City of Grace Scottsdale

On the heels of another outstanding "Red Letter Summer Weekend" Judith and I entered one amazing week. I don't have the time to chronicle everything the past seven days have held for us but here are a few highlights:

We spent Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday in the Team Church Conference at Champions Centre in Tacoma, WA. This amazing conference is hosted by our dear friends Kevin and Sheila Gerald. Judith and I have been blessed to participate in the Team Church Conference for the past few years and it has become one of the highlights of our year. This year's lineup was Kevin, Craig Groeschel of Lifechurch.tv, Paul Scanlon of Abundant Life Church, Gary Clarke of Hillsong London, Carl Lentz of Wave Church, and yours truly. In his typical fashion, Kevin was brilliant. He has some of the best insights into leadership that you will ever hear along with a remarkable ability to motivate you to reach beyond your grasp. And Paul Scanlon is, in my humble opinion, one of the top communicators in our generation.

From there we flew back to the Valley on Thursday and drove straight up to Williams, AZ for our annual Radial (City of Grace) youth camp. To call it "amazing" would be an understatement. There is nothing like watching hundreds of teenagers worshipping with abandon, praying with passion, and answering the call to make a difference in their generation. It was thirty-six years ago that I, as a boy of seven, first felt the "call" to one day preach the Gospel. Youth camp will always have a special place in my heart because of that. I'll have the youth pastors post their thoughts later this week along with some pictures.

If that wasn't enough to pack into one week, Joshua (our middle son) and I flew to Dallas, TX on Saturday to minister for Ed Young, Jr. at Fellowship Church this weekend. Fellowship Church is one of the great churches in America with well over 25,000 members meeting on five campuses from Grapevine, TX to Miami, FL. My life has been impacted by Ed Young Jr.'s friendship and ministry and it was an honor to contribute back in some small way. Four services later (15 if you count the video services on all five campuses) and I am sitting in the Gaylord Hotel reflecting back on the... you guessed it... amazing experience.  

So that's it. It was an amazing week on the road... and also back in Scottsdale and Mesa. I've spent the afternoon listening to voicemail reports concerning Judith's message at City of Grace and the scores of people who came to Christ!

I wonder what God has planned for us in the weeks to come?!