I can’t believe I forgot to post this on Friday. Hyatt has gone over the top with their soap. First of all, it big. Big hotel soap is the best. On top of that, it’s lumpy on one side. It’s not "bar soap." It’s a "soothing massage bar." Jeff liked it so much, he pocketed a bar to bring back home. Ladies and gentlemen, I’m pleased to announced that Hyatt has the honor of being my first A+ bar of hotel soap. Anyone else stay at Hyatt that can confirm they had the best hotel soap you’ve ever experienced?

Wow! We’ve had a fun couple of days in D.C. for the inaugural edition of the Buzz Conference. Here are my highlights from day two:

• I met some other bloggers this morning at the coffee house including Bruce from Perth, Australia. Found out Bruce listens to the Simply Strategic Show every week. I knew I liked the Aussies.
• My favorite line of the entire day was one of the first things that Mark Batterson said this morning in his opening session: "I’m convinced that how you feel about ministry largely depends on who you’re doing ministry with." I’m convinced of that as well.
• Mark also pointed out that "People who don’t attend the church get their theology from movies and music." Tru dat. (Thanks, Dawn, for helping me learn the urban lingo.)
• Brad from Church Marketing Sucks shared some great stuff including this gem: "The audience is always right. If they’re not getting the message, it’s your fault not their fault."
• Mark announced that there will be a couple of "simply strategic" speakers at next year’s Buzz Conference. Hope they’re good.
• Speaking of Dawn from AspireOne, she participated in a branding panel this afternoon. I’m paraphrasing here. She can correct me if I got this wrong, but I think she said something like "Don’t tell people what you want them to know, tell them what they need to hear." Did I get that right, Dawn?
• We took some time to walk by the Lincoln Memorial, the Washington Monument and the White House. Apparently we just missed the President’s motorcade. Bummer.
• Jeff, Butch, Tim and I confirmed that at one point in our lives, we’ve all been president of something. We’re the ex-presidents. We make the Hyatt staff sing "Hail to the Chief" when we walk through the halls now.
• This evening we got to hang out at the Batterson abode. We got to hang out with cool people, eat lots of pizza and do a special podcast interview for next week’s show. (Pssst… Here’s a secret. There will be a big announcement in next week’s podcast.)

And, finally, I found out tonight that Mark and I share a common dream to get a call some day to participate in the Catalyst Conference. Mark has one advantage over me, though–he can actually speak. Maybe he’ll let me hold his notes while he talks. Do you think the guys that hold the notes get to have lunch with Andy Stanley? I hope so.

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.

We arrived in D.C. this morning at about 9:00 a.m. Here are the highlights of the trip so far:

• I woke up at 4:00 a.m. Did you know there’s a 4:00 a.m.?
• We were talking about the 80/20 principle at 5:25 a.m.? 80% of the people I know probably think I’m at least 20% wacko for talking about the 80/20 principle at 5:25 a.m.
• Jeff informs me we had "rock star" parking at the South Bend airport. I’m still learning my urban slang, but apparently that means we ended up with the closest possible parking spot to the front door. Of course, you have to remember it was 5:30 a.m. and we were flying out of South Bend. Even the Idol rejects could get a good parking spot under those conditions.
• Our Delta pilot from South Bend to Cincy was flying the plane like he was a fighter pilot. Actually, it was pretty fun. And we got to Cincy really fast.
• Tim, Butch and I got Naked in the Cincy airport. Jeff didn’t want to. He got popcorn instead.
• My underwear made it to D.C.
• We’re staying at the Hyatt just a couple of blocks from Union Station where the Buzz Conference is being held. I’ll get you the soap report tomorrow morning after my first shower. The kind people at Hyatt let us check in early. We like Hyatt.
• I like my new RAZR with Bluetooth capability. I can talk to Emily hands-free.
• D.C. is the only place I’ve been to in years where men still wear suits. There are suits everywhere. I’m feeling a little out of place in my t-shirt and ball cap. But I don’t care. My government days are behind me.

It’s a quick turnaround day. I have to unpack from the golf trip and repack for the big trip to D.C. to attend the Buzz Conference. I can’t wait to get there and see some fun friends–some for the first time in person. I’m going with a few of my favorite friends from Granger as well. Tim, Butch and Jeff will also be along for the ride.

In case you haven’t heard, we do ministry/life in teams at Granger. In fact, I can’t remember the last trip I made by myself. That’s a good thing. I get to share the experience. We learn new things together. And, I have plenty of people to borrow underwear from if my luggage doesn’t make it from South Bend to my destination. Doing ministry in teams is great!

I can’t wait to get Buzzed! Updates start tomorrow.

Just got back from my golf trip. It rained two of the three days we played, but we still got all of our rounds in. While I was gone, though, some interesting things happened.

We had trouble finding breakfast on Sunday morning. Our tee time was at 8:45 a.m. and we couldn’t find a place to eat in all of Fairfield Glade, TN. No fast-food. No Waffle House. No local diners. We ended up eating at the Shell gas station. It was delightful.

All of the locals were gathered at the Shell station for coffee and conversation. It was a bunch of old men—maybe eight of them in all—sitting around tables at the front of the gas station. Emily and I like to refer to gatherings like this as the “table of all knowledge.” It’s where old men gather to talk about how things were better 20 years ago and how they’d fix things today. Old people gather at Shell stations. My generation gathers at Starbucks. It’s all the same.

One of the old men at the Shell station came up and asked where we were from. He didn’t really care where we were from. He was just looking for an excuse to tell us about his life…his entire life. He was a retired engineer. He graduated from M.I.T. Guess that’s what happens if you get a degree from M.I.T. You end up sitting at the “table of all knowledge” at a Shell station in central Tennessee. I’m glad I went to Bowling Green State University.

After the second day of golf, I was pretty worn out. I slept hard that night. Among other things, I dreamed I was on CNN. I was interviewed by Lou Dobbs. I’m not sure why Lou Dobbs would be interviewing me in my dream. And, more importantly, I’m not sure why anyone would ever watch CNN. Besides, I’ve already turned down an interview with Fox News, so I certainly would never entertain the thought of doing an interview for that other news network.

I had the chance to read the first six chapters of Naked Conversations. Love it so far. My favorite nugget in the first chapters this: “Companies need to offer something so unique, valuable, or compelling that people will want to tell others about it… The single best way to accomplish word-of-mouth publicity is not with a clever web site or tell-a-friend software or cash rewards. The best way to do this is to make something worth talking about.” That same principle works for churches as well. I’ve seen it happen.

I’m home for a day before I take off to D.C. for the Buzz Conference. It’s going to be a fun few days. To the best of my ability, I’ll tell you all about it. Watch for my play-by-play notes coming in the next couples of days.