Cumberland Church Blog: Where you been Ed?

May 09, 2008

Where you been Ed?

Thanks for the emails and concern. I promise, contrary to Billy's gossiping, I am not dead!

I've been on the road the past two weeks in Orlando on a family vacation and in Atlanta for the Drive Conference at North Point (thanks to Carlos for the pic!). GREAT to be back!!

Highlights of my past 2 weeks? Here you go:

We took Keegan (6) and Kaylee (3) to the Magic Kingdom and Hollywood Studios. It was really cool to see them "mesmerized" by the Disney experience! They were old enough to enjoy it which was awesome. The highlight for Kaylee was Cinderella's castle and for Keegan it was Aerosmith's Rock-n-Roll Roller Coaster ride (like father, like son!).
I used to live in Orlando and it was really cool to be back in the town I lived in for so long. Neat to see all the cool stuff going on by my old condo by Universal Studios. GREAT area!
Karen and I had a GREAT date night dinner at the Loew's Portofino Bay Hotel in the Universal Studios park. It was like we were in Italy. VERY cool place. You should check it out.
Played a lot of Putt-Putt with Keegan and my Father-in-Law this week. I'm thinking about going on tour. ;>)
Made a very LONG and depressing drive back from Orlando to Nashville in 1 day. Long because it took 11 and 1/2 hours with two sad kids who wanted to be back at Disney. Depressing because I drove through Atlanta on Saturday night only to turn around the next day and drive back for the Drive Conference. Who says being a pastor isn't difficult and sacrificing!?
Drive Conference was really incredible this year. 325 folks from North Point's Strategic Partnership world and another 2,025 church leaders from around the world. It was cool to see so many different denominations (and even a Catholic Church, wow!) there worshiping God, taking communion together and learning how together we can change our communities for the cause of Christ by creating irresistible ministry environments that lead to life-change. Very cool.
You can tell the staff, and in particular Andy, had put a lot of thought, creativity and legwork into this thing. I think Andy's 3 main sessions were some of his best material to date.
Got to hang out with some of the bravest and most inspiring people I know...the 15 other North Point Strategic Partner church plant teams. Love these guys! Always enjoy catchin' up with everyone. Love our team.
My big takeaway from Drive? I'm wrestling hard in my mind with Andy's quote, "To reach people no one else is reaching, we must do things no one else is doing". As a church planter who wants to make a difference in my community and reach people far off from God, I know I have to keep challenging myself to discover and be willing to try new things to accomplish what I've been called to do here in Nashville....lead people into a growing relationship with Jesus Christ.