Today was the real first day of the convention. The General sessions
started as well as the seminars. This morning Mary and I got up and
made our way to the convention center in search of the prayer
labyrinth. If you aren’t familiar with a prayer labyrinth, it is like
a maze, but there are no dead ends. Along the labyrinth, there are a
series of 11 prayer stations. It was Mary’s first time through one,
and she said that it was one of the best things of the convention,
beside the 1Life Experience that we were at last night.

Today was a couple of seminars and 2 general sessions. We both went
to one that was about Lectio Devina or sacred reading. That actually
took us through it, which gave me confirmation that I have been doing
it right all along. The second seminar that I attended was
Revolutionizing your youth ministry: Taking ancient stories into the
post-modern. Not exactly what I expected, but gave me a better idea
of how Paul, Lisa, Mary and I can train the youth group in evangelism
and discipleship.

The General sessions were pretty good, but of the two Doug Fields was
the best talking about saying no in youth ministry. Youth pastors are
notorious for saying yes to too many things and then going on into a
train wreck that either drives them out of ministry, or losing things
dear to them. A good message even if youre not a youth pastor. After
the last session, Mary and I stayed to watch the new NOOMA video. I’ve
talked about them before. I love the way Rob Bell puts things into
context. The new one is on God being the rhythm of life and how we
can love Him and be in relationship with Him. A really good analogy.
Can’t wait until I can get it for my NOOMA class at church.

Other happenings today was seeing Jars of Clay(!) and doing praise
and worship with David Crowder.