advance 09 quotes from Driscoll - What is the Church?

I talked about Advance 09 and posted some Driscoll takeaways in yesterday's post HERE.
Actually, you can listen to every single talk from Advance 09 HERE! pretty cool. Piper is the man & is so awesome to give away basically everything he's involved with for FREE! (books, talks, content, etc...)
Lots of good stuff at this conference (as you could guess from the guys you see in the pic below). Actually in this post I simply wanted to share some of my favorite quotes from the conference. BUT, as I started typing just Driscoll's quotes from his 1st talk... there's too many to include everyone else's stuff in this post. (More stuff on Driscoll in yesterday's post HERE.) So, this will just be the best quotes from the very 1st talk of the conference = "What is the Church?" - Mark Driscoll
Here we go...
- “Ecclesiology is being redefined by technology.” This is a very cool & good thing – internet, video campuses, etc… This technology has completely changed what our conversations are in regards to the Church.

- He was saying we've gotta be sure about stuff, not just "think" we know... “Some people say 'I think Jesus is God'.” “Well, I think teams shouldn’t have a designated hitter.” haha, so sarcastic but really funny. He's a great communicator.

- Talking about planting a church he said peeps will say “It’ll never work.” Driscoll responds, “Sure it will. Jesus is alive, the Holy Spirit is poured out. The heavy lifting is already done.” I love it!

- His 8th mark of a true church (too many if you ask me... but that's for another day) = "The Church exists to reach the nations. God’s people are supposed to be a going peole/missional people." Right on!

- Too many church people think “information leads to transformation.” but they couldn't be more wrong.

- This was awesome & fits in perfectly with our small groups philosophy at Ridge Church = “You don’t need people who can teach inductive Bible study and fill in blanks for Jesus to lead your groups! Just someone who can cook a meal and ask some questions.” That's Pimp. Great summary of all you need to set up a small group for some authentic community.

- “Preaching is prominent & preeminent. It is the first & most important thing a church does.” He said it’s more important than anything else in the church. Everything in the church comes from this & flows out from this. *holy crap. That’s pretty intense! As much as I love Driscoll and think he's a great communicator & we're definitely on the same team... sometimes he says stuff like this. Where does this come from? he doesn't really back it up. I don't think you can make a statement like this. Why does he feel the need to say this? I've got to disagree with him on this. what do you think?

- This was probably the funniest (& harshest) moment of the conference. “People aren’t inviting people to your church? Probably because you still have Sunday School. Kill your Sunday School." A guy in the crowd said ‘what?’ Driscoll called him out - "Some Baptist guy didn't like that. Hey, I’m sure all 7 people who come to your church love it.” - whoa... ouch. Driscoll made his point and the place erupted in laughter because it was hilarious (but I bet that guy never listens to another word Driscoll says again).

- *“Always learn to distinguish between the Biblical principle and the cultural method!”
“when principles and methods get confused that’s how cults get started. You don’t even know it’s a cult until you’re drinking some koolaid.” LOL

- “Be careful that you don’t get so creative that you become a heretic. If you can be cool and faithful that’s the best! But if you have to choose, be faithful." great word. [Just for the record I don't think you have to choose.]

- "People will want to change the mission of your church. Those missions may not even be bad, but they’re not primary. And then church becomes something else." Man, sounds identical to many of our staff conversations at Ridge. You gotta fight for the mission!

“When I get more $ [a raise], don’t raise my standard of living, but my standard of giving.” - that's freaking pimp. I love it. a little cliche & "cutesy" but I want to commit to live by it and hope everyone else will too.

So, that's all there is from Driscoll. A LOT of good stuff packed in there! I hope you enjoyed it & I hope it made you think! More quotes & takeaways from all the other speakers in the days ahead.

For now, WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE QUOTE? What are YOUR thoughts about some of these quotes from Driscoll?