Here are some highlights from the first session with Alan:

• The church is becoming more isolated from most people today in the US.
• Most churches in an attractional setting are extracting people from their cultural group, which also removes their influence from Christ in their cultural setting.
• Within 3-5 years of coming to Christ, most people are socialized out of their context and into the context of the church, which removes them from their sphere of influence.
• 40% of the US would be interested in the Contemporary Church Growth Model.
• That means 60% of people are alienated from the Contemporary Church Growth Model.
• The problem? 95% of churches are trying to become like the Contemporary Church.
• Even if every church could pull it off (by becoming a growing church in the CCGM) we would only be reaching out to 40% of the population.
• What is church for the 60%?  What is going to reach them?  More of the same is not the answer.
• The problems of the church cannot be resolved by the same kind of thinking that created those problems.  You cannot do the same thing over and over and expect different results.  That is the definition of organizational insanity.
• We are living in a de-churched cultural society. Most churches do not know what to do with that. They are unsure of what they need to do different.
• Church comes out of mission. Not the other way around.
• We need to plant the gospel and let church come out of that