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Congrats....Catalyst ONE DAY winners!

First of all - a disclaimer...  I did not personally select the winners for the Catalyst ONE DAY tickets.  Had some help from a couple of Orchard staff peeps, who chose for reasons beyond my knowledge.....

Jason Petermann (@JasonPetermann) from Witchita, Kansas

Bliss Spillar (@BlissSpillar) from somewhere around Virginia (I think??)
 

Congratulations Jason & Bliss!  Hope to meet up with you at Catalyst ONE DAY in March!

Special Mention to Dru Fess, who I almost offered to purchase a ticket for as long as he would promise to never do anything like this again.  ;-)

Don't forget to register for Catalyst ONE DAY here.  And oh yeah... Early Bird deadline is THIS Thursday, January 28th!

Thanks to everyone who participated! 

I'm calling it SHOCKTOBER.

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.

I Gotta Feeling Live in Chicago!

This....is very cool.  Love it!

Thanks Brad Lomenick for sharing the link.

Orlando...Austin...Atlanta.....and next, Uganda.

Ok, I'm diving back in to the blog.  It's been way too long.  My lame excuse: I've been running 200MPH since a few weeks before Easter with writing, travel, etc... and blogging just hasn't been that high on my priority list.  Sorry faithful folks.

So anyway...  Rather than try to knock out a bunch of amazing blog posts, I thought I'd throw out a few random thoughts of what's been happening over these past few weeks.  Here we go:

• Easter.  This year's Easter weekend The Orchard was a record-breaking weekend!  Our teams did an amazing job and I think my head is still spinning after a HUGELY successful Helicopter Easter Egg Drop.  All I can say is WOW.  If you missed the video review, click here.
  
  
• Orlando.  Had a great time at Exponential in Orlando.  Exponential is sort of a like a big family reunion (but without the weird uncle and the funky potato salad).  This is actually the largest church planting conference in North America and one that I would definitely encourage all church planters to attend in 2010.  Had fun teaching a session with Gary Lamb (did he really say "wanker"??) and then participating in some great conversations in the Exponential Lounge with guys like Erwin McManus, Francis Chan, Dave Ferguson, Craig Groeschel, Matt Chandler, and others. 
  
  
• Austin. After a couple of days home I found myself in the amazing city of Austin, TX to be a part of Q.  Q is one of my favorite gatherings of the year.  It's small and all about influencing and changing culture.  Think TED format.  Loved connecting with a bunch of friends - both new and old.  People like Kem Meyer, Mike Foster, Jeff Shinabarger, Tim Stevens, Alan Hirsch, Kyle Zimmerman, John Burke, Rick McKinley, Chris Seay, Gabe Lyons, Mel McGowan, Charles Lee, and a bunch of other amazing people. Next year, Q will be here - in Chicago!
  
  
• Austin II.  All I can say is - what a cool city.  And with a slogan that's all about keeping it "weird" what do you expect??  Check out a few photos I posted in Facebook.
  
  
• Jackie Huba.  Writer, Author, Speaker, Blogger, Marketing Guru-ess, co-founder of the Society for Word of Mouth.  Forbes calls her work "the word of mouth gospel."  Anyway....  Had a chance to grab lunch with Jackie while in Austin.  That was worth the trip alone.  If you don't follow her twitter you need to. 
  
  
• Atlanta.  Orange.  It's THE premier and the BEST family ministry conference in the flippin' universe.  Loved being a part of this and having the opportunity to share The Orchard's story and some thoughts/ideas on the topic of navigating change with a room full of Lead Pastors and Senior Leaders.  Just wish I could have stuck around for more than a few hours, but was glad to be able to hang with a few of our staff who were attending and introduce them to some killer Korean BBQ. 
  
  
• Uganda.  In a couple of weeks.  More on this later, but looking forward to getting my heart messed up by this trip. 
  
  
• Study.  It's what I should be doing right now.  So I'm done.  Hopefully back in the groove of blogging.  We'll see.  Thanks for the encouragement folks.

The Diverse Sounds of My St. Arbucks

You should hear this.

I'm sitting here in my local Starbucks doing some writing...

Two young women next to me speaking Polish.

A man and a woman on the other side of me speaking Greek.

A pentecostal couple not far from me speaking in tongues.  (Kidding...)

A family on the other side of me speaking Spanish.

And then, there's me - wishing I could speak all of these languages so I could eavesdrop on what all these people are saying.  :)

Ahhh....I love diversity!  What a beautiful sound!

We love our coffee!

Chicago most caffeinated U.S. city.

Surprised? 

My kind of town...

 

(Thanks for the link David!)

Bowling. Chicago style...

I want to bowl here.

   

It's called 10pin.  Located downtown Chicago, this looks like the coolest bowling alley in the world! From their website:

10pin redefines the bowling experience by combining a retro sport with a hip upscale lounge. ...20,000 square feet of high energy fun. twenty four state-of-the-art lanes are topped by a 128-foot, high-definition video wall supported by a nightclub quality audio system. ...enjoy all the action from the plush sofas and intimate seating areas of the lounge or can be served at laneside tables. ...offers an extensive martini list alongside a collection of small plates featuring innovative american cuisine designed to encourage sharing

Check out the menu here. 

Anyone up for some bowling?

(Photo from FeedBurner Fotos on Flickr.)

Snow

Let it snow!  Here's the view from my secret study location deep in the heart of the Chicago suburbs.  :)

World Champs!

Cars honking, fireworks going off...  Yes, even here in the suburbs.  Can't even imagine what's going on over on the South Side.  35th Street must be rockin'!

Congratulations to our world champion Chicago White Sox!

Chicago....what a city!

Last week, Amanda and I went downtown for a quick overnight trip to Chicago for her birthday.  We stayed at the beautiful Hotel 71 located on 71 E. Wacker Drive. 

The view from our room overlooking the Chicago River (and the construction of the new Trump Tower...) was stunning!  The pic to the left was the view from our room (click for larger image.) 

The hotel was nice - very trendy and ultra-modern.  We're not sure, however, that we would choose to stay there again.  The hotel seemed to lack a few amenities that we would have expected for the price.  Plus, we were grossed out by a couple of things that we shouldn't have experienced in a hotel of this caliber.  (Don't even ask...)

We had dinner at a new Chicago restaurant called Butter.  It's one of the most talked about restaurants in the West Loop.  It was a great restaurant full of creative dishes and a great ambience.

Overall, we were reminded (again) of how magnificant Chicago really is.  To be able to hop on a train or car and go east about 40 minutes (without traffic) and be smack dab in the middle of the third largest city in the US is something worth taking heavy advantage of. 

Plus, it's where the White Sox are from.  Need I say more?