A2 Conference: John Burke, Gateway Community Church

Even thought I am far away in Turkey, I wanted to finish my review of the Willow A2 Conference — It also doesn’t hurt that it is 4:00 am and I am wide awake and no place to go…….. “No Perfect People Allowed” is the mantra of a 20′s/to 40′s church in Austin Texas, founded by John and Kathy Burke. I got a chance to hear John again after meeting him a year ago at an RSI conference. He and his team have been very helpful as we exchanged information about capital campaign tactics and managing growth. I found his approach to ministering to this generation compelling. John has pastored a church that has seen God work in marvellous ways — the standard huge growth to several thousand, many coming to Christ, etc — all the typical things you hear from conference speakers.

The compelling story here for me is that John is resolute and laser-focused on reaching people with the Gospel. After the half-hour summary of their ministry approach, John and his right-hand man, Charles Dishinger, took Q&A in “the Bullpen”. Many of the questions dealth with the messy side consequences of evangelism, mainly that if you go out to minister to the types that Jesus would minister to, how do you get these people discipled and grow them to a place to lead others? They key for me was John’s unwillingness to disengage in dialogue with all people all the time about Jesus Christ. He is an evangelist and is unashamed of his focus. What came through to me was the compelling argument that John leads with evangelism and has a team behind him to do discipleship and leadership. IMHO, this is the way it should be! We should be about reaching AS MANY AS POSSIBLE with the Gospel and we can build the right team behind us to ensure donctrinal purity, appropriate training and development, etc. Like Gateway, we at Park Community Church are built of the same cloth and share this kindred spirit. I applaud everything that John and his team are doing and wish them all the best.