virtural introductions.....

I don’t think I have stopped since stepping off the plane from Dallas getting back from the Echo Conference. It was a great time. I still need to update on Day 2 of the conference. We had the opportunity to meet some cool people too. Let me introduce to two of my new buddies.

First, meet Pace Hartfield. Pace is the Worship Pastor at Fellowship Church. I had the opportunity to make the connection with him over email and then got to have lunch on Friday with him. That evening we, along with about 15 other media folk, hung out with Pace and his Media Pastor, Greg Bacus, as they opened up Fellowship Church and their backstage for some good Mexican food and some great conversation. Pace’s blog is full of good stuff and worth the time readying.

Another cool introduction is Josiah Platt. We met Josiah after a presentation by his former employer Pursuant which as a new application out call Unifyer (More about Unifyer in another post). Josiah is a web developer with an amazing heart to use his passions to reach peeps for Christ. He is now doing that with his own company Fuor and doing some creative and innovative things, like his pet project OuriPics. (If I had an iPhone I’d so be using this app. Check it out.)

Those aren’t the only two we met at Echo. We got to make some really cool connections with people that are doing it for the Kingdom. It jazzed me to be in that atmosphere with a group of creatives, as I knew it would. So…I will be back soon with my summary of Day 2

Wild Goose Chase

I got the book to review last Wednesday and I'm not done reading but let me tell you up to this point it's one heck of a book. I promise to give a full review when I am finished but I suggest you go ahead and pick up your copy (or copies for a small group study) over at Amazon.

You can also go over to www.chasethegoose.com and download Mark’s 10 Steps to Setting Life Goals – be sure to check it out yourself! It’s great material for personal OR group study.

Most of us have no idea where we’re going most of the time. Perfect.

“Celtic Christians had a name for the Holy Spirit–An Geadh-Glas, or ‘the Wild Goose.’ The name hints at mystery. Much like a wild goose, the Spirit of God cannot be tracked or tamed. An element of danger, an air of unpredictability surround Him. And while the name may sound a little sacrilegious, I cannot think of a better description of what it’s like to follow the Spirit through life. I think the Celtic Christians were on to something….

Most of us will have no idea where we are going most of the time. And I know that is unsettling. But circumstantial uncertainty also goes by another name: Adventure.” --from the introduction.

Mark Batterson is the lead pastor of Washington, DC’s National Community Church, widely recognized as one of America’s most innovative churches. NCC meets in movie theaters at metro stops throughout the city, as well as in a church-owned coffee house near Union Station. More than seventy percent of NCC’ers are single twentysomethings who live or work on Capitol Hill. Mark is the author of the best-selling In a Pit with a Lion on a Snowy Day and a widely read blogger (http://www.markbatterson.com/). He lives on Capitol Hill with his wife, Lora, and their three children.

echo conference: day two...almost

What a day! Back at the hotel catching up on emails and voicemails and trying desperately to keep my eyes open. Lot's off things to post about today. One of them is about the great time we had with Pace and Greg over at Fellowship Church. I have lots of pics and will share.

It's been a good two days. We, sadly, head back to St Louis tomorrow in time for run-through and the Saturday services at The Crossing (oooo...to be back home!). There are a couple of breakouts and a keynote session I wish we were able to stay for...but, oh well. Next year?

ok, ok...well here is one cool pic of me on the Fellowship stage with some of the guys......

echo conference: day one…

My day was pretty good.

We had a relatively uneventful plane ride to Dallas to be a part of the Echo Conference.

During the flight my buddies, Brian and Monty, decided to take naps. Although it may appear that loud and annoying voices would be protruding from the holes in their head....it did not. So the flights was relatively quiet as well thus allowing me to jump right into the book Wild Goose Chase by Mark Batterson (keep reading for more on Mark).

Upon landing, we got into our rental car, actually a GMC Yukon….cause everything is bigger in Texas and found ourselves taking a few moments of rest at our hotel. Can you say La Quinta?

Then we headed over to Watermark Church to register for the Echo Conference. After registering we bummed around the place and came across some familiar faces…well, at least one. Cathy Hutchinson and Erin Brady (sorry, I can’t add a link here as she seems to be of ancient times and does not blog) from Acoustic Dimensions, Inc. After catching up a little and laughing it up a lot we shared some awesome goodness with them and watched one of our creative medias. This is where things get weird as Cathy seemed to have some issues with getting her computer to work again after the video. (I won't tell anymore due that I may embarrass those parties involved-although I still have not received any free quality stuff from them.) I am not sure what happened but I am pretty sure that Cathy messed something up and Erin wouldn’t do anything to help but tell Cathy to call the office to have them come fix it. Finally, Clark stepped in and got them up and running.

So let’s fast forward of meeting some more folks and some good conversations to dinner time. As we were walking out here comes walking in, Mark Batterson. We got to chat with Mark briefly and told him that I was getting to do a pre release read of his new book. He was pretty happy to hear how much I am enjoying it. Mark seems to be a pretty authentic dude and I really enjoyed his keynote session later this evening.

We wrapped up a pretty good day traveling and hanging out at the Echo Conference with a night cap at the local Sonic. I do recommend the Fried Ice Cream Blast. Come on Day 2!

stupid awesome....

Down here in Dallas hanging with some creative folks and I remembered this video we did a month or so ago at The Crossing. The video was support for John Mayer's song Belief which was performed live.

So... imagine sitting there in a seat of our auditorium, the offering plates just about collected and you hear some music playing that you just dont think should be playing. You look up at the screen and it looks like the video guys mistakenly switched the video to show the iTunes computer....then the lights go down and the song kicks in.

Here's the video support.....pretty stupid awesome

eatherton road....

Eatherton Road is a two lane road in the middle of farmer fields that happens to be the only connection to The Crossing. It's important that you know that so you can come visit us. Even more important is the fact that they county is about to shut one end of it down for about a month to do some re-routing of the road. That sucks for those of us who it effects but only means a little longer drive around town to get to the other side of Eatherton Road.

We know this and have to communicate it to our folks....but we wanted to have some fun with it....

the goose arrived....

My copy(ies) of Mark Batterson's Wild Goose Chase has arrived in time to be my reading material during the plan trip to Dallas tomorrow.

I'm looking forward to diving into the book.

So I have had a few of you that would like to get your eyeballs on the book but don't have a blog to participate in my little contest we have for a free copy, so I am changing the rules!

IF, you are interested in being the one that receives the free copy of Wild Goose Chase ALL YOU have to do is email me at bill@billswaringim.com

That's it. Email me and I will choose a name at random and send (I will pay shipping) the book to the winner on Tuesday, August 19th.

the new look is here...

you voted....this is the outcome.

whacha think?

first day of school...part 2

So it is finally official. Back in July I got a taste of being an old man. Today I was served a full does of it. My oldest daughter started back to school with her first day at Middle School. All three of my daughters are now in school. This was my first day off with them in school. The house was quiet. Don’t get me wrong – I loved it! But I need to get use to it. I guess this is step one in ‘letting go’.

It was just a few days ago I remember dropping her off to preschool….now its middle school. It has been amazing to see her grow up from a shy little girl to an outgoing, creative and talented young lady that is so excited about moving on to Middle School and the friends and experiences that brings. I’m so proud to be the dad of this middle schooler.

countdown to Echo....

I am still pretty jazzed about this conference. We will be landing in Dallas, TX on Thursday afternoon. Getting away for a couple of days, see some friends and meet some new ones and hang out with some really neat fellows from The Crossing.

We have some cool opportunities to connect up with some folks at a couple of local churches in the Dallas area in between the conference sessions. It looks like we will get to hang out with Greg Atkinson at his new place, Bent Tree Fellowship, and Pace Hartfield at Fellowship Church. Both will be fun times and I'm so looking forward to the session speakers at the conference as well.

olympics opening ceremonies

The 2008 Olympic Opening Ceremonies were spectacular. There over 15,000 people were involved on the floor show alone. I loved how they mingled creativity, technology and their culture into the best opening ceremonies yet. The use of video and lighting in that size of venue and how well it looked on my television was done with perfection.

Randy Elrod was -and is- there and took pictures. You can see them from his perspective here.

chasing the goose.....

I just received word that I will get to review Mark Batterson’s new book Wild Goose Chase. I will post the review on www.billswaringim.com as soon as I can which will hopefully be before the release date of August 19th. I am jazzed that I get a sneak peak at Mark’s latest book. All the pre-release materials have fed my curiosity. I loved his book In a Pit with a Lion on a Snowy Day.

Mark’s publisher is also letting me give away a free copy of Wild Goose Chase to a lucky www.billswaringim.com blog reader…but you’re all lucky if you are reading my blog…right? So, if you want to be the one to be chosen to receive your FREE (I will even pay shipping) copy of Mark Batterson’s latest release Wild Goose Chase here’s all you do =

1)post the line below on your blog and link back to www.billswaringim.com.

then...

2) post your blog address and name in the comment section below this post so we can through your name in a hat and pick one!

Check out Wild Goose Chase by Mark Batterson and the book review at www.billswaringim.com

Good Luck!

time for a new look......

First comes the new name –www.billswaringim.com…well it’s not really new (nor is it easier for those who still can’t spell my name correctly) now comes a new look for the blog including the header. In this season of elections I’m gonna make this makeover a democratic process. Soooo, take a look at the three choices below and choose your favorite (they all may be better choices then what we have in November…..). Then move over to the right side of the page and vote in the poll (there will be no hanging chads!). Let your choice be heard and counted!

I will update the blog style next Wednesday.

Option 1: Flip Flop

Option 2: Energetic

Option 3: Just plain goofy

me dot com......

yea, I did it. You can find me at www.billswaringim.com now.

leading others....

A large portion of my job as a Technical Director is leading people - leading people in vision, task and spiritual matters. A recent situation, that I was unpleasantly involved in, reminded me that one of my biggest responsibilities of leading others is first to be led well.

While I have been put in charge of high dollar production systems and nearly one hundred precious volunteers, I am still responsible to follow and learn from those that God has placed in leadership. I guess you could use the word ‘submit’ to their leadership.

People have paid dearly for forgetting that there is always someone leading you or worse, not having any accountability at all. Wisdom comes from, and is in, the ability of to learn from and follow others.

kidz weekend recap.....

As a former children's pastor and with two daughters involved in the service, I was looking forward to this weekend. The Kidz Ministry here at the Crossing took over the weekend services and did a kick butt job. It was amazing to see a ton of kids on stage leading worship for all four services....and the adults in the room worshipping right along with them!

The feature song included some dance in black light which was cool. All of the kids chorus, adult leaders, the drama and the adult band were awesome....and the design was a big home run. Awesome weekend all around!!!!!

passion church....

It is official.  Louie Giglio is launching a church in Atlanta, GA called Passion Church.

Check out Louie's story about and vision over on the Buckhead Church blog interviewed by campus pastor Jeff Henderson.  Chris Tomlin, Nathan and Christy Knockles and Matt Redman are living in ATL now and are mentioned in the interview.  I'm interested to see how this all develops.

sneek peek: stage design

here is a sneek peek for this week's stage design. The Kidz Ministries are taking over the weekend service's and have created a visual fiesta out of about 600 pool noodles. The theme is the 10 Commandments with Matt. 22: 37-39 being the key verse...'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.'This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.'

The design captures the theme well, is fun and is scaled to fit our massive walls.




























job well done!

I will upload some pics from the service next week.