the Big Napolis

So this last week was a ministry changing week. It was my pleasure and joy to go to Indianapolis as Oregon's conference liason for the National Student Minisrties Team annual conference. It was a great time. Putting 25 youth pastors into one motel is a rather risky thing, but it was such a great time for us!
I learned alot and had a couple of "epiphanys" of what ministry is and how I have been on the fast track to burnout. It's always a tough thing to realize that you are alomst to the point, then to step back and look to see how close the edge really was is startling. What I've taken from those 4 short days will hopefully stick with me for the rest of my ministry life.
Tuesday night of my excursion involved Hard Rock Cafe: Indianapolis, watching a heartless Indiana Pacers v. New York Knicks game (Pacers lost by 20) and stealing seats. It was a good evening. The days were set up with alot of training. Rob Yonan of SonLife came and went through their stuff with us, really a good and basic strategy for youth ministry programming. I would suggest it to any youth pastor in need of a little extra push in their programming.
All in all, it was a great trip. There was a belly flop contest (I was not able to attend being as we wanted milkshakes) and many wise cracks followed by later nights than I have normally had in over 2 years. Here are some pictures, a group picture and then a promo pictures for IYC 2007 (I wish we could go to Nashville!!).