I returned last night from the annual Acts 29 pastors retreat where we spent most of the week in Sonoma. It was great to see friends and spend time with other church planters from across the country. A couple things came from the conference, which I may post on more:
1. Acts 29 re-organizing from a network to a movement. Leadership, structures and vision are all adjusting to reflect this. Some exciting news is that John Piper & Tim Keller will return to speak at Acts 29 bootcamps. (Tim Keller's is the month after his new book is supposed to come out in March, 2008: In Defense of God: Doubting Your Doubts (Hardcover). Start reserving your tickets now!
2. Ed Stetzer (pic of us @ Jonathan Herron's blog ) spoke on the history of the word missional which traces it's origins from three streams of thoughts: missio dei, mission & missionary. He presents why we may all use the same word, yet it means radically different things for emerging churches, evangelical camps and the reformed community. So when Tim Keller speaks about being missional it is not the same thing as when it used by John Franke or Alan Roxburgh. He plans to publish a paper on this soon which will be extremely helpful for the missional conversation.
3. Scott Thomas and then Driscoll did a State of the Union address on the network. More changes will be coming soon…