Cool Friends. Cool Soap. Cool Butt.

Yesterday was a full travel day, so I didn’t have a chance to recap what happened during the rest of my MinistryCOM experience. Here’s the scoop:

• On Thursday evening, I had the chance to sit by Shawn Wood at dinner. Shawn is on the staff team of Seacoast Church, one of the fastest growing and most innovative churches in the country. I learned a ton from him as he talked about the multi-site strategy Seacoast has implemented over the past several years. Seacoast meets each weekend on 7 campuses, one of which also includes 3 unique venues.
• On Friday, Kem and I had the chance to have lunch with Jeff Hook, the CEO of Fellowship Technologies. We are grateful for the partnership Granger has with Jeff and his team. They provide the web-based church management system that we’ve been using for the last couple of years.
• After Friday’s lunch Amber Cox, the daughter of Mark Beeson, Granger’s senior pastor, taught a breakout session. Amber is on the team of AspireOne now. Like her dad, she’s a very gifted communicator.
• I had the chance to have two separate conversations with Lee McFarland, the senior pastor of Radiant Church, and Greg Rohlinger, the senior pastor of Palm Valley Community Church. This was my first opportunity to talk for any extended period of time with Greg. Greg planted Palm Valley just over 5 years ago and they’re already running about 2,000 in attendance. The amazing thing is that they’re still meeting in a school.
• I met a lot of great people including Matt Singley of Sunset Presbyterian Church in Portland, Oregon. Matt brought me a special gift. Knowing how much I appreciate a good bar of hotel soap, he gave me an unopened bar from Holiday Inn Express. The soap is labeled "simplySmart" which I think is a simply strategic name for a bar of hotel soap. Thanks Matt!
• And, to top it all off, we ended up with a Lincoln Navigator from Hertz for this trip. They apparently rented the last of their Explorers, so they gave us a free upgrade. Because of that, I got to use air-conditioned seats for the first time. Yep, the Navigator is equipped with butt coolers. I’m not sure I liked it. My bottom felt wet (even though they weren’t) rather than feeling cold. To be honest, I think I’d rather have hot buns than cold buns.