Back To The Future

The churchplanters.com Velocity conference is coming up on February 22-23, and the Upstream Collective will be there. As we’ve mentioned in previous posts, we’ll be leading a pre-conference session with Alan Hirsch entitled, “Back to the Future: Lessons from post-Christian Cultures.”

We wanted to give you an idea of what to expect if you’ll be joining us in Atlanta (or what you”ll be missing if you don’t!) For starters, we’ll hear from Alan Hirsch, who will play the role of modern-day prophet as he explains how the lack of innovation in the American church is dooming it to irrelevance. Next we’ll hear from Caleb Crider, who will outline this “post-Christian” worldview and the challenges it can pose to your ministry. Finally, we’ll hear from Larry McCrary as he introduces you to some innovative churches and what they’re doing to be missional at home and across cultures. If you’re looking for inspiration and practical ideas, you won’t want to miss it.

The best part of the session will be the format. Rather than lecture or just have aimless discussion, we’re going to ask the speakers and participants to provide a sort of running dialog, interrupting the talks for the sake of questioning, disagreement, or dialog. This will be a great opportunity to discuss missional engagement with these leaders in a personal setting.

If you’re planning on coming to the conference, please sign up for the “Back to the Future” pre-conference session, from 9:00 AM to 12:00 AM before the conference starts. If you won’t be able to make it, watch this space for video highlights. If you have a question you’d like us to discuss, please post it in the comments or send it via twitter.

We hope to see you at churchplanters.com Velocity 2010!