Last week I went to Zondervan's National Pastor's Convention in beautiful San Diego, California. It was very good. There were probably 1000 in attendance, and yet it was still an intimate and personal event. They threw out the red carpet for us! All books were 50% off, there was a Digital Cafe with wi-fi, drinks, reading areas, and a free chair massage person standing by. Every session they'd give us free books or CDs or downloadable goodies on our seat. Artists that performed included Fernando Ortega, Todd Agnew, and Nicole Nordeman. There were two different worship groups, and a whole host of Drama and Comedy acts. I was completely blown away by Ken Medema, who would summarize every main session at the end with a improvised song. He is a blind man, who plays the piano, and does keyboard sounds. He sits backstage and listens. After the speaker finishes he starts playing a new songs that sums up every aspect of the service, from skits to comments made in interviews, to the worship, and the speaking. He does so in a unique way everytime, and bring it all together in the end- truly amazing gift he has.
Main speakers were Ruth Haley Barton, John Eldredge, Mark Labberton, Brian McLaren, Eugene Peterson, and Bishop Kenneth Ulmer. Morning Bible Study was by Eugene Peterson and Stuart Briscoe. For seminars we could choose from this huge list: John Burke, Henry Cloud, Tim Conder, Bill Donahue, Mark Driscoll, Dave Ferguson (a Christian Church guy),Randy Frazee (he sleeps 10 hours a day!), Rozanne Frazee, Alice Fryling, Denise George, Ruth Graham, Kevin Harney, Sherry Harney, Shane Hipps (intriguing class!) Al Hsu, Mark Jobe, Dan Kimball, Brian Larson, Greg Ligon, Jimmy Long, Larry Osborne, Doug Pagitt, Marshall Shelley, Efrem Smith, Jarrett Stevens, Jeanne Stevens, Geoff Surratt, Greg Surratt, Gary Thomas, Phyllis Tickle, John Townsend, Richard Twiss, Karen Ward, Robert Webber, and Lauren Winner.
It was a great conference. I'm tired and my brain's on overload. We had to make it back for church on Sunday, and due to fog in Harlingen, had to drive a Rental Car back from San Antonio. So we got in a lot later than was expected, but we made it, and now can start sifting through all our materials, notes, and insights revieved. If you ever get to go to NPC, go.
posted by Gregory Fish @ 4:54 PM
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