Mark Batterson took the platform first this afternoon. Keeping with the "elephant" theme, Mark pointed out up front that elephants poop 80 pounds a day. He admitted that has nothing to do with anything, but thought we needed to know that as Innovative Church Conference participants.

Mark suggested the cure for the fear of failure is not success. The cure is small failures along the way. You become immune to failure and are willing to take more risks. He then shared some of his journey that included a church plant failure and a struggle launching National Community Church in Washington, D.C.

Then he talked about how God opened doors for the church to begin meeting in Union Station, just four blocks from the Capitol. That led to a vision of meeting in metro stops throughout the DC region. They currently meet in two locations and with a third metro stop coming. Additionally, they have a coffee house just half a block from Union Station. In addition to being a gathering place on Capitol Hill, it’s the location for their Saturday evening service.

After telling a little bit about his story, Mark challenged us with this statement. He said, "There are ways of doing church that no one has thought of." He talked about how part of our responsibility is to "compel people to come in." He explained, among other things, that means his church is using the movie screens more and more to teach biblical truth. And, they’re teaching less from behind the pulpit and more on location…using video.

Mark shared that he’s rethinking ministry. He mentioned blogging and podcasting as new vehicles for sharing the Word of God. He likened it to the ministry of John Wesley and his circuit riders.

In conclusion, Mark encouraged us with these thoughts:

  1. Enjoy the journey.
  2. Be yourself. I tried being a pastor, and now I’m trying to be me.
  3. Stop criticizing. I’m tired of the church being known for what it’s against.
  4. Offend Pharisees. If you’re going to follow Jesus in ministry, you’re going to offend the religious establishment. Any time you do something innovative, someone is going to criticize you for it.
  5. Make mistakes. Those are the experiences you eventually look back and enjoy.

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