I am sitting in the Atlanta airport after finishing up a coast to coast weekend of conferences It started in San Diego at NorthCoast church where we talked about The BIG IDEA for the Sticky Church Conference. I heard from the COMMUNITY team it was terrific conference. Since I got sick I was only there for about an hour of the conference...and that is when I was on the stage doing the opening session. The prayers of scores of people, including twitter-ers and friends on facebook I think got me through that main session. Actually, once the worship kicked in I was feeling great and then felt awesome all through the session and even when talking to people afterward. But once got back to the hotel I hit bottom again.
Then we took off for the Catalyst Conference in Atlanta - it is one of the premier conferences of any kind, anywhere! Brad Lomenick and team do a super job of pulling of a great event! And it shows in all the little details. NewThing did our first ever Discover the Dream which sold out and promises to be a can't-miss experience for leaders everywhere. We made a lot of great connections with leaders who have big dreams for changing the world and being a part of a reproducing church movement. Right after Discover the Dream I spoke at the Start Lab about on 5 Church Planting Lessons Learned. It was a new talk at the encouragement of Todd Wilson and I spent the 45 minutes talking to the audience as if I was talking to them one-on-one as a church planter and letting them in on, "here are five important lessons I've learned along the way..." I got good feed back. I think it worked. And I know with a little tweaking it could be even better.
I got to do a bunch of other cool stuff: talk to publishers, get interviewed by Lindy Lowry for a feature in Outreach Magazine, get David Chrzan's take on NewThing, get some coaching from Dave Travis, chill with the Leadership Network gang (great people!), interview Ed Stetzer (and Hank Wilson - sort of!) and Efrem Smith on the planting channel, have dinner with Charles Jenkins (if you don't know that name - you will!) hang out with Todd Wilson, eat, laugh and strategize with our NewThing team. It was a blast!
After five days away and hanging out with thousands of Christian leaders I believe there is a whole generation of leaders who are willing to make big sacrifices to see the Jesus mission accomplished. My constant prayer is "God, give us the eyes to see your vision, and the heart to make it happen!"
Dude - great to see you this past week. May your life be filled with hope, love, and almond joy.
Your Church Bartender,
Michael
Posted by: Michael Trent | October 12, 2008 at 07:05 PM
Dave - great to hang with you dude. Maybe next time you can join Andy and I for a little band practice: www.catalystbackstage.com
Posted by: Michael Trent | October 13, 2008 at 08:19 PM