Gospel Growth Conference

The Gospel Growth Conference was both stimulating and encouraging. It was a bit different than I had expected. Here are some of my reflections/wrestlings:

1. The point of the conference was that as church leaders our task is not to "grow" the church. The problem with the modern church growth movement is that it is asking the wrong question. From the title of the conference, I gathered that this would be the main point. I thought they spent way too much time developing this point and not enough time fleshing it out practically. I was already convinced of these things and wanted to go to get help as to what these ideas look like in my local church.
2. I did not agree with Phillip Jensen's definition of a church. He defined a church very broadly. He advocated that a church is simply a gathering of Christians for the purpose of hearing God's Word. Thus, he does not believe that "parachurch" organizations exist. He believes they are churches. Mainly, he argued for this from the word translated "church" in the New Testament (It means 'gathering'). I think he is missing the fact that the idea of church in the NT assumes a leadership structure and assumes a level of commitment from the people (membership). I don't want to say a parachurch organization is a church.
3. I hope the idea of "Gospel Growth" catches on. We need to be concerned with the gospel bearing fruit and increasing in people's lives, not just in seeing our churches get larger. Often, our churches must get smaller in order for true gospel growth to be happening.
4. There was a strong and robust call for expository preaching. God shapes His church through His Word. Faith comes from hearing.
5. I am thankful for the opportunity to attend a conference like this. Although I did not come back with a list of practical implications, I have a renewed passion to be faithful to God's purpose for the church.