Perry Noble is the founding and Senior Pastor of NewSpring Church in Anderson, South Carolina.  I love following his blog and I’ve just got to say that he absolutely hit a homerun with this teaching this afternoon.  I wish I could capture how great it was, but there is no way a few comments will do it justice.  Anyway, here you go… 

“As leaders in God’s church, sometimes we are tempted to believe that what we do does not matter.  The reality is that the church is the only organization on the planet that Jesus died for and as a result, everything we do, matters.”

“Environment matters.” 

“It is our job 52 Sundays a year to create environments where people can see that Jesus is alive.”

“Some people that don’t like our church say, ‘We’re into reverence.’  I would say, ‘You’re into rigor mortis.’”

“Vision matters.” 

“What Peter said was so stupid, God didn’t let him finish.” (see Matthew 17:4,5 for context)

“If God hasn’t set you on fire with a white hot vision, then don’t move until he does.”

“If you can’t support the senior pastor’s vision, then you need to leave.” 

“Operate by vision and not voting.”

“Jesus matters.”

“It’s not my job to be anti-gambling, but to be pro-Jesus.  If enough people were pro-Jesus, all the other stuff just wouldn’t happen.”

“What we do matters for eternity!”

Mac Richard is the founding and Senior Pastor of Lake Hills Church, in Austin, Texas.  Here is what he said

“As leaders, we must measure the stuff that matters.” 

“If you’re the leader, you’re the leader!”

“At the end of the day, there is a part of leadership that is lonely.”

“As leaders, we have to set the bar high for our staff then keep the bar high.  When the bar is missed repeatedly, it’s time to dismiss that person gracefully.”

“It’s important for church staff members to be joyful.  We won’t hire anyone who’s not joyful.  It’s a hard enough job as it is.”

“We serve the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords in the only institution that matters.”

“If you love people, you’ll measure their performance.”

If you’ve ever heard Ed Young speak, then you know he has a tendency to say some things in a very unique way.  I didn’t mention the following sound bytes in my previous two posts, because I wanted to save these for their own little post.  Here are some of the classic things Ed said during these first two sessions. 

 “Envy is ‘U-G-L-Y, You ain’t got not alibi, UGLY!’”

“Potiphar was married to Hotiphar”

“Do you know what the baker did?  He baked.”

“Every time someone said to Joseph’s brothers, ‘Do you want to grab a cup of Joe?’, don’t you know that his brothers just freaked out.”

“We wanted to build a children’s building that looked like Disney World on steroids”

“We owed squillions of dollars!”

“The Devil is stupid!”

“Potiphar knew his wife was wack-a-doodle-do”

Ed Young spoke on betrayal again during Session 2.  He was very honest and transparent about a situation in which he and Fellowship Church were betrayed by someone and the positive results that actually came from it.  Here are some of the comments that I wrote down during this teaching. 

 “Betrayal always comes from those who are closest to us.”

“When someone betrays you, they fall into a deeper pit than the one they pushed you into it and they don’t even know it…betrayers don’t realize they’re betrayers!”

“We will meet our sin again!”

“Often God will serve our betrayers up on a silver platter…this is a test.”

“Unleashing unforgiveness is unbelievable!”

“Betrayal brought our staff together”

“Betrayal will separate the players from the posers”

“In Joseph’s life, one act of betrayal led to a nation being saved from a famine.  In Jesus’ life, one act of betrayal led to our salvation.  And in your life, one act of betrayal could lead to something great in your life and the lives of people around you.”

Ed Young just wrapped up Session 1 here at the Creative Church Conference (C3), and I thought I’d give you some of the highlights of his talk.  It was centered around Genesis 37 and the subject was betrayal.  Anyway, check these sound bytes out:

“When God breaks us down, He’s getting ready to break us through and break us out to a whole ‘nother level”

“We need to move from ‘Why me?’ to ‘What now?’”

“Pit happens!  All you have to do is lead for a little while and you will be betrayed.”

“You are either pre-pit, pit, or post-pit.”

“When you betray someone, you turn on them.  This means my enemies can’t really betray me.  Only those who I love, those I do ministry with, can betray me”

“There’s always a Judas at your table, and he’ll be close enough to kiss you.”

“Don’t feed the fires of betrayal.  There’s a time to share dreams and there’s a time to shut up!”

“Betrayal is fueled by jealousy and envy.  You show me someone who is envious and jealous and I will show you someone who is on the edge and ledge of betrayal”

“You can hang with either ladders or adders”

“Betrayal circles success like a school of hungry sharks”

“If betrayal is happening, the blessings are around the corner, and the Devil is just tipping is His hand”

I am in Dallas, Texas, the next few days so I’ll be blogging from here.  I am at a conference with my Dad (who doubles as our pastor), and I’m really looking forward to the next few days here.  I don’t go to a ton of conferences because I hate being away from my family, but I still love conferences for several reasons.

·         I learn so much in such a short period of time.

·         I am encouraged to keep doing what I’m doing to advance the kingdom of God.

·         I get away from the constant phone calls and e-mails for a few days.

·         I meet new people, gain new perspective, and come away with new ideas.

·         I get to be on the receiving end of ministry/encouragement.

Anyway, these next few posts are going to center around what I’m learning here at the C3 Conference.  And for those of you who want to know more about this conference, you can click here.