1. Spending time with Phil, PJ, and Jon. It was great to see them and get to hang out.
2. Kevin DeYoung on the mission of the church. Mr. DeYoung has a knack for clarifying what you already knew, and he did just that in his workshop Friday afternoon on the mission of the church. The bottom line is that, if we are not proclaiming the gospel, if we are not doing the ministry of the word, then we are missing the point of the church no matter how many acts of mercy we are doing. Yes, we should be doing acts of mercy, but no, they should not replace our proclamation of the gospel that Jesus Christ died for our sins.
3. Being present to see the book of essays in honor of John Piper, presented to Piper as a surprise by Sam Storms and Justin Taylor. Quite a moment. I bought two copies. Cheap! I'm enjoying it so far.
4. Being super-challenged by Francis Chan to love those around me as Jesus loved them. If there is one thing I took out of the conference from the standpoint of something to work on, this would be it. We can think all we want, but if our thinking is not grounded in the love of Christ, then we are wasting our time. Something I need to pray about and give attention to - a lot! Thanks, Mr. Chan.
5. Spending time with Cherie. Really fun to get to hang out with Cherie alone for a whole weekend. There's a reason she's my bestie...oh, and my wife too.
6. Rick Warren via video. Mr. Warren had family emergencies—yes, emergencies—and could not make it, but he challenged us by video. The man is a whirling dervish of energy and ideas. Remarkable. Probably the thing I took away from him the most was the importance of vision in the work that we do. Mr. Warren is also an aphorism machine, not to mention having a gift of humor as well.
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