1.                            America is experiencing a major culture shift, which we can see in multiple ways, most explicitly the Internet and the “War on Terror.”  This culture shift necessitates new approaches to ministry. 

2.                            The Internet has given us a model of structure that the church may appropriate and which is more effective for contemporary ministry than any hierarchical form.  This structure is web-based, three-dimensional and time-dynamic.  Web-based structures replicate much more quickly and easily adapt to modifications in their structure.  Hierarchies are two-dimensional and given to upheaval if one part malfunctions.  They are not time-dynamic in the same way that webs are.  Webs are relationally oriented; hierarchies are structure oriented.  Web models are more effective in contemporary society than hierarchies. 

3.                            The Internet is at least as revolutionary as the Printing Press.

4.                            Democracy is not the ideal model of the church; neither is episcopacy.  Both are hierarchies that vary only in who is in power – the people or the “leadership.”  Web-based models could provide a third option.

5.                            “Postmodernism” could be just as binding as “modernism” for the church.  It is likely that we will all be taking it apart sooner rather than later.

6.                            Modernism cannot save; neither can postmodernism.

7.                            Communities are built primarily on relationships, not on structures.

8.                            Discipleship is most effective when disciples are made and formed in community.

9.                            The “Willow Creek Model” and other forms of “Contemporary Worship” have become “Traditional” to an entire generation of American Christians.  We are experiencing yet another shift in “worship style” for which the “Contemporary vs. Traditional” dichotomy makes no sense.

10.                        The most effective way to grow a church is to have that church plant another one.

11.                        Denominationalism is already dead.  Few Protestants are loyal to the denomination (or non-denomination) of their church.  We must seek new ways of associating regionally and nationally for corporate ministry.  Some existing denominational resources and structures are still useful; we should use those without using denominationalism as our primary hermeneutic.

12.                        We must affirm that there is only one church, even with its many divisions within it.  At the same time, we must affirm and encourage the full ecclesiality of each local body.  This includes monastic and other residential bodies, “para-church” organizations, mission agencies, Bible studies, home fellowships, etc. 

13.                        We ought to seek other ecclesial forms than the existing “local church,” “para-church,” and “residential” models of “doing and being church.” 

14.                        Seminaries will lose their effectiveness along with the decline of denominations.  The primary locus for extended, systematic theological development will return to the local church.

15.                        The Internet spells the end of Seminaries as we know them.  At the point that libraries move online, they will be radically transformed, if they do not disappear altogether.

16.                        Even if this does not happen soon, some will disappear anyway.

17.                        The hermeneutic of suspicion has largely run its course in Biblical scholarship.  It is now important to turn that hermeneutic on the scholars themselves. 

18.                        We must approach the scriptures primarily through the eyes of faith, not the eyes of suspicion.

19.                        We can and should be eclectic with the Christian traditions.  There is much good to be found in each of them.

20.                        The best efforts and methodologies for evangelism will alienate many.

21.                        We do our best evangelism when we become a part of the natural rhythms of life alongside non-Christians, as far as our consciences, trained by God, allow.

22.                        Evangelism is a posture and lifestyle of living out the good news of Jesus Christ that we express through every action, word, and attitude.  It is not primarily an event, procedure or a method.  These are useful only as an expression of the life and lifestyle already present in disciples of Jesus Christ.

23.                        Effective ministry is often marked by dramatic growth in faith and in numbers of new converts.

24.                        These results are dependent on the will of the Spirit of God.

25.                        Conversion is both a process and an event.  It is an event when a person chooses to set aside life as they have known it and take on a new form of life.  It is a process that begins before this “turning point” and continues after it until we die.  This is the process of the “Renovation of the Heart.” 

26.                        Baptism primarily demonstrates the event nature of conversion; discipleship demonstrates the process nature of conversion. 

27.                        The attitude of the scriptures and the earliest church (as evidenced by Acts 11:26) is that “Christian” is a subset of “Disciple”.  We have it the other way around in our common practice.  We are wrong.

28.                        Discipleship equips the disciples to become masters themselves, and is not intended to keep people students forever. 

29.                        Discipleship is imitating Christ himself; thus, it is the core of living the Christian life.

30.                        God calls us to a radical discipleship to Jesus Christ that implies an actual change in life and lifestyle from a life of sin, evil and death to an eternal life. 

31.                        We should expect to be able to say, “Follow me as I follow Christ,” and not get embarrassed. 

32.                        This kind of statement is only possible when it is given in full humility.

33.                        We must always affirm that we are a part of a historical faith.  Therefore, we may never cut ties with any part of the history of the church.  We must accept that the church is not what it will be.  At the same time we should not be content to stay where we are. 

34.                        Denying any part of the history of the church denies the Incarnation.

35.                        One of the biggest crises in campus ministry happens after graduation: recent graduates have great difficulty finding churches and feel guilty that they don’t really want to go at all. 

36.                        We must equip students to participate in existing churches and provide them with the skills to plant their own.  We must give them the skills to form their own communities once they graduate.

37.                        18-year-olds are fully adults; we must treat them as such.

38.                        22-year-old college graduates have been given great opportunities to mature and to lead during college.  We are remiss if we do not continue to press them to lead in areas of real impact after college. 

39.                        One of the fundamental reasons why recent college graduates cannot connect with existing local churches is that they operate in two different cultures.  Most churches are not prepared to do this kind of ministry. Neither are they equipped to handle these issues or willing to deal with the cultural shift.

40.                        Most churches do not empower people in their midst for ministry.  In fact, many actively work against empowerment.

41.                        This lack of empowerment destroys most efforts to proclaim the good news of Jesus Christ and impedes discipleship. 

42.                        We ought to encourage new expressions and forms of ministry no matter how different they may seem from anything we have known to date. 

43.                        Given the culture shift and other issues at work in the church we are more in a brainstorming phase for ministry than a “narrowing-down” of ideas.  This may be a decade-long brainstorm.  We must encourage it to occur. 

44.                        If we cannot do this, we are 1) taking ourselves too seriously and 2) won’t get anywhere.

45.                        Many ministry crises can be resolved by attempting a creative, risky option.

46.                        In the current homosexuality crisis in the church, we must welcome, love, and befriend homosexuals more than we are; we must be less affirming of homosexuality as a lifestyle faithful to Jesus Christ.

47.                        We must be fully open to the broken and hurting.

48.                        The full range of the miracles in the Bible is possible and needed today, through the power of the Spirit.  This includes the “Charismatic” stuff.

49.                        All the “more spectacular” gifts can and should be practiced regularly.

50.                        God heals.  Sometimes it’s not how we expect. 

51.                        We need to examine our images of Jesus; when we say “What Would Jesus Do?” we really do not know.

52.                        We who are more Baptistic in our polity should find ways of affirming the content of the Nicene and Chalecedonian formulations (in order to give ourselves an identity).

53.                        We proclaim the Triune God: One God eternally existent in three persons.  Jesus makes no sense without the other two.

54.                        The ascension implies that human flesh is in the unconditioned, unlimited presence of God for the first time.

55.                        The early church in its formulations of Christology affirmed that Mary is “the mother of God.”  We can affirm this statement but we must not make Mary divine or imply divinity in her in any way; moreover, she must not be “mother” in terms of being a source of Jesus’ divinity.  She is a source of his humanity. 

56.                        God is the same God in both the Old Testament and the New Testament, and held a singular purpose in mind.

57.                        God chose the best way to redeem the world.  If there had been any better way other than Jesus Christ, he would have done it. 

58.                        We can affirm the use of the terms “Father, Son and Holy Spirit” for the Trinity because these are the only designations that address the existence of God outside of the creation. 

59.                        God is at work in ways we will never see nor know.

60.                        We are not called to be theological agnostics.  We know God in Christ.

61.                        We must affirm God’s creation of the world or else the rest of the story makes no sense.

62.                        The how and the when of creation is theologically adiaphora. The “why” is an intriguing question which relates to the nature of God.

63.                        The resurrection and the cross make no sense without the presence of the other. 

64.                        In his death, Jesus Christ destroyed the power of death; in his life, he has brought us eternal life. 

65.                        Jesus rose bodily from the grave and ascended into heaven.

66.                        Making a distinction between “the Jesus of History” and “the Christ of Faith” denies the Nicene faith expressed in the Chalcedonian formulation. 

67.                        The Augustinian Trinity seems to make the Holy Spirit subordinate to the other two persons of the Trinity and dependent on their mutual relationship for his existence in a way that is not expected of the other two.  This is problematic.  On the other hand, the Eastern Trinity subordinates the Son and the Spirit to the Father in an excessive fashion.  Perhaps we can make an attempt at a reformulation.

68.                        We all use liturgy in some form or another.  It just looks different in different places. 

69.                        Effective ministry means that we take more time living among our neighbors and interacting with them than we do in studying “their” culture and lifestyle in a detached, academic fashion. 

70.                        We must continually live with the ambiguity of the Incarnation: the profane does not profane what is holy; to the contrary, the holy sanctifies the profane as the two come into contact.

71.                        The best, most effective ministries are not cost-effective.

72.                        We should be willing to risk our own salvation for God’s sake and for the sake of the Gospel.

73.                        We can and should give comprehensive, seminary-level training to all disciples of Jesus Christ in order to help each disciple further their giftings and call. 

74.                        Our ministries as they stand are most effective at reaching Christians. 

75.                        There are three kinds of non-Christians in the world: those with no church background, those who had a terrible experience somewhere, and those who sit in a church week in and week out thinking they’re set to go.

76.                        There are only two non-Churched types: those who have no background with the church and those who had a bad experience somewhere.

77.                        Our Christian “subculture” keeps us from being true Christians.

78.                        Every meal can be communion if we desire Jesus to be there.

79.                        We ought to celebrate communion often; Christ is our life, and we are dependent on him for our sustenance.

80.                        Every disciple of Jesus Christ is in full-time ministry.  Insofar as we are disciples of Jesus Christ, we serve God and people wherever we are.

81.                        Heresy is still a viable term, which we must use with care. 

82.                        Preaching is the articulation of faith in a verbal form – leading the people of God and all others who hear by prophetic and pastoral means.  Thus, preaching occurs many more places than in a pulpit on a Sunday morning. 

83.                        Discipleship happens all the time.  Sometimes we are making others disciples of something that is not God (perhaps even ourselves). 

84.                        The most effective form of teaching for this generation is mentoring. 

85.                        Mentoring is the most natural form of teaching.  When we mentor, we make someone into something that looks a lot like us.  For instance, a professor will be most effective at making the students into professors, rather than the practitioners of the subject.  This does not mean that they will not be ineffective at everything else.  They will just make professors most efficiently.  This applies to most disciplines.

86.                        We are all wired for discipleship and mentoring.  This begins at birth and continues through childhood into the rest of life. 

87.                        Every Christian is a theologian.

88.                        Every human being is at least a philosopher if not a theologian.

89.                        Love is our paradigm for ministry.

90.                        All service to the poor and oppressed should be interpreted through Jesus, based on him, and given in his name.  We cannot truly love our neighbor if we do not love God, and vice versa.