National Youth Worker's Convention

Last week Jon and I had the priviledge of going to the National Youth Worker's Convention in Nashville with two other leaders from our church, Shawn and Anna Davis. It was such a blessing that we could all go together to really jump start and revitalize the youth ministry at Faith. One of the biggest blessings of being at this church is the awesome team-spirit and the creativity that follows. We all split up and had a ton of great ideas that we can't wait to start planning and implementing.


Here are some highlights from the trip:

• We went early for the preconference critical concerns courses--Jon and I got to take Youth Ministry and Marriage with Jim and Cathy Burns (Jim was Doug Field's youth minister and mentor...Doug mentions Jim in his books a lot, so it was a real treat to get to meet him!...or you may recognize Jim as the head of Home Word Ministries). The best part about this course was that it was small...and intimate. We really felt like we got to know Jim and Cathy and the ministry that they do together now. We got a lot of support for being in the ministry together, which will be especially helpful as my "season" of full involvement changes to less involved with the birth of our second child in February. Jim is a great speaker. He has his own radio show, so his voice was very soothing to listen to. He's just one of those guys with a gentle, passionate spirit. Kind of reminded me of Dr. Paavola from CUW...
• The worship music--how awesome was it that we were led in worship each day by people like the David Crowder Band, Lincoln Brewster, MercyMe, Shane and Shane, Kendall Payne, Starfield, and Jars of Clay (ok, I'm going to publically admit that I'm not too fond of them anymore after seeing them live...they're much better on their recordings than in person...) (and by the way, Shane and Shane has a new Christmas CD that Jon and I got...it's awesome! the harmony is surreal!)
• The joy of attending THREE Les Christie sessions...he's so energetic and passionate about what he does! and intentional too! The teacher in me was proud of all the teaching methods and child developement he incorporated into our sessions...turns out all that stuff isn't just for teachers afterall... He gave three great seminars on creativity (I never really thought of myself as creative before this session since I "steal and modify" other people's ideas, but turns out that is creativity at its best! who knew?!...), positive discipline (working with rude, obnoxious, and apathetic kids), and how to find, equip, retain, and occasionally dismiss adult volunteers in youth ministry.
• The general session speakers...well, most of them anyway...but particularly Mark Yaconelli...at the end of his talk he broke out in a disco dance...it was priceless! We liked his talk so much that we bought a DVD of it to share with the rest of our leaders at a future meeting...
• THE SKIT GUYS! These guys are funny! They even made skits for all of the preconference Q&A...hilarious! :) We saw their extra performance with Lost and Found...it was the only night event I was willing to stay up for! :)
• The conference and speakers were such a spark to our creativity and brain power for our ideas...we spent well over two hours just discussing all of the the things we'd like to do with our youth ministry (we call it our "bucket list")...now the fun part begins with laying out the baby steps for what we want to get accomplished first...
• Alone time with my hubby was awesome!...but probably the last time before baby gets here!

So while there were a lot of great things about the trip, there were also some bummers:

• The weather. Who would have thought that driving 5 hours south of STL would have brought us colder weather...and even snow?...next time I'm voting we send people to an eariler fall conference so getting around isn't so miserable
• The HILLS. It was bad enough for all the non-preggo folk who went to tredge up and down those hills several times a day...and it was miserable for me. By the second day, I noticed my braxton hicks contractions coming on quite strong at even the thought of walking up the hills. ugh... (but no worries...my doctor said they are quite normal as long as I'm not having more than 6 an hour...)
• The food choices. Well, when you have +5,000 people in a very small location, food lines are going to be long and choices are going to be limited. I'm thankful we didn't get stuck having to eat McDonalds every day, but I think it will be a while before we go back to Panera/St Louis Bread Co!
• Our hotel. While it was nice enough, we had to stay on the 17th floor. I prayed every morning that the elevators would all be in working order so I didn't have to walk up/down steps. That would have been terrible! And what kind of fancy downtown expensive hotel doesn't have a hot tub?...I was sorely disappointed! That would have at least made the hills a bit more manageable...oh well...