Trek Camp 2009 {rocked}.

I just got back from spending a week with Lakepointe church at Highland Lakes Camp in Austin, TX where I was the speaker for their Trek 2009 Camp – and I had a great time. I spoke around 15 times last week, so was wore out, but the staff (and students) at Lakepointe are GREAT! They really are super people to work with, and I consider them good friends! So thank you Lakepointe (and the students who listened to me all week), it was an honor.

As usual, God showed up and did his thing. Many students begin their life long journey with God, through Jesus Christ, this week. Many more said they learned “so much” about God this week. My prayer after any sort of “event” like this is that students would live their life after camp, the same way they lived it while they were at camp. That they would live a life just as excited about their relationship with God through Jesus Christ, as they did while they were at camp. But above all – I know God showed up and rocked some teenagers lives this week – and to that I say, Amen!

The Matt Wheeler Band played worship at this camp – and they ROCKED! If your looking for an incredible band to play at your camp or event, you have to contact these guys. They did a super job! The summer’s only half-way over, but so far, it’s been a great one! Here’s some pictures from the camp!
{p.s. – I will be uploading the messages from all of my talks very soon for anyone to download and listen.}

a beach, a white house, and a very happy day

Last week Abbie, and I had the chance to spend a few days in Corolla, NC (outer banks) for a friends wedding. (We also had a long layover in DC, so we got to do some bonus sightseeing on the way to the wedding!) If you have never been to Corolla, you HAVE to go sometime. We got the hook up – the groom (thanks again Greg) paid for ocean font houses for the everyone involved in the wedding -the entire time we were there – it was amazing!

Congrats Laura, and Greg – your wedding was amazing, thanks for letting us be a part of it!

We got pwnd by a cupcake

Cupcakes seem to be the “in” thing these days.  Everyone seems to be selling trendy cupcakes.  It’s all good because I like to eat said cupcakes.

In Austin this week I visited Hey Cupcake with John {aka – @human3rror} and his family – if you are ever in Austin you gotta go!

(I’m not sure who won – us, or the cupcakes!)

{p.s. – John’s daughter could be on Barney

!}

New York + Animoto = slideshow delicious

I had a great time in New York hanging out with some good friends, and visiting my brother! As always, I took a ton of pictures, and I have been wanting to try out Animoto.com for sometime – so I did!
Animoto makes some very bold claims in terms of the awesomeness of their end results. I was a bit skeptial, but in the end I think they do a really great job. (and their website is super easy to use!)

Take a look at the final results and let me know what you think!

New York – Day 1

I’m in New York hanging out with my brother, and some good friends of mine. I’m wore out, but wanted to share some images from the first day! Enjoy!

I definitely married up

I am so thankful for my awesome wife. There are so many adjectives that I could use to describe her, and how God really hooked me up with this whole marrying a super, crazy, awesome women thing, but I don’t have the space to type them all out! Even though we will be married two years, this year – I wanted to share some images from our wedding day with you!
It was a such a great day, and if you know me in real life, ask me to tell you about how I had to leave a preaching engagement right before I was supposed to walk on stage to speak, because I got a call a few days before our wedding to meet my wife, and in-laws at the hospital because she had a SUPER BAD, LIKE HAVING A BABY SORT OF PAIN, kidney stone. (and how we almost didn’t go on our honeymoon!) Ahhhh…God has an awesome sense of humor!

{By the way – our images wedding images where taken by Studio563 – Check ‘em out!}

Catalyst One Day

I just got home from Catalyst One Day, and I am beat!  I did get to meet lots of awesome people that I have only known online – so that was cool! (Plus Andy Stanley gave me a toy gun, and toy badge – so I would say it was a win for the day! ) As usual I took lots of visuals – here are a few for you to enjoy! (Bonus points if you can id some of the people in these photos!)

Orange Conference {day 3}.

After a nice few days hanging out in Atlanta, I’m back home in good, ‘ol Dallas, Tx. I had a GREAT time meeting so many awesome people – I only wish I had time to mention them all! {by the way – I broke a “cool rule” this week – I actually asked a few folks I meet if I could snap a few pictures – that’s a no-no when your sitting backstage at an event like this – talk about looking lame! – oh well!}

I must say, Reggie, and his team, know how to do things right! The entire conference was done with such excellence! (you wouldn’t believe how well they treated all the people who were apart of it – I had LOTS of great food!) I was very excited (and honored) they asked me to be a part of The Orange Conference. I am POSITIVE that I learned WAY more then I was able to “teach” anyone. I have much to say about all I learned the last few days – but not now! This week is going to be spent finishing up the last week of my many seminary projects, exams, readings, etc – not a very fun week I might add!

I have added some pictures from the third day at Orange ‘09 – hope you enjoy!

{P.S. – I am going to be giving away a SINGED copy of Reggie Joiner’s new book – Think Orange : Imagine The Impact When Church and Family Collide – so be sure to check by soon for details on how this could be yours! – FOR FREE!}

{oh, and “one more thing” – I just wanted to add that I”m really digging the design of Reggie’s new book! Ok, maybe I’m a little biased since the designer of my website, and my good friend, Jared – did the artwork for the book! – check out the credits in the front of the book! – Jared is the man!}

Orange Conference {day 2}.

Wow – what a great day! Things are in full swing here at The Orange Conference! I Had a great day connecting with so many awesome people talking about creative ways to use social media to connect with the students we minster to – among many other things!

Since I am about to fall asleep on my laptop, and I’m not sure drool is covered under my warranty; I’m going to keep this post rather short. However, I did want to share one thing I heard today that really today that really impacted me.

It was from Francis Chan’s (who is a CRAZY cool guy, by the way – and author of the book “Crazy Love” ) talk this morning. In his talk he said the book of Acts was his least favorite book of the Bible because he “never reads it, and says ‘Wow – that looks allot like my church!” He went on to talk about how we act like the things in the Book of Acts were just “for back then.” How we act like God doesn’t move like that today; or that we shouldn’t expect God, or The Holy Spirit, to work like He did in Acts. I’m going to talk about this in more detail later in a video post because it really got me thinking – so stay tuned!

Question : Do we REALLY trust God to move like they did in Acts? Do we REALLY believe He can move in such powerful ways TODAY? Do we REALLY believe in the power, and work, of The Holy Spirit?

And one last question – Do we REALLY preach as BODLY as we see the people in Acts preaching? (If your answer is no – why don’t we?)

That’s it for now – but I have much more to say. Soon, very soon. But in the mean time take a look at a few images from today!

Orange Conference {day 1}.

I wanted to share some pictures from the first night of Orange ‘09.

I also wanted to share a little bit of what Reggie Joiner from ReThink talked about as well.  He spoke on how as student ministers we must equip parents to “do” ministry with their kids.

His entire talk was great – but one fact that really stood out to me was this. We get to spend an average of 40 hours a year ministering to one student. That’s it. Each student will be around the ministry around 40 hours. However they will be with their parents around 3000 hours a year! What we have to do is find ways to equip parents to use that 3000 hours well!

Also  - there are no picture perfect families. (The Cosby show was scripted by the way – it was NOT a real family.) We need to let families know that there are no PERFECT family.  It’s OK to be NOT perfect.  God is not interested in PERFECT families – He is interested in life change. He is interested in His story. His story in the life of that family. This is huge!

Anyway, there is more to come – and that is just 1/100 of what Reggie shared, but think on that. How can we equip parents to “do” ministry “with” their student? Ideas? Thoughts? How are you doing this?

{and enjoy the pictures!}