Mind dump from the weekend…

From my mind to yours following a very unusual weekend:

• Took Joshua to a Cubs game in St. Louis on his 29th birthday … compliments of Ben Yother from Birmingham, AL…thanks Ben…it was pretty awesome.
• Spent Friday night listening too and hanging with Andy Stanley in Little Rock, AR.  Got to ask some personal leadership questions one on one…Andy had some great insight that I need to process about how I can stay in the culture without bogging it down.  NP has a decision making team of 10-12 people (we would call them champions of various ministry areas) and a management team of 3.  No decisions are made by the MT that impact the champions.  Hmmm… I wonder how that works in real life?  We are constantly battling the top down demon.  They have a matrix organization much like ours.  Got to think about it some more…
• Got to hang out Fri-Sun with some of my buddies from the ARC.  Rick Bezet, Randy Bezet, Chris Hodges, Billy Hornsby, Casey Henagan and Josh.  These are some of my best friends in life…I am blessed.  We laughed, ate, talked, ate, strategized, ate, played, ate…you get the picture.  I don’t know how you survive ministry without friends. 
• We visited the Clinton Library.  That was a trip.  Facinating to see some of the inner workings of the Presidency.  As a communicator, I especially enjoyed looking at how he edited his speeches.  Also enjoyed perusing through his daily schedule.  They had a great 12 minute video that told the story well.  We need to learn how to do that better…I think we are getting better, but we have a long way to go.  Made me want to visit other presidential libraries.  No section for interns, though…go figure.  Take away – a reputation takes a lifetime to build but just one bad choice to destroy.
• I spoke on Saturday night at the grand opening of New Life Church’s Greater Little Rock campus.  Rick Bezet and team planted NLC 7 years ago.  Last year it was the 6th fastest growing church in America…incredible.  They do a great job making you feel welcome and drawing you into worship.  Tropical storm Ike blew into town on Saturday night…but we had church anyway.  I had a great time speaking…other than having to follow Andy Stanley!  Oh well, I think God used it inspite of myself!
• Sunday morning the power was out at the church.  I felt terrible for Rick, but he handled it well.  They had to cancel the 9:30 service, but power was up for the 11:30 service.  Chris Hodges spoke and knocked it out of the park.  He challenged the church to core values for the future…really good.  Craig Groeschel is speaking tommorrow night.  Feels kind of like a "Last Preacher Standing" kind of event!
• Because of my previous commitment to speak for Rick, I had to miss the funeral of a friend, Themos Christ.  What a good man he was…one of the first members of our church.  I was able to record a message for the service and I heard Michael Morris did a great job of sharing the hope we have in Jesus.
• This weekend we did the entire message by video at the Seacoast Long Point campus.  Normally I do at least two or three services live, but we thought that the subject matter lended itself to a video experience.  This month we are celebrating 20 years as a church, and we took the congregation on a road trip to visit several places that were critical to our journey together.  It was a lot of fun doing and I hope it had impact for those who attended.
• I don’t have numbers yet, but it looks like we may have had over 10,000 people attend again this weekend.  Wow…
• Sunday afternoon 2 or 3 of the campuses came together for a baptism in the Ocean.  Nearly 90 people were baptized!
• I am really proud of our Seacoast Team…
• Said good bye to Jodi Felty our Missions Director.  She is taking a similar position at Willowcreek.  We will miss her.  Jason Surratt will be assuming some of the responsibilities.  Pray for both of them.
• Been staying in touch with Dino Rizzo and the HPC team in Baton Rouge.  We affectionately call Dino "Father Theresa".
• Feeling bad for South Texas.  My dad pastored for many years in Houston.  We’ll see how we can best respond.
• I am loving Twitter.  Feel more connected to friends like Dave and Jon Ferguson, my ARC buddies, Mark Batterson, Maurilio Amorim, etc.  Speaking of Maurilio…he packs more humor in 140 characters than anyone I know.
• Looking forward to downloading the new iPhone update.  Supposedly it extends battery life.  My battery lasts about 4 hours…don’t ask me how I feel about it.  It’s testing my patience daily.
• The Broncos beat the Chargers 39-38…don’t even tell me it was a questionable ending (even though it was)…a win is a win.
• Speaking of wins…how bout them Cubs?  A no-no for Zambrano at a "nuetral" site, if you call Milwaukee nuetral.
• That’s about it for tonight…getting sleepy…feeling very blessed.