- I really enjoyed the Unplugged Conference.
- The tagline was less conference and more conversation. Because of that they limited the attendance to only 50 people.
- It really reminded me in some ways of my days working for Purpose Driven. I always enjoyed speaking to the big crowds that would show up, but 1 or 2 times per year there would be a smaller crowd and by the end you felt like you knew everyone…this was very similar.
- In fact, by the time it was done, I think everyone had a chance to not only spend some time with everyone else, but also time with our two presentors.
- Mark Batterson and Jud Wilhite are two of the greatest leaders in Christianity today and they briefly shared over the two days the 5 biggest challenges that leaders face (Having the Right Motives, Creating and Communicating Vision, Still Having a Personal Life, Being an Effective Leader, Being Creative), before opening it up to Q&A after each session.
- Here’s my top 5 quotes from each:
- Mark:
- Our plans sometimes have to fail in order for God’s plans to succeed.
- God doesn’t reward what we do but the motives behind why we did them.
- Too many times we do ministry out of memory instead of creativity.
- Every “…ology” is a branch of theology because it’s studying what God has created.
- Don’t just be a consumer of culture, ask yourself how God is speaking through it.
- Bonus Deep Thought: Everything says everything about everything.
- Jud:
- Our churches are either battleships manned by people ready to fight the enemy or they are cruiseships where it’s all about my comfort and please feed me.
- Success is the greatest enemy you have of future success.
- You can have either growth or control but you can’t have both.
- Fall in love with the journey, not the summit.
- One problem with the church is that everyone thinks that they are an expert but yet they have never actually led one.
- Bonus Deep Thought: There is no there, there.
- Mark:
- As you can see from the picture, I had a great seat to take it all in.
- The conference itself was held in the basement of the coffee-shop that National Community Church owns.
- The walk back and forth to the hotel was a bear in the heat…especially when I had to lug my laptop and suitcase.
- The coolest part of the conference was on Thursday night when they took us down to the National Mall for a picnic and a Cornhole Tournament. My team got eliminated in the first round…that’s alright it just meant more food was available.
- Afterwards a few of the guys I know and I walked all the way back to the coffee-shop…whew I was soaked, but we arrived just in time to be able to spend about 1 1/2 hours with some of the team from National Community Church.
- I tried to up-date the blog a few times, but so many people were competing for a limited amount of bandwith, that most of the time I couldn’t even get connected. The one time I did, when I hit submit, I lost connection and therefore lost the entire post…ahhhhhhhh!
- All in all it was a great time catching up with some old friends and making some new ones. I was able to wrestle with and get counsel on a lot of things I’m dealing with personally and ministry wise so the time and money spent were well worth it!
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