Dave Ferguson closed the day’s conference with a talk on Rapid Reproduction. Dave and four friends launched Community Christian Church in the west suburbs of Chicago. CCC averages 4,600 in attendance at eight sites every weekend. He co-founded the NewThing Network (www.newthing.org), a catalyst for a a movement of reproducing churches.

I found Dave’s talk on Rapid Reporduction very refreshing and exciting. I am not concerned with the idea of growing the largest church in Lake County, but churching the county. In other words, planting churches in Lake County or launching multiple sites within our county rapidly. Dave’s talk help me start the how of connecting the dots for Darin and I. Below are notes I took during Dave’s talk. I will comment after the notes.

Rapid Reproduction
Acts 1:8 – YOU will be my witnesses.

Dave shared the story of Leonardo Fibonacci. Fibonacci was known for many things. He was best known for the Fibonacci Numbers, which is a number sequence that he had discovered while solving a problem about rabbits. Originally this was a problem that he investigated (in the year 1202) to see about how fast rabbits would breed in ideal circumstances. This is assumming that none of the rabbits die, and that each pair of rabbits does not give birth to more than one pair of rabbits each month. He could not solve the problem using the Roman numbering system, so he invented the Arabian number system, the same one we use today. He changed the way people counted.

Dave stated that we need to become reproducing churches and posed the question, “What’s it going to take for us to see rapid reproduction?”
His answer – we must begin to dream big and don’t be afraid to share your dream.

Big Dreams Change Things:

* They change our Questions
How do I….
The bigger the dream, the more profound your questions.

God has a bigger dream for your church than you have for your church.

* They change your prayers
If your dreams are not dependent on God, they will fail.

* Big Dreams Change Others

You have to start small – 2 Timothy 2:2
Start small
You have to start with leaders
Leaders will lead and produce leaders for small groups
Artists reproduce what you need for large group service

How are you going to know when you have the ethos (culture) of rapid reproduction?
– Seek the lost more than the found.
– When you begin to love the edge (risk taking) more than you love the center (safety)
– Start preferring the going more than the staying.

I know that some of this may not make sense to you, but in a nushell Dave was sharing that in order to carry out the Acts 1:8 mandate it is up to you to take action, specifically me as a church planter. You have to dream big and act on the dream. Since I have written on being Visional and dreaming big dreams, this talk got me excited.

Tomorrow Bill Hybels closes out the conference.