Catalyst Labs

I just want to post a QUICK recap of day 1 of Catalyst - the Labs. The main conference actually starts tomorrow...
In the coming weeks I want to post some more of my thoughts about the Lab sessions I went to today. But for now I'm just posting a quick summary.

Probably the best session I was in all day was with Alan Hirsch. It was awesome! My head is still spinning from his talk. I'll probably write a few blogs JUST from the practical implications of what he presented us with -> some great anthropological and cultural insights.

I also got to hear Mike Foster whose works and organizations I've admired for years and written about and highlighted on this blog countless times. He has been gracious enough to be my online friend for a couple years and write back and forth with me many times, BUT today we got to meet in person. I never knew how crazy TALL he is. here's a pic of me & Crystal with Mike today. (He's so tall).

Shane Hipps also made our brains hurt a little. It was stellar. Looking forward to hearing him more on the main stage tomorrow.

We went to a Church Planting session during dinner and they fed us free pizza. Big thanks to Dave Ferguson at the New Thing Network for hooking us up with that. (I also got to have an extended conversation with Dave and he is SO humble and just a genuinely nice and helpful guy!) Church Planting guru & researcher Ed Stetzer led that panel discussion.

We ended with another panel discussion with Chris Seay, Dave Gibbons, and Bishop of Rwanda John Rucyhana about how the Church can bring justice to it's community.
We also stopped in for some worship with Eddie Kirkland, Christy Nockels, & Aaron Keyes.

Amazing start to this amazing conference! Catalyst '09 may be the best one yet!
I'll be posting way more stuff in the next few days...