Ok, so there are around 2.4 billion things that I'm excited about right now. And I seriously feel like I need to pinch myself just to make sure this is all real. Here's a taste.
STORY - It happens next week! Can't wait. Around 1,700 pastors, communicators, church leaders, writers, speakers, etc will converge for two days to learn and be inspired by an amazing line up of storytellers - people like Dave Gibbons, Ed Young, Donald Miller, Nancy Beach, Mike Foster, Stacy Spencer, Chris Seay, and others. The first day happens on Wednesday, October 28th at the beautiful Paramount Theater in downtown Aurora. The next day will be workshops (sold out!) happening at The Orchard. Honored to host and be a part of STORY!
CULTIVATE - Seriously, Chicagoland is the place to be in October. Cultivate is a highly interactive, conversational, collaborative un-conference that's all about church communication. It's happening the day before STORY. And the lineup of facilitators is just sick. Wow.
DAVE GIBBONS - We are honored to have Dave speak at The Orchard's gatherings the weekend following STORY. Not only is Dave a good friend, but he's someone God has used to impact my life in some pretty significant ways. I'm thrilled that our church community gets to hear and learn from him!
THE NEW & IMPROVED....ORCHARD - The Orchard has had an extreme makeover! Through the amazing "pro bono" generosity of fellow Orchard tribal members, Dawn & Keith Baldwin (Aspire One), we have a new logo and amazzzing new website that will go live later THIS WEEK. I'll talk more about this in a later post... STAY TUNED!
LOVE.SERVE.GIVE. - It's The Orchard's GLOCAL outreach opportunities this winter. More about this later as well... But just know that we are going to have some amazing opportunities to bring beauty and hope to people locally in our city and globally in places like Uganda, Thailand, and El Salvador.
ORCHARD ART INITIATIVE - Too much to type, but The Orchard is turning into an art gallery starting this month. Our campus will be filled with art from local artists. Huge dream come true, but only the beginning...
Ok, there's more, but I my fingers hurt and I need to study. OUT.
Excited to be back in Chicagoland for such a great week... look forward to touching base next week at Cultivate/ Story/ Orchard!
Posted by: emma | October 22, 2009 at 10:34 PM
hey scott, thanks for the note. i had a great time at story, you guys did a great job (both in MC'ing and in hosting the workshops).
commenting on this post, because i see you are delving into the artist space, with the Art Initiative. fantastic opportunity to reconnect the artist with the church.
wondering how you allow the artist to wrestle with truth, even if it produces a sometimes profane response? do you embrace the expression or do you guys draw a line between sacred and profane and ask the artists not to cross?
Posted by: twitter.com/duregger | November 05, 2009 at 03:33 PM
Thanks for the post.
Posted by: Logo Design | February 03, 2010 at 02:11 AM
It's really good to know about the workshop for which people are participating from different fields.
Posted by: Mark - Business Logo | July 06, 2010 at 07:36 AM
I like the title of your post "I'm calling it shocktober" after reading this post. I agree it's really shocktober.
Posted by: Sam - Custom Logo Design | July 06, 2010 at 07:39 AM