Photograph by Scott Wade
I just had the privilege of attending the Verge conference here in Austin. (Tony and I shared at one of the workshops.) There were more than 2,000 who had signed up for the conference and maybe double that number watching live-streaming video.
I was on the social media team and it was amazing to watch the tweets that just kept rolling in (and continue to do so). If you're interested in some of the comments/highlights, search under #verge10 on Twitter. You will be amazed at some of the comments made by the main speakers.
There was a great hunger expressed for missional communities. Many simple/organic church concepts were shared by people such as Neil Cole, David Watson, George Patterson and David Garrison. Those who shared from mega churches talked about how they recognized the disparity between big church and church as represented by the New Testament, with a humble willingness to count the cost to see a more relational and missional expression of church that will genuinely touch our communities.
If some of the huge numbers of the on-fire-for-the-Lord young people involved in these vibrant mega churches are trained and released to make disciples and gather them into missional communities/simple, organic churches, we will see greater growth than we have ever imagined.
Primarily in LA, but also here in Austin, there is increasing relationship between the leaders of mega and micro churches. What could happen in our cities if it doesn't matter who gets the credit?