If you haven’t seen Slumdog Millionaire, you need to. It’s an incredible story, a clear picture of the depths of poverty in this world and a beautiful love story.

Go see it now.

Minneapolis folks, it’s only playing at the Edina Landmark theatre right now at 50th and France.

So good.

Ten takeaways from Granger Community Church’s Innovate 08 Conference.

1. Balance is static. Who needs balance? You have to lean into progress. - Mark Beeson
2. The Gospel is Good News for Right Now. Stop Talking, Start Doing. Mark Beeson
3. Stuff=how we tell the story. Spoken, Sung, Printed, Visualized. Brand Schizophrenia = When we fall in love with the stuff instead of Jesus. - Shawn Wood
4. Leveraging Technology for Ministry is all about engagement. It’s not about toys, it’s about tools to reach the increasing population and their shortened attention spans. - Bobby Gruenwald. 
5. We forget the promise and forfeit the payoff because we faint in the process. We need to understand that the process is the point. The payoff of God’s promise comes in the processes we go through as we’re faithful to act on what we hear from him. - Steven Furtick
6. An organization is the reflection of its leadership. Leaders must be willing to “get naked.” The difference between where you are and where God wants you to be is the pain you’re unwilling to endure. Accept the pain of the journey and enter in to God’s kingdom here on earth. - Life Church Directional Leadership Team
7. Pop Goes the Church. Harness pop culture in the church to:
   - Package events to attract a crowd.
   - Get people to Think or Laugh
   - Provide a new interpretation of a pop cultural element
   - To encourage people in their service. 
   WHY do all of this? It’s all about engagement. - Tim Stevens
8. Better off going 30 ft deep in 3 places than 3 in deep in 30 places. Don’t confuse the great commission with the great commotion. - Rob Wegner
9. Social Media allows people to fulfill their human desire to affiliate, associate and belong on a smaller scale. It’s also an environment where trust and relational collateral is developed at levels as shallow or deep as you want.  - Kem Meyer, Zach Montroy, Tim Schraeder and Jeremy Scheller (Ha!)
10. Changing the course is good. Be confident in knowing who you are and what you want to do and then you’ll have the space to be creative in how you do it.  - Mark Beeson

The Willow Creek Lead Summit is coming up in August. Efrem will be speaking there this year.

They’ve got their website up and running now. You can check out a sample video from Efrem there.

Or check out the introduction from Phil Jackson, who co-wrote the Hip Hop Church book with Efrem.

The Book at Amazon:

Incidently, Phil and Tha House MCs will be at Hip Hop Sunday this month, April 20th 9 & 11am. They blew the roof off last time…Tha House is a ministry led by Phil Jackson birthed out of Lawndale Community Church in Chicago.

I can’t wait to see this:
 [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PpntYFfVoQU&hl=en]

Maybe there will be a field trip for Hip Hop Academy sometime…

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zKoXG0RjC7E&hl=en]

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gfq2Zwr0ABM&hl=en]

This is too haaaooot!

thanks Ariah. 

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VjqqZyfpeUQ&rel=1]

We’re still young. We’re learning. We’re growing.