Session #1 - Mark Batterson

Decoding Culture taken from Numbers 13
We are spies decoding our culture. There are some spy rules that are helpful to follow. Taken from the Moscow Rules from the cold war (I learned about history today too).
#1 - Know Your Mission
-If you get the mission wrong, you're gonna end up where you don't want to be.
-We need to be laser focused, so we don't drift from our mission.
-When we strip down everything we do, it needs to be all about Jesus, and changing lives for
Him.
-It's okay to enjoy and be great at all the other stuff (videos, drama, café, etc), but we need to
remember that they are tools, not the mission.
-In order for me to remain laser focused on my mission, what am I doing that I need to stop
doing, and what am I not doing that I need to start?
#2 - Gather Intelligence
-Learn how to communicate the gospel in a way that makes sense
-irrelevance is irreverence
-Just like Paul in Athens meeting with the philosophers, he met them where they were at,
and used the things they were comfortable with
-Ways to do it
-Read Strategically
-Study culture, don't just consume it
-Do recon from other churches (beg, borrow, and steal)
-Almost everything NCC does is taken from somewhere else, and not necessarily churches
-Be careful not to become a closed system
#3 - Maintain a Natural Pace
-Live your life in a way that is sustainable
-#1 job is to live the life. Christianity is more caught than taught
-Balancing act between ministry and family
-don't let ministry ruin your family
-Balancing act between work and play
-Keep the Sabbath (it is a commandment)
-we need rest
-You can't rush things
#4 - Vary Your Pattern
-Vary methods and tactics
-Love people when they least expect it and least deserve it
-Do the unexpected (almost everything Jesus did was unexpected)
-It can be simple things (order of service)
-Church shouldn't be a routine
-Keep the sacred from becoming the routine (ex. one study shows that after singing a song
30 times, people forget what the words say)
-Good leaders mix it up to stimulate growth, when done the same way all the time, things
lose their effectiveness

Final thought
-Everything is an experiment at NCC
-Gives leadership the latitude to try new things
-If it doesn't work, stop doing it.
-If it does work, keep experimenting with it