Jim Putman of Real Life Church Ministries in Idaho kicked off the first main session of the Exponential 2013 conference this afternoon. I will be blogging throughout the conference. Here are my notes from Jim’s message:

God uses broken people so that He can get the glory for it.

Matthew 16:18 – “who do you say that I am?”

McDowell: 85% of kids growing up in the church leave between ages of 18-24
Kinnaman, You Lost Me
Thomas Rainer

What is ‘winning’ for the church?

Some churches change the definition of a disciple so that it looks like we are ‘winning’

What makes a church “Jesus’ church”?
When the church stands under Jesus’ authority
When the church lives into His mission of making disciples, not converts (what is a disciple? – Matthew 4:19 – one who follows Jesus, one who is formed by Jesus into a lover of God and others, one who fishes for men with Jesus
When the church utilizes Jesus’ methods: Jesus took 12 and poured into them

If you want people to make disciples, are you making disciples yourself?

I’m not a paid player, I’m a coach and a coach’s success is based on how many people he has raised up

Our people are not growing in victory because they do not know how to wrestle (Eph 6); they don’t know how to wrestle because they aren’t becoming disciples