Sitting In a Long Metal Tube for the Day

This will be short . . .

I have internet access again – at the Day’s Inn by the Minneapolis/St. Paul Airport (MSP). We were scheduled to leave San Diego this morning at 8:45am . . . we finally took off around 2:00pm. During that time we boarded twice and managed to spend over three hours in the plane at the gate. I think Got is reminding me that I need to be patient, or maybe He’s reminding someone else on the flight!

Due to the delays we missed our connecting flight and are holed up in the Days Inn until our flight tomorrow morning (Lord willing.)

It’s been a long day . . . not my idea of a great Sabbath although I did manage to get quite a bit more read in Dan Kimballs’ “The Emerging Church” and spent a bunch more time with my family, something I’m always grateful for.

The internet is TOO popular!

The response to the NPC Digital Cafe’ has been overwhelming and even though they’ve added another router it’s proving difficult to get connected.  The Cafe’ is literally PACKED all day.   So, before I get bumped off (I’m not going to use a connection that a pastor might want) when the Cafe’ fills back up after this general session – here are a few pictures from the last 24 hours:

Next . . Next . . . Next

I’m still here – just moving quickly between events and happenings to catch as many photos as possible. I’ve been getting a lot of requests to put up a photo gallery of the shots for the attendees to access. I’m working with Zondervan to get that approval and it looks positive at this point. Keep tuned for the next episode!

Here are a few shots from the last nights general session and the Jesus Painter. This guy is truly amazing – he did the entire painting in about 15 minutes while Josh Fox lead worship.

I’ll get caught up on the rest of my postings in a bit, hopefully!

Afternoon Sessions – Day 2

It’s probably just me; I think attendance was higher today than yesterday. There are A LOT of pastors and ministry leaders here; based upon my walk around this afternoon to the various sessions it certainly seems like more are here, or at least attending the afternoon sessions. Shane Hipps’ session entitled “The Gospel According to Electronic Culture: Why Changing the Methods Always Changes the Message” was so full they were sitting outside the door listening in. Here are some pics from todays sessions:

Re-energized with Tears in My Eyes

I may have been tired when I walked into General Session #3 . . . no more!

General session three started off with a laugh as Ken Medema did improv prior to the start time of 9:45am. One of the staffers went through the crowd of gathering pastors and ministry leaders and got some of their more embarrassing experiences in ministry. Ken Medema then, on the spot, wrote songs describing those experiences. Ken brought smiles and laughter to all involved and was a welcome burst of energy!

Taylor Mason added an additional burst of humor with his fabulous ventriloquism and then Todd Agnew provided some truly special music for the group. Todd’s candor, humor and style were refreshing and welcome. What a great addition to the program. An energetic interview with Phyllis Tickle regarding her book on prayer followed Todd Agnew. And not to be forgotten was a humorous yet pointed drama from Ted and Lee regarding an interaction between Peter and Andrew.

Worship was lead by Stephen Newby. As Stephen has done each session, he brought the group into a time of worship and welcomed the Holy Spirit into our midst. The worship was simply AMAZING! On a side note I also learned that taking pictures is made more difficult when you have tears of joy and worship in your eyes. Simply incredible!!

Ruth Haley Barton from the Transforming Center is speaking as I type this. She specializes in retreats for pastors and promises to provide some valuable insight to the pastors in attendance. My compact flash card ran out of room about five minutes into her presentation, therefore I’m blogging from the other side of the wall.

Here’s a few shots of General Session #3 at the National Pastors Convention, 2007:

After the Late Night Comedy – I’m tired . . .

No posts late last night after the comedy session. The comedians were great . . . I was simply too tired. I got back to my room about 11:45pm and barely remember crawling into bed. I feel a bit better this morning, although I’m definitely tired. I suppose it’s a combination of the 3 hour time difference (versus Michigan) and yesterdays 16 hours of work. Mind you, I’m not complaining. I’m having a great time here at the National Pastors Convention and I’m thrilled to have the opportunity to volunteer. Not to mention, having a back stage pass, as the NPC official photographer, is cool too!

Here are a couple of shots from last night . . .

Now I’m off to catch this mornings Connect Groups prior to General Session #3 this morning at 9:45am. I’ll be back!

General Session Two

I’m sitting in the Digital Cafe, provided for FREE here at the National Pastors Convention, transferring photos from my CF cards to my laptop. While I’m typing this Ken Medema is singing one of his fabulous solos to wrap up the second general session here at NPC 2007. Tonight’s session was just about as amazing as this afternoons and John Eldridge provided an excellent speech covering God’s creation and story. I can’t wait for the CD to hear him again.

Next is Late Night here at NPC. On tap tonight is Christian Comedy with Taylor Mason, Ron Pearson and Bob Stromberg. Ron was also in General Session two and was funny as well as amazing . . . catch the photo with him balancing a ladder on his face while juggling!!

I’m off to photograph again . . . see ya soon

Afternoon Sessions

I managed to find each of the 16 afternoon seminars . . . thanks to one of the other volunteers who pointed me to a part of the resort I’d not yet been to. Most of the sessions were well attended – some brimming over with people. It was truly hard to not become engrossed in a few of the seminars – particularly Dan Kimball’s “They like Jesus but not the church” and Doug Pagitt’s “Wild Goose Chase: Pursuing a Wide-eyed, Hope Filled Christianity.”

Both Dan and Doug managed to pull me into their discussions and I found it difficult to move on to the other sessions. I’m certainly going to try and get more time at any other sessions they do . . .

General Session One

WOW . . . WOW . . . WOW

SIMPLY AMAZING!

The first general session was fabulous. Imagine almost 1,800 pastors worshiping God while being led by an amazing gospel group. I thought worship on Sunday mornings at my church was awesome . . . and it is, although this was simply unbelievable! If you missed it – don’t miss the webcast!

The emcees were great, and funny too. The worship singing amazing. Brian McLaren gave a wonderful opening session monologue right on target and Ken Medema closed out the first general session with one of his amazing praise and worship songs.

I’ll get more details up in a bit – I’m off to photograph the first of the seminar series, all sixteen of them. Check back in a bit for more info and pictures.