Drive Takeaways

Here's the rest of the amazing stuff from Andy's last session at Drive 08. You can read part 1 here (and you probably should to even know what I'm talking about).

3 "What do I believe is impossible to do in my field, but if it could be done would fundamentally change my church?" [or maybe even THE Church] - Joel Barker, Future Edge
- I sat up and perked up when I heard this one because (audacious as it may sound) I think part of my Chazown is to change the world... I'd be satisfied with changing THE Church 1st.
I felt like this one flowed nicely from the 2nd point. Andy was talking about some much needed paradigm shifts within the church world! There are things that could revolutionize the Church for good if we could figure out how to shift some paradigms which seem "impossible" to shift.

Example 1 = 13 years ago (when Andy was starting NPCC) he had a dilemma about the lead guy of a church. "Being able to talk well and lead well are 2 totally different gifts!" [to which I say YEAH THEY ARE!] So Andy said there must be a way to break that model. The Point guy as the leader & speaker paradigm must be broken! Because let's face it, when you have a mediocre communicator OR a mediocre leader it just slows the whole thing down! [not to mention when there is a crappy leader & communicator... those churches are just plain strugglin']
***The paradigm finally shifted when the idea of "video church" came along. Andy said that was the ticket to release Great Leaders (who are decent, but not phenomenal communicators). Have a great leader leading the organization but pipe someone like Andy in or some other baller speaker to do most of the communicating. brilliant, yet SO SIMPLE!
it's stuff like this that must be fixed! Someone just has to figure it out.

Example 2 (current) = There is a bazillion million dollars being ridiculously underused by churches all across America! (nobody would argue with that). BUT, down the street is a church plant that's bumpin' & making stuff happen, but they're meeting in a flippin' Senior Center on Sunday nights! Ok, he said warehouse not senior center, but you get the point. So, Andy said we MUST figure out how to merge the $/real estate/resources from the old & dying church with the new (but poor) church who is on the verge of changing the community! Then he made a very humble & inspiring statement that still burns in my mind & heart & I will probably never forget = "I don't have the answer for this, but I hope one of YOU will figure it out." [man, I hope so too Andy]
*OH, and this is the point when our whole row of Ridge peeps wanted to stand up & cheer!
those were just two examples, but there are more paradigms that need to shift in the Church world.

Andy's Takeaway = "Pay attention to the people who are breaking the rules." [and I guess that bodes well for me as I have been a rule breaker all my life... maybe now that will finally pay off after the detentions, suspensions, & expulsions]


4 "If we got kicked out and the company brought in a new CEO what would HE do? Why don't we just walk out the door, come back in, and do it ourselves?" - Andy Grove, Only The Paranoid Survive
- we all love the way we do ministry, BUT does it work? what would someone with fresh eyes do? somebody who isn't stooped in the tradition of our system? If it's broke then challenge the process NOW!

Andy's Takeaway = "We rarely get serious about change until we run out of MONEY!" - we're more worried about paying the bills than about the unreached people in our city! [This is absolutely the truth & I'm gonna go out on a limb & say Jesus is pretty ticked at this.]

5 "What's in Decline and where are we manufacturing energy?" - Andy challenged us to evaluate ALL our underlying assumptions! An underlying assumption is something you've assumed so long that you don't even know why you assume it to be true. And let me add that if you had to ask what they were, you probably have them! They can be a beast of an enemy!

Takeaway = "Acknowledge what's not working and own up to why I'm not willing to do anything about it." [why would you not!?!?]

6 "When my memories exceed my dreams the end is near!" - unknown

*OH WOW... I've met some people like that! & this is SO TRUE. Andy said, "who wants to be an expert on the last 15 years of ministry?" - who gives a crap about that... let's figure out the future of ministry!

Andy's Takeaway = "Don't let success or momentum overshadow your vision. Keep vision in front."

***Whoa. and these last 2 posts were all from 1 talk. That's why Chris says "Andy says more in an hour than most guys say their whole lives." Hope you enjoyed some of that & there's lot's more coming.

[btw - since hardly anyone reads over the weekend & since I don't post much on the weekends... I think I'm gonna start a new weekend segment on the renown blog. check it out this weekend if you're curious.]