2 dreams come true!!!!

Dream #1 - Free wireless high speed internet connection - it was discovered recently by my missionary and slightly nomadic friend David Rebello that Panera Bread does indeed provide free high speed wireless internet access (Panera is now to be referred to as "Brian's other office" or "the great and mighty Panera Bread"). God is truly great and has blessed me with many blessings!

For some of you this is no big deal, but when I physically CANNOT get high speed internet at either my home or office, this is the cause of much great rejoicing.

Dream #2 - As I mentioned the other day, I was able on Tuesday to present a seminar on the "Emerging Church". This is a dream of mine for a couple reasons. One, I love the emerging church and what it means for those of us in ministry. Two, I love sharing those dreams and thoughts with others who just might catch a vision for their own world. (For more really good thoughts on the emerging church check out Andrew Jones' blog which you can link to through my links on the right.)

So I did it and it went well and some people were really happy to find some like minded folk in the world. There were some there who are in the desperate stage for their local church because they are an aging and dying church. They are looking for anything to help them move forward. Then there were some in established kind of churches and looking for some ideas or trying to put words to some of the things they are already thinking and feeling. Then there were a few there who were already doing some of this and were looking to connect with some others. Hopefully our short time together was helpful for all. I shared a resource list which I hope will be the greatest asset to them of all.

But the other really funny story of the day comes from breakfast (and later lunch). I sat down for breakfast at a table of complete strangers who immediately revealed themselves to be from the same staff of a Southern Baptist church. Then they began grilling me on what "emerging church" meant and were trying to figure out if I was going to hell and trying to take others with me. After some brief discussion, they seemed pleased to find that I actually was pro Jesus and pro church. They were kind of digging our conversation and so they invited me to join them for lunch and I accepted and we continued conversations over lunch. Before breakfast they didn't think they were going to like me at all, after breakfast they liked me a lot and after lunch they were pretty confused and heading back toward dislike.

Here's the really funny part - we were talking about faith in Christ and that whole thing of "getting your ticket punched" so you won't go to hell after you die. We were kind of joking about it and they said, "well is your ticket punched? Do you know you aren't going to hell?" And I said, "no," just to see what they would do and one of the guys actually reached into his shirt pocket and started to pull out a tract - then massive laughter (started by me) errupted. Man, how great is it that I was almost given a tract on not going to hell by a Southern Baptist pastor at a pastor's conference?!?!?!?! Life sometimes is so great and so funny!