Buzz Conference Day One Highlights

It was a great launch to the Buzz Conference today. Here are my highlights:

• Union Station is incredible. I love the setting of the conference. National Community Church has a good thing going with their strategy to add church locations in theaters at Metro stops.
• I got to see lots of blogging friends throughout the day including Robert Pooley, Ben Arment, Tally Wilgis, Scott Hodge, Gary Lamb, Greg Rohlinger, Brad Abare, Scott Harris, Dan Ohlerking, and, of course, Mark Batterson.
• Mark Batterson launched today’s conference with a reminder that Jesus called us to "compel them to come in, so that my house may be filled" (Luke 14:23).  He then revealed 5 of the 10 Buzz Commandments. Those included: (1) Thou shalt turn water into wine. We need to exceed people’s expectations. He challenged us to "Do it big and do it right." (2) Thou shalt preach from boats. We need to say old things in new ways. (3) Thou shalt offend Pharisees. If we dare to be different, we will be criticized. (4) Thou shalt hang out at wells. We need to bring the Gospel message to where people hang out. (5) Thou shalt crack the whip. Jesus was too dynamic to be safe. We need to be doing things that are bigger than we are. It stretches us. It makes us depend on God.
• Ed Young talked about how to be a creative leader. Among other things, I loved his list of questions he asks before he speaks:
  • What’s the point?
  • What’s the tension? (try to create tension 3 or 4 times in a message)
  • What’s the transition?
  • How do I pull it off?
  • How do I apply it? (information without application is an abomination; we need to answer the question so what?)
  • How is it different?
  • Is it your style?
  • Is it your stuff?
  • Is it your passion?
• We concluded the day by attending the Buzz Film Festival at Ebenezers. Wow! We saw some incredibly creative medias. I particularly loved the stuff from Sugar Creek Baptist Church near Houston. I’m pretty proud of our team as well, because two of the videos from Granger won first place in their categories. One was produced by Kim on our staff team and one was produced by Russ, a volunteer on our media team. Way to go guys!

That’s only day one. We have another big day planned for tomorrow.