Phoenix is a great city and I will miss it when I am back in Dallas. I hope to bring Debbie and Caitlyn out here sometime in the future - maybe when it's warmer...maybe not. I need to send out a few thank you's before I jump into today's update: to Jon, for being a great traveling companion and an even more awesome conversation partner; to Dave R. (Jon's dad) for hooking us up with a sweet place to stay and a free ride on Southwest; to Molly (Jon's girlfriend) for living in Phoenix before she moved to Dallas so that we could meet her friends and know the local hangouts for evening activities; to Kerry, for letting us borrow her car for the time we were in town - most excellent ride; and to Debbie for allowing me to shower her with gifts while I was several hundred miles away.
On to the day's festivities...
Workshop Five began promptly at 9am this morning (no rest for the weary). The session was entitled, "Preaching, Teaching, or Talking for Life Change in Young Adults" and was presented by the very funny Randy Jumper. He talked about "the 7-11 rule" for transformation in young adults: 7 ways to lead young adults thru transition and 11 needs of young adult communicators. Very helpful stuff! Kudos to you, Mr. Jumper!
Next we went to worship - led again by Nobility Obliged - and featuring Mike Kelsey (from D.C.). Mike talked about vision and the essentials of leading young adults in any part of the country and in any size ministry. Good stuff!
Jon and I then headed to Fajita's to partake of their namesake for lunch. The conversation was better than the meal, but the atmosphere was great. Thanks again Jon for good convo and insights.
Workshop Six awaited us when we returned from lunch and this time Jon and I actually attended the same session, "Dating with Pure Passion" by Rob Eagar. I picked this session because I know that I will need to lead a series of talks on dating/relationships in the future and I wanted to get some groundwork laid for those talks...especially since I am no longer in the dating scene (thank you Jesus!). Rob had plenty of good insights - all of which led to his book (titled the same as the seminar and available for purchase outside at one of the tables...coincidence, I think not).
Our last workshop, Workshop Seven, called, "Maximum Impact: Making Your Gathering Significant" was led by the Two Chads of CCV. The Chads gave us many good tips and suggestions on making your gatherings a time that people remember: closing with a question, giving them a "takeaway", involving movement/visuals/atmosphere, etc. We ended the session with a brainstorming time where we made up an event that our church was going to have. We ended up with a battle-of-the-bands block party, hoping to attract 150 people with food, games, giveaways, music and fun. I don't know if it would work, but it was fun visioning the event.
Closing worship featured Todd Phillips and he talked about social justice issues that the evangelical branch of the Church has long ignored in favor of orthodoxy and biblical knowledge. I almost got up and walked out about 10 minutes into Todd's talk because he was close to saying some fairly inflammatory statement about mainline Christianity and the churches that existed within that realm. However, he brought it back around and made good on his point. I absolutely agree with the need for the Church to be more involved in the lives of people who are hurting, oppressed, downtrodden, or outcast in favor of having tons of people in Bible study each week. I believe this mostly because those who are not Christian generally do not see us when we are locked away in ivory towers of knowledge. They see us when we cut them off in traffic, when we ignore people begging for food, when we verbally assault them for having different beliefs than we do, etc. I want those who are outside the Church to see Christians who care about other people, who lift up those who are down, and reach out to those who need a helping hand.
And so endeth the conference...but not out time in Phoenix!
Tonight we headed for Oregano's for some famous pizza with another couple of Molly's friends: Meg and Michelle. The food was amazing (go ahead and splurge for the cookie dessert - it's worth it!)! We had good conversation with two relatively unchurched people and I think that Jon and I did a good job of representing the Christians who live out their faith in tangible ways, not just say things and then never act on them.
Earlier in the week I told you that we might have a chance to play some Texas Hold'em and tonight was the night. But, when we got to the bar, the games had started an hour earlier and they were only playing one round. So Jon and I headed back to the hotel and here we are now preparing to leave Phoenix tomorrow morning.
Another long one...sorry...lots of stuff happening...see you back in Big-D (if that's where I see you)!
Grace&Peace
No comments:
Post a Comment