Posting on Manna Church Leader's Blog - www.mannachurchleaders.wordpress.com

All Access 2009 ARC Conference

I have been at the ARC All Access 2009 Conference this week (Mon-Wed) hearing from some of the top leaders in up and coming Christianity. The focus of this conference can be summed up in three points - Love Life, Love People, Love God. Chris Hodges of Church of the Highlands in Montgomery, Alabama spoke on this topic this morning and it really started me thinking. Viral marketing teaches us to focus on our product and market a great product. THAT is precisely the message of the 3 loves - focus on the product. Start with the essentials and THEN figure out how to market. Simple, simple, simple. If your product sucks, then you are spinning your wheels no matter how slick the package. Don't waste my time Tweeting about a crappy product.

Rest day, today. Tons of meetings until my theory class tonight. Thinking of a run tomorrow even though the group is canceled. Anybody up for one??

working on May's celebration of Asian Pacific American Heritage Month - researching and writing and scheming video - any good leads?

Reminiscing over some Jean-Paul Elliot. Ya'll don't know nuthin about that. Hollah

test. First update from ping.fm - highly recommend it

Keeping it real

A genuine man is hard to find, nowadays. You meet them everyday - we all have our moments when we yield to the pressure to conform. It humors me every time I walk through our pitiful mall here in Fayetteville, NC and look into Hot Topic. Angst ridden young folk streaming into a franchised store to pay $45 for a "non-conformist" shirt and $18 for an "indie" cd that could be purchase for $9.99 on the "corporate" iTunes service. We all get a good laugh at this one, but what about when it comes to our faith? I don't know how many times I meet someone for the first time, in church, and they feel compelled to behave in a manner in which they would not behave outside the walls of a church building. Peer pressure in church is weird - no need to be "super Christian." The nature of our faith is based on the fact that we are all sinners damned to an eternity without Jesus until He wooed us with His saving Grace and brought us into a saving knowledge of Him. We trust Him as our Savior and we begin the PROCESS of sanctification. When we act in a non-genuine fashion, we set some imaginary bar (that we, ourselves, are not reaching) that non-Christians see/feel/react to and turn them off to our list of do's and dont's. Is that our faith? Not mine - just be real. Act in church like you act outside of church and if your non-church behavior embarrasses you, then evaluate the behavior. Let's discuss - and remember my rules - 1. Be nice 2. No anonymous posts - it's just not genuine, and kinda lame.