Mark Rodriguez: Buzz Day 1

The Theatre forum was awesome! Mark Batterson and his staff are amazing people. Their cafe Ebenezers' is off the chain, I had a double espresso with 3 raw sugars, Starbucks meet the competition. So here are a couple of the highlights.

Worship was good... I'm not a huge fan of female worship leaders, but that's probably because I'm a guy worship leader. I really liked their bass player. I didn't know any of the songs though except the Natasha Bedingfield cover.

Mark Batterson's session was real good. He's an awesome guy, and very transparent. Here are a couple of the things that he said that jump out at me.

The opposite of brand is bland.
We can't expect to do things half way and expect to create buzz.
What is the water in your church that you need to turn to wine?
Fermentation is a process of disorderly development.
Find ways of preaching that no one has talked about.
As your influence grows so does the target on your back.

Again these are random quotes, if you weren't there pick up the mp3 or CD. Mark was very passionate about creating buzz, and exceeding people's expectations.

Ed was Ed. Before he started I asked Bob do you think that he's going to say wheels off. Like 30 seconds into it he said it... HA! He shared a lot. Some of it I had already heard. What I liked most about the message was his whole deal with asking the question WHY. He asks it this way every time he's working on a message.

What's the point?
What's the tension?
What's the transition?
How do I pull it off?
How do I apply it?
How is it different?
Is it your style?
Is it your stuff?
Is it your Passion?

The he stated a cool stat. 69% of Jesus words were application.
All in all it was a good session, and it was great to see Ed in a small stage taking the time to talk to a bunch of young guys trying to get their churches off the ground. THANKS ED (not that you'll ever read my blog, but whatever.)

The biggest highlight for me was bumping into people that I had met on the blogosphere, and getting to listen to the stories of what God is going in their lives and ministries. We had lunch with Gary Lamb. All I can say he's a unique guy. We ended the night having dinner with Tally Wilgis at America Restaurant in Union Station. Tally was a real neat guy, he asked Bob and I questions that we've been tossing back an forth at each other days before the conference began. It was cool to hear a guy that lives on the other side of the country talk about the same stuff we do.

Can't wait until tomorrow!