Time to get creative

Hello everyone!

So, I know I promised to update this more regularly and my delay has been both accidental and planned. When I get into a mood where I want to write it is hard for me to get out of that mood and the night I wrote my first post I could have easily written 3 more. I don't want to be overwhelming so I have purposefully restrained myself. But, I have been meaning to write over the last week or so and have found my time to be very fleeting. School has really kicked into high gear with book reports, ordination applications, and this week I have to write church constitution and bylaws. While the experience will be greatly beneficial, having to do it is super time-consuming, and this class just requires that we do these assignments without any real direction as to how. That aspect is both frustrating and nice because when it comes to actually starting a church I suspect there will be a pretty large learning curve.

I don't have long to write, in fact, the other reason why I have been neglectful is my reason for writing today. Tonight around midnight I will be leaving, with my brother-in-law Waffle, for Texas. My wonderful wife is allowing me to leave here for the better part of a week so that I may have some church leadership training, of sorts. Waffle and I are driving to Dallas to attend the Church Creativity Conference, a conference held every year at Ed Young's church. The speakers this year include two of my pastor-man-crushes, Craig Groeschel and Steven Furtick (the links are to their respective church website) whose blogs I have linked on my page, over to the right hand side. The purpose of the conference is to remind the leadership of the modern church that as Christians, we have no excuse for not being creative as we have been gifted by God, the greatest creator in the universe.

I am bursting with excitement and, assuming my computer doesn't die, will be updating from the road. The majority of the updates will be via Twitter, which all show up on the right hand side of this page as well. Waffle and I will be taking pictures (anyone seen the hand lately?) and hopefully some video, perhaps even some video updates to be posted throughout the trip. When we leave Dallas on Saturday, our plan is to take a minor detour down to New Orleans (right in time for Mardi Gras traffic) simply because we can. I have never been and would love to go and since it will only add three hours to our total trip we've decided to do it. When you're looking at a difference of 17 vs. 20 hours, 3 hours doesn't seem that bad. While I am away Allie will be by herself until the weekend, when she will be going to the Outer Banks with two of her best friends and roommates from college. Apparently they are going hunting for wild horses on some island (Allie is going to bring me home a pony).

So, that's the 5 minutes update of my life. I hope everyone in doing well and I will certainly keep you posted on my trip. If you think about it, say a prayer for all of our safety, for me and Waffle while driving (especially the 17 hour trip we are making tonight), and for Allie that she doesn't get attacked by the ponies they are so excited to chase.

Feliz Navidad everyone!