Thursday, July 26, 2007
Personal Highlights from the Conference
1. Doug Pagitt, one of our keynote speakers (and one of the bigger names among them), showing up early on Thursday afternoon and actually offering to help us with setup (how often does a keynote speaker at any conference do that?). We sent him to go get us lunch and then out to Home Depot to pick up some drywall for an art installation. :)
2. The way Rochelle, one of our volunteers, took over the job of coordinating all the behind-the-scenes details so that I wouldn't have to worry about them as I was MC-ing and orchestrating the conference. It was so nice not to think about all those little things for once, to be able to trust that they were in capable hands and were being thought of by reliable people. And it wasn't just Rochelle, we were really blessed by such a great team of reliable and hard-working volunteers.
3. Getting to make new friends and have good conversations with so many cool people, people like Rebecca Murphy, David Jones & Betsy Whaley, Jeremy Johns & his wife Charity, the Lewins (all three of them), Jason Renken, Ivy Beckwith, Denise VanEck, Jeff Kursonis, Tim Gleason, DB Antrim, Al Hsu, etc. (sorry if I forgot someone). That's what I love most about these conferences, the good conversations and the networking.
4. Kevin Bowman and all the hard work he put into being the site host for this event. We kept him running pretty much the whole time but he never complained and seemed to actually be enjoying himself at times.
5. The after-party/book release party for Will Samson's book "Justice in the Burbs". It was a fun, intimate gathering and I'm glad we could do it for him.
6. The plotting and planning with Jeff Kursonis, Sarah & Ryan Notton, and myself and Julie about how to build on the momentum of this conference to help multiply cohorts and inspire existing cohorts to do similar events. We want to see this emerging church movement explode into hundreds of conversations all around the country (and the world) and then to see those conversation groups (i.e. cohorts) start to work together regionally for missional goals and for conferences like this one.
2. The way Rochelle, one of our volunteers, took over the job of coordinating all the behind-the-scenes details so that I wouldn't have to worry about them as I was MC-ing and orchestrating the conference. It was so nice not to think about all those little things for once, to be able to trust that they were in capable hands and were being thought of by reliable people. And it wasn't just Rochelle, we were really blessed by such a great team of reliable and hard-working volunteers.
3. Getting to make new friends and have good conversations with so many cool people, people like Rebecca Murphy, David Jones & Betsy Whaley, Jeremy Johns & his wife Charity, the Lewins (all three of them), Jason Renken, Ivy Beckwith, Denise VanEck, Jeff Kursonis, Tim Gleason, DB Antrim, Al Hsu, etc. (sorry if I forgot someone). That's what I love most about these conferences, the good conversations and the networking.
4. Kevin Bowman and all the hard work he put into being the site host for this event. We kept him running pretty much the whole time but he never complained and seemed to actually be enjoying himself at times.
5. The after-party/book release party for Will Samson's book "Justice in the Burbs". It was a fun, intimate gathering and I'm glad we could do it for him.
6. The plotting and planning with Jeff Kursonis, Sarah & Ryan Notton, and myself and Julie about how to build on the momentum of this conference to help multiply cohorts and inspire existing cohorts to do similar events. We want to see this emerging church movement explode into hundreds of conversations all around the country (and the world) and then to see those conversation groups (i.e. cohorts) start to work together regionally for missional goals and for conferences like this one.
Tags:
Labels: emerging church
How different the emergent church is from the deeds of Jesus, who never performed any kindness unless he could do it with a miracle , and who would walk on water - which helped nobody.