Exponential Conference: Driscoll April 26, 2007
Posted by Steve in : Church, Methods & Strategies, Missional , add a comment
Mark Driscoll gave a message via video to all the 1,800 church planters in attendance at the 2007 National New Church Conference. The video was done all outside, in a cemetery with hundreds of identical grave markers (looked like a WW1 graveyard — anyone know where?). The visual helped everyone see the uphill battle that a church planter faces as he begins to build a vision and a team. He was clear and concise (8 min), and focused on three main things needed for a successful church planter — the man, the mission and the message:
- The Church Planter Man, needs to be:
- Called to Plant
- Strong
- Competent
- Have a good theology
- Be able to articulate a clear message
- Have a clear God-given mission
- The Mission - to get the men
- Has to be able to gather the right team
- A clear role is to disciple men
- Given the 60/40 women/men ratio Barna speaks about, you have to get men to win in the long term
- Men who make the step to go to church want to know how to be a man
- The Message of the Gospel
- Planters will only succeed to the extent that they proclaim the Gospel message.
- The Gospel message is really what it is all about.
Here is his video (see my Hybels entry above about the content of this video, then watch it)
24: Changing the Way America Watches TV December 14, 2006
Posted by Steve in : Weblog , add a comment
I am a HUGE 24 and Keifer Sutherland fan and can’t wait for the sixth season to get underway in January. There is a great post by Aaron at watching-24.com commenting on how the serialized nature of 24 has changed TV from the “need to have it all wrapped up in a bow in 60 minutes” television of the 80’s and 90’s. I agree…while I am still a little at a loss as to what is going on in the current Lost show, I love 24 and the weekly heart-pounding excitement (as well as Heroes). Here’s the gist of Aaron’s argument:
Back in 2001 the first season of 24 premiered. It was a modest hit. Then the DVD came out which started selling like mad. In an interview with IGN in 2002 Kiefer said that the DVD sales, for 24, in the UK actually knocked Lord of The Rings out of first place, something totally unheard of in the TV/DVD world.
People were beginning to catch onto the fact that they’d have to watch every week religiously to understand everything that was going on. Overall the viewing public was becoming smarter and keener to what was going on. It seemed that FOX had finally found out that an audience in mass proportions, could stomach a show like 24. The second season of 24 was a huge hit sky rocketing from the 8.60 million viewers the first season was able to pull in, to an 11.73 million viewers. 24 was beginning to shape a phenomenon that we only really got a glimpse of this year. After 24’s success ABC premiered Lost in 2004 garnering huge praise from critics and audiences alike. Serial dramas were off and running……
…..24 has become an icon in television viewing. The television world has become serialized due in large part to 24’s success. I really think that 24 changed the way we view TV. Networks are realizing that we as a viewing audience can follow a show from week to week, season to season without becoming lost. We don’t need everything spelled out for us in one episode. In consequence the networks have had to up the ante and give us higher quality more complex shows. 24’s success has truly been instrumental in altering the TV world.
