Today, Jake Beaty, Jaime Salmon, and myself took the time to come to Atlanta a little early for the Catalyst Conference.  The main reason for us to head down this way, was to meet with some folks from NorthPoint Community Church’s Care Department.  We had the priviledge to ask them questions, pick their brain, and see some of the struggles they faced as they began to minister at many different locations.  Of course, this is something that we at NewSpring Church are continuing to work through with our Greenville site up and running and with the outlook of Florence and many other campuses to come.

It was a great meeting and I still need to process some of the things that were said, so hopefully in the next couple of days I will be able to write about some of those things amidst all the information that I am going to receive in the next two days while being at the conference.  I have been looking forward to meeting with them and learning and also learning from the many different speakers at the conference.

Thursday was an AMAZING day! So many things happened, that almost seems like a huge blur, but here are some of hte highlights of my day:

• The volunteers of NewSpring knocked it out of the park.  We had close to 450 volunteers there to serve the over 2000 church leaders attending Unleash. They did an amazing job of making everyone feel welcome, cared for, and important!
• Got to reconnect with some old and new friends from Florence.
• Main Session #1 with Perry was amazing. Check out Tony’s notes here.
• The Student Ministry Breakout was SLAMMED in the first time slot.  It was good being able to talk about some of the practical things that help shape our ministry.
• Chic-Fil-a for lunch is ALWAYS a good thing, but even better when you can network with a bunch of cool people
• Second Breakout was just as slammed.  It was good doing the breakout twice because the questions we received from the group were different. I always love getting questions because it makes you stretch and be able to flesh out every part of your ministry!
• Once again Perry knocked it out of the park in Session #2. Check out Tony’s notes here.

I am going to be posting some of the websites of the Student Pastors that I connected with in the next couple of days.  be sure to check out some of the things that they are doing!

Are any of you out there attending UNLEASH? Are any of you out there Student Ministry Peeps and attending UNLEASH? You could be the High School Pastor, Middle School Pastor, Volunteer Youth Pastor, Part-Time Youth Pastor (PT…Yeah right!), maybe just a volunteer that loves students…if this is you…let me know that you are going to be here. I would love the opportunity to meet you and also see you at the Student Ministry Breakout.

Also, if you are planning on attending…think about this question: What are some questions or topics that you would really like to see covered in our breakout? Maybe it is how to care for volunteers, service related, message preparation, campus visits, small groups, parent involvement, whatever. Do not hold anything back, ask anything! We want to make this as practical as possible! So if you have a question, leave a comment or you can feel free to go to my contact page and send it in.

Look forward to hearing from you and seeing you at the conference on Thursday, March 13th!!

Yesterday, Brad and I got to start the morning off by hanging out with Dave Holt from Lifepoint Church in Wilmington, NC. It was an awesome time to just hang out with him and he asked a bunch of questions.  The worst part of the meeting was that we only got to spend an hour with him.  I was looking forward to asking him some questions and hear about some of the things that are happening in their neck of the woods.  He told me he was going to be back for UNLEASH in March, so maybe I will be able to catch up with him during that time! Let me know Dave!
I always enjoy getting to hang out with other student ministry peeps from other churches.  Each time I get asked a question, it ALWAYS challenges me.  It challenges me to fully know what I believe in, what I think, and why we do what we do.

After hanging out with Dave, I can say a couple of things:

• Dave has a heart for JESUS,
• Dave has a heart for students,
• Dave has a heart for the local church,
• Students of Wilmington, NC will be impacted,
• Lifepoint has a great guy leading their student ministry,
• Lifepoint is going to grow and they will grow fast!

Dave, thanks for the opportunity to hang out with you and get to know you!  Look forward to hanging out with you in March and some other times in the future!

Today, I had the privilege to have lunch with Dustin Hughes, the Student Pastor at Crossroads Community Church in Simpsonville, SC. It was a great time to talk life, family, and ministry. The great thing about the “ministry” part was that it was NOT just about numbers or the biggest event we’ve held. It was all about how to help each other, encourage one another, share frustrations, etc. In my opinion, that is what we need to be doing when we network with each other. We need to feel open enough to talk life and not just ministry.

Here is a great idea, the next time you try networking with someone do talk ministry, but not ministry in the traditional sense, ministry in the “personal” sense. Ask them how they are doing spiritually, ask them what books they are reading, ask them how they are taking care of their family. If they are doing those things well, then take that and learn from them. But in asking those questions ask in an attitude of humility and a sincere desire to learn, not a desire to hold some accountable or LORD over them so to speak.

Let’s learn from each other. Not just the latest fads or tools in ministry, but learn from our lives as well. I believe that if we focus on learning from our lives then it becomes real and the world needs more REALNESS and less tools and gimmicks.

I remember back in December at the National Youth Workers Convention, Kurt Johnston, the Middle School Pastor at Saddleback Church in California, was very gracious and allowed me to sit down and ask him questions about ministry. All my questions were asked in a desire to learn from someone who had maintained longevity and integrity in the ministry. I did not ask him,

• How many students are you averaging?
• How can I build a ministry that will be just like yours?
• How can I become a nationally known student pastor like you?

I asked him questions such as:

• How do you balance the time with your family and ministry?
• How do you balance spending time with your staff, leaders, and students?
• What advice would you give to someone just starting out in Middle School Ministry?

Let us have a desire to network, but do that with a sincere desire to learn from people’s lives and not just thier professional ministries. Trust me, when we do this we will all be more “successful” in the eyes of Jesus, the one we are ministering for anyway!

Dustin, it was refreshing to sit and talk “ministry” with you today! I will be praying for you, your family, and your ministry. Follow Jesus and do all that he tells you to do! Follow the VISION! You rock dude!

Today was AWESOME! I witnessed so much today that blessed my heart and continued to build my passion for Jesus and the local church. here are a couple of my thoughts from today:

• Perry rocked in out in both main sessions.
• Tony Morgan has posted all of the points from both sessions, so check out his detailed notes over at his blog on Session 1 and Session 2. **You will get a kick out of some of the comments rolling around over there.**
• It was great to be able to speak to so many student pastors from all over the country and see the passion they had to reach the students in their community. They asked some great questions during the breakout that Brad Cooper and I led.
• I look forward to hanging out with some Student pastors from NorthPoint Community Church, Elevation Church, Brookwood Church, Ridgestone Church, Crossroads Community Church, and many others to continue to network and learn from each other!
• NewSpring Volunteers ROCK! Our volunteers rocked the house today. One frequent conference attender told me that our volunteers showed more excitement, willingness to serve, and professionalism than he has ever seen at any other conference! GO NEWSPRING VOLUNTEERS!!
• I love the staff I work with! the NewSpring Staff is AWESOME!! Everyone worked hard this week to make it happen. “Teamwork makes the dreamwork!”
• Lastly, I look forward to hear some of the things that God is going to do in the lives of some of the churches that attended Unleash. It is going to be amazing!

I just got back from eating lunch with Preston Porter and his wife, along with Pudge. I thoroughly enjoyed being able to talk with him, ask him questions, he ask me questions. I love being asked questions about why we do what we do , because it always helps me continue to evaluate in my mind those same questions.

By the way, speaking of questions. That will be format for the Unleash Conference here at NewSpring Church. We have over 700 people signed up! It is going to be awesome. The breakout sessions will be in Question and Answer format. You ask questions, we will do our best to answer…by the way…by no means do we have all the answers, but we do know what God has done here at NewSpring and would love to share it with you. So, sign up…today…now! See you there!