• Todd Wilson has done a good job with the conference. Props to him.
• I didn’t take notes and neither did Tadd (I was with him the whole time) but he has good notes on his blog somehow.
• This morning we were lead in worship by some guys doing church in urban settings. Lot of dancing, lot of rapping, and lot of other stuff that made me realize I am WAY to white. It was awesome to see how they reach their area.
• Talked a good bit with the owner of Portable Church Industries.  I was impressed and he defended his company well.  Still not sold that I would use them but I was impressed with the guy and he is the real deal and his heart IS in the right place.
• The Blogging Roundtable was very good. GREAT turnout and a good time hearing different people’s stories.
• There are few people I enjoy being around more then Bob Franquiz.  I think I freak the dude out but I just like him.
• Chris Elrod honestly plays the hard ass role but he is one of the nicest guys I have ever been around. Don’t tell anyone but the dude has a huge heart!
• Ben Arment said in the bloggers roundtable no one makes him madder then I do at times through my blog. I loved it! He did a good job with the roundtable.
• I really like what Shawn and David are doing with ChurchPlanters.com.
• I got to meet one of my heroes last night, Bil Corneilus. He was at dinner with us last night and I am pretty sure I came off looking like a dork. I was actually nervous to meet him and blew the chance to pick his brain. That was stupid.
• Darin Patrick was GREAT today! His talk on team REALLY spoke to me.
• Shawn Lovejoy laid the smack down today as well. Love that dude!
• I HATE Church Pews!!! I have not set in a church pew in forever and my back is freaking killing me.
• I hooked up for about 2 mintues with Vince Antonucci today. He was one of the guys I REALLY wanted to meet. The dude is a FREAK about unchurched people and everyone says we should connect. I am going to look him up and pick his brain some things.
• I love church planters!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
• I would love to see some new blood as main speakers. Don’t get me wrong the guys they had were great but I want to see Perry, Steven, Bil, and some of the other awesome dudes on this platform.
• Trinity Jordan is a dude that I met last year at the Buzz Conference and I just like the dude. We seem pretty different but I like him. He actually calms me. That sound weird but it is true.
• Got to talk with Mark Batterson for a few minutes today. Here is the deal. The dude honestly is THE nicest guy in the world. Again that is opposite of me and I struggle with nice people but if you don’t like this dude, you can’t like anyone. He is just a freaking nice dude.
• Devin Hudson is knocking it out of the park in Las Vegas.
• God is doing some awesome things through church planting and I love that we are The Stone get to be part of it!
• This conference reminded me that what God is doing at RSC is not normal. I hang around a lot of dudes that are blowing us out of the water and because of that I can forget that what God is doing here is NOT happening at other places!!! I love Ridge Stone.
• The calling to a city is a powerful thing. I heard that over and over today. When God calls you to a city you better GO. It doesn’t matter what else happens or who else goes there you MUST GO.
• Those of us how are planters love it so much that we can’t leave it. That is another reason multi-site isn’t going away. It allows us to continue doing what we love.
• I had a blast at the conference.
• I am honored I was invited!
• I am ready to be at RSC Sunday!!!!! I freaking love that place!

Hands down, the best track here in regards to speakers is the Post Launch Track. Darrin Patrick was GREAT this morning talking about building a great team. It has been a long time since I have been in a session that made me evaluate the wway we do things. I am taking Taylor with me to everything in the future because I take sucky notes!

I have heard about a thousand great quotes this week that I wish I could remember.

My blogging is limited due to time but I am alive and having a blast!

The conference is off to a good start if for no other reason then I have connected with a ton of friends.  I’ll post more about it later.

I attend a lot of conferences and a lot of meetings looking for that something that is going to pump me up and take certain things to the next level.

After attending Disney World today I found the thing to do it.  I consider myself a pretty creative guy.  I come up with all of our series titles and directions.  I consider our church VERY creative.  I think the job that Amy Young and her crew do is second to NONE.  Seriously I put our creative team up against ANY portable church around of ANY size.  They are amazing.

However after being at Disney today we will be taking things to a whole new level.  I am as inspired creatively as I have ever been.  My mind is racing with ideas and how to better reach people with Jesus Christ.

I never expected to benefit so much from a day at Disney but I have.  I am as revived as I have ever been and I still have a conference and two more days at Disney to go.

If you are on the creative team, watch out because we are about to turn it up another notch.  You guys are the best now, so I don’t know what is coming up but it is going to be off the hook!!!!

Saturday night I am going to an event that couldn’t be in better if I put it on myself!

It is unscripted 2007 at Center Stage in Atlanta.

It is being put on my the XXX Church guys and involves the founder of XXX Church debating with Porn Legend Ron Jeremy, three wrestling matches, and a concert by my favorite group growing up Stryper!!!!

It is like I died and went to Heaven early!  I will be there in all my redneck glory!

I have told you several times that when we started The Stone we were debt free. 2 years in we are not.

This past January we committed to getting back out of debt and we started following Dave Ramsey’s cash only system. We have been dogmatic about it to say the least. We love his saying, “Live like no one else where one day you can live like no one else.” Every time there is something we can’t afford, we remind ourselves of this saying.

Anyway, I knew I was coming to Orlando to the National New Church Conference and decided since I had to have a hotel anyway that I would bring the family and they could hang out at the pool all day. We decided we were NOT going to Disney as we didn’t have the cash for it. We would just enjoy being away from home and they could enjoy the pool and nice weather.

Well we had someone close to us decide we HAD to take the kids to Disney so they sent us money for one day there. Needless to say we were excited. My mom then found some Disney tickets from 20 years ago!!!! They had one day left on them. So we called Disney and they said they would not accept those as they were way to outdated. That is cool. I totally understand.

So we decided today was the day we would go to Disney and DeAnna decided to try the old tickets at the gate. When we got there the lady informed us they were outdated and that they don’t use those anymore. She then asked for the tickets and we gave them to her. She then gave us 3 day hopper passes for our entire family!!!!! Are you freaking kidding me? How cool that I get to send the money back to the person who gave it to me. Trust me, they didn’t have it to give and my family now will hop around Disney for three days for free!

That might not seem like much to you but it is just a cool reminder to me that God Rocks!

So in a few more minutes we are headed back to the park.

The Thursday after the conference we will go and then Friday we will go to about dinner time and then head home because I have an event Saturday I am going too that I will talk about in my next post.

We made it!

We got to Orlando yesterday about 2 and we have have been having a blast!

We just left Disney World to let the kids take a nap and we will be heading back out there tonight.   I have an AWESOME story of God providing and I will share it later!  I already knew God was awesome but he likes to remind every now and again!

Tomorrow the conference starts and I am excited about that as well.

I have some thoughts on things the church could learn from Disney later.  They are nothing earth shattering but I will write them here where I don’t forget them.

BTW, I heard Preston knocked it out of the park yesterday!  I heard the crowd was awesome!  I heard the service was awesome!  I can’t wait until this Sunday.  I might be teaching one of the most basic and practical messages you have ever heard.  BTW, it might be the single most important message I have ever taught in regards to your personal walk with God.  I can’t wait!!!!

DeAnna and I are getting ready to hit the road and head to Orlando. Everytime I get ready to leave or miss a Sunday something happens that has me questioning whether I should leave or should I stay and handle whatever fire is blazing at that time.

In the past I would stay and cheat my family.

Not this time. It is a good feeling to have leaders around me that I trust to handle situations. Will they handle them just like I would? Nope. But that is fine. I am learning if you can’t trust the leaders you have around you then you shouldn’t have those leaders around.

Believe it or not, it was a very hard thing for me when the church got the point where I wasn’t involved in the middle of everything. Honestly, it is still hard but I was becoming the bottle neck and I refuse to be the reason this place stops growing or loses momentum. It use to make me feel big time when I left and the guys were calling me because they couldn’t handle things on their own. I thought that was the life a leader. Now if they call when I am gone, it lets me know I have done a poor job empowering, trusting, and teaching them lead.

A SIGN OF MY LEADERSHIP IS HOW WILL THE SHIP RUNS WITHOUT ME, NOT HOW WELL SHE RUNS WHEN I AM AROUND.

I will leave out in a few minutes and the fact is no matter what happens this week (good or bad), RSC will be here when I get back. This thing is bigger then me and it can survive a week without me. I however might not survive WITHOUT the week away from her and the week WITH my family. Learning that lesson has been one of the best things I have learned in planting The Stone.

I can’t wait to hear about how Preston brought IT today. I love Preston and love when he teaches. I trust Preston because he isn’t in love with teaching. That is important to me. I have seen far to many staff guys “fill in” for their pastor only to get that itch to do it all the time regardless of whether they have the skills or not. They listen to the people in the church being nice about their teaching and let it go to their head. I never worry about that with Porter. That is why I trust him to teach. I know he is going to do an awesome job today and our people DO love it when he teaches.

Well, I’m off. Pray that we have an awesome time! I’ll keep you updated here and there if I can.

Peace. I’m out.

DeAnna is at the Butch Walker concert with some great ladies at the church tonight and I don’t sleep until she gets home. What can I say, I worry?

Anyway, tonight I am chilling with Kris. Probably one of the greatest songwriters EVER! It is his first CD in 11 years and it is perfect for a late night unwind.  Over 500 artists have recorded songs Kris has written.  The dude is a modern day poet and should be required listening for anyone who says they are a music lover.

I am getting pumped up about the National New Church Conference that starts next week!!!

There are going to be a ton of planters there that I am looking forward to hooking up with and there are going to be some GREAT sessions. I am going to be VERY active with the Post Launch Track that is being headed up by ChurchPlanters.com. I love with Shawn and David are doing with CP.com and I love that they are allowing me to be a part of it! The line up they have brought in for this track is off the hook and I am pumped that I get to be a small part of it by helping out with some of the things!

On Tuesday night I have been invited to dinner with about 12 planters who are WAY out of my league and I am looking forward to jus soaking up what this guys are saying. I always stand amazed at the connections God allows in my life. I really looking forward to this. I am also heading over to the theater where Portable Church Industries is setting up a church in a theater to show guys what they are doing.

The on Wednesday I am part of the Bloggers Roundtable that is being held somewhere on campus! The line up is off the hook and if you are a blogger, want to be a blogger or just want to meet some of the guys whose blogs you read, then check this thing out! It is going to be off the hook!

If you are heading to the conference and want to hook up, just contact me and let me know! I look forward to meeting everyone that will be there!

However the #1 thing I am looking forward to is being with my family! I am excited that they get to hang out at one of the Disney Resorts all day and I am excited I get to take them to Disney World on Monday. We are going to have a great time and it will be awesome to hang out with them.