Group Conference Wrap Up

The last day and half of the Group Conference rocked, here were my highlights...

* Jeanne let me have the mic for about 15 minutes in one of her sessions to talk about middle school small groups. I felt like I got promoted for a game in the big leagues (especially when Jeanne took me to a gathering of the big dawgs) ... even if just for a few minutes, it was a blast.

* I stopped in at the PDYM gathering to see some old friends and stole some books. Went out with Josh and some other guys afterwards. I know I saw another female start out with us, but it must have been my imagination. It was a little awkward at first being the only female, but the guys were great and the conversations as well.

* Greg Stier is just plan the bomb. He tore it up Sunday night talking about "Challenging Conversations."

* While I had heard of him before, this seventh grade boy named Austin was priceless. He's already helped to build a school and medical clinic in Zambia. He's done more by the age of 13 than most people do in a lifetime. How did he do it you might ask? By creating a fundraising deal called "Hoops for Hope" where you shoot basketballs ... my kind of fundraiser.

* Ok, I can't remember the climber dudes name, but he was incredible. I loved the way they ended the conference this morning with some of his video stuff and reflective questions. It messed me up. It was a nice change from the speaker/worship leader one-two punch. I wonder if they did that every morning? (we were prepping during the morning session for the small group track, so this was the first morning session we hit)

* The interactive clickers used were awesome.

* There were a noticeable lack of laptop computers amongst the audience. What does that mean? During the evening session, Jeanne, Mike, Austin and I looked like freaks among the masses with the glow from the computers on our face.

* We busted it until 3:30 a.m. the day of the conference, then drove 7 hours, to get the DVD small group curriculum there by registration. It was so worth it. We sold 125 of the 140 copies. While we've got a lot of tweaking to do for the next set, I'm grateful Jeanne had buy-in when I pitched the idea to her back in July. My boss/friend is truly amazing, encouraging and empowering. I can't tell you how many times she "lent me her status" this weekend.

* I introduced Andrew to Kurt Johnston and Scott Rubin. I am continually amazed at Kurt and Scott's humility.

* Mike and I had a great ride on the way home. I hit him about five times while we were brainstorming what "our conference will look like one day." Ok, we were dreaming but we had such good ideas that I got overcome with the desire to hit something, so I chose him ... seriously, they were really great ideas.

* Jeanne is so stinkin' brilliant. She had the MC students call/text the people at each of their tables during the first lunch on Saturday. On the ride back, a couple of them texted Mike and thanked him for helping to make the session great. The other cool thing was watching the MC students make the finish line (or in this case starting line) deal where you cheer people on. So many of the youth leaders loved it, they went back out of the room just to re-enter it.