Category: God

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Blogging God People

Exponential Conference Orlando Tossed Salad

DAY 1 – Tuesday April 22ND 2008

1. This is the first of three editions in a row of the ‘Exponential Conference Orlando Tossed Salad’ – one edition for each day of the conference. These ‘Tossed Salads’ are being written more than two days after the fact based on my personal recollection of the events that were experienced and the material that was presented with strong support via a whole bunch of crib notes written shorthand style on three full sheets of letter-size scrap paper. I’m not one of those instant laptop notetakers that can type all of his or her notes just as fast as the speaker can speak it and then instantly publish it into a blog for the entire world to see. No offense to anyone who has that wonderful skill. I’m actually envious of those of you that can do that – such as my own Lead Pastor !  You’ll have to check out his blog if you wish to read his ultra-descriptive notes from the conference. Give yourself a good hour to read through all of it. You’ll feel like YOU ARE THERE !

2.  The First Baptist Church Orlando hosted the conference, and their sanctuary is MASSIVE. Anne J. inadvertantly referred to it as a ‘convention center’, but that’s pretty much what it was in this particular type of setting. I know that it’s the largest church sanctuary that I’ve ever been in that wasn’t at the Vatican. I’m sure that there are countless others here in the U.S. that are much bigger than this one, but you’ve got to remember that I was saved just 20 months ago, and I went more than 30 years before I walked into a place of worship for the first time as an adult (in January 2007). The experience of being 1 of about 2,800 in attendance praising and worshiping Him in unison to a LIVE rock band is an experience that will forever remain in my mind as one of the most awesome ‘rock show’ experiences in my entire Life.

3.  Church planting is an extreme team sport that is the greatest work on the planet in that we link together human lives. We obviously have plenty of church planters. 2,800 of us were in attendance at the conference. Now we need the movement to occur. We need churches to plant. We need to be more kingdom oriented. We need the kingdom of multiplication to spread. We need the kingdom to be exponential.

4.  Because of their ‘thinking-outside-of-the-box’ innovation smaller churches are more likely to plant spinoff churches than bigger (mega) churches. The fact of the matter is that churches should actually be born ‘pregnant’. Non-denominational local neighbourhood churches make the best plants. More unchurched people would go to church if there were a church that was conveniently located just around the corner right there in their own neighbourhood. Healthy church plants include a durable and dependable support network. It should really be within the DNA of every church to be alive and be able to multiply. If we can successfully reproduce disciples and leaders then we can successfully reproduce churches.

5.  I’ve been a fan of Chris Elrod‘s blog for quite awhile now, and he himself co-hosted a breakout session on blogging with Todd Rhoades and Scott Hodge. (I added Scott to my Blogroll a couple of days ago, and I just added Todd’s ‘Monday Morning Insight’ to it.) A blog is essentially an electronic extension of the person that is writing it. People all over the world will know you through your blog even though they have never met you in person. As a blogger you should always expect the unexpected. What you think will be a runaway smash hit on your blog could actually be a dismal flop. The unsuspecting blog entry that you don’t think that much about could actually be the one that pops big-time on the search engines and drives rush hour traffic straight to your blog en masse. (Don’t I know that !)

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Blogging Driving God Home Internet Travel

Thursday Morning In Orlando

Good Morning Everyone !  It’s Thursday morning, and it’s the final (half) day of the 2008 New Church Conference – Exponential ’08 here in Orlando, and I’ve got so many handwritten notes written down that it appears that I’ll be blogging all weekend long – once I return home to the comfort and convenience of my living room and (most importantly) the technology of my high-speed cable Internet connection. Here in Orlando I’ve been sputtering along at roughly 50.6 Kbps (via an old dial-up connection). That’s right. I’m cruising the Internet like it’s 1998 !  My next laptop will have that fancy schmancy new wireless innovation included within it !

OK friends here’s the plan. I’ll be back at home in Homestead later today (early tonight). I’ll post this week’s ‘Thursday Night Internet Hoax Hall-Of-Shame’ first and foremost, and then if I’m still wide awake and have some energy left over I’ll post the first of three ‘Exponential Conference Orlando Tossed Salads’. I’m devoted to posting a single edition for each day of the conference, so you’ll see all of my highlights / takeaways summarized in a way that is most worthy of the coveted (nearly legendary) ‘Tossed Salad’ brand name. I’ve also got to do the ‘Friday Night Blogroll Review’ on Friday night or else a whole bunch of you will begin going through withdrawals. I know that a lot of you regular bloggers post some of your best award-winning material on Thursdays in a dire effort to make it onto the ‘Friday Night Blogroll Review’, so get to it and I’ll get to it as well. Look for that shortly after 4 PM on Friday night.

So that’s what I’ve got for you on this Thursday morning in Orlando. Don’t forget – the regular Thursday night and Friday night features on here plus 3 days – 3 editions of the ‘Tossed Salad’ from the Exponential Conference. It’s all right here on ‘The Major’s Life Blog’ over the next 60 hours. Don’t miss the excitement. You won’t regret it pal. Cool beans.

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Career Driving Food God Internet Life People Travel

Tuesday Night Grab Bag O’ Thoughts

1.  I drove from Homestead to Orlando this morning with a crew of about 16 (including kids) from Life Pointe Church. We took 4 vehicles with us (including mine). This is the longest one-day road-trip my car has been on since the first couple of weeks of March 2007 when I drove all the way up to the northwestern suburbs of Atlanta Georgia for a work-related conference.

2.  I paid a record-shattering $3.799 per gallon for gas along Florida’s Turnpike. 10.660 gallons of it went into my car, so that came out to a mind-boggling $40.50. I never thought that it would cost over $40 to fill up my fuel-efficient Saturn with less than 11 gallons of gas !

3.  Venus pointed out to me several times that perhaps my driving is just a wee-bit on the conservative side for her personal tastes. In fact she hinted that I drive like an old retired Floridian. She stated that she likes to hang out on the road with her ‘speeding buddies’. I inquired as to why she’s always late for everything if she’s always speeding. I also suggested that she leave much earlier to get to her destinations so that she wouldn’t have to speed, and she would arrive alive on-time. 

4.  To ‘rubberneck’ is to unnaturally turn your head at pretty much a 90° right angle and essentially stretch your neck so that it looks like it’s made out of rubber. When you’re driving along and everyone drives real slow so that they can examine the aftermath of a bad accident along the side of the road most people stretch their neck and hence ‘rubberneck’. Venus and I discussed that for a few minutes as Anne J. took a well-deserved nap.

5.  This is the first time since November 2006 that I’ve been here in Orlando. Once upon a time in a previous life not quite so far away I used to visit this city 3 or 4 or 5 or more times per year. Orlando used to be my playground – my home away from home – my South Beach – my Panama City Beach – my Cancun.

6.  Actual proof that it’s been awhile since I’ve been here in Orlando is the fact that I’ve made the wrong turn on at least 3 or 4 separate occasions right along the north end of International Drive – a road that I used to roll on quite frequently during a decade of fun.

7.  I’m attending the 2008 National New Church Conference here in Orlando. It’s also known as the ‘Exponential’ Conference – subtitled ‘The DNA Of Reproducing Churches’. I took a whole bunch of notes ‘chicken-scratch’ style during the first afternoon of sessions. Eventually I will decipher my notes and then transpose them into a separate blog entry that is most worthy to be included within the prestigious ‘Tossed Salad’ brand name here on this blog. Judging by how many raw notes I took this afternoon alone this may turn out to be a multi-part mini-series of ‘Tossed Salad’ editions rather than one big one. It’s all good. There’s a lot of learnin’ goin’ on here, and the funnest part of learnin’ is sharin’ the knowledge. Knowledge Is Power !  Power Is Fame !

8.  Pastor Travis and Pastor Paul are recording their notes from the conference via the new and modern way – directly onto their laptops on-site – and in Travis’s case – directly onto his blog and-or his Twitter. Believe it or not in the specific breakout session that I personally attended on blogging we spent a good 10 minutes talking about Twitter. That word – ‘Twitter’ – must have been uttered at least 50 times. Before P.J. introduced the entire Twittering concept to me and his tens of fans via his blog I had never heard that word spoken before in my entire Life.

9.  Our entire crew met up at Giordano’s for dinner over in Lake Buena Vista (very near the far-eastern entrance to Walt Disney World). We ate a bunch of their ‘World Famous Stuffed Pizza’, and in no time flat we were pretty much stuffed, walking funny, and making wacky sounds with our bodies. I took my Lipitor a good 5 hours later than normal. Better late than never – especially after this potentially heart-damaging meal !  Paul – Remind me to give you my Doctor’s business card upon our return back home to Homestead.  🙂

10.  I couldn’t possibly have more genuine fun here in Orlando than I did today, or on any other day that I’ve spent here in Orlando over the past 15 years. I am so totally humbled and blessed to be able to participate in this wonderful experience along God’s fantastic journey.

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God

Life Pointe Church Sunday Morning Tossed Salad

1.  You can arrive at the movie theatre as early as you wish on a Sunday morning, but you’ve got to get there mighty early in order to beat Executive Pastor Paul to the punch. Anne J. arrived in third place (this is not a competition), but more importantly her voice was back to full-strength again !

2.  Paul stated that I can add new poppin’ and rockin’ songs to the iPod that plays loud and proud in the main lobby. This contradicts everything that he has stated about this subject in the past to me. I will get to work – just as soon as I buy a docking station for the iPod so that I can pull those iTunes off of my computer here at home.

3.  ‘The Fortune Cookie Message Of The Week Club’ now has about 400 new members due to the fact that we gave away about 5,000 fortune cookies to our guests, attenders, and members this morning. They are in support of our fresh new message series that begins two weeks from today.

4.  Lead Pastor Travis returned to lead our two services this morning, and he delivered some of his most sincere discussions and powerful teachings to date. After the shenanigans that occurred last Sunday afternoon at Homestead Bayfront Park these were the ‘can’t miss’ Sunday morning services from Travis. We discussed 10 places that Jesus is today:

– Jesus physically ascended into Heaven.
– Jesus is in Heaven with departed Christians.
– Jesus sits at the right hand of God the Father.
– Jesus sits on a throne.
– Jesus rules and reigns as Sovereign, King, and Lord.
– Jesus intercedes as our living God-man mediator.
– Jesus grants His spiritual authority to Christians.
– Jesus is preparing a room for us in His Father’s house.
– Jesus is enjoying an urban paradise.
– Jesus is with us as we bring the Gospel to the world.

5.  Right now as I conclude this week’s edition of the ‘Tossed Salad’ here at home about three-dozen regular attenders of Life Pointe Church are over at The Capri restaurant in Florida City making that next big step to become official members of their church. It is not the church that they go to. It is not the church at the movie theatre. It is my church. It is your church. It is our church. We are the church. We are the living breathing body that is the church. We are the church no matter where we are – at home, at the movie theatre, at Publix, at the Capri, on Florida’s Turnpike, on South Beach, in Orlando. Everywhere. Be the church. Represent.