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.

Photo Review and Critical Concern Groups

I met with TJ from Zondervan today and went over the photos I’ve shot thus far. He gave me some additional areas to focus on and we headed out in tandem to the Critical Concern Groups that were meeting around the retreat. TJ took video while I snapped still shots. It always amazes me that I can take 100 photographs and about 10 will be decent. Today was not different.

Here are a few of the shots from the Critical Concern Groups:

A mistake becomes my new desktop wallpaper

I wasn’t paying attention to the aperature setting on my camera and I really over exposed a shot of the front of the convention center.  I decided to keep the photo and simply cropped the edges to clean up the image a bit and added a border.  Here’s my new desktop background (click on the image to see a full size version)

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Main stage complete . . . almost

Just over seven hours after we started the main stage is complete except for a few drapes in front of the stage.  A few of the areas can’t be draped until after the sound checks are complete, something they’re working on now.

It was quite amazing to see the main stage transform from a simple raised platform at 8:00am this morning into a dramatic stage with stunning lights and amazing sound!  I’ve never been quite so far behind the scenes of a production like this and although my muscles are reminding me that I’m not 20 any longer, the experience was fun, insightful and elightening.

One thing that truly impressed me were the other volunteers.  People from Iowa, Pennsylvania, Minneapolis and a myriad of other states as well.  All coming to San Diego on their own dime to volunteer at the National Pastors Convention.  Zondervan is generous in providing lodging and per-diems for all the volunteers, yet the spirit of giving is readily apparent when you talk to those that are giving of their time and often their vacations to give back to God.  People from all walks and backgrounds; non-denomonational, reformed, christan reformed, baptist, lutheran, berean and many others too.  An impressive group of people that I’m proud to serve with.

They tell me that we’ll be able to finish the main stage in about two hours . . . in the mean time I’ll be taking some more photos and getting ready for the main sessions that start tomorrow.  By the way – if you haven’t heard yet, don’t miss the webcast of the general sessions – they’re bound to be memorable!

Fog in San Diego

The fog rolled in this afternoon around 4:00pm and provided an early darkening of the skies. We finished up the main stage setup and I returned to my photography detail around 5:00pm. Most of the shots I was trying to get were inside and the fog outside really reduced my light in the bookstore and registration areas. In the end I wasn’t able to capture many good shots.

We headed out to dinner around 7:00pm and were joined by some of the Zondervan staff and a few more volunteers at The Cheesecake Factory. All in all we managed to get 17 people from the convention seated on their patio and enjoyed a nice dinner. We left immediately after dinner as our son was falling asleep at the table (he’d worked hard today!). Another day in the books . . .

If you can’t attend – catch the webcast

I just found out from the VP of Marketing at Zondervan that the General Sessions here at NPC 2007 are going to be webcast! If you aren’t going to be able to enjoy the sunny California sunshine, take a look at the webcasts. You can get all the info here: http://www.zondervan.com/Cultures/en-US/NPC/NationalConvention/NPC07webcasts.htm

	General Session 1 Wednesday February 7, 2007 – Brian McLaren
	General Session 2 Wednesday February 7, 2007 – John Eldredge
	General Session 3 Thursday February 8, 2007 – Ruth Haley Barton
	General Session 4 Thursday February 8, 2007 – Mark Labberton
	General Session 5 Friday February 9, 2007 – Eugene Peterson
	General Session 5 Friday February 9, 2007 – Eugene Peterson

A few volunteering photos . . .

Stuffing information packets for the attendees.

More information packets being stuffed (completed packets are being stacked on the table in the rear of the photo . . . nearly 2,000 in all when complete.

Superbowl Sunday came to us thanks to the hotel staff . . .

LIVE from San Diego, It’s the 2007 National Pastors Convention!

We’re live online today! After four days of limited connectivity I’m online in the NPC Digital Cafe’. I’ll get caught up on what’s been going on over the last few days, although for now suffice it to say we spent two days sight-seeing and yesterday and today have been filled with setup functions. NPC officially begins today with registration open at 9:00am. The bookstore is already bustling . . . understandable as Zondervan and InterVarsity Press are selling virtually all of their books at 50% off; a great deal for attendees and us voluteers!

This morning began with a general meeting for the Zondervan staff and volunteers. Shortly after 8:00am I joined about 15 other volunteers and Zondervan staffers in unloading the semi for the main stage setup. I’m back to the main stage shortly to continue working with the crew from DB Productions.

The conference is going to be great! There are some fantastic speakers and great specialty sessions too. I’ll be covering as much as possible while snapping photos of virtually everything. Stay tuned and check back often – I hope to be posting every few hours with updates.

GRR to SAN

Today we flew from Grand Rapids (GRR) to San Diego (SAN). Our flight from GRR was delayed by about 45 minutes due to weather (snow) and as a result we had to run to our connecting gate in Minneapolis (MSP). We managed to get off our flight from GRR to MSP as quickly as possible and hustled our way to our departure gate. As we arrived at the departure gate, a good 10 minute hike from our arrival gate, we could see our plane – already backed away from the gate. We’d missed our connecting flight by about five minutes.

Oh well, such schedule disappointments are part of travel. We were thankful that Northwest Airlines had booked us on the next flight from MSP to SAN prior to our leaving GRR. Not finding any gate agents around to confirm our seating with we decided to walk back towards the main entrance. Realizing it was lunch time, we headed to Chili’s Too, a restaurant at the airport, and had lunch. After lunch we decided to walk to our new departure gate, again at the proverbial “other side of the airport.” Along the way we found a Northwest gate agent and proceeded to get our new seat assignments and boarding passes for the later flight. To our suprise and pleasure the gate agent booked all four of us in First Class for the flight from MSP to SAN. This was the first time that my son and my mother-in-law had ever been in First Class; in my son’s words – it was “AWSOME!”

Sometimes delays are met with pleasure . . . the wait in the airport wasn’t wonderful, although the upgraded seats were appreciated by all.

Carry on limitations

My mother-in-law (mom to me) and I were just talking about packing and I realized that it’s been a few years since I’ve flown much and I had some questions about what was allowed in our carry on bags.  Specifically, mom wanted to know if she could take a crochet needle on the flight.  We’re flying from Grand Rapids to Minneapolis and then on to SanDeigo; there will be plenty of time to occupy while on the flight.  Not knowing the answer, although assuming that TSA would not allow a crochet needle on board I decided to check online.  To my amazement TSA actually had a crochet needle on the authorized list of items you can take on/in your carry on luggage.

Mom was pleased to learn this and I spent a few minutes updating myself ont he various limitations for carry on luggage contents.  Nothing too suprising, although certainly I will have to pack a bag as normal luggage.  No cramming everything into my carry on for this trip; the TSA limitations would make that endeavor a bit to challenging for my desire.  Oh well, I suppose with four of us travelling I should expect to wait for luggage claim in SanDiego.  Maybe I’ll be able to talk my wife and mom into waiting for the luggage while my son and I go get the rental car . . . hmmm.  Maybe!