Here are my notes from the conference. You can also catch glimpses on my twitter.

To get notes CLICK ON TABS AT TOP OF BLOG page in right hand corner. Session are numbered and named for your convenience. You can also get them here…
Rob Bell
Peter Rollins
Shane Hipps

*These notes are not all verbatim. They are as close as I could get as the sessions were progressing. There may be some spelling errors, missed parts and attempts to paraphrase what was said. Gets hard to write so fast! There are many things you might read that would be better understood in the context of the entire teaching or conference. This is simply to help as a resource for those who attended and those who did not attend but wanted to catch a glimpse of the action Enjoy!

Everyone has there thing the like to do. Mine……. basketball. Mainly the Lakers and Kobe Bryant. When my wife and I found out we were expecting our first child back in 2000 I was shocked to find that she was willing to let me name my child after my favorite basketball player… Kobe Bryant. She agreed on the terms that we spell it with a “C” after her dad. (best wife ever!) Didn’t bother me, cause I’m the biggest fan and have been so since day one! Most still spell it with a “K” and my son has often asked can we legally change his middle name to “Bryant” (Love my boy!) I have an insane passion for the lakers. Actually split up with two girlfriends over games back in college…. just being honest Kobe is a player that’s driven, passionate, never quits, and is always playing a “me vs. world” game – and I love it!

Now, fast forward to winter of 2007. We had 2nd row seat for Lakers vs. Hawks in Atlanta. My wife decided our son (5) should hold up a sign that read… “Kobe my parents named me after you” Our wishful thinking was that Kobe would just acknowledge us, wave, some small gesture. To our amazement at the end of the game a reporter from the LA times came to us, interviewed us (we were in the LA times the next day) and then took us in the back locker rooms to meet Kobe. Kobe spent time with us, met my family, autographed my sons poster and the next day we found out this video was on Kobe’s main web site… and the NBA photographer had taken a picture for us to keep.

Not only did we grow in our passion as fans of Kobe, but this was a moment we would never forget.

Kobe meet Cobe from Tim Grandstaff on Vimeo.

Tonight the Lakers play in the NBA finals. I am jacked up! My son and I are ready, and we made sure when packing that we kept our jerseys out. We move to Orlando this weekend and God somehow showered down blessings to allow the Lakers to play the Orlando Magic this year for the championship. I have had my share of luck and joy in meeting Kobe Bryant like most will never get……… but I am hoping as a passionate fan with all fingers crossed to see him play in Orlando and win it all! Oh, would that top it all off.

GO – Kobe / Lakers!

on Saturday Night, May 16th as I will be right in front of a TV for this one. Yes!!!!

Why because I am his #1 fan… a freak! Named my kid after him… seriously! (HERE)

I write this post as I journey on an inward search for how to effectively balance life with all it’s amazing opportunities and equally as big distractions. Recently the world of twitter  has emerged as a social networking giant, doubling and tripling the amount of users each month. Yet, as I have engaged in this world I have seen some great things and disturbing things that have me asking myself lots of questions…

[The Good - A network of endless opportunities]

I am all for networking, especially with todays technology and possibilities. I have seen great things happen as technology expands our ability to connect, reconnect, and create new networks with people around the world. Just recently within twitter world I have seen people responding immediately in prayer for total strangers, ReTweeting great thoughts to think about, and posting to followers for connecting , support, and encouragement with people they may have or may have never met. Heck, some of you are reading this post because of twitter and facebook. A new international tool to share my heart, thoughts, and journey in life with. Nothing wrong with that, and that’s what I have seen through these tools. 

One girl in our church was recently hospitalized on Sunday night from a serious car accident. Within minutes through facebook and twitter people new about it, responded, were praying, and one their way to the hospital for support. Amazing! 

I am currently in the process of starting a church in Orlando, Florida and twitter has already connected me to people I would have never met. I have learned about the area, networked with other pastors, and found out about the city from total strangers. I have even had a church across the country partner with what we are doing… all through twitter.

When my wife’s grandmother died, when our son went to the emergency room, immediate response and prayer… this blow my mind.

Daily I have the ability at my finger tips to read others thoughts, blogs, encouragements, letters, teachings, hurts, pains, frustrations, and see how I can help, pray, and possibly respond. 

I am reminded of Paul’s letter to a group of people where he shows that they used all forms of communication to connect, support, and teach those in the church:

2 Thessalonians 2:15 So then, brothers and sisters, stand firm and hold fast to the teachings we passed on to you, whether by word of mouth or by letter. (and might I add in todays culture… facebook, myspace, and twitter)

[The Bad - Might Be Too Much]

With each new technological advancement in our society comes a lot more of one thing… distractions! One twitterer Daniel Henderson taught me “Satan doesn’t have to destroy you, he just wants to distract you.” There are great things like tweet deck, twitterific for my iphone, twitterfon, etc. but each one only keeps me from accomplishing some very important things. It used to be email that got in the way and distracted most of us from getting things accomplished, but now facebook and twitter have taken things to new levels.  One person had a statistic that said something like… “the normal working person could receive 100 emails on average a day, now with twitter they can receive over 400 daily.” That’s a lot to read and lot to keep us sometimes from doing other things that might be more important.

I find myself (yes I as well) in circles with other people, pastors, and friends who sit at tables and instead of talking, we twitter, look at facebook, and loose out on time to truly connect. We sit in meetings checking twitter, instead of engaging, listening, and putting forth our best focused efforts on the task at hand. My wife has implemented a “NO DRIVING & TWITTERING” rule, cause I found myself shamefully checking twitter and driving. Not only dangerous, but also keeping from conversing with my own family in my car. So where does it stop, and how do we find balance?

[The Ugly - A self-building kingdom?]

This is where I am having the hardest time. Just this week I deleted twitter from my phone. Moving deeper into my church planting efforts I find myself networked with many other churches, pastors, and ministries. I search hard to find a line cause I want to see what is happening and what is taking place within their community, but for the most part it seems as if twitter has become a huge bragging and competition platform. I see people shouting out stats, stories, and ministries happening that have me often wondering if it’s truly to share God’s glory, or to make themselves more famous? To let others see God’s hand at work, or get their church on the radar for the next conference? I have read people ReTwittering comments about themselves as if they were writing their own promo for a book, and found myself reading endless tweets of people who seem to be trying create the next best comment that gets pushed around twitter to grab more followers. I often feel as if some are even trying to become what I call “the 140 character pastor.” The one who is hoping that while he teaches his quote s are getting posted all over the world because of how creatively he worded something. Is it about God or more about how much you get noticed?  That’s not what this networking device is supposed to be about. That’s not what we entered this journey for. Yes, there are some profound things that we all need to hear, and twitter helps accomplish that quickly to many in need. But, ReTweeting, the most followers, and having our quotes posted are not the goal. The goal is to connect with the body so that more for God’s Kingdom can be done. I’m just seeing a lot of people mix that up with building their own. 

There are a lot of reasons I love twitter/facebook, and there are reasons I don’t know how much I want to engage in them. Some are doing a great job with this new technology and some are abusing it. Even in writing this… am I just getting something off my chest or hoping that someone else will follow? One thing for certain… I know there is a balance, I know there is a line, I am searching, and wondering where and how to find it?

How do you see it? How are you handling this in your life?

I awoke this morning and had breakfast with Barry Rice the Lead Pastor of GO Church. Barry has a tremendous passion for reaching people. I worked with Barry in student ministries at Thomas Road Baptist Church while in college. Barry shared with me wisdom and insight about the city, the culture, discipleship and how to let God write our story. He reminded me of our dinner the night before where Ed Stetzer said “be careful of expectations”. Meaning the weight and pressure of comparing yourself to all the “successful” churches we always hear and read about can kill you if you play the competitive game. Loved the time and what God is doing in Barry’s life.

I then moved to lunch with Brad Crawford who is the Director of Campus Ministries for the University of Central Florida. There are 50,000 students at Central Florida and one of my passions is to reach these college students in our area. After spending the last two years doing college and young adult ministries at West Ridge, I know what they bring and how most of them are crazy enough to try and change the world. Brad shared with me many opportunities that might be possible in our future to reach, partner, and help with him and others on campus. Brad has a great heart and love for these students with a vision to see them connected into the local church. Loved out time together and have a new favorite place to eat… 5 Guys Burgers! Awesome.

Dinner was with the Walker family. Their story is insane! When we announced that we would be moving to Orlando, without ever meeting us – God told them to move to Orlando to be a part of Genesis Church. This family has a great heart and passion to obey God. They moved ahead of us on Easter weekend right in the heart of one of the biggest communities we want to reach… Avalon Park.  Their heart to just serve and do whatever is needed to help us reach people is beyond words. Can’t wait to see and hear of the families they already start reaching. I am very excited for them and very very jealous! 

Here is a video of some of the things that happened today, a glimpse of our area, etc…

Tomorrow I am at Exponential ‘09 Conference. Won’t be able to update till late at night, but you can follow me through twitter. I will be twittering all day as the speakers are teaching. Follow me to the right of this blog or HERE on my twitter account.