NNCC Plenary Session 2 - Ed Stetzer

Note...this message alone was worth the trip...

A new church will move beyond addition by being MISSIONAL.

"You shall be my witnesses..."

Acts 16:7-10 When they came to the border of Mysia, they tried to enter Bithynia, but the Spirit of Jesus would not allow them to. So they passed by Mysia and went down to Troas. During the night Paul had a vision of a man of Macedonia standing and begging him, "Come over to Macedonia and help us." After Paul had seen the vision, we got ready at once to leave for Macedonia, concluding that God had called us to preach the gospel to them.

1) COME OVER TO MACEDONIA

- John 3:16 leads to John 20:21

- sometimes even Paul didn't know where to go

- DON'T GO AND PLANT A CHURCH IF ALL YOU HAVE IS A VISION FOR THE CHURCH. YOU'VE GOT TO HAVE A VISION FOR THE PEOPLE

- You've got to love your community, not someone elses

- too many planters are in love with someone else's community

- Planting the gospel will lead to planting a church which will lead to changing the community

- Make Christ preminent -- not your church

2) HELP

- the most important help you can give is to remind people that it's all about JESUS

- the proclamation of the gospel has to be preminent

- IT'S GOT TO BE ABOUT A BLOODY CROSS AND AN EMPTY TOMB!

- the HELP we've got to bring is the help of the gospel

- we've got a problem when relevance becomes the goal in our churches...RELEVANCE IS SIMPLY A TOOL...NEVER THE GOAL...THE GOSPEL IS THE GOAL

HOW DO WE EXPRESS A LOSS OF CONFIDENCE IN THE GOSPEL?

- when we focus on personal transformation and not gospel transformation

- when sermons become so practical, they lack any gospel

- when the approach makes you the hero and not God

- when your outreach demeans others who are sharing the gospel

- when attendance is a bigger value than conversions

- when the cross gets less focus than the church

- when not offending seekers is more important than telling the gospel...we need to shift from being seeker sensitive to seeker comprehensible

3) US

- us is the lost world around us

- we've got to get desperate about reaching the lost

- John Knox's prayer to God, "Give me Scotland or I die."

- MAKE THE HARD CHOICE...go after those without Christ

NNCC - Maximizing Your Environments (Mark Batterson)

7 Keys to Creating the Right Church Culture:

1) BE YOURSELF

- creating culture starts with knowing who you are and who you're not

- "You can't please all the people all of the time" - Abraham Lincoln

- One of the most important decisions you will make in your ministry is "who are you willing to offend?

2) STAY POSITIVE

- start every meeting by sharing WINS

- church planting ought to be fun

- who you do ministry with determines how much you enjoy ministry

- get rid of negative staff

3) ESTABLISH BOUNDARIES

- boundaries between family and ministry

- Mark allows 1 evening per week for church activities, the rest are dedicated to family time

4) LITTLE THINGS ARE BIG THINGS

- 1% of what you do makes 99% of the difference

- ex) unevenly folded bulletins, misspelled words on screen

5) THINK LIKE A GUEST

- as leaders we are prone to inattentional blindness...we get blindspots in our ministry

- do reconaissance at other churches who are doing ministry with excellence

- book recommendation..."The Science of Shopping"

6) EXCEED EXPECTATIONS...good isn't good enough!

7) CAST VISION LIKE CRAZY...most church problems are vision problems

NNCC - Day 1

Yesterday, Jason, David, Aaron, Andrew, Shane, Adam, and I caught our red eye flight out of Pittsburgh to Orlando for the first day of the National New Church Conference in Orlando. Here are some random thoughts from day 1...

• Wayne Cordeiro hit the ball out of the park in the first plenary session. He spoke about the need to be led by the Holy Spirit and the power that comes from the Spirit in Acts 1:8. His call to personal devotion in the Word and prayer brought me to tears. For more notes from his session, check out Tadd's blog here.
• Shane Suiter is the loudest sneezer I've ever known. When he went into a sneezing tirade on our flight, he disturbed the entire cabin and caused the flight attendants to bust out laughing.
• In spite of unrelenting peer abuse, I led the charge to go to Mimi's for lunch by the Mall at Millenia. Their roast beef rocks and the guys were won over by the magic of Mimi's.
• What's up with the Youth Specialties style hijinx between sessions? A boxing tournament between the sponsors? Come on.
• They say that the NNCC is several conferences within a conference. Being the trackjumper that I am, I noticed how different the dynamics were within the conference when I jumped from Mark Batterson's "Maximizing Your Environments" in the postlaunch track to "Small Town Church Planting" in the networking track. Totally different demographic makeup of the people in those breakouts and different mindsets. Interesting.

More coming later...

Delayed Thoughts From the MABA

Jason, Aaron, and Scott have already posted recaps from last weekend's Mid-Atlantic Baptist Association meeting in Littlestown (Gettysburg area) Pennsylvania. Well, I'm a slow newsman and I don't want to rehash what they said, but I thought I would share some random thoughts from the weekend.

• The MABA is the best association in the ABA. Hands down. There's liberty to do your thing and be different. Lots of diversity in methodology, yet we all seem to get along well, enjoy each other's company, and share a common desire to advance the Kingdom.
• Our meeting locations are interesting and fun. In 2005 and 2006, we rode the Metro in Washington DC to get to the meetings, even coming into DC on Amtrak from Cumberland MD in 2006. This year's meeting led us to Gettysburg. Great destinations compared to the East Texas meeting locations in my former life.
• It's just not a MABA meeting without egg salad sandwiches, fried chicken, and crowded basement level fellowship halls. This was true when I attended these meetings in the '70's and '80s and it's true now. And I wouldn't have it any other way. Good stuff.
• It would be cool to host the MABA at the Warner Theatre. A little taste of theater church. Maybe in 09.

Concerning Portable Church

Bob Franquiz just wrote a excellent piece outlining necessary fundamentals to do portable church well. You can check it out here.

Coming Sunday

Wherefore Art Thou, Spring?

It's been a weird April in West Virginia. Yesterday morning our county received 6 inches in snow in the upper elevations. We've had two weeks of gray skies, rain, sleet, snow, and other weather assortments. Thankfully, a change in our weather pattern is on the way for the weekend, just in time for our college small groups camping trip and Friend Day on Sunday. Forecasters are predicting a high of 73 with sunny skies for Sunday. Great cookout weather!

God Bless Virginia Tech

My heart aches for the families and friends of the students that were slain yesterday at Virginia Tech. This hits close to home, as this could easily happen at any campus, including WVU. My prayer is that God will bring much good out of a horrible situation.

This calamity reminds me of the desperate need to win our campuses for Jesus Christ. I believe there is a candlelight vigil planned on campus at WVU tonight and I hope there will be numerous opportunities to share the good news during such a tragic, heartbreaking week.

People Who Leave Your Church

Gary Lamb has a great post on the types of people that leave churches. Most do it the wrong way. You can check out his post here.

StoneBridge T-Shirts Coming Sunday

Jason's blog displays the front of the shirt, but I thought I would show you the back as well. If you want a T-Shirt, contact me and I'll hook you up.

Constant Contact

At StoneBridge, we've found that one of the best mediums of communication is through email. I've been looking for a more professional look for our email communications, and Jason's been telling me to check out Constant Contact, so I downloaded it yesterday. It looks really great, is user friendly, and I think its going to give us an extra measure of excellence as we communicate with our church and the community.

There is a 60-day trial and then a moderate monthly fee kicks in. If anybody knows of a comparable or better program, I would love to hear about it.

Theater Church Hits the Washington Post

Ben Arment made the Washington Post again. The Post did an article on Reston Community Church's relaunch to the cineplex in Reston Town Center. It has been exciting to follow their progress moving from Herndon Elementary to Reston Town Center and I'm praying that God will do big things through their new venue. By the way, does anybody else think Ben's picture in the Post is dead-on Phil Mickelson?

Ben's journey is very encouraging to Jason and me as we follow a similar path meeting in the Warner Theatre in downtown Morgantown. Praise the Lord and pass the popcorn!

Easter Bunny Fun

Back from Texas Church Planting Conference

Last night I got home from a one day church planting conference at Calvary Baptist in Henderson. I was asked to come and give an hour talk about portable church and doing church at the movies. I missed my connection to Longview, got stranded in Dallas, and got to spend the night with my Mom and Dad and ride down to the conference with my Dad on Tuesday morning. I had a great time, ate some good local food (catfish, BBQ, Fillin' Station) and got to hang out with old friends.

One of the trip highlights was getting to spend a lot of time with Bobby Ball and Bill Kuykendall after the conference. Bobby has transitioned a church in Washington State and has done a phenomenal job. He shared several great insights and ideas that I am chewing on for possible application in Morgantown. Bobby and I spent Tuesday evening after the conference visiting with Bill in his home. I consider Bill Kuykendall a friend and a mentor in my ministry. He was extremely influential in my life, especially during my seminary days in Henderson Spending the evening in his living room was a conference all by itself and was worth the trip to Texas.

By the way, Calvary's new worship center is incredible. Pictures coming soon to this blog.

The Big EAST Reigns Supreme

The Georgetown Hoyas made BIG EAST NATION proud by spanking North Carolina in the last ten minutes of the 2nd half and then shut them out in OT until the 7 second mark, winning 96-84. Roy Hibbert, Jeff Green, Johnathan Wallace and company were awesome, sending Georgetown to their 1st FINAL FOUR since 1984. I've got the Hoyas winning the championship in both of my brackets over Kansas (oops).

Growing up in the Eastern Panhandle of West Virginia, we lived about 70 miles from DC and the early '80's Georgetown teams were my favorite along with West Virginia. Many of the games were broadcast on an independent station out of DC. I grew up watching Patrick Ewing, Reggie Williams, David Wingate, Michael Jackson, Ronnie Highsmith, Sleepy Floyd, and many others dominate college basketball in early '80's. It's great to see G'Town once again being a dominant force in college basketball.

Seen at StoneBridge This Morning...

an empty Coors Light can in the third row and a fight between two teenage thugs who came in off the street. And almost a fight between Jason and the thugs. Never a dull moment when you're portable.

Gutter Punks For Jesus

Just read a fascinating article about a network of new churches for "Gutter Punks", hard core heavy metal rockers. Today's Dallas Morning News did a story on Deliverance Bible Church in nearby Hurst Texas. Gotta love their commitment to taking the gospel to the streets.

You can read it here.

Still in Blogging Purgatory

yes I'm still in a funk with the blog...maybe it'll break soon.

Cheated

WVU is the first team in Big East history to win 22 games and get left out of the tourney. And Syracuse absolutely got robbed. Highway robbery. Somebody should pay for this.

Georgetown is going to run the table and bring vengeance to the rest of the country of behalf of the Big East.

More thoughts coming soon, including animosity for Arkansas.

American Idol: Church Edition

Today I'm putting the final touches on Sunday's message. We're in week number 2 of "Disciple", looking at the difference between "Christian" and true follower of Jesus. Jesus set a high bar in Luke 9 when he said, “If you want to be my follower, you must love me more than your own father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters – yes, more than your own life.” Following Jesus has to be numero uno in our lives, in spite of the fact that we live in a culture of "Christians" (85% of Americans claim to be one) who embrace the belief system but run from anything that resembles true discipleship.

So many people judge churches the American Idol way, looking for the most minor flaws, the coolest band, the hippest pastors (hey, we got that), amusement park quality children's ministries, etc. Its a "what can you do for me" mentality, and its sweeping Western Christianity. All this is taking place while the church is spreading like wildfire in places like China, India, and Japan. Disciples in China are spreading the good news like there's no tomorrow and meeting underground to avoid government persecution while America shops for the best churches.

Steven Furtick of Elevation Church in Charlotte, NC has a great post that sheds some light on the mindset of consumer Christians. Check it out here.

Blogging Drought

I am in a blogging funk. There is no shortage of blog worthy happenings to share, but I just can't bring myself to put them on the page. Not sure when this will pass. Maybe soon.

Date Night

Last night, I surprised Belinda by arranging an overnight date at Mountain Creek Cabins near Coopers Rock State Forest. I spent most of the day making the arrangements...getting world champion babysitter Loren to watch the kids, making the reservation, packing her an overnight bag, and planning dinner and breakfast at the cabin. For dinner, I planned to grill the best two steaks I could find in Kroger, saute' asparagus, boiled tiny red potatoes, and frozen white corn. I even made a homemade marinade for the steak with Lea and Perkins worchestershire sauce, olive oil, and balsalmic vinegar. I picked her up from work yesterday afternoon and unveiled the surprise when we pulled up to the cabin.

We had a great time, enjoying rare solitude without the usual distractions, watching Pirates of the Carribean: Dead Man's Chest, and chilling in the hot tub on the deck watching the snow come down.

It is a rarity that Belinda and I get away like this, even for a night on the town. I'm going to do my best to plan date nights on a more regular basis.

Guys, we've got to go out of our way to romance our wives! Just like we did when we were dating. When the kids come along, it gets exponentially more difficult to do this, so we've got to gthe extra mile to make it happen. I am a firm believer that a little romance = healthy relationships with our wives = happier kids = healthier relationships outside the home.

Next Friday one of our college small groups is sponsoring a date night for couples by babysitting kids at the activity center of Morgantown Bible Church. I love the missional heart of these guys and girls. Hey guys at StoneBridge, here's your chance to leave your kids in a safe and fun environment and take your sweetheart out for a romantic adventure.

Watch Out for the Horns

Kevin Durant and the Longhorns are making their run toward March Madness next month. After a slow start, the best Freshman class in the country is making their mark. Go Horns!

Remember Yesterday...New Single by David Story

David has released his new single entitled "Remember Yesterday". You can hear it here. David is doing phenomonal work leading our worship on Sundays with the rest of the band.

Coming to a Theatre Near You...

This Sunday we start a new series looking at the DNA of a true Jesus disciple. I am pumped about this series. Jason and I will be tag teaming this month, with Jason speaking on the first and fourth Sunday, and with me speaking on the second and third Sundays.

I believe that we all need to have a proper understanding of what true discipleship is all about. I'm praying that God will open my eyes and the eyes of the people of StoneBridge over the next few weeks.

David did another great job with the graphics. Pray for him as he heads to Beckley for a couple of days to continue recording his upcoming CD release.

Posting MP3's?

Got my CD's in the other day from the Organic Church Movements conference I attended in Long Beach in late January. Reggie McNeal gave a powerful talk on Missional Leaders that I would love to share on this forum.

Does anyone know how to post an MP3 on blogger? Is it possible?

Organic Church

I am nearing the end of my journey reading through Organic Church by Neil Cole. This has been a transformational read and I am trying to wrap my arms around what is being said, and how it affects my calling. I'll post a book review soon and share some insights from the book.

Why Me?

This morning I was taking Belinda to work when I rear ended a car at a difficult intersection in Morgantown. Two roads intersect at a sharp angle. I thought the lady in front of me had proceded to pull out onto Beechhurst, when in reality, she just eased up about 10 feet. I had turned my head around to look for oncoming traffic and rolled right into her pickup. I tore up her bumper pretty good, but at least didn't do much damage to my Jeep.

I'm praying that her repairs won't cost very much, because I have a $1000 deductible. This comes at a bad time, because it's time to pay Uncle Sam and things are tight. Pray for me.

West Virginia Highlands Snow Trip

Today I took the crew to Blackwater Falls State Park and Canaan Valley for a fun day in the snow, including a 2 hour tubing session this afternoon. Over the last two days, the Thomas/Davis/Canaan Valley area received 20 inches of new snow! We had an awesome time, and Ryan and Janna enjoyed their first tubing expedition ever.

Crazy Snow Day

We woke up this morning to several inches of new snow and I almost didn't make it out of the driveway in the Toyota. It was a game time decision whether or not to proceed with our worship gathering today. Jason made the tough call to go ahead with our service and we ended up having a great crowd in spite of the weather. Jason knocked the message out of the park talking about real discipleship Jesus describes in Luke 9:57-62.


We got home this afternoon to find about a foot of snow on the road leading up to our house. I was in the Toyota (2WD) with Ryan and my nephew Andy, so we had to park the car and walk up the road to the house. Belinda and the girls came later in the Jeep and made it up the road through the deep stuff.

Right now we're getting white up blizzard-like conditions and are supposed to get 8-10 inches. Like Aaron, I'm sorry to keep posting about snow, but this is crazy!

Snowed In

We're getting a good pounding from this latest storm. Our whole family is home early today, and I'm loving it.

Happy Valentines Day, Mom and Dad

I believe that we learn how to have healthy relationships by observing healthy relationships. I was blessed to watch true love in action growing up in our home. Chivalry lives. To this day, Dad still walks Mom out to the car each day when she leaves for work and always opens doors for her. They don't parts ways for the day without a good smack on the lips. (Gross...I don't like to kiss before 9 AM) Thanks Mom and Dad, for building a loving atmosphere for your boys to grow up in, and modeling Christ-like love over the years. Happy Valentine's Day.

Happy Valentine's Day, Belinda!

I want to publicly wish my sweet woman a very Happy Valentine's Day. Belinda and I have been married for 12 years (hard to believe). They have been the 12 best years of my life. She is my soulmate, and a great partner in our life adventure. Our love for one another has grown exponentially over the years..it's amazing how little I knew when I said "I do".

Thought I'd share a picture of us before we left for our first date. Notice the starched Wranglers on me and Belinda's big hair. Classic.

Kicked Out of Mosaic

Gotta share a funny story from my LA trip...On Sunday night after the conference was over, all 8 of us crammed into the Expedition and headed from LAX to downtown LA to check out Mosaic. Well, it was an incredible experience and was great to hear Erwin McManus begin his message series on "Soul Cravings". He gave away a free copy of his new book to all the guests in the house, so we all walked away with the book.

We were about ready to leave after the service when my buddy Jeff decides he wants to meet McManus, who is in an area on the 2nd floor set up for counseling. Well, Jeff goes up and shakes his hand and tells him who he is and Erwin waves him off and says, "Hey man, this is for people who don't know God".

Well, we all laughed at Jeff pretty hard and are still giving him the business for that one. Had to share that. Sorry Jeff for busting you in the blogosphere. I've got one coming.

At least you got to shake his hand.

Someone Pass the Hawaiian Tropic...

Got into Dallas yesterday and I can say with enthusiasm I am enjoying the weather! 71 degrees and sunny. Yesterday day at lunch I hit an old favorite restaurant with Mom and Dad, eating at Abuelo's. Today, I am heading down to Timpson, Texas to visit one of our supporting churches there.

Off to Tejas

Tomorrow morning I'm flying to DFW to visit several supporting churches and pastors over the next few days to say a huge "thank you" for the cash that's been sent to Morgantown since 2003. I am looking forward to eating some world class barbeque and fried catfish and hanging out with family and several pastor friends in the area. More details coming soon.

The Rest of the Story...on David Story

My man David Story is back in the blogosphere. David is the chief musician and worship leader at StoneBridge. I'm really pumped about his new recording project which is in the works and will be released later this year. His blog will follow the progress of his recording efforts, which should be an intriguing read if you're into that. Our church is getting behind this and is trying to fund as much of this as possible.

If you would like to support David and receive a free autographed copy of his upcoming release, go here.

Hawaii, Anyone?

This morning I got up and helped Belinda get out the door for a business trip to Avis, PA this morning. I looked on weather.com and saw that our current temperature is -8 degrees with a windchill of -23! Yikes!

Why We Do What We Do

Today reminded me why I do what I do...we had an fantastic day of worship and celebration. This morning we kicked off our "God in Your iPod" series with Jason hitting a home run with "Waiting on the World to Change" by John Mayer. He look at the world changers in Acts 17. I especially love verse 6, "Those who have turned the world upside down have come here too." I long for the day when people can say that Morgantown has been turned upside by followers of Jesus.

At 4PM, we gathered at Morgantown Bible Church for a time of worship and celebration. The highlight was seeing Christa and Stephen baptized. Christa is a WVU varsity cheerleader and has been hosting a small group in her apartment since September. She has a passion for following God's plan for her life and is really seeking what plan will be. Stephen is a student at Fairmont State who accepted Christ a couple of years ago. He is being salt and light to his unbelieving friends and family. He was so excited about being baptized that he really pumped me up and made my week.

Book Review: "Present Future"

On Monday I read "Present Future" by Reggie McNeal during a cross country flight from LAX to Atlanta. I heard Reggie speak on the topic of "Missional Leaders" last Friday night at the Organic Church Movements conference in Long Beach and was intrigued to buy his book in order to dig deeper. Several assumptions long held by many in North American churches are challenged such as: "If you build the perfect church they will come", "Growing your church automatically makes a difference in the community", "Developing better church members will mean better evangelism", "The church needs more workers (for church work)", "Church involvement results in discipleship", and "Better planning will get you where you want to go (in terms of missional effectiveness)".

"The current church culture in North America is on life support." This is the first sentence of the book. McNeal is not saying that the church is about to die, but that the unique culture that we know as "church" is an endangered species. He makes the assessment that our church culture over the years has become confused with biblical Christianity.

McNeal identifies six wrong questions that we have been asking for years, and replaces them with six tough questions that we need to ask to fulfill our missional calling. This book will make you think and might cause you to reevaluate many areas of church ministry.

Men and Snow

There have been at least traces of snow in the forecast for over a week now. The ten day forecast promises more of the same. Sunday afternoon while I was in LA, one of our church friends came out to the house to hang out with Belinda and the kids and got her 2WD Explorer stuck in our driveway, eventually sliding into the yard. As the snow has accumulated and the days have passed, her ride was still in the yard as of last night.

When we got home from our small group, Belinda and I put the kids to bed and headed outside in the 15 degree weather and tried to get the Explorer out. I bought a tow rope in town and tried to tow her ride out with my Grand Cherokee. Well my neighbors saw us and three guys from the neighborhood came out and helped us. After 15 minutes of pulling, pushing, and creative engineering, we got the Explorer out, and got it down to the end of our road. Then we proceeded to get another car (rear wheel in the air) out of the ditch above my house.

We had a GREAT TIME! Lots of male testosterone being exercised. After we rescued the vehicles, my neighbor Jeremiah gave me a tour of his house which he has been working on. Then we sledded and snowboarded in his front yard and Belinda had everyone over for coffee, hot chocolate, and cherry turnovers.

Jeremiah is a fellow believer and a lover of Jesus. We are looking forward to working together and sharing the love of Christ with our neighbors, being salt and light. Tonight was a great start.

This month at StoneBridge

Back From LA

I got back in from LA last night around 8:00 PM. The Organic Church Movements conference put on by CMA Resources far surpassed my expectations. The conference caused me to pause and think about what we do as church planters and why we do them. There are many serious implications to consider. I will blog about some of the highlights and principles learned in upcoming posts.

One of the craziest aspects of the trip was being stuffed in a Ford Expedition with 7 other guys along with our luggage. Not good. Another highlight was getting to attend Mosaic and hear Erwin McManus speak on Sunday night. Will blog more about this later. Thanks again to Mike Prince and Reach America for sending me to this conference.

Retro Me

Continuing the high school reminiscing, here's a pic of yours truly circa 1991. Minus a few pounds.

Top Ten Campsites in WV (continued)

OK, I'm tired of this top ten. Let's skip to #1...I might come back later and fill in 2-5.

#1 - Canaan Loop Road, Canaan Mountain, WV

The Canaan Loop Road is the mecca for car camping in West Virginia. It is only a 90 minute drive from Morgantown. The Loop Road is recommended for 4WD vehicles only with reasonable clearance (another plus). The road runs along the rim of Blackwater Canyon and creates a horseshoe pattern for 18 miles of off-roading bliss. If you want solitude, head to the Canaan Loop Road. CLR is part of the National Forest, so there are several trail systems to enjoy for vigorous hiking. There are several streams on the mountain, which also require fording in your vehicle (another plus).

Our family camps here several times a year and have brought several friends from StoneBridge at various times. There is plenty to do on the mountain, including several beautiful overlooks into the canyon, hiking, fly fishing, visiting Blackwater Falls at the source of the canyon, and just hanging out having a good time.

Organic Church Movements

Friday morning I'm catching a red eye flight to LA for an Organic Church Movements conference. I'm attending this conference thanks to the generosity of Mike Prince and Reach America, who are funding this trip by sending me and several other pastor/planters from around the country.

To be honest, I'm really not sure what to expect at this conference. Now I am really pumped about hearing Neil Cole (author/inventor of Life Transformation Groups) speak, but other than him, I am not familiar with any of the other speakers. The one thing I can guarantee is that I WILL BE STRETCHED, which is a good thing. Here are some of the presenters and their topics.

• Neil Cole - "Why I didn't take the blue pill: The dark side of Organic Church"
• Reggie McNeal - "Qualities of a Missional Leader"
• Alan Hirsch - "Jesus made me do it -- acting our way into new ways of thinking"
• Ori Brafman - "Starfish Organizations - the unstoppable power of decentralized movements"
• Felicity Dale - "Mobilizing the other half of the army -- women in leadership roles"
• Wolfgang Simson - "Thinking prophetically and acting apostolically"

Here are the breakouts I plan on attending:

• Richard Flemming - "Marketplace movements"
• Panel Discussion - "Transitioning conventional churches to organic churches"
• Jaeson Ma - "Campus organic church movements"
• Brad Fieldhouse and Eric Swanson - "Transforming Cities from the grass roots"

I'll blog more on this from California and when I get back.

Good Friends and Thoughts on the 80's

Had a pleasant surprise in my inbox this morning... I received an email from an old high school friend from the Grand Prairie High Class of '91. Stacy had googled my name and found our StoneBridge site, then emailed me through our contact page. It was great hear from her, now happily married and the mother of two boys living in the Dallas/Fort Worth area, after spending time in Mississippi and New Orleans. The great thing about Stacy is that she was such a true, genuine friend to me during our time walking the halls of GPHS. In a time in my life where there were so many distractions and temptations as I tried to follow Christ, she was a spiritual rock, a true example of what a Jesus follower should be. I am thankful that God placed people like Stacy in my life during that crucial season in my life. She truly lived out the principle of Proverbs 27:17 in my life. Thanks, Stacy for being a great friend.

The other day while I had the flu, I was laying on the couch watching "Yearbook" on the Discovery Times channel. They were reviewing the year 1988, and it caused be to look back and reminisce on everything that was going on in my life at the time. Sometimes I miss the '80's. Air Jordans. Members Only Jackets (5th grade). Big Hair. Paula Abdul (pre-American Idol). Larry vs Magic. GPHS Homecoming Traditions (collecting real estate signs, VW beetles, and Kip's Big Boy and depositing them on the front lawn of the high school). GPHS's last football playoff win (1989). Really large computers.

Would love to know your favorite memories from the 80's. And your favorite high school memories. Or how your high school friends impacted your life in a positive/negative way.