Hit the Back Button to Move Fwd by Gavin Richardson

planning for green

it seems that going green is the "in" thing. with nbc's green campaign for a week to all the building marketing products. green is the new thing & it will be big business.

for our family erin & i have been talking and planning how we can best be stewards of resources and do our part to reduce our global footprint. we hope this will be something that we can impress upon our children as part of our family teachings. what we are finding is that one needs to really plan out for some of these changes, cause going green is expensive! those bulbs are expensive (though i know the say they last forever). our little township on the outskirts of nashville doesn't work the same trash & recycling, so we have to contract our own. today i am hanging out at the house as our latest attempt at downgrading our household impact. we are getting a new child tank-less hot water heater (pictured). the energy savings is pretty dramatic (though our simple house did not use too much to begin with) and the promise of hot-water in all circumstances is pretty cool for me (the traditional second shower in the house). the cost though is intense. it is the average price for having a small child. so if you are planning on being a green household, i would encourage you to start planning, financially it is a tough one.

the prodigal blogger returns!

after many conversations jonathon norman of the phaith of st. phransus has resurged into the blogosphere as "the bard of burlesque." he has been talking about this new resurgence for months. i guess our hanging out last night was enough of an inspiration to move off the ranks of ex-blogger to current blogger. i forgot, so i had to ask.. why the bard of burlesque?

the bard was for ancient celtic culture the prophet/truth teller, but did so through prose.  poetry and irony can help us see things sometimes that we wouldn't normally see.

to warn, this bard persona of jonathon is much edgier putting shots across the bow of the church. truth telling, but shots none the less. like any other prophet he closes his message with a poem. how sweet.

evil knievel dies @ 69

evil knievel died today at the age of 69. an odd american icon to say the least. he had his critics and fans, but for me, as a child growing up he was some macho persona that surrounded me. big wheels and childhood mimic of stunts. the oddest memory i have of evil's legacy was this rocket ship powered toothbrush. the ramp was the brush stand and the rocket ship was the mechanic brush. my brother had one too. so i guess we were macho when we brushed out teeth. what are your memories of the daredevil?

debate my way

i am all about the set up format for the latest youtube republican debate. broken down over questions, i can catch up with it when i want. it's political debate my way.. so consumerist of me.

the tale of supply side jesus

this is just eerie, partly because some of the "teachings" one knows to be wrong, but they sound so common in our marketplace for faith. tip to john who stole from richard

the church sign is at it again

in my ongoing saga with the church sign down the road. this is the latest version of ugh cliche theology that i have to look at.

i want to accept this as one of those comfort statements people give "God doesn't give you more than you can handle" type deals. the problem.. this sign does not imply that for me. to me this is like the firefighter that sets fires so that they can go and put the fire out & be the hero (or just get their rocks off). some other quick thoughts...

• "God sends us the storms".. by storms, are you referring to personal trials? those things in your life that cause havoc? or by storms, are you referring to actual storms? much like a well heard pastor. if you are making that reference then what is the storm that people think of immediately? other storms that come to mind are tornado's. so are we saying that God "sends," insinuating intentionality, hurtful stuff that is seemingly random to our doorsteps.
• "to prove" does God really have to prove anything? why is it that people feel God is bent on being known by everyone. i get the great commission, but that says nothing about 'proving' God to others.
• "that he is the only shelter".. i could get nit picky on the 'he' reference, but that is more silly than constructive. if we come back to the storms, whatever they are.. how is God the shelter? is he a comforter, i could get behind that. but when you talk of storms, and storms where people have actually lost their shelters, does that help someone to say 'God is your shelter' oh, and he sent the storm that took your comfort/safety/peace so that you know that..

an evening with unruly children

  shane & gangsta jonathon 
  Originally uploaded by gavoweb.

tonight was a fun treat. i got to hang with some of my favorite ex-bloggers. at the table: shane raynor of wesleyblog fame (he's got domain issues at the moment), cole wakefield of christian dissent, my bud jonathon of stphransus, and me (not quite the ex-blogger). i have referred to this grouping as the church's "unruly children."

we talked about all kinds of things, old early methoblogosphere experiences, current church issues, some possible new collaboration projects (which one i am pretty stoked to see if we can pull off), methodist publishing, and porn (sorta, not really). mostly though, we shared stories that are happening in our ministry lives.

shane & jonathon really got into it. shane has found a calling to his inner city church in austin where he has spent the last few years immersing himself into the relationship and discipleship of many of the inner city teens. this was why he stopped blogging, which i totally supported and God has really blessed the ministry he faithfully follows. he has some just fabulous stories. jonathon has started a new venture working with troubled teens in the nashville area. he just started this so he doesn't have as many cool stories as shane.

cole and i would make our sarcastic comments to fit into the conversation. actually, we had our own credible contributions. it was great fun. i had our gangsta ministers pose for this pic with the lifeway building in the background.

does "emergent" still fit

andrew is asking the question. does emerging or emergent church still fit? some people say it doesn't and the criticism and resources don't fit.. the non-defining of the church doesn't help either.. what are your thoughts? does the terminology still work for you?

the best of the badass bible

what happens when 300 meets the bible.. well, thanks to phil (who has become my source for all things hilarious on the internet) and the folks at cracked.com. i now have a reference for the top 9 most badass bible verses. word of caution, with the commentary in tow, this post is pg-13 for some strong language and adult sexual material.. funny, the adult sexual material comes from the bible though.

i think my favorite badass verse is #2. part of the commentary goes like such (approved for general audiences)

... Then killed a thousand men with it. A thousand.

What should be emphasized in this story was the bravery of the Philistine soldiers, specifically the ones in the back who kept charging even after seeing 700 or so of their comrades go down with shattered skulls. We're talking about guys who probably climbed over a pile of bodies 15-feet high to get to him.

ninja wednesday..

why not.. i haven't had ninja fun in quite awhile.

Ninja Parade Slips Through Town Unnoticed Once Again

virtual theft not so virtual stress

a new stress for kids? at first i thought this would be an onion article, but apparently there is some truth to kids getting stressed out over people stealing their virtual world virtual stuff..

wife blog on linking

erin has, over time, gotten into reading a few blogs. some are for her enjoyment, some are for business interests, and then this one . she probably reads this one so that she can correct my grammar or understand the depths of my soul, not sure which one yet.

one of her blogs that she keeps up with now is penelope trunk, who we heard of for the first time at barcamp nashville. sometimes erin likes her advice, sometimes she knows that she is just stirring the pot, other times it more of a "what'd you think of that one?" her most recent post was a "is this for real?" kinda of questioning on proper blog post linking.

i liked the breakdown, some i do here, some i've tried, some i have never even thought of. the one that got me ranting to erin was the hat tip link (which sorta surprised me). i see so many posts out in the blog world that generate the same content within hours or days (that are linked by at least one of my networks so it is not unrealistic to assume one read the other as i did) and people never give a tip for finding an article/video, stemming a thought.. to me that is just bad form. it isn't painful & people appreciate the respect that you give for the original linking & are more likely to give you traffic back.

there i go again ranting

update: seems the original post is taken down. i have the post in draft form to expand on it a little more later if it doesn't return. for now, just go with my rant. &:~)

more on church signs

joel @ crummy church signs has posted about mine & a few other church signs. thanks for the link brother.

i had mentioned to him another sign that was featured around our fine town. he had already heard of it, days later i noticed one of our youth kids had a pic of the sign posted on her myspace. so i stole it & i'm sharing it with the rest of you, my blogging community.

lights out for darfur

admittedly, i am not the aficionado of all things darfur. though i have brought some thoughts to this here blog in the past. i am contemplating, and you should too, this campaign of "dark for darfur." our house only could manage two strings of lights around our front door last year, so the energy impact was not that grand, but i expect our house to talk up ways to make a donation over our decoration. tip to the friends at cool people care for highlighting it in todays 5 minutes of caring.

a prayer or two

my head is just swirling today.. some personal some professional. some not so good, some quite good. i am trying to just piece together some semblance of a productive day while i deal. if you, my friends, wouldn't mind throwing a prayer my way for my petty request. i would appreciate it. shalom, -gav

a thing called the iron bowl

seems the painting party is coming to a close. so we settle in and get ready for "the iron bowl" this annual battle of auburn university & university of alabama. it is a family battle as half of the richardson extended family is auburn fans, or president. unfortunately, the historic battle that is happening on the field will not be the story.. the networks are sure to talk of my coaches latest comments.

in case you didn't hear. after our latest loss, to a very lesser opponent, he stated that the loss was catastrophic and after every catastrophe there are grand changes. he then went on to suggest that this happened after Sept. 11th and Pearl Harbor. the news jumped on this saying, 'how could he say a football game is equal to these events.' i never saw that he was doing that, but i am not the media. that media gets to make the news lines going into the game.

glen has some fun take on all this & mcb.

my 2 cents..

when i first heard the comments by my university coach i thought.. technically he is right, catastrophic events always end in some major changes. i never thought he was saying that football was the same as the two analogies he was using.

still, i wasn’t too pleased a few years ago when kellen winslow jr. ranted over how he was a soldier.

maybe they are the same, and i should feel pissed. i just don’t.

we have a ego maniac for a coach, so does half the ncaa football programs out there. mine just gets paid the most.

roll tide!

paint party!

today marks day two of the richardson's paint party. if you wanna come visit and join in you are most welcome! provided is food drink and your own brush or roller. &:~D

updated: while i take a break i thought i'd share the colors that we are painting that i didn't pick. oat, green tea, hazel, cafe & i think one other. i have also realized how dusty our trim is.

the best of humanness

i had heard of the accident last spring. i heard of the subsequent story that followed... and this may be the best side of humanness i've seen in a long time

what do i do with this?

i have met ariah a few times at the cohort and we've done the blogging buddies for a while. i love his convictions and am challenged by them. so it is not surprising to me to find him pulling out something on thanksgiving day that has me saying "what do i do with this?"

youtube thanksgiving

when tv becomes boring, some youtube thanksgiving

• mark driscoll takes on joel osteen
• sistasmiff pulls out some classic neil diamond!
• an excellent scene from the youth workers convention
• classic thanksgiving dinner charlie chaplin style
• mister t props world of warcraft, pitty tha fool!
• take time to think of the culture of excess
• top ten dunks of all time
• get the trunk monkey for your car
• kid does funny scene from school of rock

check your brain before going to church

erin caught up on this moment of asbo jesus, which i somehow missed.

the idea of people checking their brains before going to church reminded me of this derek webb song.

come together right now

love cartoonchurch

if i were the anti-christ

phil drops me links at least once a week. this week it is some guys take on how he would be the anti-christ after the rapture. it's funny..

Because if I was the anti-Christ that is what I'd do. I'd change my name to Bob Smith and fight the battle in Bosie, Idaho. I'd try to mix it up a bit. Throw Jesus a curve ball. In fact, I'd actually be Dr. Bob Smith.  Because I'd have gotten my Ph.D. in New Testament apocalyptic literature.

i think i'd fight in montana or north dakota. who wants to trek up there for the apocalypse fight.

view of young people

yup, looks like my youth group. tip asbo jesus

he is kinda young to be president

this was just too funny.. especially if you know the background. tip mcb

to all you comment trolls

to all you comment trolls, not that i know of any in this space. we know why you do it.

i am the prayer, how bout you

a few years ago at the new family's business Christmas party i was asked to lead the prayer. fitting given my chosen vocation i get asked to lead public faith practices every now and then. after that, my bro & sister in-law joked that i am "the family pray-er." it's the joke, but it is also the truth.

for my own family we make my dad do the prayin and then proceed to poke fun at him for his repetitive phrasing and method to his prayers. it has been the same prayer since our childhood (some changes due to us all getting older).

so in lie of the upcoming holidays, do you have an assigned prayer? is there a fun story behind that?

doesn't work for me

in our old school neighborhood we are just a few blocks away from a cluster of churches and daily erin & drive by them. one church actively sends messages over it's church signs. being down the street i drive by a few times a day. some signs i like, some are more information, some celebratory (someone got baptized), some cliche, some are annoying, some make no sense to me.. the most recent one makes me ill.

since i was away with the youth workers convention i missed when they actually put this one up. so i saw it yesterday morning when i headed off to church. it made me so ill, i decided to take a picture and stew over it. healthy practice, i know.

instead of a doctorate thesis, i give you the cliff notes of why this particular one makes me ill.

• "God grants liberty".. now this could be a semantics thing, but within the context of the greater quote. the liberty spoken of is an american democracy concept. before that though, God grants freedom and life through Christ, God blesses, but there is no mention of "liberty" especially the liberty eluded to in this quotation. God works through the individual, where they may be given liberty from a sin or hindrance, but as a nation..?
• "to those who love it".. i will be the first to say that i love the liberties and blessings this country avails me to. however, this liberty is a nation state concept, not a God concept. i do believe the great commission is to make believers of all nations, not nations of believers.. big difference. plus, does my love of liberty (or democracy) become idol in nature, something i am worthy to die over versus the call of God?
• "are always ready to guard and defend it".. this brings about so many conflicts. yes i wish we could live with Christ centered pacifism, but that is problematic for me. a defense or a "just war" understanding i can get behind. but who is the decider of when we need to "guard" or "defend?" certainly not me. why do we need to be "always on guard.. ?" does not that constitute that someone is going to steal away our stuff? doesn't Christ call us to live in the world, but not of the world? being of the world (american context) is one where we collect and protect stuff. we do not fight to protect God, we fight for american democracy & american interests. let's be honest with that, it is okay, but do not coat it with some other cover so people feel our defense is God anointed. this is also not to say that individual soldiers cannot be found doing the work of God, but as a whole

you can tell a lot about a church from their sign. i am hoping these folks feel inclined to change this one sometime soon. i am going to be home much of this week with the holiday and hope to not see it every time i leave or come back to the neighborhood.

great 24 hours, long 24 hours

  covenant band 
  Originally uploaded by hfumcyouth

so in the past 24 hours, i left what seemed like a week long event in the nywc. it actually can be around 5 days, but i was only there two. it seemed like forever with all that would be contained in a day. i gave jason the lift home since his pickle hit a deer & getting it better has proved more time consuming than first thought. that was excellent to trade childhood stories, process some of the convention, talk about whatever stemmed from those topics.

i got home around 9:30 or 10pm, so i missed out on getting with the youth praise team's saturday run through for this mornings services. my job was the visuals & the big change for this service was to finally get a way to do two screens off one monitor. we'd tried a couple of different hookups in prior weeks. this one i was anticipating a vga splitter to come in the mail. it hadn't come by the time i left for convention, so i hoped it would come in while i was gone.. the hope after that is that i could find it somewhere in the church.

after staying up way to late working on the song set in opensong and liveworship, plus some blogging as my mind tangented. i was off to bed only to wake a few hours after to get to the church by 7am to get set up. for some reason there are around 25 people who show up and sit down in the sanctuary 30 to 40 minutes before the 8:15 morning service. not sure why... seems so odd to me. my hope was to get set up before they got there. that didn't happen, it took me a quite a bit of time to find our super important splitter cable. i wondered if it made it, worried it didn't (actually panic'). i hate for folks to complain about stuff and the usual complaint is "we couldn't see the words." to remedy that we have to do the piecemeal thing (using a projector from the youth and one from the children). got all the things in place and just minutes before worship needed to start all things clicked and we got our images.. "there was much rejoicing"

for those not familiar, opensong is an open source song show software. it is pretty basic, not as flashy as the pro products, but it is free and easy to use. i tried to use liveworship, but for some reason it wouldn't take with my macbook. i was hoping to use the split screen option and some of the perks. i like the intuitiveness of the software, really easy to use, just can't get it it to jive with my macbook. maybe one of my new buddies can impart wisdom.

once that stress was done. the rest of worship was just awesome. travis, one of our youth ministers of the church, has taken the praise team to a whole new level of musicianship and still helps them to maintain a posture of worship. it is the first time in my tenure that the youth have served in all three services in this capacity. the music was all contemporary, with one hymn exception. not all our normal stuff but due to the theme from the scripture for the day, we had to find elements that kept continuity.

our work payed off as people seemed to really get the message with the worship. many compliments from the parishioners which is always affirming. packed up and onto our newcomer luncheon where we did some introduction stuff and other odd things. jetted home to get a little of a nap, not enough of a nap. then back to church for youth gathering. we had planned for our fall bonfire, but with the massive rain over the few days this week our bonfire area washed out and we couldn't get it set up for today. so, we put on a video loop bonfire and cooked our normal food then spent an evening of sardines. sardines means our leadership gets a little break from discussion and small group responsibilities. the only requirement, walk around in the dark, scare a few kids, and act like you are trying to find the hiding kids.

bloggers versus journalists

bloggers vs journalists, um style. rather spicy.

let it be said here now.. i do not claim to be a news service, unless that news is of me. what i had for dinner, how i stubbed my toe, etc. that is news i can speak too. so that magazine (which shall remain nameless, cough methodist men) that published some email forward that came off my blog and got me in trouble with garrison keillor's entourage, any ounce of research, fact checking, would let you know that i am not a credible "news" source. unless you like to get me in trouble, do something that is fun like "john wesley liberace"

revisit: as this posting has spread around. let me suggest this. that bloggers/blogging is equal to an opinionated column. to represent themselves as a news site is bogus. when it comes to robin bringing this out, she is a journalist who is quite nice, we have talked in the past for some articles. this particular posting was her opinion on being part of the blogosphere and a journalist & conflicts seen from there.

hey you!

hey you from indiana wesleyan university! thanks for checking out 44 pages in your visit to this blog, that most certainly has to be a record. next time though you are looking for "youth group prayer room" feel free to email me after 25 page views.. it would probably be easier for you & i really enjoy helping others with stuff like that

nywc atlanta : fellow morning pilgrims

my third day of pilgrimage started off with hanging out with fellow pilgrims.

while the rest of the convention folks were sleeping or attending seminars. i had a fab breakfast with natalie. many blogger folks might remember her from a post she threw out there last year about why she gave up on youth group. we were part of some of the same networks and struck up a fun friendship before that blogger celebrity and after. we actually got to meet for the first time this summer and finding out that her university was just down the road from my hotel (atlanta driving speak for 15 minute drive) we had to catch up. met up at a cool little spot for breakfast. i had carmalized banana pancakes.. yummie! talked college, church, life, stories, mutual friends and theology. sorely missed was revmom, who on this saturday was busyrevmom. there will be a next time, i have gleaned some understandings of atlanta traffic and will be more apt to make a 2nd pilgrimage.

upon arriving to the convention center i pushed through a haze of shiny sequins, bright colors, belly buttons, and funny eyes to get to a quiet room. there i met up with mike king. we were supposed to catch up yesterday for an interview, but today worked out and i am glad it did. we both think we have met before, but no clear picture of that emerged. we spent time together talking youth ministry, wesleyan practice, youth front, our own spiritual practices, and some blog stuff. as we sat together i felt i was hanging with a friend. we have some similar paths in our past & some veeery different paths, but i see us finding our way on very much the same pilgrimage now. i love what mike represents for himself, humility, honesty, and deep thought. i love how he has challenged his ministry world and brought about change. that is gutsy. shows an incredible amount of confidence in God's movements in one's life and ministry. look for our conversation to end up in a future episode of the youthworker movement podcast.

i now proclaim myself a member of the mike king fan club. i look forward to catching up again and maybe taking a little pilgrimage to his little monastery called a youth front.

nywc atlanta : pilgrimage day three

  the YMX 'ers 
  Originally uploaded by gavoweb.

i wandered the expo area today. got some swag, though minimal at best. ran into some fab people. let someone give me a sales pitch because they asked if i would humor their lame sales pitch. i agreed because it made me laugh. they tried another joke saying they always forget to mention something like "free." i made them stop and tell me honestly if they actually do forget. they agreed they don't.. so i told them they could continue pitching me for being honest. ah, sarcastic fun.

was glad to stumble onto the ymx folks. i joined ymx way back when the site first started up. it is not one of my primary communities, but i really appreciate & enjoy the work they do plus the quality of work continues to impress. surprising they actually knew me, or my name atleast (such is cyber world). then we had funny and awkward exchange about wearing unnecessarily tight t-shirts and womens jeans on guys.

nywc atlanta : pilgrimage day two

it's late. i've got some sleep to catch up on (didn't sleep much last night). here is the cliff notes from today.

• see my nywc pilgrimage photos.. i got kinda silly with some
• don't forget my twittering.. this is kinda cool for something like this
• interviews with mark yaconelli & jeannie oestreicher were a lot of fun. have more folks to meet with tomorrow. my fav parts, telling mark i wasted money on the cd's for his critical concern courses on spirituality cause they are all basically silent. asking jeannie if she is jealous of her husbands flowing blond locks of hair?.. all got good laughs
• i hooked up with jim's wife.. don't worry jim, she's an honorable woman. we talked about this emerging young adult/youth ministry that has become a homeless ministry. super cool!
• people stare at you when you have microphones on a table.. is it really that unusual to see?
• ran into more friends.. old, new, and in between. with some, had a great conversation about spreading the retreat experiment our community tried last fall. excited to imagine others doing similar
• general session 2. joe castillo (the sand artist) is truly unique and very cool. what a gift, what a vision, what an imagination what a way to share. shane really did do that! i heard the best sermon eva! with some fire breathing thrown in for kicks. shane claiborne, gets up, breathes fire, back flip.. reads the whole sermon on the mount, all of it.. (is he going to stop here? he smiled, does he like that part? is it still going? this sermon is like 15 minutes long.. uh... this seat is hard.. what is that about pagans? ).. closes with "i hope it was the best sermon you ever heard" or something similar. and walks off.. what do we do with that? i loved it.. still don't know what to do with it, but i loved it.
• vespers service.. just what i needed to end a day.

Almighty God, my heavenly Father: I have sinned against you, through my own fault, in thought, and word, and deed, in what I have done and what I have left undone. For the sake of your Son our Lord Jesus Christ, forgive me all my offenses; and grant that I may serve you in newness of life, to the glory of your Name.

Watch, o' Lord, with those who wake, or watch, or weep tonight, and give Yourangels and saints charge over those who sleep. Tend your sick ones, O Lord Christ. Rest Your weary ones. Bless Your dying ones. Soothe Your suffering ones. Shield Your joyous ones, and all for Your love's sake. Amen.

nywc atlanta : shameless plugs

for those of you, my fellow youth ministers at the national youth workers convention. entertain my shameless plugs.

• pickup a copy of the "the way of pilgrimage" a sorta new, but not mainstreamed, small group resource for older youth & college age. look at the endorsements we got. check the upperroom booth, behind interlinc
• grab yourself a copy of my cdrom project "worship feast : prayer stations" it's like fifteen bucks, has some packaged prayer station ideas, plus alterations, also has cool original music. can't beat the price. this is in the abingdon booth, which i think is in the same booth as the upperroom, you could call it shared space... for stopping by, i direct you to my index page of prayer station ideas and resources i have blogged about over the years
• subscribe to the podcast i am putting together for youthworkermovement.org. subscribe via itunes. if you are of the wesleyan tradition, then you should go ahead and subscribe to the youthworkermovement. i am basically here to interview folks for future episodes. still starting up, but i think you consider it worth your time.
• tell the upperroom and abingdon folks how awesome you think the stuff i have helped with are. that way i can get some more work, send my future children to college.

nywc atlanta : pilgrimage day one

i am here.. been here actually.

somewhere last night when i got home from church just close to 10pm, hadn't packed a thing, hadn't cleaned the car i decided that i wasn't going to rush down here. i am not sure why i was in the first place. if you followed my twitter posts, which i was doing (and will continue to do) via txt message, there was a stop by the dentist, a lame lunch from arby's, a few hours at sewanee & monteagle, then met up with mike at the 296 waffle house.. the cell phone went dead shortly after that.

we finally got to the gwcc. i had been traveling for about eight hours, which was cool. i wanted to do the exploring thing. if i could have i would have stopped by rock city just for kicks. it was starting to get dark when i got to chattanooga so i passed on that one. mike & i got separated in atlanta traffic. mostly due to, what i think was, a hawks game. still, atlanta is not the most intuitive driving city.. there is a bunch of construction stuff happening too that doesn't help. we found our way to the same parking garage, but still couldn't find each other. i blame mike for that one.

everything was over and the expo area was closing soon. the only reason to get there was to meet up with our friends at upperroom/abingdon/youthworkermovement. like it is with an event like this (and pretty much why i enjoy coming) is that you have run ins with folks you didn't expect to see. first off was eli. i was wondering if there was an overlook area of the expo to get a picture to show the craziness that it can be. i saw this guy who looked vaguely familiar at a table top working on a laptop. at first glance it looked like he might have been working on blogger (such a nerd to recognize that). i say something to the effect of "there's someone blogging" (confirmed by his account). take a couple of pictures and then go over to talk to blogger person. turns out it is eli, fellow blogger and twitter person. actually, he's the reason i thought to twitter this, cause i saw him mention it. we chatted, took the proverbial blogger picture, talked wi-fi in the gwcc and headed off. met up with charity, our wonderful interlinc person. hugs and pleasantries around then we found our destination peeps. then we all got kicked out of the convention center.

other peeps, met a fun fella from saint petersburg in the mass of people walking out the convention center. for the life of me i can't remember his name, started with an "l." he's a trevecca grad, so we talked nashville stuff. good guy. then someone asked me directions to get somewhere.. i laughed, not at them, but because i thought it funny, i hadn't a clue as to where the mass of people were going. chatted a bit, then she turned around and went another direction. smart not to follow me.

evening dinner at ted's. i'll have to figure out the link to give credit, but someone i don't know in our group bought dinner. thanks!

ran into eli again, this time i think he had his wife. talked up a dude at the bar about the football game, apparently ryan leaf's little brother made it into the football game (which is crazy to me that oregon lost).

tucked away in the room now.

top highlights!

• afternoon prayers at sewanee chapel
• exit 296 waffle house
• having the first person i meet be a fellow blogger
• someone buying dinner

check out my updating flickr set : nywc07 pilgrimage

it is about the writers

phil sent me this link. apparently our entertainment is about the writers. a daily show psuedo spoof is quite funny. notice the youtube removal spot, i've never seen that before.

follow my twitter

a couple of guys going to the youth workers convention are twittering. i have never made too much use of twitter. got a bit more familiar with it at barcamp and that was fun, so i am going to be one of the folks twittering the convention. i've set up the mobile posting thing, so my twitter will probably be more of a stream of consciousness versus notes and reflections here.

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nywc : here i come

for the remainder of the day i will be doing my job.. and preparing to head to atlanta for the national youth workers convention by youth specialties. i am going as guest of youth worker movement, an organization to help youth leaders in the wesleyan traditions connect and resource for best practice youth ministry. i will be putting together some interviews with folks for the podcast that my buddy and jonathon have started doing. jonathon won't be with us, so i will probably be podcasting with my travel partners jason & mike.

things i am looking forward too..

• chilling out with new youth ministry friends, love front line practitioners
• catching back up with mark yaconelli
• sitting down with mike king
• talking prayer & spiritual formation with jeannie oestreicher
• interviewing mark riddle
• doing some hang out with natalie
• hopefully catching up with some atlanta based personal friends
• maybe seeing one or two general sessions
• stalking anna, our joke, talking tennessee youth ministry collaboration
• reading different blogger takes on the conference

things not looking forward too..

• not having my conference buddy will there, we always seem to just hang out at youth conference though we both live around nashville
• atlanta traffic
• not doing the creative stuff with lilly again.
• the abyss that is the expo or vendors floor.. that place is crazy!

oh, the church news

is is funny how the church always makes news.. especially the manner.

• a youth leader wins a startup contest by developing a youth hangout site.
• amazed that daily there is a story about a youth leader and some in-propriety.
• mark "the tool" tooley is bitching again about the methodist church leadership..
• westboro "baptist church" is looking to the supreme court to help them out in their latest lawsuit loss.
• churches, be nice to your dying, if you want them to remember you in their will
• ordained women out number ordained men in the anglican church
• give me back my russian churches!
• you can come be a united methodist church, we welcome gays.. at least for now