ACGC review

The Advent Christian triennial meetings ended last week. We arrived safely home (despite landing in the middle of a thunder storm). Now we are getting back in the flow of things just in time to celebrate Natalie's birthday this week. It was a great convention. We have some of the best denominational leaders on the planet! Here are some quick bullet points from the week that was ACGC 2008.

• "The best is yet to come..."
• "Develop a daily routine to remind us to love others"-Scot McKnight
• Jesus is not done with us yet while we wait for His second coming.
• Kevin Perry rocks as a worship leader.
• Keith Wheaton always has the most entertaining report of all.
• There are some great AC singers and musicians around the country.
• Churches are being planted all over the world.
• The state of Washington has a 10-10-10 goal for planting churches...10 churches-in 10 years-within 10 miles of each other. AWESOME!!!
• Dr. Sid Bradley offered the following keys to ministry in today's world. Here are just a few

1. Authenticity not hype
2. connections and community
3. relationships not religion
4. disciples not decisions
5. balance not burnout

It was an encouraging time. I had the chance to catch up with old friends and make some new ones. It was very cool to realize that God is doing very creative ministry all over the US and around the world. The most exciting thing too was to know that "the best is yet to come..."

touchdown in FL

I had this post in my draft file and forgot to publish it so here it is...

The past 8 days were awesome. ACGC was a great experience. This morning I am back in the office trying to catch up on all the happenings during the last week or so.

The most exciting part of the whole trip was the landing back in Jacksonville. Black clouds. Torrential rain. High winds. Lightning. Thunder. A runway. An almost 2 year old who thought the entire experience was great. "Look daddy, LIGHT!" Her mother and I were just making sure that our seat cushions could in fact be used as floatation devices. Never the less...safe landing...safe at home...all is well.

special message

Here is a special message for Laura Dombrosky...Laura if you are reading this...Scott has information that you do not. You'll have to ask him about Allison and Natalie's morning. Have a great day!

BTW

Einstein Bros. has "darn good coffee"!!!!!

Tony Morgan makes me think

What follows are some questions that I came across on Tony Morgan's blog. I don't think the idea is to do away with promotions. After all, most churches haven't even mastered that. We are still trying to figure out the best way to communicate what we have to offer others. However, while we are doing this the following questions should also be asked. If we are not willing to ask these then what questions should we ask?

"In hierarchy-thinking, we’re concerned about telling people about our men’s ministry or women’s ministry or small group ministry. We’re in promotions mode. We’re trying to promote programs rather than addressing the question people are asking. The person that comes through the front door just wants to know how can I meet other people?

In hierarchy-thinking, we want to tell people about our Bible studies and discipleship classes. The person that comes through the front door just wants to know is Jesus who he says he is and why does that matter to my life?

In hierarchy-thinking, we think people want to know our agenda and how we’re set up (leadership, denominations, structure, etc.) to fulfill that agenda. The person who walks through the front door just wants to figure out do I fit here, and, if so, what’s my next step?" (tonymorganlive.com)

Sunday night reflections

Wow! What a day this has been. The past two days have been packed solid. I've experienced some cool teaching, connected with old friends, heard some amazing music, heard a fantastic sermon, and worshiped an awesome God. That's a full weekend. It's closing in on midnight right now so I'll try and give some details later but did want to say thank you for praying for us this week. I can not tell you how honored I am that you would consider me and my family in your prayers. Thank you. We are having a blast.

ACGC Day 3

Today I spent most of the day in a seminar titled "Leadership from the Heart" by Dan Webster. It was a great day. Webster offered some really solid stuff on leadership. I'll give some bullet points here and I'll try to keep it to ones that make sense on their own.

• 
  Two aspects of leadership
  1-what we do
  2-who we are
• 
  “The great disease of our day is that people want to look good without being good”-Brennan Manning
• 
  People can lead ministries without becoming more like Jesus=SCARY
• 
  Self leadership= #1 job of a leader
• 
  “In the important things of life don't take short cuts.”-Mike Singletary
• 
  “Leaders who finish understand they have a unique vulnerability to temptation and they do the necessary work to protect themselves.”-webster
• 
  “Lord, we don't ever want it to become old when we say 'I love you”-Webster

Also tonight the service was awesome...putting all the music aside (which was amazing) Rev. Ray Marco brought the message tonight and it was GOOD. Here is just a piece of what he said...

"God told me...'I did not call you to promote Ray Marco. I did not call you to promote your church. I did not call you to promote the Advent Christian denomination. You are to make disciples. It's not about you it's about my kingdom."

Wow!!! Ray did a fantastic job of reminding us that it's not about us and what we want but about the doors that God opens and invites us to walk through. Great day overall!

ACGC Day 2

Today was pretty relaxed. I went and picked up Logan and Chris Phillips @ Ohare. We made a Target run. Talked with a ton of people. I did get to meet Kevin...the current pastor in Villisca. He seems like a genuinely nice guy. We've heard some great things coming out of Villisca in the past year and I firmly believe God has set it up for Kevin and his family to be there.

On kind of a down note...Natalie doesn't seem to be feeling too well. She may just be tired from the travel and the over stimulation of so many people wanting to see her.

Tomorrow is the leadership workshop by Dan Webster. I'm really looking forward to it...I just hope I can think of some good questions throughout the day.

I wonder...do you think that everyone tries to make themselves look their best for events like this?

The Church and the Boston Celtics

If you get the chance check out Clayton's post on "What the Church can learn from the Boston Celtics"...it's good stuff.

Chicago pizza ROCKS!!!

We are here in Naperville, IL for the next week at the Advent Christian General Conference triennial meetings. Allison, Natalie, and I arrived by plane today from Jax...2 1/2 hours with a child who refused to take a nap. But...it could have been worse. The day made a complete turn around when we went to "Geno's" pizza for dinner. That pizza just melted in my mouth...it was sooooooo goooooood!!! The next several days will be spent in meetings, workshops, and worship services. Keep us all in prayer that everyone will walk away more motivated to spread the gospel. (and if you don't mind...pray that we get some more of that awesome pizza...did I mention how good it was?)

Hi...my name is...

Hi...my name is Chris and it's been almost two weeks since my last blog. I just thought I would introduce myself again. This past week was slammed! We had two VBS's going all week. One in the morning and one in the evening. This was slightly complicated by some type of bug that was going around wiping out several of us at different points throughout the week. Yesterday was Father's Day and our VBS closing program during the morning service. This is all taking into account the usual...every week stuff that we come across. Wednesday we leave for IL and the triennial General Conference meetings. With just today and tomorrow to finish getting ready we are ON THE MOVE. I will be trying to keep the blog updated while we're gone with tidbits from the conference. Keep checking back for updates.

tired and still

If you are interested in what our day looked like yesterday you can read about it on Allison's blog. She did an awesome post about our day. http://www.sidestreet-allison.blogspot.com/ Title "Yesterday".

Today I'm a little tired. I didn't sleep all that great last night. Now it's the middle of the afternoon and there is so much more to be done. However, today I've come across two things that have forced me to slow down a little. One was a blog by a pastor here in Florida who shared how he and his wife experienced pregnancy for 14 days before losing the baby. He talked about how for 14 days he was a dad and how that has spurred him on to a deeper love for God and for others. 14 days changed the way he viewed everything.

The second thing was my preparation for Wed. night Bible study. We're going to look at Psalm 46. In that chapter is a verse that God plants in front of my face from time to time. "Be still, and know that I am God..." (vs.10). Wow! So I'm going to sit here for a little bit and be still. Then I'm going to go pick up my daughter and spend some time with her.