Our roundtable format hosted at this years Equip Conference in Columbus, Ohio was well received. Driven Unplugged was a different gather than the conference of the last 4 years, but it served a very important purpose as we helped to cast vision for many church leaders, who are concerned about raising up next generation leaders. With a healthy mix of generations around the table we engaged in a process of discovering the challenges that we are facing in the church.
Monday night was titled Defining the Dilemma and we engaged in a number of exercises to help participants understand generational differences and how to position the church to more effectively reach the next generation.
Tuesday we hosted author and speaker Gabe Lyons, who co-author a book called unChristain which highlights the perceptions of young non-believer and their views on Christians and the church. Gabe believes that this generation is on the door step of some tremendous opportunities to engage culture in profound ways for the cause of the gospel. Keith Minier helped to facilitate a time of Q&A with Gabe Lyons on that topic.
Wednesday night was our final gathering for the week entitled Sharing Solutions. Nate Harrison started the night out with a case study from the business world, by introducing us to Toyota’s creation of the Scion Brand. Next we watched a video and heard from Ezra Wimberly and Beau Stanley about who young adults need both events and process. Finally we host a panel with 5 representative ministries or churches who are doing some unique things in their context.
Partnering with Equip for these gatherings seemed to be well received with 70-80 in attendence each night. While the stories of the change that it will bring to those who participated is yet to be determined, many expressed a deep appreication for the things shared and learned throughout the discussion. For Driven it was our hope that the research we presented along with the opportunity to host this kind of a discussion would only further our mission to gather a generation to become catalyst for Christ in church and culture.
Stay posted for what will happen with Driven in 2010 and thanks to all who are committed to the heart of Driven.