THE STICKS gatherings.]

God has called us to do that all over again, this time in the fastest-growing state in the country…UTAH [not a typo], through MISSION WEST. There are 24+ cities just in the upper 1/3 of Utah found by leaving the main interstate by only 20 minutes in either direction that we have found without ONE CHURCH in them [non-Mormon of course]. And yes, that is UTAH, USA, not Pakistan or some other out of the way place. And in cities as large as 22,000! I dread doing the rest of the research.

So why not? Let’s roll. We did it once [actually several times through multi-sites] through God’s power, let’s rock it again. We have the experience, we have the tools. Let’s roll this thing. Same thing, new location right? Until I held the dying bride in my arms.

You know all of those alarmist books that calls those of us in America to wake-up, to take notice, to understand that the future of the church is and will look much different, and we need to take notice NOW so we can prepare for it? I had read those, but working in the mid-west and the Bible-belt for a time, where cutting-edge music, graphics, programming, lights, cameras, action is still so new, hip, sheik and still working well to draw people to the Savior? Crap, we had half the town in church that last Easter, but something still felt wrong. Because I didn’t really get it until I held the dying bride in my arms.

January, 2010: I held the dying bride in my arms. On a vision/learning trip to London and surrounding areas, it happened. To my friends working in the UK/Europe, I honor your efforts [and many of you are KILLING it in Jesus name, and I salute you!] In just 1 generation, everything has changed in the UK you told me. 1 generation. And for those in the bible-belt, it’s happening here in the USA just as fast. You, like me just haven’t experienced it yet.

I now not only have read about it, spoken about it, theorized about it, but I have held it. And as a church planting coach, consultant, speaker, and planter myself…everything has to change, and it has to change not just to be trendy, not just to be hip, and not just to use “missional living” as the next big “program”.

Everything. You are like, no kidding Charles, how is this innovative? Where have you been? Awfully late to the party aren’t you? This is old stuff.

Oh, no, trust me…I’m not late. I travel the country right now a ton, and people might say they are living this out, but they are still stuck in one of several “forms” of ministry that are leading us to record decrease in the US, not an increase. [And many are still stuck in the good old days of yester-year, but that's a totally different story.]

We are 1 generation from being a very post-Christian nation such as they are in the UK and Europe. Matter of fact, we are easily on our way as I type this. But many of you, like me, have refused to change everything. Not just tinker with a few things here and there. But radically overhaul everything. But that might cost you some givers, some momentum, might even cost you your job. You might not even know where to start. But you, like me, know something is wrong with this picture, no matter how “small or large” your church is.

This week I will be sharing my thoughts on how, why and what we must change immediately now that I have held the dying bride in my arms. I believe we can turn this ship around in the name of Jesus!

You can find me this week over HERE and help carry out the discussion. I would love to learn with and from you. [Thanks Greg, innovation guru, and the best late-night movie date ever, for hosting me as a guest. You are a noble and honorable man of God].

Today and tomorrow, I’ll be attending the Velocity ChurchPlanters.com conference in Cumming, GA at Mountain Lake Church. Speakers include Rick Warren, Steven Furtick and Dave Gibbons! If you’re there, I’d love to meet you. Should be fun. You can follow the action on Twitter.

Anyone using visual media in church should know the answer to this question (WHY?) if they are to be effective.

Come and be part of the discussion that is shaping the philosophy and vision of visual media in the modern Church. Engage with visual worship leaders and ministry staff from across the country in this roundtable forum. VisualWorship2010 was launched to be a catalyst for visual worshipers and the Church to discover what God has in store for us.

Check it out!

Tomorrow I leave for San Diego. I’ll be speaking for the first time at the National Outreach Convention. I’m really looking forward to it as I’ll be able to see many great friends, leaders I respect and hopefully meet some people for the first time. I’ll be speaking four times. Here’s where you can catch me if you’re attending:

• Innovation in the Church – Wed. at 3pm
• Church Next: A Panel of Innovators – Thurs. at 10:30 am featuring: Greg Ligon, Greg Surratt, Larry Osborne, Dave Ferguson, Dino Rizzo, Hugh Halter and myself.
• Church Planting – Fri. at 1pm (with Charles Hill)
• The Birth of Innovation – Fri. at 2:30pm

Yesterday I arrived in Atlanta. Today through Friday I’ll be attending Catalyst – a conference I look forward to every year. These guys bring it every year. If you’re at Catalyst, message me on Twitter and let’s meet up. Hope to see you there. More when I return.