Been thinking a lot -- and talking -- about the core of the Church. Today's group was filled with comments about -ism's: Calvinism (it is the 500th anniversary of the Scholar-Lawyer's birth), Catholicism, Amish, Reformed, Evangelicalism, Baptist, Charismatic and other traditions/ism's. Read more...

Session One of the Ancient-Future Community conference featured Scot McKnight. He gave us a glimpse into the small group that Jesus led, the table fellowship they enjoyed, and the acceptance they shared. Preceding Scot's talk was an awesome worship set led by Matt Lundgren, and a video called Fast Forward that looked back at the history of the church.

To see additional clips from any part of the conference, click the Sessions In Depth link at the right, under Ancient-Future Community. There you will find not only video clips, but outlines, photos, notes on worship sets, and links to other resources by conference speakers.

Watch Video: Ancient-Future Session One Highlights

By now you've probably seen (or visited) Group Life TV by clicking on the link at the right. We've posted several videos there to get started, but we'll be adding to this library constantly over the coming days and months. Thirty-something of the top leaders in Group Life stopped by our studio during the Ancient-Future Community conference to give us their thoughts. We can't wait for you to see them, but we'll spread them out so you don't overload on too much of a good thing!

Many of the titles on Group Life TV are not just single videos, but collections. My personal favorite: Why I Love Small Groups with clips from Bill Donahue, Russ Robinson, Mindy Caliguire and others. (I even have one in there. Greg Bowman said I have a great face for radio.)

You can watch these videos alone, but what fun would that be?  Share them with friends by clicking the button to email the clip or to get the code to place the video on your own web site or blog.

Ancient-Future Video
Over the next few weeks we'll be publishing video highlights of the Ancient-Future Community conference. Each Session Highlight shows the band, drama, video clips, and speaker sound bites. Other clips are standalone edits of the speaker sound bites or copies of the actual videos used in the session. In the coming weeks we're adding "And another thing..."; each main speaker's thoughts of what else they would like to say that didn't make it into their talk on stage.  

The small video jukebox included in each of the Ancient-Future posts will get you started. If you'd like to see videos in a larger player (or you just can't wait to see all the conference videos as soon as we post them) click the Conference Videos link under Ancient-Future Community in the navigation links at the right of this blog.

The foundations of biblical community were built for the future, allowing us to soar on the wings of innovation.

In this session, Bill Donahue talks with three church leaders about emerging trends in community life that portend both chaotic change and unprecedented opportunity.

Missional Communities: Denise VanEck of Mars Hill Bible Church in Grandville, Michigan
Virtual Community: Bobby Gruenewald of LifeChurch.tv in Edmond, Oklahoma
Urban Community: Steve Wu of Willow Creek Community Church, regional campus, Chicago, Illinois

Ageless Influence
The results of building authentic community aren’t always immediately apparent. Mike Breaux, teaching pastor at Willow Creek Community Church, reminds us of the ageless influence we have through relational ministry and that life change is the legacy we leave.

Session Three Preview
Dave Treat shares his anticipation of Session Three at the Ancient-Future Community Conference.

Watch Video: Ancient-Future Session Three Preview

Learn more about this session and speakers Denise VanEck, Bobby Gruenewald, Steve Wu, and Mike Breaux by visiting Session In Depth. Here you'll find links to additional resources, video clips, programming notes, and reflections from this session.

We want to hear what you think. To comment on this session, please click on the "Comments" link below.

How did you end your day yesterday? Did you attend one of the 30 Coffees? Meet with your team? Sit in the NorthPoint connection event? Meet the Willow Neighborhood Pastors? Get Will Miller's autograph?

Maybe you rode the train to Chicago or had a great meal with your team. Let us know what you talked about.

Tell us about your Friday Experience... what was the most helpful to you? Click on Comment below.