Tony Morgan Is At It Again

Once again Tony Morgan has numerically ranked churches in a list here and here.  He’s just not happy until he pits pastor against pastor for a #1 rating. 

There was a rumor that a hippie looking guy that resembled Tony was hanging out at the ChurchPlanters.com Conference on Tuesday.  After my main stage sucker punch from Stetzer it was God’s favor upon my life that allowed me not to run into Morgan. 

Link Love Triples The Hits

Due to some link love from Gary Lamb’s post here and Monday Morning Insight’s post here…along with cool props from some great folks I met in Atlanta…the hits to this blog have tripled since Sunday.  In all seriousness…I am humbled.  Thanks guys!

Conference Reflex #1

Let me apologize for not blogging sooner.  The last 24 hours have been a whirlwind!!!

At 4:30 PM yesterday I left the conference heading back to Lakeland.  After 3 hours of wall-to-wall Atlanta traffic it took me until about 3:00 AM to get home.  Two hours of sleep later I was back up to head to the hospital with my Dad.  Several hours in the waiting room and then several more hours getting him back home (HMOs bite arse!!!) made me even more wasted.

Today is my 41st birthday so my wife decorated the house.  I was so tired I just kind of stared into space for the last two hours.  Denise is so great.  She postponed everything until Friday so I could rest up an enjoy it.  So I finally got some non-road food in me about an hour ago and that brings me to now.

I haven’t really had a chance to decompress and reflect on the whole ChurchPlanters.com Conference.  Being ADD I take everything in, but it takes me a few days to process it all.  I may drive people crazy, but I’ll probably blog off and on about it until the weekend. 

There are so many bloggers out there that have done such a great job of listing the top notes for each speaker/track time that I won’t rehash that.  I will, however blog about some of the things that really moved me emotionally over the last three days.

The entire trip, conference, networking, hanging with friends experience was like riding a rollercoaster of emotions.  Lovejoy had me wanting to be mean, Stetzer had me wanting to stay a Southern Baptist, Ferguson had me wanting to risk my life doing something dangerous, Carter had me in tears of humility and Noble just had me jacked up.  Gary Lamb?  Well, let’s just say listening back to Gary’s track time on the compact disc while driving down I-75 at 1:00 AM will have you doing 95mph.  There’s gotta be a Sammy Hagar song in there some where! 

I met a lot of cool people and experienced one really great church.  As the next few days go on I’ll break it down in more detail.  All in all, it was a great conference experience and…for me…that’s rare.

My Dad

Thanks to all the folks that emailed or called me today letting me know that you were praying for my Dad.  He came through the procedure fine and the prognosis is great.  No severe heart blockage and what there is can be treated with new medication.  The power of prayer is a mighty force.  Thank you once again!

Just Got Home

It’s 1:45 AM and I just got home from the ChurchPlanters.com Conference in Atlanta.  I left right after Perry Noble finished speaking because my father is having some minor heart surgery tomorrow.  It was a long trip home…especially with the Atlanta traffic…and I’m beat.  It was a phenomenal conference and I made a lot of new friends…but I’m just too tired to blog in great detail right now.

Due to the fact I’ll be at the hospital with my mom and dad all day tomorrow, it may be tomorrow night before I have a chance to thoroughly blog about what God showed me through some Godly men and women at the conference.  To sum it up, I was sent to Atlanta to hear Matt Carter.  While the other main session speakers were incredible and caused me to think, dream, wonder, etc. - it was Matt that brought me to tears.

I also learned a lot about the power of blogging/podcasting…as well as the responsibility that comes with participating in such a powerful medium.  More on everything tomorrow night.

Until then…above is a picture of Travis Johnson and I at the conference.  It is a rare photo as he’s not wearing his "I-just-got-back-from-deer-hunting" baseball cap.

ChurchPlanters.com Conference: Day 1

Day #1 is in the books for the ChurchPlanters.com Conference here in Atlanta.  It’s been a really good day and I was able to hang out with a bunch of fellow bloggers (Gary, Tadd, Travis and Scott).  While I’d love to give a blow-by-blow account of everything that each presenter said today…I’m just too freakin’ tired to do so.  In a nutshell, I will run down the highlights.

Best Quote Of The Day: "Most church planters plant the church in their head, not the church that is needed for their culture." - Ed Stetzer

Best Overall Presentation: Without a doubt, Gary Lamb.  I realize I may be a little biased because of our friendship, but the dude flat brough it today!!!  He talked about going all out to reach the disconnected…and the brother laid it on the line.  He didn’t pull any punches about what it looks like when your church reaches primarily unchurched people…it wasn’t pretty.  So many church plant "wannabes" talk about reaching unchurched folks, but when they actually show up on Sunday it’s ugly, uncomfortable and messy.  If the audience had the mistake that church planting was glamorous, Gary flat laid a dose of reality on them.

Most Embarassing Moment: When I got called out from the main stage by Ed Stetzer for this post.  I deserved it! 

Coolest People Met:  While I got to meet and hang out with a lot of cool people today, there are two that stuck out.  One is Travis Johnson.  We met up for dinner along the way up here and it was a real treat.  I have read his blog for a few months now, but never actually met him.  He and I have been hanging out together for the better part of two days…and the guy is the real deal.  He literally would give you the shirt off his back and has a true servant’s heart.

The other guy is Landon Reesor and he’s a church planter in freakin’ Conneticut.  Who in their right mind plants a church in the Northeast?  This guy…and he’s got some pretty great ideas.  His church and Compass Point seem to be a lot alike.  I look forward to having more conversations with him in the future.

Most Impressed Me:  Hands down, it was the volunteer staff of Mountain Lake Church.  When I pulled into the parking lot this morning there was this bald-headed dude wearing silver sunglasses with a huge smile on his face directing traffic.  It just set the tone for the whole day.  The Moutain Lake volunteers always smiled, always displayed professionalism and were a true example of Godly servants.  This is…by far…is the most organized…and pleasant…conference I’ve been to. Thanks in no small part to the volunteer staff.  Shawn Lovejoy, your people rock!!!

Tomorrow will be a jam-packed day.  My plans are to grab some dinner with Gary after the conference and then head immediately for Lakeland.  I won’t get home until around 2:00 AM, but my Dad is scheduled for a heart procedure at the hospital on Wednesday and I feel I need to be there for my Mom.  Anyways, I’m not sure if I’ll get to blog much about Day #2, but I’ll catch up on Thursday.  I’ll also give a more detailed account of each presentation before the week is out.

To all those that are attending the conference, I’ll see you in the morning.  I’m heading to bed!!!

I’ve Learned A Few Things

While I’ll go into more details about the speakers and presentations at the conference later tonight, I’ve already learned a few practical things:

1. When you put your picture on your blog a lot of people at church planters conferences recognize you…and that’s not always a good thing!

2. Gary Lamb can flat bring it!!!

3. Blackberry enabled phones are great for short messages, but suck for lengthy blog posts.

4. When you blog something about Ed Stetzer he’ll call you out from the podium at a church planter’s conference.

5. ADD and modern church worship technolgy practices do not work well together.

6. I love when big, smiling, bald-headed guys wearing silver sunglasses direct me to where I need to park my car.

7. So much of the stuff presented at these conferences are geared exclusively to modern churches intent on reaching the 30+ crowd.

8. I’m inspired by the big dreams of the guys presenting, but can use very little of their techniques at Compass Point.

9. I love hanging out with folks with big vision…even if our methods and goals are different.

10. The tap water in Atlanta tastes just as bad as the tap water in Lakeland.

Made It To ATL

It’s 1:00am and I just made it to Atllanta. I got started late out of Lakeland this afternoon and then met up along I-75 with Travis Johnson (Life Pointe Church in Homestead, FL) for dinner. We had a blast just talkimg and getting to know one another. Travis has really great church and wonderful blog.

Anyway, it’s been eight freakin’ hours on the road and I’m worn out. I’m excited about the conference tomorrow, but I gotta get some sleep! I’m heading to bed.

The Question That Plagues Me

Bill Hybels, pastor of Willow Creek Church recently conducted a Q&A with Tim Stevens of Granger Community Church.  In the interview Bill said:

"The goal (of the church), is to slowly make believers
independent. We (as a church and pastors) should focus our attention on introducing
people to Christ, and then helping them grow to a certain point. After
that–they should feed themselves and focus on helping the church
introduce more people to Christ."

If the measurement of a truly discipled Christian is that they can spiritually feed themselves and others…which I agree with Bill Hybels on…then my question is:

If a pastor looks out from his pulpit to a congregation of thousands…and only half of them can feed themselves spiritually and lead others…is the church truly a success?

At Compass Point the ball has begun to roll, momentum is gaining speed and numeric growth is inevitable.  However, the question above is one that plagues me all of the time…

Test Post From My Blackberry

In order to prepare to blog while I’m out of town next week at the ChurchPlanters.com Conference, I’m testing out my new Nokia E62 Blackberry enabled phone to see if it will work with Typepad.

I apologize for a “waste of a post” to those that read this blog from PlanterPlanet.com or an RSS feed service.