Lessons from California

Last week my wife and I flew to San Diego on Tuesday and returned home Saturday night. Were at a National Pastor's Conference for our denomination. It covered a lot of areas from Listening to God, to practices of Growing Churches, to Practicing Greatness in personal areas, to being healthy and balanced. So I beat up in many different areas.

It was a very good conference of the 9 sessions 6 of them were very good, 1 was good and 2 were very weak. That translates to a very good conference. It was great to be with my wife for those 5 days and to be in San Diego in mid-January. The weather was not as warm as usual for that area, but it was still in the mid-60's during the day and got down to the high 40's at night. It was beautiful with green grass and gorgeous flowers and plants.

Some points that stood out to me, actually that stomped on my toes, were the fact that I must involve more people in ministry. That I need to focus on my strengths, after all God gave them to me and has positioned me to use my strengths. That I need to really work on the physical health and take time to get rested and healthy.

I am encouraged about the possibilities in my life and our church and I feel that many things I learned, or was reminded of, at the conference last week can be put into practice.

Another bonus last week was that my wife and I came into contact with another ministry couple that we really connected with. We have similar philosophies and passions. We are in similar phases of our lives. We got along very well and made plans to keep in contact. Now the real test will be to see if we really do keep in contact. The only negative is that they live several hours away from us. As my wife said last week, "it has been a while since we clicked with another ministry couple in the way we clicked with them".

Thanks for praying for us. Our travel was good, or as good as it can be when you travel cross country. There was one scary moment physically, but I will cover that in another post. (How is that for a tease?)

Here's hoping you have something to look forward to this week.