Wednesday, January 31, 2007

OC Movement Quick Report

I returned from the Organic Church Movement Conference excited, connected and sobered. The best part of the time was the people - this group represents a great collection of humble mission focused leaders - and some great new friends.

Big time thanks to Neil for hosting this event. It was nice to connect with Alan Hirsch and a number of other key leaders. Alan puts into words what many of us are experiencing in our gut.

Some observations from the time in Long Beach:

  1. Pulling this off in the west (church planting movements) is still not an exact science, but there is movement. I appreciate Neil, Alan, Carol Davis, George Patterson, Wolfgang Simson and others who are informing my thinking.
  2. Raise the bar of discipleship . . . .this is the most solid aspect of the OC Movement. I came away with a greater desire to follow the teachings of Jesus.
  3. The best results seem to come from the parts of our culture that gave up on church a long time ago. Effective simple church movements start best when initiated in the hearts of the recent converts.
  4. Mileage varies on starting OC movements in traditional settings - there seems to be a lot of frustration here.
  5. Nothing screams of movements everywhere like this stuff. It is simple, free, and replicable. I look forward to the future.

2 comments:

J. Guy Muse said...

Hey, Shane, I was there too and would have loved to have met you! I've enjoyed reading your blog for several months now. I too blog over at http://guymuse.blogspot.com and have posted a few comments about the OCM conference myself. We are missionaries planting house churches in Ecuador.

Shane Deike said...

Wish we would have met!! I love your take on stuff - keep up the great work.