NEXT Churches Conference Day One

I'm spending the next two days in Warner Robins at the NEXT Churches Conference. Here are a few summary points from today:

• We are losing churches. Exisiting churches are plateaued or actively declining.
• 3,500 to 4,000 churches die every year.
• NEXT Churches is an effort led by Ron Sylvia from this church in Ocala, Fl.
• You will not reach who you want to reach. You will reach WHO YOU ARE. ----good stuff.
• The larger a church grows, the fewer friends a pastor has.
• If you allow people to decide who meets with you, you're making a huge mistake.
• What are the "Turning Points" in your church's history?
• 1500 pastors leave the ministry every month. ----WE NEED TO CHANGE THIS TREND!
• Accountability is something given, not structured.
• If you have staff members that drain the vision, they probably should leave.
• Don't let people highjack the vision!
• I realized Twitter is still relatively unknown by a lot of leaders.
• I'm going to try to get Gary Lamb to Twitter back to me. (Is it stalking if you follow someone on Twitter who doesn't follow you?)
  
• Jeff Simmons, pastor of Church Central here in Milledgeville, has started blogging!