George Patterson of Western Seminary discussed acting like an apostle during Verge Conference’s 4th session. Here is what he said:

The best kept secret among Evangelicals is that it is far easier to plant churches and do small groups if we do it like the apostles did. That might sound simple, and it is. I thank God for that.

Let’s stop presenting Jesus by just telling facts about Him. We need to represent Him.

Stop trying to shove the camel through the eye of the needle. The average American church spends most of its evangelistic efforts on the camel.Jesus said He came to preach His gospel to the poor.

Don’t get hung up on a method. Only one approach has been consistent, universal, and simple, and that is to evangelize like the apostles did. The one thing apostles did consistently after a person’s conversion but before baptism was go to the family. After you convert someone, do not pull them out of their circle and family.

David Watson of CityTeam Ministries discussed how to have a good strategy during Verge Conference’s 3rd session. Here is what he said:

Strategy is determined by structure. If we are a house church, the strategies we think about are house church strategies. If we are a megachurch, the strategies we think of are megachurch strategies. The problem with this is the strategy is based on us and not who we are trying to reach.

Strategy and structure are intimately connected, but most of us have connected it to the wrong end - ourselves. The strategy cannot be us but about them. We must learn how to reach people within their context not our context.

I’ve got to learn something in order to reach people that churches are not reaching. Our strategy has to be defined by the structures we are trying to reach. This means you have to understand the structures in your community.

What is difficult is we all get tunnel vision. We all drive the same routes daily. We like routine. We avoid things and people that look different.

We need to map our community’s many different structures and then define our strategy for reaching each culture. We must understand the structures around us and learn how to work in those structures and through those structures. And that takes lots of people.

Dave Gibbons of NewSong Church (Irvine, CA) discussed handling culture shifts during Verge Conference’s 3rd session. Here is what he said:

One of the things I think we are really horrible at is seeing. Consider these observations:

• Look at our economy. If you listen carefully to the experts, we are actually still in a lot of trouble. In these unstable times, what will you do as a church to give stability to your people?
• There is a widening gap between the poor and the rich.
• Can our government still protect us? We used to worry about nations now we worry about individual attackers. How does this affect the people you reach?
• July 27, 2048 is the date when China and others are expected to surpass the U.S. in life expectancy and gross per capita income.
• There is a shift from the West to the East. It is not going to happen. It already has happened.
• We are shifting from church with walls to church without walls.
• We are shifting from steps and solutions to stories and narratives.

If we can leverage the power of the Holy Spirit, we have an advantage to expect and react to how this affects the people we reach. But how many of us are praying like we should? In addition to prayer, do this:

1. Establish the Biblical theology of liquid leadership in your church.
2. Be prophetic and not just pastoral. We need more than pastoral diplomacy.
3. We need a both/and environment.

When God stirs up a nation and causes chaos, it is a time when God moves. Make space for God, and He will give you the strategy.

Dave Ferguson of Community Christian Church (Naperville, IL) discussed creating an apostolic environment during Verge Conference’s 3rd session. Here is what he said:

Over and over again, God’s own impulse to the lost is to go and to send. I think there is something stirring within us just to bring people in. A big part of this is to start apostolic environments.

How do you create an apostolic environment?

1. Ordain every Christ follower.
   Ask them what people group do they feel burdened for then anoint them then send them out.
2. Lead with a yes; ask how? later on.
   Develop a “yes” reflex to try things.
3. You need to teach people to go and not just bring.
4. Plant the gospel before planting a church.
5. Missional teams have to be both incarnational and apostolic.
   If you think only incarnational than you are just “one and done,” but if you also think apostolic then you have movement.

Jeff Vanderstelt of Soma Communities (Tacoma, WA) discussed letting the people be the church during Verge Conference’s 2nd session. Here is what he said:

In a lot of the ways, the structures build build to run churches serve as containers to hold people in. It is almost as if we are extracting people from the world rather than sending them out into the world.

Church is not about going out to be Jesus to people. You are going out with Jesus in you. Jesus wants to fill everything. Ideally, a city should be so full of Jesus that there is no one who can escape seeing Jesus.

Everyone is a full-time minister. We just get our paychecks from different places. You do not have to get a paycheck from a church to be a full-time minister. The job of church leaders is to equip people to do ministry rather than trying to do all of the ministry themselves.

Jesus died for more than church events and volunteering to be an usher. The most effective carrier for discipleship is not an event. If you do not go do anything, you are not getting equipped. The best place for equipping is life.

How do you know if someone is faithful to what you have taught them? They have to live it out. Equip people to do normal, everyday life with intentional missional community. You’d be surprised to see what the church can do if you start believing that Jesus is in people.

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Mike Foster of Ethur and Jud Wilhite of Central Christian Church (Las Vegas, NV) have repackaged and relaunched their leadership lifestyle ministry of radical integrity and radical grace under the new name - People of the Second Chance. You can express your support in 3 simple ways:

1. Join their new Facebook Page.
2. Follow @POTSC on Twitter.
3. Spread the word about People of the Second Chance via blogs, Tweets, social sharing, and other online spaces.

Stay tuned because a People of the Second Chance blog starts the week of December 7.

Priscilla Shirer of Going Beyond Ministries discussed divine interruption during Catalyst Conference’s 7th session. Here is what she said:

Two years ago on CNN I saw an interview of ex-Korn member Brian Welch. I was captivated by this young man, and when I heard him say the name of Jesus, I wanted to find out what this was all about. Brian explained his conversion and how the love of Christ transformed him. He was basically giving the gospel on primetime television. Brian had come across a verse in the Bible that said, “And they left everything.” And his life was interrupted and he gave up the band and his previous lifestyle to follow Christ.

When God interrupts our life and intervenes and gives us a specific direction, will we go? Right now you are either on your way into an interruption or on your way out of an interruption because that is the nature of God.

A leader in the Bible named Joshua knew how to handle interruption. There are four things that Joshua did in Joshua 3 that show us how to handle interruptions:

1. Act immediately in obedience to God
   What is God asking you to do? Are you procrastinating? You and I are good at giving excuses.
2. Act fearlessly.
   God want leaders who are fearless and do not let the world sway them. You have the Holy Spirit living inside of you. Do not be afraid.
3. Acknowledge the presence of God.
   Jesus said in John 5:19, “I only do what I see the Father do.” Jesus did His Father’s will and nothing else. What if we only moved for God? If Gods not going, we shouldn’t be going.
4. Anticipate God’s miracles.
   God can do exceedingly abundantly above and beyond anything that we can ask or think.