Thursday, May 22, 2008

Session #1: Mark Batterson

Mark Batterson is lead pastor of National Community Church located in the D.C. metro area. NCC started with 3 people meeting in a public school. Their second worship service saw a meager 19 people in attendance. They are now worshiping in four locations and are reaching many unchurched young adults. In 2001 NCC bought and refurbished an old movie theater and converted into thier current worship and office space. NCC also operates the largest coffee house in our nation's capital.

Sharing from Isaiah 25, Mark Batterson compelled us to remind ourselves that we are all in the family of God, as different as we are, as different as our church plants are. We are all connected to and serving the same God. It will take many different kinds of church planters to reach many different kinds of people.

Our dreams are too small. Like Habbakkuk, get with God and pray regularly. God will reveal big dreams that will take a big faith to receive. We need to stop doing ministry out of memory and start shifting toward imagination. God is a creative God who gives men the ability to creative.

Starts with a dream that God conceives in the heart of a man. Big dreams are way beyond our ability to accomplish on our own, that will cause the dreamer to look foolish before men. When we pray God responds with big dreams and then gives the faith that man will need to see the dream come to reality.