15 June 2007

In Chicago

I was in the right place at the right time when a spot came available to accompany some people from Lakeview to the Willow Creek Arts conference. I've had a love hate relationship with Willow Creek for a while. In some ways it's led the way in North American church but it's been at the forefront of "church in a box". I mostly wanted to be at this conference to see some of the speakers they brought in from the outside: Brian McLaren, Donald Miller and Erwin McManus. So far the highlight of the conference has been the networking. Sitting down and talking to people and sharing our church stories. I've met some interesting guys...a church planter from kentucky, a janitor/set designer from Georgia, a tattooed guy from NYC who gave me a tattoo shop card, a guy from Illinois who is in the same small church scenario. Donald Miller's talk last night was also impacting. He basically talked about how our lives should reflect the good qualities of a story or an epic film. If it's not the case we should work to find passion in chasing after living out an amazing story. I feel like being here is allowing me to focus a lot of mental energy on evaluating my leadership ability and figuring out what to work on and how to get better. I'm also trying to get organized and plan ahead for the fall/winter season at the Pearl. God is slowly clarifying the vision and direction for the Pearl. It's funny...I sit in these sessions and the key points of the talks don't always resonate with me but this environment does seem to stimulate my church mind and free me up to spend time thinking and writing things down. Writing feels good...this blog feels good...time to get back to my coffee and my notebook (paper notebook).

4 comments:

Grandpa Steve said...

Wow vacation and learning too!!!

Oh and Nevada gets a break from you!!!!!!!!!!!!

Kat said...

Keep rockin' it!

Tim said...

Enjoy suburbia.

Melissa said...

What a great opportunity! Soak it all up! I hope you are able to get a lot of valuable info and insights. I can't wait to hear about it.

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