This afternoon, before hitting the road and heading back North to Warsaw from Indy, I was able to get together with some of my Indy-buds for lunch and conversation.
It’s amazing just how important my friends are to me – something I remember each time I am able to spend a good chunk of time with them.
It has been a great weekend at the FUEL conference – especially the opportunity to network with fellow youth leaders from around the country. I will always appreciate these opportunities to gather together with like-minded individuals.
Today (pictured above) Bo Boshers spoke twice in the two rallies. He is on staff at Willow Creek church up in Chicagoland. He gave some great tips and tricks of programming in the local church. While I didn’t really take anything “new” away from his seminars, it was good to hear things I’ve already heard in a new way – from a new source. (I think that makes sense…)
I also sat under my buddy Brad Zimmerman (vinmarkproductions.com) and his co-worker Wally, the Middle School Pastor at Watermark (iamwatermark.com) as they co-taught a seminar on programming and media. Good stuff. My second seminar was by my buddy Mike Hofer – student ministries pastor at College Wesleyan Church. His seminar was on “Understanding Youth Culture” and was probably the most beneficial hour-plus of the weekend as far as seminars went. (that was a good compliment, and when Hofer reads this, I’m hoping he’ll call me and thank me for such kind words.)
At dinner tonight, I got a call from Aunt Pam & Jenna who happened to be in Indianapolis. They drove to the Chic-Fil-A that I was enjoying my dinner at for a quick visit-in-passing. It was a special treat to see them for those few moments!
Quite a few times today I found myself missing my wife and daughter. I will be glad to reunite with them tomorrow evening. Looks like I will be enjoying the company of some of my Indy-buds tomorrow for lunch before heading back to Warsaw. As of now, Magee and Brandon will be joining Kory and I for lunch somewhere.
Photos from FUEL, day 2 are here.
I arrived safely and sound here in Noblesville, Indiana at Wesleyan HQ for the beginning of FUEL this afternoon just after 3.
I quickly registered, did the quick catch-up with numerous fellow youth pastors and staff, and found myself in a break-out session on “Small Groups & Sunday School” on the third floor under the leadership of my buddy John Freed – youth pastor at Fall Creek Wesleyan Church here just down the street from HQ.
The session was great – I gathered some interesting ideas – specifically a Sunday School/Discipleship idea that I’m looking forward to implementing somehow in the future, but I won’t give that idea away here for the “world”! I also learned tonight in that seminar that stevansheets.com is a bit more popular than I imagined. Apparently it’s rather well known in the “Wesleyan Youth Pastor ring”. Cool, huh? Even if they do make fun of my hundreds of youtube clips that make their way into posts!
After the break-out, I joined some buddies for dinner at O’Charlies. Thank you Gale Richmond for supper!
After supper we headed back to HQ for the opening rally and enjoyed the message by Rev. Steve DeNeff. Actually “enjoyed” doesn’t say a bit about how I felt after tonight’s message. It was absolutely incredible the way Rev. DeNeff “re-introduced” the doctrine of holiness that the Wesleyan church says it stands for. It was as if I was hearing about holiness and more-so, sanctification, for the first time – or atleast in a new way that I hadn’t been taught before. I am very thankful for tonight’s session.
At about 10:30 a group of “too many” headed over to Buffalo Wild Wings for a night-cap of wings and sodas and the last inning of the Cardinals beating the Mets! Good times.
Pictures from Day 1 of Fuel are here.
While cleaning off a week’s worth of pictures off of my digital camera, I stumbled upon this gem of a video from Grandma Miller’s graveside service –
I will be staying with my buddy Kory, and am looking forward to seeing all of my youth pastor friends that usually make it to these types of events. It will be a good chance to recharge and to challenge my youth ministry mindset, too.
theBOX went well tonight. My buddy Marc Ulrich spoke for me tonight and the Lord worked that timing out, too, as I needed to be counseling a teen and his mother during most of the service this evening.
Jess and I are still suffering from van-lag (jet-lag minus the jet, add the minivan). Jess heads North for the district ladies retreat with her mother on Friday and we’ll both return home on Saturday after a crazy couple of days!
