These are my raw annotations from one of the sessions at the Exponential Conference. Hopefully they’ll make some sense to you.

Session 1 with Erwin McManus.

- Church planting is dynamic, a movement.

- In Acts 17, we can see Paul’s movements (this is when he was in Athens).

- Paul was distressed by the idols in that city. Regardless, he went to the Synagogue first. This was his FIRST SPACE.

- There are 3 spaces to go to, most people go to their FIRST PLACE as it is the safest one.

- In church planting we do the same–we plant in safe places.

- “Love connects, it covers all irrelevancies” (paraphrased).

- We create spaces to invite people to–a community, a city of others where people who don’t know Jesus can belong. Church is that FIRST SPACE.

- Usually we bring people to faith and we take them out of their world. We shouldn’t. Instead, we should mentor them in their own spaces.

- The SECOND SPACE is the place where people outside of the church are open and comfortable. In Paul’s case he found it in Athen’s marketplace.

- This space is harder for most of us because we have learned to take ourselves out of the world forgetting how to relate to it.

- Therefore, we should communicate the Gospel in a way that makes sense, without watering it down.

- There is yet a THIRD SPACE–a place where we cannot go unless we are invited. In Paul’s case, he is taken to the Areopagus.

- We need to earn the right to be asked in and invited to these places.

- As we go to the THIRD SPACE we may loose our FIRST SPACE, and people in the latter may reject us for it. That is ok. We should strive to go that THIRD SPACE.

For better notes on this session, check out Doug Gamble’s blog.