As I mentioned in my earlier post about our trip to Orlando for the Southern Baptist Convention and Pastor’s Conference in June, one of the cool things was the emphasis on adoption. Here’s the video testimony they played during the conference that tells a little bit about the launching of the SBC Adoption Fund for Ministers. Pass it on!
Wow, had an awesome time in Orlando at the Pastors’ Conference and Southern Baptist Convention along with some extra time for family vacation.
Some of the highlights from the Conference and Convention…
Great music…
Our kids loved the Watoto Children’s Choir…
Loved the emphasis on adoption…many of the leaders this year were adoptive families themselves…a new adoption scholarship fund was launched with the conference and one couple received the first gift…powerful…
Fascinating hearing the great mind Ravi Zacharias teach…
 Ed Stetzer always has deep stuff about the missional church…
Francis Chan is so powerful…and yet so humble…spoke about the importance of “knowing Christ” and so much more…
Andy Stanley has such great leadership insight…definitely provided some stuff to chew on for awhile…
After the Conference came the Convention…
A very interesting experience as a first time attender…11,000 messengers…where a major emphasis was on the adoption of the recommendations of the Great Commission Resurgence Task Force…
 
Got to hear the lead singer for Sonicflood sing…
Also got to hear Casting Crowns in concert…
Of course, there was so much more…
Enjoyed the opportunity to represent East Side as well as our family time away together. Thank you East Side!
This fall at East Side Jamie and I led our Wednesday night adult study through Tedd Tripp’s Shepherding A Child’s Heart. I think it is one of the best things out there dealing with what it means to parent biblically. We also recommend working through the companion Parent’s Handbook as it allows parents to dig much deeper into the foundational biblical principles for shepherding our children. In addition, Tedd and Margy Tripp also have a newer book out called Instructing A Child’s Heart that we highly recommend. Parents will greatly benefit from reading and working through these books more than once. You might even consider going through them once a year for refreshing.
We also recommend watching the following five sessions from the recent Biblical Parenting Conference at Mars Hill Church in Seattle. In the videos Tedd teaches the foundational concepts for shepherding a child’s heart.(advice – in order to play a second video in this post after watching a previous one…you’ll probably need to refresh the page first.)
Session 1 – The Call To Formative Instruction.
Session 2 – Giving Kids A Vision For God’s Glory
Session 3 – Helping Kids Understand Authority
Session 4 – Helping Kids Understand The Heart
Session 5 – Overview Of Corrective Discipline
Thought I’d post a little video for your amusement of some recent mountain biking. Now, I’m no mountain biker, in fact, it’s been a LONG TIME since I’ve even been on a bicycle. I did grow up racing motocross, but after peddling that bike up hill I think motocross is a whole lot easier and a lot less work. But, I still had fun. During a recent family camping trip (we call it cuzn’s camp), Jamie’s brother (Levi) and two cousins (Ben and Byron) invited me to “ride” the Siltcoos Lake Trail with them. I said…uhmmm…sure.
Byron took this awesome video with his helmit cam and posted it for our enjoyment. Pretty cool. If you wonder where I’m at in the video, well, I’m trailing behind these guys…just a little bit 
. Enjoy! Thanks Byron.
I’ve meant to blog some pictures from our recent trip to Southern California. We went down to San Diego to visit some friends and the weather was awesome.  We also got to check out the beach, Sea World, California Adventure, and Disneyland as well.
 
 
We also had time on Sunday to check out two big churches, Harvest and Saddleback. Here’s some pics from Harvest. What was pretty cool was their outdoor amplitheatre and courtyard which served as an overflow area with a big outdoor screen. Pretty fun.
Saddleback was interesting as well. We especially enjoyed their themed children’s area…The Reef.
So there you have it.
I wanted to give a shout out to Greg for organizing the Blazer game trip to Portland…everyone had a blast. There were 43 East Side’rs and friends that made it to the game. And of course, it made for a great daddy/daughter outting for a four year old. She had a blast riding the MAX, screaming at the game, snacking on her snowcone and licorice rope, and chowing down a Chalupa from Taco Bell on the way home (since the Blazers scored 100 points, everyone got a free Chalupa coupon after the game). What a great time!
I got the Olson family off to the Portland airport yesterday. We had a great time hanging out with Phil, Heather, Grace, and Anna all week. They stayed with our family…so we had many great discussions and the kids had a super time playing together. We are so excited for their family to move back here in January and work with our church on staff in the areas of discipleship and outreach. Pray for them as they spend time in the Chicago area for the Christmas season before coming back out. I know they are going to bring a great mix to East Side’s leadership and future…particularly with the depth and passion of their faith.
Phil and I met six years ago while teaching together at Lifegate Christian School. He was fresh back from the mission field of Mexico and was in the States for the year to get married (he and Heather met on the field in Mexico) and prepare for moving to South America.   While hanging out that year with us at East Side we were able to develop a great friendship together.  They then spent the last five years serving as missionaries to Ecuador. In his (their) new role at East Side they will help us become even more effective in the areas of discipleship (a large part of their ministry in Ecuador) as well as outreach (specifically Hispanic outreach as he is pretty good in his Spanish and has a passion for those cultures).
Here’s a few quick pics…for more check out Jamie’s blog as she did an incredible job with a photoshoot for them.
