I totally hear what Peter is saying and fully support it.
I’m at the other end of the spectrum in a mega church.
What I’ve found missing from all the conferences I’ve attended so far is an opportunity to sit down with some of my peers and have a semi-moderated discussion about what our issues are and how others in our same “weight class” are handling them - with the chance to INTERACT, not just passively take notes from yet another brilliant leader.
And the session has to be longer than 1-2 hours, to really have time to dig in.
I’m sure this pertains to a church of any size but there are some unique issues that come along as the size of the church increases.

Here is a novel idea. How about a conference on the sufficiency of the Bible?

OR a conference on the failure of thelocal church in areas of discipleship that has led to the rise of para-church organizations that thrive on hosting conferences to chase the “next big idea”?

OR a conference on financial stewardship in the area of pastors continually going from conference to conference at the expense of the local church congregation with no accountability because of the rise of “staff led” churches?

AND a conference on the whole “conference” phenomenon. You can have breakouts like

1. Why are there SO MANY conferences today?
2. Why do the same group of people always attend these conferences that basically serve as echo chambers?
3. What would happen if pastors stop attending 10-15 conferences a year and actually spent that time serving their local congregations?

Return to the sufficiency of the Bible. The all powerful God doesnt need man’s cleverness or gimmicks to call sinners to salvation. He doesnt need man to continually tell other pastors how to be more innovative with ideas such as being carried to the stage in a coffin or playing with glowsticks in the audience. Save the money, pastors. Preach the Gospel. Stop feeding into the whole conference subculture that has developed. Too many conferences.

Todd,

I recently returned from the Exponential Conference and it was excellent.  I was highly encouraged by the overall ongoing thrust of “Its all about the centrality of Jesus.”

Even so, here was the common narrative from most of the presenters.  “Church planting is tough!  It took us years to get above 200 people.  Now that we’re 1000+, here is what we’re learning.”

I long for the 200 - 1000 conversation.  I’m not looking to learn HOW to make our church grow.  Our church IS growing!  I want dialogue on how to structure a church while it is growing/what the challenges and pitfalls are etc. 

BTW, Leadership Network’s interactive conferences are great.  I attended one in Vegas while I was on staff at Central Christian there and the format was wonderful.  An opportunity to hear a presentation and lots of time for interaction.  I think this hits the best of both worlds as any more, conversation with the experts is the most helpful for someone like me

Steve

I think the interactive dinners are a great idea. When I have set those up in the past it is necessary to have a moderator/starter type person just to help break the ice at each table and get things going.

If you are really dreaming...I think that general sessions could be led by the worship/creative arts teams from some of the innovative churches. That way the attendees could experience a live worship service from some of the other churches. Have the music, preaching, everything.

Sam,

Sure there are some who just go from conference to conference (although I don’t know any personally). That doesn’ make conferences bad. I know some people who over-eat. That doesn’t make food bad. We’re getting off topic, so I’m only going to address this this one time.

Are you saying the wisdom of men who trust the Bible should never be listened to and we should only ever read the Bible and that no one living has anything to teach us?

The BIble is all-sufficient? What do we mean by that? Do we mean that we don’t need to learn from others who trust the Bible? Are we saying the Bible saves us? Are we saying that if there was no Bible, that Jesus wouldn’t be enough? Are we saying that if there was not really a Jesus, that the Bible would be enough? Are we saying that when Proverbs says there is wisdom in the counsel of many, that only means there’s wisdom in the counsel of many Bible verses? Are denying the fact that men took time to train pastors and leaders throughout the history of the church, especially and particularly in Acts and Paul’s letters?

The Bible has everything we need to understand God, His plan, His sovereignty, who Jesus is, and what it all means. That is what sufficiency means. I bet no one here is denying that… But… It can’t save us, and it was never designed by God to be the only way we learn about Him and how we lead and serve in His church. He gave us the community of faith (who follow the Bible), other leaders (who trust the Bible), and even (good) conferences (where people who trust and know the Bible and have learned from experience can teach us… sometimes to not make the same mistakes they make).

I think you’re trying to make an argument where none exists. Let’s get back on topic.

I don’t care what the subject matter is., I could use the help in any and all areas. My suggestion: Just serve ice cream during one of the breaks! Chick Filet soft serve icedream would be awesome!

and humility

Todd,

I would love to see a conference with resources for smaller churches. Peter is right. There is little in terms of methodology for smaller churches in smaller communities.

It would be great to hear a presenter from a healthy (growing?) church in a smaller area, a church in the 150-250 attendance range. The presentations don’t need to be “how to grow your church to 500” either, just some methdological/missiological strategies in a smaller church context.

I am pastoring a church of about 100 in a town of 18,000 with a declining population. If I am going to spend $300 to attend a conference, what is it that I can put in my tool box that will help my church?

And then follower up the presentation with small groups. As Frank mentioned above, I would love to connect with smaller church pastors in rural areas.  Small group interaction is a plus, because I don’t attend conferences with my staff. Large church pastors who take their staff to these conferences have an automatic small group. Small church pastors, like myself don’t.

Presentation are great, but we need a forum to hash out the ideas with other pastors in similar contexts.

Derek

I tend to agree with Peter Hamm - something for the smaller church bodies.  Those make up the majority of congregations in the US, but are pretty much ignored when it comes to conferences.  Showing how mega-church XYZ does something is all well and good, but it needs to apply to the smaller congregations or you’re pretty much just chasing after the wind.

And yes, discipleship is a great idea.  So is how to get your congregation excited about evangelism and local outreach.  We’re pretty much huddle groups waiting for people to come to us at this point.  That needs to change or the local church is going to die even more than we have been in the last 20-30 years.  We’re not relevant, there’s not much evidence of real life change, and we really, really look just like the world (or worse).  Why would people care about the local church if we look and act just like the unchurched?

I’d love to see a conference focused more on having a Christ-like heart as a church leader, regardless of the meaurable results. After all, man looks at the outside, but God looks at the heart, right? (1 Sam. 16:7) How about featuring pastors of smaller churches or ministries who have consistently modeled faithfulness and integrity and Christlikeness, against great challenges, without much of the glory that often accompanies a large setting.  I believe that would be truly inspiring to many of us - and it might even please our Lord more than some other conferences do.

I’ll throw my hat in with those who are calling for more focus on the smaller church.  The leaders of the megas are almost all great people, incredible speakers, with talent oozing from every pore.  I always enjoy hearing their stories and vision.  But…

According to the National Congregations Study, 94% of American churches have less than 500 in attendance. 

I’d like to hear from the “turn around guys” who took an older, struggling, declining church of a couple dozen and grew it to 200 or 300.

I’d benefit alot from hearing from the guys who took an old traditional church from under a hundred to 250 and from 250 to 500.

So put me in the “resources and focus on revitalizing and growing the smaller church” column.

P.S. Chuch Warnock and Shawn McMullen are two guys who could rock a conference like that!

As a full-time Minister of Worship, I’d like to echo the thoughts of Peter and Ted - a conference with no “superstars” would, IMO, have a greater draw than people would think. It’s evidenced by the comments here!  Bring in one or more “regular” worship music teams, bring in “regular” in-the-trenches speakers, and let us all be “regular” together. Let’s let Jesus be the superstar.

(Having just preached on John 3, the phrase “He must increase, but I must decrease” has really been resonating with me lately.)

A couple other thoughts…

I believe there’s very little real innovation out there, and I don’t believe that being innovative should really be a priority (though perhaps that’s a soapbox for another time). Pursuing innovation for innovation’s sake smacks of “chasing the wind” to me. That being said, taking advantage of technology’s newer abilities is a great thing. Being able to “peek in” on the Whiteboard conference sessions a couple weeks ago was great, especially being able to chat live with others while watching - fantastic stuff.

The other thought is - strive to do the conference with as few sponsors as possible, and with as little “production” as possible. Concert-level production isn’t needed for humble worship and speaking. It also drives costs up. With sponsorship, what you can talk about/demonstrate is limited. For instance, the Worship Summit put on by Integrity last fall was a great idea, but severely limited by sponsors - MediaShout’s a great product, but then no one could hear about any other options and the demo wasn’t about the concept, it was about the product. Same with the Yamaha e-drums, Aviom system, etc. Then also the fact that only Integrity’s own artists were worship leaders, and the songs they used to lead worship were the title tracks for their new albums available for sale in the lobby.

So that’s a long way of saying, “keep it real”. Let the texts for the day dictate the worship songs. Let the speakers be free to speak as God leads them. Let resources be freely available - go digital if that’s the only way to distribute them freely. Do everything possible to be “local"-focused while still being a high-quality event. Don’t make it about selling books, albums, or anything else. Make it about Jesus, and the rest will take care of itself.

I hope that doesn’t come across too strongly, but I really believe so many conferences are missing the point these days - so many seem to be about production, big-names, and selling. I am thirsting for more conferences that keep the focus where it needs to be - on the person and work of Jesus.