2007 Pastors' Conference - Denouement

The conference has ended... and now the digesting of what we've received begins. Someone I spoke with at Murrieta described the conference as "drinking from a fire hose." Very good description. But that's why God created DVDs... so that I can unpack the conference over the coming weeks and months.

This has, without question, been the best conference I've been to.

Tom Hough (Calvary Chapel Riverside in Grand Rapids) and I were scheduled to fly back to the Glorious West Coast of Michigan from LAX on the red-eye, so on the way back up I-15 I finally got to stop and partake of the third ordinance the Lord left for His Church - double-double animal style at In-N-Out. Oh, the joy, the unbridled, succulent joy...

Prior to heading up the highway to Los Angeles, however, we spent a few hours at the Barnes & Noble for much-needed Venti Breves at the in-store St. Arbuck's and jump up on wi-fi to check e-mail, upload more pics from the conference, and do some studying for Sunday (we're going to be in the second half of I John 2...) While sipping gingerly on my über-hot breve, and loading in my Jon Courson Application Commentary on the Whole Bible into Libronix, Tom got to speak with and minister to a few people looking for some Bibles, and I briefly got to interact with a young lady who was there doing... something. I never quite got it... I think she was just hanging out. But anyway, the window sign fell on her head, I got it back up, and we were then ready to head out the door... and the Lord impressed on my heart to ask her if there was anything we could pray for her for, and if she would please pray for us for traveling mercies. She seemed understandably taken a bit aback by that... asked us to pray that she "makes it," and promised to pray for us. (I remember from my first pastor's conference that Jon Courson said that he treated the people up there in his neck of the woods as if they already were Christians - so he'd go into for instance the local gas station, and ask the dude behind the counter to pray for him & such, and how that really impacted people; I've always liked that, while also understanding the need to bring the reality of eternity to bear in peoples' lives, which necessitates a clear Gospel presentation. But I've always liked the heart behind Jon's thing there...).

So, long story short, please pray for Miss Unnamed Prayer Request from St. Arbuck's.

The flight was (unsurprisingly) delayed; we got on at almost one a.m. Friday morning LA time... I sat next to a young Hasidic couple who - also unsurprisingly - weren't open to talking. I mean, not at all. I said "Hi!" in my characteristically shy manner, to which I received something just shy of a blank stare... and the whole attempting to interact thing sort of slid sideways from there. ::sigh:: Oh, well...

I can still pray for them, eh?

I didn't get any sleep on the plane (long, boring, and mostly pointless story) ; landed at GR "International" Airport just after 9am Michigan time... and somehow managed to remain awake long enough to make the forty minute drive over to the Lakeshore... and back to my wife. Woke up to the news that one of the key families in the church here have welcomed home their strapping young newborn manchild, so we headed over to congratulate them and drop off a meal prepared for them by another family in the fellowship. Then, when I got home, I discovered that another dude in the fellowship had crawled under our small yet tiny house while I was out in CA and hooked up the power for the dishwasher we'd gotten several months ago (but I hadn't hooked up myself yet because... well... I'm lazy, and I hate bugs) - thanks, Matt!

The people here at CC Lakeshore rock.

Now I'm back home, catching up on e-mails, uploading this blogpost, catching up on my Bloglines feeds (looks like the From the Ashes dudes as well as Mike Newnham have commented on the conference, as well as of course simplemindedpreacher, Chuck Nestor, and Corby of Stephens), watching the latest Stargate SG-1 and Stargate Atlantis episodes before heading off to my first full night's rest in... well, a long time...