Pastor Rick Warren delivered the final talk of the Exponential West 2014 conference on Thursday. He urged the pastors and church planters in attendance to "repent of localism" and adopt a global evangelistic vision for their local church. Warren said one of the reasons why God has blessed Saddleback Church (where he pastors) is because the church has always had a heart for reaching the world. Saddleback, he said, is not just concerned about its own corner of the globe. And the more the church reaches out around the world, the more blessed it is locally. 'When must your church plant start caring about world missions? Before you start. If you want the blessings of God on your church, put the spirit of missions in your church's DNA,' he said. Warren also expressed concern that "so much missions is being done by non-church groups." He said global missions "is the church's responsibility. Jesus didn't die for my ministry and your organization; He died for the church." Exponential is a bi-annual gathering of thousands of church planting leaders for "inspiration, encouragement and equipping." Exponential West was held at Saddleback Church in Lake Forest, CA, on October 6-9. The theme of the conference was "Seek + Save" and it featured 75+ speakers, 75+ workshops, 8 tracks, and 2,000 church planting leaders. The conference website states, "Exponential 2014 will take a fresh look at evangelism — proclaiming the Good News — as we rethink and challenge some of our old paradigms and rediscover some of Jesus’ old truths. Within the context of discipleship, we will press into five key areas of evangelism: ReThinking Evangelism, ReThinking Outreach, ReThinking Witness, ReThinking Preaching, ReThinking Commission." All of the talks given at Exponential West 2014 will be available for viewing online by November 3 via the conference's Digital Access Pass which costs $49 (limited time only). Exponential West 2015 will be held again at Saddleback Church on October 5-8. Registration is now open for $99/registrant and $29/spouse. --BCNN1

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