Today was a true sabbath.
Can't believe the family is flying home tomorrow! I'm sticking around for a few days to speak at the Awaken Conference. Man, this week flew. Last night we swung by the Crystal Cathedral since it was about a mile from our hotel. Really inspiring to see it in person.
We spent about twelve hours at Disney on Wednesday. Very tired feet! Favorite ride? Definitely riding Space Mountain with my Parker and Summer! It was worth the sixty minute wait. The park was pretty packed--spring break. But we had a blast fighting the crowds and riding the rides.
We survived the cross-country flight with the kids. So much easier now that they are a little older and can entertain themselves! Of course, two in-flight movies didn't hurt. Landed at LAX and went straight to the Santa Monica Pier. Ate at the end of the pier at a place called Mariasol. And then we walked the Third Street Promenade. The kids collapsed on our drive across town to our hotel.
It was an amazing Easter weekend. I was so proud of the hundreds of volunteers that made our two Egg Hunts a huge success. We blessed a lot of kids and families this weekend. Have to admit that I was absolutely exhausted when everything was said and done. And I just about lost my voice on my fourth message. But we made it.
Last night we had two Good Friday services at Ebenezers. Such a great way to start the weekend. Today we're hosting two Easter Eggstravaganzas--one on Capitol Hill and one in Arlington, VA. Huge props to the folks who stuffed 20,000 eggs!
Alright, I'm learning a tough lesson in my NCAA tournament brackets. I'm realizing that if you pick who you want to win instead of who you think will win you might not fare so well. I definitely listened to my heart instead of my head with some of my picks. My only hope for redemption at this point is a Georgetown championship! And again, that's who I want to win!
Our family is going to spend spring break in the LA area. I'm speaking at the Southern California District Council next week. The following week I'm speaking at the Awaken Conference. In between, our family is going to hang out in sunny Southern California.
Our digital pastor, David Russell, just shared some interesting webcast stats with me. Total viewing time in 2007 was 14,958,439 seconds or a little more than 173 days. We delivered 1,132,691 megabytes of total data. And our webcast reached all 50 states plus 83 countries. Can you say word of mouse!
Thoroughly enjoyed hanging out with Ben Arment today. Love the way he thinks. And he's one the most authentic people I know.
I got 1200 pounds of Wild Goose Chase samplers yesterday. That's a boatload. The booklet consists of two chapters that give readers a taste of the book. We're going to give them away at some of the conferences I'm speaking at.
Just thought I'd share a couple NCAA Tournament pools I'm in and extend an invitation to join the fun. I just joined the Catalyst Conference pool. I'm also in the church planting bloggers pool put on by the Exponential Conference.
I went into hibernation over winter. Lots of White Mochas and very little exercise. I put my workouts on hold for several weeks because of my writing deadline. Man, I'm feeling it today. I got back into my workout routine yesterday and I feel like an old man. But it feels good to be sore! Parker and I also start training this week for the 10K we're running at the end of May. We were going to start training two weeks ago but I'm just over all of my flu/cold symptoms.
Next weekend we host our annual Easter Eggstravaganza. We're actually doing two of them this year--one in Virginia and one in DC. Just a heads up for locals. Lincoln Park is closed so we're hosting it at Garfield Park. Looking forward to the egg hunt. It's one of the highlights of the year!
I drove up to New Jersey today. It was a long drive, but I actually enjoyed four hours of solitude. Plus I've been flying so much that driving was a nice change of pace. But here's the crazy thing. I had to stop at an ATM to get cash because the tolls were so expensive! I only had ten bucks and my tolls totaled $13.15.
Went out to breakfast with my friend and mentor, Dick Foth. We hit the little breakfast joint at Eastern Market--favorite place to break fast. Great food and great conversation. I've been feeling the stress lately, but a conversation with Foth is like a deep breath. Talked about everything from church to family. So grateful for a sounding board in my life.
Last week I finished the last chapter of Wild Goose Chase. This week I sent off an epilogue and we went through a round of edits. I definitely have brain cramps! And I am out of energy and out of perspective. But I feel great about the book.
We experimented this weekend with what we're calling a hybrid multi-site model. Instead of one preacher and one message across all locations, all of our campus pastors preached live at their locations. I still believe that one primary communicator across locations is key to maintaining the same DNA. But I also believe it's important for our campus pastors to have a preaching presence. We'll continue having some hybrid weekends with all of our campus pastors teaching live.
The Washington Post did an article on Lent that cites NCC so I thought I'd share the link. Interesting the way some evangelical churches are borrowing some catholic traditions. Also, here's a link to our 40 day Lent blog that is cited in the article.
Two days ago I picked up a little flu bug. So I've been running a little temperature, had a hacking cough, and feeling all-around lousy. Getting up at 4 AM to catch a flight to Houston probably didn't speed the healing process. I'm not gonna lie. I felt pretty bad physically before hitting the stage today, but I really feel like God gave me just enough strength to not just make it through my two sessions but actually enjoy them!
I'm off to Houston to speak at the Innovative Impact Conference. Excited about meeting Kerry Shook and seeing Fellowship of the Woodlands. Heard lots of great things! I always take a couple books with me when I travel. Seems only appropriate that I'm taking One Month to Live, the new book by Kerry and Chris Shook.
On my way to the airport on Monday, clouds of smoke were coming out the tail pipe of my car. It was so bad that the people behind me had to wait for the smoke to clear before taking off. And I'm not exaggerating. So I took the car into the garage yesterday and it looks like it's an internal engine problem.
Right before heading to the airport to fly home, I went by my old house in Greendale, Wisconsin. And we made a pit stop at Kopp's Custard. The burger and custard were even better than I remembered.
I'll never forget where I was when I heard about Brett Favre's retirement. I was actually speaking to a group of Cheesehead pastors in Stevens Point, Wisconsin. And I just said, "Let's pray that Favre plays one more year." One of the pastors interrupted me and said he just got a text message that Favre retired. I thought it was a really bad joke. It wasn't. All of the energy went out of the room. We actually took a five minute break so I could collect my thoughts.
Great to hang out with some cheeseheads yesterday and today!
I'm headed to Wisconsin on Monday and Tuesday for two-days with some pastors. I lived in Greendale, a suburb of Milwaukee, for a few years when I was a kid. Excited about swinging by a place we used to frequent called Kopp's Custard.
We finished up our basketball season with a double-header last night. We lost an "exhibition" game. But we won our final regular season game with a huge win. And Parker had a season-high in scoring which is a great way to go out.
Ebenezers continues to make the news. Very cool article coming out in the Washington Post tomorrow. Check it out.
