Lessons from Denver

I spent this past week in the Denver area at Group Publishing's headquarters with my buddy Brett, the Middle School Pastor at 12Stone and my boss Shannon. We were hanging at a small conference only a few churches had been invited to. The conference (or should I say round-table discussion) ws moderated by Rick Lawrence, editor of Group Magazine and the Student Pastors from Saddleback Church, Doug Fields and Kurt Johnson.

I had never been to Colorado before. The following items are the Top 15 things I learned this past week.

1. Brett Moore makes me laugh so hard I think I actually busted a blood vessel in my eye. "I love...."

2. Doug Fields and Kurt Johnson are way more down to earth than I expected. I'm not sure why that surprised me.

3. Pastors have the same heart issues for the most part! Longing for more intimacy with Christ. Longing for Christ-centered accountability with other dudes. Longing to spend our lives for the Gospel in healthy ways.

4. Being trapped in conversations where others are talking about nothing more than ministry, numbers, and strategy makes me wanna jump off a building. I fantasize about being a Wal-Mart greeter in those moments.

5. Coors Field in Denver is nowhere near as sharply and technologically pimped out as Turner Field in Atlanta is!!

6. Downtown Denver is the bomb at night. VIVA LA ESPN THE ZONE!!!!!

7. The student ministry dudes from Lancaster County Bible Church in Pennsylvania are some of the coolest dudes I've ever hung out with!! I'm looking you guys up when I'm in Philly next year!!!

8. The Stanley Hotel in Estes Park looks nothing like it did in the movie The Shining!! "All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy."

9. Frontier Airlines needs to get their act together!! 40 minutes on the tarmac with no explanation?! DUDE?!!

10. The words shared with me on the last morning of the conference by a few fellow Student Pastors are words I will never forget. Thanks to my brothers from So-Cal, New Jersey, and Connecticut.

11. The indoor pool at the La Quinta in Loveland, CO is strangely warm. Almost too warm. EEeeeeewwwwww.

12. It's never easy to sleep at night when you have salsa music thumping right outside your window all night and a roomate who is ready to kill the guilty parties.

13. The students who work in the bookstore at the University of Colorado in Boulder are the rudest people I have ever met. I will pray for you.

14. Ernest from Seacoast Church in Charleston, SC is a cool dude. Keep walking with Jesus, my friend.

15. There's no place like home.