C.S. Lewis and Tech Deals

A quick intermission in the hospitality/incarnation series...

1) My parents got me this really cool book for my birthday called The Quotable Lewis: An encyclopedic selection of quotes from the complete published works of C.S. Lewis. This book is awesome!

It's organized alphabetically by theme, so if you want a C.S. Lewis quote on, say, salvation...you just look up "salvation" and you find 11 quotes. Here's a quote from The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe:

"Please--Aslan," said Lucy, "can anything be done to save Edmund?"

"All shall be done," said Aslan.

Or if you want something non-fiction, here's something from Mere Christianity:

We must not suppose that even if we succeeded in making everyone nice we should have saved their souls. A world of nice people, content in their own niceness, looking no further, turned away from God, would be just as desperately in need of salvation as a miserable world--and might even be more difficult to save.

For mere improvement is no redemption, though redemption always improves people even here and now and will, in the end, improve them to a degree we cannot yet imagine. God became man to turn creatures into sons: not simply to produce better men of the old kind but to produce a new kind of man.

2) The second thing I want to mention is this really great website my brother showed me last night: Techdeals.net. You need to check this site every day! They've got phenomenal deals on all kinds of stuff--mostly technology, but not only technology. And there's new stuff everyday!

I found a deal on a 1GB SD card for which I paid a total of $5.47 on Buy.com! That's after a $15 rebate and $20 off for checking out with my Google account.

Anyway, check it out--Techdeals.net.

Hospitality in the Old Testament

Ok. So let's talk about hospitality.

First of all, let's admit that when we hear the word "hospitality" we don't usually think of it as something especially spiritual. We think of inviting someone over for dinner, cleaning the house, lighting some candles to set a warm mood, fixing a nice meal, offering good conversation.

And that definitely is hospitality, but when we start looking at hospitality in the Bible we see something that's much deeper and much grander than just fixing a nice meal for someone.

One of the best examples of hospitality in the Old Testament is Abraham when he provides for his three visitors (who turn out to be God and two angels). Here's that passage from Genesis 18:2-8:

Abraham looked up and saw three men standing nearby. When he saw them, he hurried from the entrance of his tent to meet them and bowed low to the ground.

He said, "If I have found favor in your eyes, my lord, do not pass your servant by. Let a little water be brought, and then you may all wash your feet and rest under this tree.

Let me get you something to eat, so you can be refreshed and then go on your way—now that you have come to your servant."

"Very well," they answered, "do as you say."

So Abraham hurried into the tent to Sarah. "Quick," he said, "get three seahs of fine flour and knead it and bake some bread."

Then he ran to the herd and selected a choice, tender calf and gave it to a servant, who hurried to prepare it. He then brought some curds and milk and the calf that had been prepared, and set these before them. While they ate, he stood near them under a tree.

It's clear from this and other passages (like Lot in Genesis 19:1-8 and Job in Job 31:16-23 and 31-32) that hospitality is extremely important in the Old Testament.

In fact, the practice of hospitality is commanded in the Old Testament. Israel is commanded to leave some of their harvest for the aliens and the poor. We see this specifically in passages like Deuteronomy 24:19-22 and Leviticus 19:9-10. It's also how Ruth, a Moabitess, was able to provide for her and her mother-in-law, Naomi (Ruth 2:2-17).

The Leviticus 19 passage is, I believe, particularly important in understanding why hospitality is so important to God. The command ends with God saying, "I am the LORD your God." Why does God end with this? I believe (and I admit this is my non-academic opinion) that God is saying in regard to hospitality, "This is my nature--my character. I am a God who welcomes the outcast and the foreigner. I am the LORD your God." So Israel is commanded to care for the alien, because God cares for the alien.

And lastly, Israel is commanded to allow the alien to worship God among them. Here's Exodus 12:48-49:

"An alien living among you who wants to celebrate the LORD's Passover must have all the males in his household circumcised; then he may take part like one born in the land. No uncircumcised male may eat of it. The same law applies to the native-born and to the alien living among you."

God does not discriminate; God welcomes worship from anyone. I love that last line: "The same law applies to the native-born and to the alien living among you."

So, it's clear that hospitality is extremely important in the Old Testament. And it continues to be important to Christians in the New Testament. I'll talk a little bit about that in my next post (or one of my next posts).

Hospitality and Incarnation

I'm preaching this weekend on the biblical concepts of hospitality and incarnation. Both of these, I believe, are incredibly important for living life as a follower of Christ.

Hospitality is the welcoming of others into our midst. Incarnation refers to going and embodying Christ in another place, culture, or people-group. They are two sides of the same coin--the coin of God's compassion.

I think it could be argued that almost anything we do as Christians ought to fulfill one of these two Christian concepts. In other words, anything we do ought in some way to reflect the value of either hospitality and/or incarnation.

Over the next several days, I'll post some more ideas regarding these two themes. I'll also post my sermon on this topic (if I don't forget to start my digital recorder this week!!).

The Wizard of Oz Reloaded

I just came across this on SCI FI Wire. Sci-fi buff that I am, this sounds like it could be kinda cool. It's a miniseries that just got green-lighted by the Sci-Fi Channel with a brand new take on The Wizard of Oz. Here's what the article at SCI FI Wire says about it:

The miniseries is a sometimes psychedelic, often twisted and always bizarre take on The Wizard of Oz. It centers on DG [not my friend, D.G.!], a young woman plucked from her humdrum life and thrust into The Outer Zone (the O.Z.), a fantastical realm filled with wonder, but oppressed by dark magic. DG discovers her true identity, battles evil winged monkey-bats and attempts to fulfill her destiny. Her perilous journey begins on the fabled Old Road that leads to a wizard known as the Mystic Man. Along the way, she is joined by "Glitch," an odd man missing half his brain; "Raw," a quietly powerful wolverine-like creature longing for inner courage; and "Cain," a heroic former policeman (known in the O.Z. as a "Tin Man"), who is seeking vengeance for his scarred heart. Ultimately, DG's destiny leads her to a showdown with the wicked sorceress Azkadellia, whose ties to DG are closer than anyone could have imagined.

So while this could be cool, it could also be really cheesy (as miniseries often are). Click here if you want to read the whole article.

In any case, regardless of how good it is, it sounds like it might include some interesting spiritual themes. Something to keep an eye out for....

How does prayer work?

Dustin Reynolds has two great posts on prayer over on his blog. Check them out here:

1. The Efficacy of Prayer
2. Prayer or maybe something else...
   

Walt Mueller on The Britney Spears Phenomenon

Another seminar I attended at the National Youth Workers Convention was called More Than Noise: How Yoday's Music and Media Impacts Your Students, led by Walt Mueller of the Center for Parent/Youth Understanding (CPYU).

This was a phenomenal seminar! Mueller takes the approach that we as parents and youth leaders need to be aware of what our kids are listening to, watching, etc. He doesn't suggest that should try to shield them from the media, but think through with them how they are being influenced by the media.

Mueller talked about the fact that, according to a Johnston Company survey, in 1960, adolescents were being influenced by family, school, friends/peers, and church (in descending order of influence). In 1980, the Johnston Company found that the top four influences (again in descending order) were friends/peers, family, media, and school. He noted that the advent of MTV in 1981 was a huge factor in terms of the media's influence on teenagers.

Today, Mueller suggests that (based on his own research) the top four influences among teens are media, friends/peers, family, and school. In regard to media, Mueller said that a few years ago he would have said that most powerful media influence was music, but today he would say it is advertising.

Now... Here's the best--and most eye-opening--story Mueller told:

He recently attended a marketing-related convention targeted for marketing executives. Mueller went as a researcher.

One of the seminars he attended was called something like, "Creating and Marketing a Pop Star." The person who led the seminar introduced herself as the person who "single-handedly engineered the Britney Spears phenomenon" (as Mueller put it).

She said that what they discovered back in the 70's was that a pop star marketed to teens had a shelf life of only a couple of years. For instance, girls who were in love with David Cassidy as 10-year-olds were incredibly embarrassed to have been a Cassidy fan by the time they were 13.

So here's the solution they discovered. For the first two or three years, the pop star (think Britney Spears, Christina Aguilera, Justin Timberlake) is marketed in such a way that parents love the star--cute, wholesome, pure. Moms are more than happy to take their daughters to concerts, buy them CDs, etc. But after a couple of years, the pop star is reinvented in such a way (and these are this woman's exact words) "that it pisses the parents off."

Now that Mom and Dad no longer think Britney Spears is a good influence on their daughter, daughter continues to think that Britney is really cool--because now she's a bad girl!

This realization is obviously incredibly eye-opening. I will never look at a pop star gone bad the same way again. You know that something like this is going to happen with the latest batch of cute kid stars--JoJo, Jesse McCartney, etc. I'm actually kinda looking forward to seeing them turn "bad"--now that I know what's going on.

Later on I ran into Walt Mueller in the men's room (great place for casual conversation!) and asked if I could have permission to make copies of that seminar for parents. He said, "Of course! You don't even need to ask about that." So, I'm gonna try to get this seminar into the hands of parents in our church. I'll also see if I can get an mp3 of just that section about Britney Spears and post it here. No promises, though...

Tony Campolo on Abortion and Gay Marriage

I was in 7th grade the first time I ever heard of Tony Campolo. Our Sunday school teacher played a cassette of Tony Campolo after repeatedly telling us that he is "so funny!" Well, Tony Campolo may be an entertaining speaker to an adult, but certainly not to a 7th grader.

I got to hear Campolo as an adult this weekend at the National Youth Workers Convention (though I was still only 33 on Friday afternoon!) and he was definitely engaging. The title of his seminar was "Becoming Red-Letter Christians."

The label, "Red-Letter Christians," he said, came from a DJ on a radio station who used that expression to refer to people like Campolo and Jim Wallis--people whose life-hermeneutic is based on the words of Jesus, the red letters in many Bibles. Red-letter Christians, Campolo said, interpret the rest of the Bible through the words of Jesus.

In his lecture, he covered a pretty wide range of social issues: poverty, abortion, gay marriage, war, torture, and the Israel/Palestine issue. The two subjects that really stimulated my thinking were abortion and gay marriage. I'll try to summarize briefly what he said about each of these.


Abortion

Campolo's argument was that simply making abortion illegal will not in itself eliminate abortion. While he didn't cite a source for this, he said that there were just as many abortions being performed in the 1950's as there are today--even though it was illegal back then.

The problem, he said, is primarily economic. He gave us this scenario...

A young girl is pregnant ("And don't tell me she shouldn't be pregnant in the first place," he said. "She's pregnant!"). She lives in inner-city Philadelphia and her family is among the working poor (those who earn enough money to be just above the poverty-line, effectively excluding them from any state assistance). If she has this baby it will cost at least $2000 at the hospital. This is money that her family doesn't have. In addition, she'll most likely have to get childcare for the baby, which will cost her at least $10 per day, or $200 per month. Again, this is money the family doesn't have.

For a family in this situation, the only way to stay afloat financially is to end the pregnancy.

This, Campolo said, is the problem. We can legislate against abortion all we want, but people living with these conditions will do what they must in order to survive even if it's illegal. "And we think," Campolo said, "that putting this girl in jail is the right thing to do!"


Gay Marriage

This is an issue that I've been struggling with for some time. I'm conservative in my view of gay marriage. However, the culture is clearly moving toward the legitimization of gay marriage. I don't think it's effective for the church to fight against this, because in so doing we damage our credibility with those to whom we are trying to minister. That said, I think that within the next 10-20 years gay marriage will be a reality in our culture.

The question I ask myself is this: "How can we authentically be the church in a society in which gay marriage is a reality?"

Campolo said that he, too, is conservative in his view of marriage. Marriage, he believes, is a sacred gift for a man and a woman. He said that he does not believe that the government should legitimate gay marriage. However, he also said that he does not believe that the government should legitimate heterosexual marriage.

He said that any two people should be able to go to a courthouse and enter into a legal contract with one another and be able to enjoy all the rights and privileges that go along with being bound by a legal contract. This is not marriage. It's a contract.

If those two people wish to get married, they should then go to a church (or other religious institution, I suppose) where they can be united in marriage.

Campolo added, "Some of you will say, 'But wait! Won't they be able to go to a church that will marry them?' Yes, they probably will."

----

As to abortion, Campolo's insights helped me to get a better understanding of what's really going on. If we're to help mothers bring their unborn children into the world, then we need to deal with the economic issues that are at the root of a big chunk of the problem.

I'm not sure yet if I completely embrace his solution for the gay marriage issue. But I do like his distinction between a legal contract and marriage. The challenge for us as Christians if (and probably when) gay marriage becomes a reality will be to figure out how to maintain our integrity and our convictions without becoming judgmental and exclusionary. How will we be like Jesus, who was neither neither of those?

Finally, I want to share a brief quote from this seminar that I thought was pretty funny. In regard to the mixing of politics and Christianity (in terms of Christians taking office and using their political power to impose their religious beliefs), Campolo said, "Mixing Christianity and politics is like mixing ice cream and manure--it's not the manure that's gonna get messed up!"

Older than Jesus...

(My camera is with the Geek Squad right now, so I don't actually have any birthday pics. This is me and my college buddy, Ted, a couple of months ago.)

Yes, as of yesterday (can't believe I forgot to mention it!) I am now older than Jesus ever was when he was on this earth. On Sunday, November 19, I turned 34.

On the one hand, I'm becoming more and more comfortable in my "oldness"--y'know, not being a hip 20-something anymore. On the other hand, 34 sounds so much older to me than 33! Thirty-three is still arguably your "early thirties." At 34, you've clearly reached your "mid thirties".

Yikes.

But I'm ok with that. I've grown a lot personally in the last couple of years. And I feel like my age is reflective of my life experience. And that's a good thing.

So life is good. And I'm happy to be 34!

Jesus Camp

Just found this news feature from ABC News about something called "Jesus Camp." Two things about this:

1. "Jesus Camp" seems like a pretty manipulative, dangerous form of propaganda.
2. Chap Clark (who it seems I can't stop talking about) is interviewed in the news feature. It should be noted, however, that he states on his website that he does not support what he sees in the footage of "Jesus Camp."

Personally, I'm pretty suspicious of any organization that so blatantly indoctrinates children. While I don't mean to be over the top in this comparison, it would seem used similar tactics with his Youth.

NYWC almost over

The National Youth Workers Convention ends tomorrow. It's been a really great conference! Most of my time at the conference has been spent with my friend and really great youth leader, Troy Hitch (check out his website--I promise it is one of the best websites you've ever seen!).

I've got a lot to share, but not tonight. Real quick, here are the highlights of the convention for me so far:

• Phil Vischer, the founder of VeggieTales and the voice of Bob the Tomato, shared about how he's grown in his faith since losing his production company, "Big Idea!"
• Tony Campolo talked about what it means to be a "red-letter Christian"
• Walt Mueller seminar on the impact of music and media on teens
  
• worship with the David Crowder Band
• getting to chat with my old professor and mentor Chap Clark once again

National Youthworkers Convention begins...

The National Youthworkers Convention starts tomorrow here in Cincinnati. I'm pretty excited about it, especially the fact that I'm taking three of our youth leaders with me!

I'm such a big fan of training events like this. They're great for 1) inspiration and 2) education. There's nothing like being with thousands of other youth workers to get your arteries pumping! And there's nothing like getting excellent training from youth ministry experts like Chap Clark, Doug Fields, Jim Burns, etc.

I'm especially looking forward to saying hi to Chap Clark, who was my youth ministry professor at Fuller. And he continues to be somewhat of a mentor to me--I try to get together with him for lunch or coffee whenever I'm back in California.

So I probably won't get a chance to post again till next week, but I'll let you know how it goes when I'm back.

I've been officially quoted!

So, I was at the Presbytery meeting tonight (2 meetings in a row! woohoo!!) when D.G. called me and left a message saying, "Hey, Markus! Did you know you were quoted on the Revolution Conference Blog?!"

I checked it out and sure enough there's a quote from my post entitled "Pastors who Drink and Cuss." Here's where I'm quoted on the Revolution Conference Blog (too bad they spelled my name wrong... oh, well...).

Also, D.G. has put up some video from our trip to Seattle. You can check out his videos on YouTube. They're more sightseeing videos than videos from the conference. Here are the links:

• Driving to Denny's
• Welcome to the Space Needle
• Walking the top of the Space Needle
• Elevator down from the Space Needle
• Mt. Rainier video
• Taking off in the plane from Seattle
• Clouds while flying
• Landing in Houston
  

Should we protest against Mark Driscoll?

There's an interesting conversation going on at Conversation at the Edge about whether or not protest at Mark Driscoll's Mars Hill Church in Seattle.

Mark Driscoll recently made some pretty controversial comments as he responded to what happened with Ted Haggard. Driscoll suggests that some of the responsibility for pastors who cheat on their wives falls on the wives themselves when they don't make themselves look attractive. Here's the comment that set off the controversy:

Most pastors I know do not have satisfying, free, sexual conversations and liberties with their wives. At the risk of being even more widely despised than I currently am, I will lean over the plate and take one for the team on this. It is not uncommon to meet pastors’ wives who really let themselves go; they sometimes feel that because their husband is a pastor, he is therefore trapped into fidelity, which gives them cause for laziness. A wife who lets herself go and is not sexually available to her husband in the ways that the Song of Songs is so frank about is not responsible for her husband’s sin, but she may not be helping him either.

Here's Driscoll's own blog post if you want to read it for yourself.

While I completely disagree with what Driscoll is suggesting, I'm wondering--is it really a good idea to do this protest? After having attended the Revolution Conference a week ago--where kindness and forgiveness were commended as the foundation of this revolution (a "revolutionay kind of revolution" as they called it)--I'm actually kind of surprised to hear Jim Henderson suggesting in his comments that this protest is a good idea...

StretchyChurch e-mail updates

I'm trying something new. If you look at the bottom of the sidebar on the right, there's a new item titled "I'll update you..." If you enter your e-mail address, you'll automatically get Stretchychurch updates in your e-mail. It's a service provided by FeedBlitz--check it out if you want to.

Let me know how it works for you. If it's annoying, I'll remove it.

Is social justice becoming trendy?

This is a question that I've heard posed more than once lately. In a recent group discussion, someone said, "If Rick Warren is into social justice, you know it's in vogue!"

So is that true? Is it just a fad? Is Rick Warren's concern for the AIDS pandemic in Africa just something he's "into" for now? Is Bill Hybels' concern for racial reconciliation just a way for him to jump on the bandwagon?

Or is this the work of God? Is God beginning to convict those who in the past gave little or no thought to social justice? Is God causing a "revival" among evangelicals, but a revival unlike any we've seen in the past? And is God moving in the hearts of today's most influential Christian leaders so that others will hear and respond to the call for social justice?

I tend to believe that God is at work in his church. I believe that God is continuing to make us into the bride he longs for us to be. And I don't think we should dismiss what God is doing as a "fad" lest we miss what God is doing.

I, for one, don't want to miss what God is doing...

2 Things I Appreciate about Being Presbyterian

Can you believe it?! I'm actually gonna say something nice about the PC(USA)!

I know I tend to state my frustrations with the PC(USA) more than I talk about what I appreciate. And sometimes I feel like there is nothing to appreciate.

But that's not true. In the last few days, I've been reminded of at least two things that I appreciate about the PC(USA).

1) No fundamentalist upbringing to react against.

I already mentioned this in my last post, so I won't go into detail. Steve Taylor (the musician, not the emergentkiwi guy) once said that, even though he was a pastor's kid (like me), he never felt like he had anything to rebel against. His parents loved him. They weren't legalistic. They gave him breathing room.

This has also been my experience. I've never felt any urge to react because I've never had anything to react against. I've certainly grown, and I'm always open to exploring new ideas, but never out of a frustration with the sense that something has been shoved down my throat.

2) I don't have to be afraid to say something I shouldn't.

I'm in a group of pastors and ministry leaders that get together once a month to talk about whatever is on our mind. This Monday, we talked about God and country. One of the guys was recording the discussion in order to post it online. But halfway through he had to stop the recording because too many of us were saying things that those in our denominations or churches or places of ministry might not approve of.

Nothing heretical, of course. Everyone believes Jesus is God incarnate. Everyone believes Jesus rose from the tomb. Everyone believes Jesus has called us to reach out to our world.

But not everyone believes that we should have an American flag in our sanctuaries. Or sing "America, the Beautiful" as a worship song. Or celebrate Veteran's day as a holy day.

I think it's sad that we had to turn off the recorder because some of the guys were afraid that their higher-ups might hear what they say.

There's a lot that frustrates me about the PC(USA), but at least I know I won't be called a heretic or told I'm backsliding if I don't tow the party line. Come to think of it, the PC(USA) doesn't really have a party line.

So, there you go. Two things I really like about my denomination.

By the way, I can't stand the logo at the top of this article. Not because of what it symbolizes, but because it's just a boring logo. I really hope the PC(USA) gets a logo facelift sometime in the next few years.

Pastors who Drink and Cuss

I've got a lot to share about my time at the Revolution Conference, so I kinda feel like I need to be selective in what I talk about--just so don't drone on forever. If you want to know about the specifics of the conference, the main sessions, the seminars, and so forth, you can look at the Revolution Conference Blog.

One of the things I noticed was that it seems like a lot of people who are a part of this "revolution" that George Barna describes in his book--it seems like they come from a very fundamentalist/conservative evangelical background. As a result, a lot of their interest in this "revolutionary" kind of church is a reaction against a theology and spirituality that was strict, pushy, judgmental, narrow-minded, etc., etc., etc.

This was not my background. I know I complain a fair amount about my denomination, but as Presbyterians, my family was not particularly fundamentalist and I'm grateful for that. We did fall on the conservative side of Presbyterianism--but the even conservative Presbyterians look pretty liberal to a lot of other Christians.

So, my interest in the "revolution" has nothing to do with my background. It does have everything to do with finding more effective ways of helping people connect with God in a way that is deep, meaningful, and lifelong (I realize that this is also what drives those with a fundamentalist background).

The problem with a person's interest in the "revolution" being reactionary is that the pendulum can swing too far.

This is why I appreciate Brian McLaren's comments on this topic. I know that Brian's latest books have been fairly controversial, but at this conference Brian provided a source of groundedness and centeredness.

Here's a paraphrase of what McLaren said in one of the question-and-answer times:

A lot of times, when we react to something in our past we have a tendency to go too far in the other direction. Sometimes, because our past taught us not to drink, we start drinking more and more. But when we start drinking too much alcohol we become dangerous. Sometimes we react to stringent rules on sexuality by going too far in the other direction. But then we start damaging people sexually.... What the world doesn't need is a bunch of pastors who drink and cuss a lot.

I was so happy to hear him say this! There were times when I felt a little out of place with the crowd at this conference, but hearing Brian McLaren provide wisdom and act as a guiding light for all of us gave me great hope for the future of this "revolution."

I've got a pain in my...

My butt hurts.

You think I’m kidding, don’t you? I’m serious. I’ve been sitting so much these last two days that my butt is sore!

Here’s a timeline of my sitting over these two days:

Thursday, November 2, 2006

• 6:30-8:00 a.m. – Sit in D.G.’s car to drive to the airport in Louisville.
• 8:00-9:30 a.m. – Sit in the waiting area at the Louisville Airport.
• 9:30 (ET) - 11:05 a.m. (CT) – Sit in an airplane (this is actually 2½ hours).
• 11:05-12:30 p.m. - Sit at Chili’s Too for lunch at the Houston Airport.
• 12:30 (ET) - 3:30 p.m. (PT) – Sit in an airplane (this is actually 5 hours).
• 4:30-5:30 p.m. – Sit on a bus to downtown Seattle (after picking up luggage and rental car).
• 6:00-7:00 p.m. – Sit at hole-in-the-wall seafood place for dinner (after seeing the flying fish and the original Starbucks at the Pike Place Market).
• 7:30-8:00 p.m. – Sit on a bus back to the airport.
• 8:00-8:30 p.m. – Sit in the car to our hotel.

Friday, November 3, 2006

• 9:00-9:45 a.m. – Sit and listen to George Barna and Brian McLaren talk about the Revolution.
• 10:45-12:00 p.m. – Sit and listen to Rich and Rose Swetson talk about “Missional Pastor Revolutionaries.”
• 12:00-1:00 p.m. – Sit at lunch with D.G. at Peking Chinese Restaurant.
• 1:00-3:25 p.m. – Sit and listen to Barna and McLaren again.
• 3:25- 4:00 p.m.- Sit and listen to Christine Wicker talk about her journey as a non-Christian.
• 4:00-5:00 p.m. – Sit and listen to Sunil Sardar talk about the justice revolution in India.
• 5:00-7:00 p.m. – Sit at dinner with a bunch of other bloggers at the Fire Creek Grill.
• 7:00-9:00 p.m. – Listen to McLaren and others again.
• 10:00-11:00 p.m. – Sit in the bar/restaurant in the hotel and talk with D.G. and Todd Hiestand.
• 11:00-right now – Sit and write this blog!

Like I said. My butt hurts.

There’s a lot more I could say right now, but I’ll save that for next time. Let me just say that the Revolution Conference is great! I’m meeting some really great people and having an awesome time hanging out with D.G.!

And speaking of D.G., check out his blog for some pictures and other stuff about what we did.

Revolution, here we come!!

Just got off the phone with D.G. to finalize our travel plans for tomorrow morning. He'll be at my place to pick me up at 6:30 a.m. (woo-hoo! and I still have to pack!). And then we're off to Seattle for the Revolution Conference!

I'm really excited about this trip several reasons:

• I get to hang out with D.G. for four days!
• I've never been to Seattle, so that'll be fun!
• I get to meet a bunch of other ministry creatives!
• I get to see fish-throwing!
• I get to see the place that has changed the face of a generation--the original Starbucks!

Next time I post I'll be in Seattle!