Words from Reggie McNeal

I just got back from the Purposeful and Missional Presbyterians conference in Satellite Beach, FL. On Wednesday, Reggie McNeal spoke. He was not only insightful about the church's need to move from inward to outward, church to kingdom and program to people focus, but he was also entertaining to hear.

Here is a summary of my tweets from Reggie.

• One of the keys to the leadership of a movement is you go first. Your church will never go missional until you do.
• Its better to eat Twinkies with a friend than broccoli by yourself. It's all about relationships.
• The third shift needed to be missional is the move from church-centric to kingdom focus.
• Our people who go on mission trips ought to be coached on how to turn life into a mission trip.
• Reggie McNeal is hilarious. If you get a chance to hear him speak, go! Insightful, faithful and hilarious.
  
• One person created a Friday night "Wine study and Bible tasting." They are not coming to your church! Get them into your home.
• The goal of program churches is participation, not spiritual formation. Being busy in the church works against formation.
• The second shift churches must make to be missional - move from program-driven to people development culture.
• God loves to show up and show off. God is a glory hog. If you don't know that you don't know God
• Reggie McNeal's prayer before our meal: "Dear Lord, thank you for the cows and chickens who gave it up for us. Amen."
• If you put it up for a vote, your church will never vote to be missional. They will vote to go back to Egypt.
• Key question to ask: "How can I be a blessing to you?" Our job is to bless others.
• The local church is not the hope of the world, Jesus is. Offer people Jesus, not church.
• Three movements to get toward missional church. First, make the move from being internally focused to externally focused.
• The Spirit has jumped out of the Church and is running wild in the world again.
• Church in New Testament is not a destination; it is the people of God. We have got to get that right.
• "Missional Church" is "the people of God partnering with Him in His redemptive mission in the world."
• My hope is to see Pentecost in the Church in America in my lifetime
• With all of the benefits we have as American churches, we are losing. We are losing.
• One out of five goes to church today. That's 22% per week of American population.
• There's a Pentecost going on every hour somewhere in the world.
• China is double India's growth in conversions.
• 80 million new believers in India. Christianity is fastest growing religion.