I landed in time for the face-off for the men’s Olympic Gold Medal Hockey Game. Being in the States during the game had its downsides, but it was fun to gloat. That evening, I went to Mosaic (Erwin McManus’s community) and they lamented their USA team’s loss. No sympathy here.

After 9 days without checking e-mail, my inbox was full of stories of God at work across Canada; Vancouver churches using the Olympics to reach their neighbourhoods, Alberta churches wanting to become more missional, Manitoba Christians gearing up for hosting the 2011 National Church Planting Congress, and those in Ontario, excited about developing a Canadian tour on urban community development.

There were questions also. How do we find ways to work together? How do we measure faithfulness? How do we train leaders for missional engagement? But the biggest question, hit me while attending Mosaic. How do we gather in a way to produce missionaries and not consumers? To be clear, I enjoyed myself. Everything was top notch. The crowd was expectant, the band fantastic, the dancers spectacular and the ethos was magnetic. I love listening to Erwin, and his wife Kim was even better. It’s not hard to see why Mosaic is so popular.

But one question plagued me. Can we gather for worship in the same way and hope to produce missionaries instead of consumers?

I used to attend Willow Creek Community Church. Their heart for non-Christians is huge. But the “seeker-targeted” services smelled of performance and eventually their “Reveal” material admitted they had not produced the disciples they had wanted to. At Mosaic, I felt like I’d been to a show. I wondered if the end result would be any different. I walked in, was greeted, sat down and didn’t need to do anything else. Do we produce consumers by the way we gather to worship… no matter how well we do it?

Leviticus 1 is about burnt offerings. God knew that as His people entered the promised-land they would be seduced by the worship of the foreign God’s. God gave clear instructions how to worship so that others would be drawn to Him. He was precise. Thorough. Inclusive, demanding and expectant. But above all, He was missional for He wanted His people to be a blessing to all nations.

The biggest lesson is that worship was about what they brought, and not just about what they received or consumed. It cost them a lot. What would our gatherings look like if we oriented them around bringing and giving, and not around performance and receiving?

In my church, we did not take an offering, thinking it would make for a safe place for unbelievers. When I went to a friend’s church and saw people come down the aisle to place their offering in a basket, I caught a glimpse into what it was to teach people that we come to give. This has led to constantly asking the question…

“What are we doing that is inadvertently producing consumers, instead of producing missionaries?”

Ruthlessly work to sort out the answers to this most important question.

Cam planted a church in the inner city of Burnaby, BC. After seeing its neighbourhood transformed, Southside Community Church has grown to four congregations in four neighbourhoods. Out of this, Cam has developed the Forge Canada Missional Training Network which helps churches and leaders across the country to become missional and see neighbourhood transformation in their neighbourhoods, and multiply into new neighbourhoods. Cam has also serves as the National Director of Church Planting Canada.

Cam has the privilege of speaking internationally at conferences and schools. He has also consulted with a number of churches and denominations, and served on committees for the Evangelical Fellowship of Canada. His great passion remains for Christ working in a local community of followers of Jesus to see neighbourhood transformation.

Cam has been married to for 21 years. He and his wife have four children and live in Surrey, BC.

The most staggering point about the report is summarized, “[the report] found that respondents used media for an average of seven hours and 38 minutes during the survey period. However, due to multi-tasking – for instance texting while watching TV – teens actually crammed 10 hours and 45 minutes of media consumption into those approximately seven and a half hours.”

How should Christan leaders and parents respond to this level of consumption?

How did this session speak to you?

We love our free market small group system. But we’ve outgrown some of our structures as our groups have multiplied. So we’re basically blowing up our structure and starting over from scratch. I think it’s important to put everything on the table every once in a while. Make sure you don’t have any sacred cows. Make sure your form follows function. So we’re trying to rethink and reinvent everything from training to caring to recruiting leaders.”

So we’re basically blowing up our structure and starting over from scratch is the most volatile line.

How many of you have done that? How many of you wish you could do that? What does this mean for the big picture of groups and church?

Tell your stories, your hopes and dreams as an encouragement to others.

The “New Twist” was designed to enhance the annual Leadership Summit (live satellite broadcast to 16 cities across Canada in August) for smaller regions in our country. Although many of the same speakers are used, the GLS has its own unique flavour…

• Live worship throughout the weekend
• Live M/C & Facilitator
• Interactive guided discussion after each videocast session
• Weekend event (Friday night, Saturday) so that more people can be accommodated
• Smaller venue in regions that normally don’t receive these types of events
• Registration costs are lower

Did we succeed? The response has been an overwhelming YES and we are looking forward to seeing how we will expand this in 2010.

Many of the attendees were blown away. Despite us casting the vision and putting it out there, not many really understood the calibre of the event. I had one leader in local business tell me that he would bring most of his senior staff next year and he would pay for all of them.
Sudbury, ON

We had an absolutely amazing [GLS] Summit. Hearts were deeply stirred and without exception, all the evaluations were over the top.
Terrace, BC

I loved the Global Leadership Summit. I really thought it was great, and I’m only 15, but I definitely got a lot out of it, and it’s not just something for adults. First I was thinking, “Well, I’m not a leader, I’m not very influential, so none of this stuff will be relevant to me.” But not only did I find the speakers to be very engaging and insightful, I think that lots of other youth could also get a lot out of it.
St. John’s, NL

Our leaders enjoyed the GLS format this year, after three years of the live-feed. The opportunity to take more time and soak in the teaching and experience was very beneficial. We were like sponges that had water poured on top of us. The facilitator prodded us and enabled the water to soak more deeply into our thinking and reflection. We all felt that we came away from the day retaining more than we could have had he not been with us.
St. John’s, NL