Impact: day 1

Yes, I made it to Findlay, OH. I am here to attend IMPACT. According to the brochure...

IMPACT is an annual discipleship event sponsored by the Churches of God, General Conference. It's approximately sixty-four, jam-packed hours of authentic and inspiring worship, life-changing teaching, engaging breakout seminars and rich fellowship with old and new friends. It's our prayer that God will use your time at IMPACT to transform you into the person that He desires you to be so that you can pursue the life He has for you.

It is put together by a very good friend of mine, and after the first night and the next morning, I'd say he did a fantastic job.

I think I was the last person to sign-in last night before they locked the doors. I chatted with daughter Carrie and Jim (a sometimes commenter here), as well as several other friends I hadn't seen in some time. It was a good and safe trip, dear. I listened to a Greg Boyd sermon, then ZZ Top Greatest Hits, then Bob Dylan's Modern Times.

The evening program started off pretty cool. It was dark and quiet, then the sand art guy - Joe Castillo - made the coolest images; sort of telling the story of Creation set to art, music, and Scripture being cast around the room. The Urban Light band led us in worship - and it made me want to start a band again. Of course the first song was How Great Is Our God - which always chokes me up for a variety of reasons. We don't do it too much anymore since we don't have a band. The band sounded really good tonight. The featured speaker for the night was Margaret Feinberg. She was good. It made me want to buy her book The Organic God. Man, it seems everything is organic anymore.

I ranted at Brian Miller for a while (thanks for listening, Brian). Then headed to daughter Carrie's apartment. I made her turn her air conditioner on, and slept well.

This morning I tried to get online and it took me for-stinking-ever to finally do it. I had to log in through the University, and download their stuff and whatnot. So I kinda missed the main session this morning. I sat in the dark in the balcony by myself. It was nice.

Then I attended a breakout session with Brian and Bill called "The Missional Church in the Emerging American Culture - Pt. 1." It was a full room (not sure how many that was). They are using Reggie McNeal's The Present Future as a discussion starter. There was some good discussion - though I wanted to say a whole lot more than I did. But... I am trying to hold back. I was surprised there were quite a few older people in there.

Well, I wanted to work on the wedding ceremony, and then the breakout session starts again at 2. I had lunch by myself. Tuna salad sandwich, side salad, and water. I think I'll see if Carrie has any chocolate on her desk.

Peace out; and in.