What They're Saying...

Enjoy.

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The IMN immersion...the ideas, conversations and friendships...continue to reverberate in my life four years later. I came to the IMN looking for a roadmap, but received something more powerful: permission to travel.

--Octavio Martinez, Mosaic co-pastor (Los Angeles)

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Dean Sharp
Thousand Oaks, California

Engagement with the IMN is a trajectory changing adventure. I don't know of a single individual—including myself—whose perspectives, objectives and productivity have not undergone significant orbital shifts as a result of their time with the cohort.

It's truly rare to find a leadership experience where focused intentionality embraces creativity and collaboration, but such is the uniqueness of the IMN and its founder, Alex McManus. Many leaders fancy themselves as forward-thinking or future-oriented, but having enjoyed a close friendship with Alex for many years now I can confidently reveal that he actually lives in the future and only travels back on occasion to check in with the rest of us. I am grateful for him and for the IMN, a "band of brothers" (and sisters) that I have the honor of naming among my dearest friends. -- Dean Sharp, Thousand Oaks, California

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Mike Harris
Lake Orion, Michigan

The IMN experience exploded my biblical theology of mission in ways that has moved my own life, as well as my church community, from being “missionary minded” to being “on mission with Jesus.”

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The IMN breathed fresh air into my own ministry and theology. It's revived and given new shape to a theology of humanity and transformation that had gone stale while at the same time reminding me that Jesus didn't come for Christians, he came for people. Truly, because of my experience in the IMN I will spend the rest of my life seeking people from all nations. Safe return is doubtful, but I wouldn't have it any other way. -- Matthew Johnson

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Three words say it all.

Tribe – there is nothing that compares to connecting with like-minded people who have a similar sense of destiny and urgency...even if they live on the other side of the earth; it’s a community, not a classroom.

Engagement – you have real time with real people, with real hearts and true stories, pushing you and stretching you to engage your culture and create a brilliant future.

Innovation – The IMN is not about preserving the past or protecting a legacy; it’s concerned with what is next. It’s a world of ideas, dreams and possibilities; Alex McManus and the IMN are people that are captivated by the future, not frozen in the past. --Russell Murphy (Australia)

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The IMN goes beyond a coalition of like-minded would-be heroes ... it's an entire reality web. Thanks in large part to Alex's huge-hearted, perceptional leadership, those of us who have had the opportunity to attend The HUMAN EVENT conference, participate in the 7-Day Mentoring Immersion, or conspire with the Makers of Fire have been shifted in thinking and life mission closer to the Kingdom trajectory.

No IMN experience is reproducible, just as Heraclitus offered that no one can step into the same river twice. Yet there's a kinetic energy there that moves everyone who wanders or thrusts themselves toward an extraordinary, God-intended future. --Patrick Voo (Canada)

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Me and Rachel have been part of the IMN since 2006. Having the IMN week each year to participate in has been such an incredible help for us on our journey. It has felt like a real lifeline to be honest. We used to be worried that we were crazy with the thoughts and ideas we had for church, mission, and serving humanity. Now we know that we ARE crazy...but that we are not alone. We feel like through the IMN we have joined forces with people all over the globe who are prepared to experiment, explore, and not be afraid to take risks. Having permission to fail has been hugely releasing. By ourselves we might not have had that. But through the IMN, we feel like we have that permission and that has propelled us forward in ways that we might never have otherwise dared.

As well as the thought provoking teaching and mentoring, through the IMN we have built some amazing friendships. We have so much fun when we're together. Food and laughter have been a wonderful and enriching aspect of the IMN that are a huge part of our enjoyment of the whole experience. It feels like we now have a network of co-conspirators all around the world that we could not afford to be without. --Sam and Rachel, Sheffield (UK)

Listen to Sam and Rachel Radford talk about their experiences in the IMN's signature Mentoring Immersion.

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There was something almost “mystical” about the HUMAN EVENT. Amazingly, I only attended because I’d developed a long distance friendship with Eric Bryant, and we agreed that this would be a great opportunity for us to connect.

The experience was nothing if not eye-opening. I met some of the most amazing leaders (some of whom didn’t even recognize themselves as leaders), hungry and passionate for a conversation and a strategy for impacting their culture and building enduring faith communities.

If you wanted a conference with hermetic perspectives, this was not it. If you were looking for a group of people declaiming the next great wave of revival, you wouldn’t have found it here. In fact, this was a refreshingly different format from the usual ‘expert’ versus ‘learner’ approach that most conferences seem to employ.

One of the new buzz words among today’s Christian is the word ‘conversation,’ which often really means a one sided dialog. H2.09 was actually a conversation between like-minded people exchanging ideas with a view to becoming better at what they do.

We live in a culture that seems to thrive on schadenfreude, so it was refreshingly different to hear a perspective that encourages experimenting in translating the message of Christ, knowing that we will sometimes fail, while learning new methods in the process.

I like the fact that H2.09 was not the same tired old routine of a group of ‘seasoned ministers’ spewing nocuous venom at participants who are honestly looking to make a difference in their communities, while they try to pawn their latest bestseller on how to become as successful as them! So, if you’re looking for a starting point in having a conversation about God in a world that is largely unresponsive to the way the message has been communicated, then drop what you’re doing right now and make a mad dash over to a Human Event somewhere near you. -- Joseph Thompson Lake Mary, Florida

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It's now my third year of experiencing the IMN. From expansive ideas that are stimulated and generated, to the power of developing, affirming, and encouraging relationships, the whole thing has had an amplifying and multiplying affect on my life and purpose - I honestly cannot think of anything that compares with how this impacts life.. (Geoffrey Baines: a Methodist minister imagineering in Edinburgh)

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There are so many options for all of us as Christian’s leaders to help us grow personally and as communities of faith. There is a smorgasbord of ‘how to’ workshops and ministry retreat weekends. IMN however is different and no surprise it was more transformation for me than I could have ever imagined. For those of you who have completed an Emmaus or Chrisio experience, I would say that this had the similar result, different experience. I came away understanding with greater clarity and depth, the leader God has created me to be as we looked at our strengths, gifts, experience and what it means to live in human community together as followers of Christ.

Alex McManus has been the formative innovator of ministry in Christ following communities for years. Having the opportunity to learn under this kind of leadership was truly a gift to me and the team who participated in the IMN Cohort 2009. Alex uses his superpowers to energize leaders, drawing out of them their own superpowers and creating space for spiritual energy to create momentum for each person’s ministry. Alongside of other innovative leaders, IMN uses everything it has to challenge leaders and draw out of them potential ministry taking it to its most forward degree finding ways to can make the world more human again.

During our time together I developed a great passion to help others discover how to live their best human self. I also deepened my appreciation of how God might use community to impact the Kingdom if we actually developed, strengthened and applied our strengths in human community together. Often times I think many of us feel like we have to ‘fit’ in somewhere or somehow to connect to the Spirit of God. What I came to realize is that we don’t have to ‘fit’ in anywhere but we all can belong somewhere in community with each other.

Debbie Casanzio
Tampa, Florida

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