NNCC Day 2 - Ed Stetzer

April 25, 2007

This morning Ed Stetzer lead the main session. His assigned topic was the phrase “You shall be my witnesses” found in Acts 1:8. However, he used the text: Acts 16:7-10 to help explain this phrase.

Below are my notes from the session.

Multiplication can only take place when we see believers multiply.

Luke 19:10 – “seek and save the lost”

Acts 16:7-10 - “Come over to Macedonia and help us”

“Come over to Macedonia”
- What does it mean to come over . . .
- It means to go
- It mans to be sent
- The NT is a book about being sent
- Do not plant a church when you only have a vision for the church, you must have a vision for the people.
- Recognize that culture matters
- The How of church planting is influenced by the who, when and where.
- Come over into your community not into someone elses – recognize your culture is different
- We must plant the gospel

“Help”
- the mission must be tied to the mission of Jesus
- The help is the proclamation of the Gospel
- Our task is to be ambassadors
- 2 Cor 5:11-20 – persuade men, let them know that you do what you do because of Christ
o compelled by Christ’s love
- the totality of the Christian message can not remove a bloody cross
- Francis Dubose, God who sent
- Missional is being identified as be sympathetic, but it is more than that, it is about offering a way out.
- You must BE, DO, and TELL
- A part of the mandate is to tell.
- Relevance is a tool, making disciples is the goal. Not the other way around.

How do we express a loss of confidence in the gospel?
- When we focus on personal transformation and not gospel transformation.
- When sermons are so practical that they lack any gospel.
- When you talk about practical more than you talk about biblical.
- When your approach makes you the hero instead of Jesus
- When attendance is a bigger value than conversion.
- When the cross gets less focus than your church
- When offending seekers is more important than telling the gospel

“US”
- represents a lost world
- The “us” matters to God
- Fall in love with the people of your Macedonia
- Do you have a vision for the people God has called you to reach
- John Knox – “Give me Scotland or I die”

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