M7

We had a great week at M7... making friends, telling stories, throwing parties and giving gifts.

Making Friends... it was just overwhelming to see the turnout at all of our emergent workshops and to meet so many great people who are also Nazarenes and are also on this journey of asking missionary questions in their culture. From my new friends in Canada, to the west coast, to the east coast and everywhere in between, it was great to meet you and spend time thinking and talking and eating together (you've gotta eat right??) I also want to thank all the presenters - Jim Wicks, Sean Heston, Tim Conder, Tim Keel, Mike King, and Jon Middendorf. Thanks for being you!

Telling Stories... over food, over coffee and of course during the in-between sessions and workshops time. Good people are doing great things all over!

I also had the privilege of sharing some stories of Jesus at our party Monday night. I talked about Jesus two miracles of feeding - 5000 and 4000, with special attention to the location of these miracles and the number of baskets left (land of the 12- 12 baskets; land of the 7 - 7 baskets). I also told the story of Jesus quiting the storm in the context of the things we fear the most. The theme of the stories was "calling" and what Jesus has called us to in following Him.

Throwing Parties... We threw two distinctly different parties both geared for college aged students (props to the 700+ college students there). Both nights we had the Jacob's Well band perform and both nights we were in Grace and Holy Trinity church in downtown KC. What an awesome space!! (another post on that to come I'm sure) Monday night was more of a church service, very similar to what goes on at Jacob's Well on a typical Sunday. Tuesday night was a prayer service and was lead by various people including some folks from the 24-7 prayer movement. It was also a great time.

Giving Gifts... we did give a few gifts, but we also recieved some great gifts like...
- people's participation - the emergent workshops were the best attended of all the workshops at M7. This clearly says that people are hungry for more information and more conversation.
- people's voices - not only were the workshops well attended, but people were so engaged. The conversation was rich!
- graciousness - we had several guests including Tim Keel, Tim Conder and Mike King and they were graciously recieved
- visitors - the conference was open to one and all and we had several who were form no tribe or different tribes than us Nazbos there and we are better for your presence

If you were there please drop a comment on your experience. We missed some of you quite a bit who couldn't be there.