{"id":116,"date":"2010-02-23T22:33:35","date_gmt":"2010-02-24T06:33:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.scottcochrane.com\/?p=116"},"modified":"2012-07-19T15:40:25","modified_gmt":"2012-07-19T22:40:25","slug":"if-you-could-ask-one-question","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/scottcochrane.com\/index.php\/2010\/02\/23\/if-you-could-ask-one-question\/","title":{"rendered":"If You Could Ask One Question&#8230;"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>When I told my friends on Twitter that I\u2019d be spending the next couple of days with the lead pastors from six of Canada\u2019s most influential churches, I mentioned that if anyone was interested I\u2019d take their leadership questions into the meeting and report back.<\/p>\n<p>Boy, was there interest!<\/p>\n<p>This morning, as the breakfast dishes were being cleared away, I announced that I was going to take the next few minutes of our discussion away from our established agenda, and would ask them to respond to the questions submitted by my Twitter friends. These leaders rose to the challenge, and a sampling of their responses is presented for you here.<\/p>\n<p>One side-note: One of the key values of this gathering is that of \u201csafety\u201d. Although you could probably figure out who these guys are, simply know that these leaders have an average of 25 years lead pastor experience, and that their congregations are among the largest and most influential in Canada.<\/p>\n<p>Here, then, are a few highlighted questions and responses&#8230;<\/p>\n<p><strong>Question:<\/strong> &#8220;What is the most important thing that is affecting the faith of the emerging gen in Canada?&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><strong>Answers:<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Connectedness: the drive to be meaningfully connected in community is a profound motivator in the emerging generation<\/li>\n<li>Authenticity: The emerging generation constantly asks, \u201cis it real?\u201d<\/li>\n<li>Sinful lifestyles: On the \u201cnegative\u201d side, this generation is sometimes shockingly tolerant of sin. Some of this is a pattern learned from their church-going parents!<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Question:<\/strong> Can (should) churches ever get to 50% of resources focused internally and 50% externally? How?<\/p>\n<p><strong>Answers:<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>The numbers game is not the way to go. An experienced leader would not reduce this down to a percentage formula.<\/li>\n<li>The whole deal is God\u2019s. It\u2019s about stewardship.<\/li>\n<li>The question reveals a poor ecclesiology, common today. The view that you can even divide a church\u2019s mission as \u201cinternal\u201d and \u201cexternal\u201d is not what the biblical church is all about. <em>We are<\/em> the mission<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Question:<\/strong> &#8220;What is 1 thing you need to keep you in ministry for the long haul that you&#8217;re not getting right now?&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><strong>Answers:<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Living the life I teach about. If there\u2019s a disconnect between what I teach and what I do, I won\u2019t make it.<\/li>\n<li>I need to constantly be asking, \u201cWhat is my support system to fulfill my calling?\u201d<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Thanks to those who submitted questions. The next time I gather with a group of leaders like this I\u2019ll let you know, and we can do this again!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>When I told my friends on Twitter that I\u2019d be spending the next couple of days with the lead pastors from six of Canada\u2019s most influential churches, I mentioned that if anyone was interested I\u2019d take their leadership questions into the meeting and report back. Boy, was there interest! This morning, as the breakfast dishes&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_bbp_topic_count":0,"_bbp_reply_count":0,"_bbp_total_topic_count":0,"_bbp_total_reply_count":0,"_bbp_voice_count":0,"_bbp_anonymous_reply_count":0,"_bbp_topic_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_reply_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_forum_subforum_count":0,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,90,4,478,7,8],"tags":[105,106,104,107,102,108,103],"class_list":["post-116","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-action","category-canadian","category-community","category-featured","category-leadership","category-missional","tag-challenge","tag-gathering","tag-leaders","tag-pastors","tag-question","tag-responses","tag-twitter"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/scottcochrane.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/116","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/scottcochrane.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/scottcochrane.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scottcochrane.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scottcochrane.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=116"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/scottcochrane.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/116\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2395,"href":"https:\/\/scottcochrane.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/116\/revisions\/2395"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/scottcochrane.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=116"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scottcochrane.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=116"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scottcochrane.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=116"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}