My Epic Journey

Day 2 started early in the morning–at least for this youth pastor.  Worship began at 8:30 am with Station 2 leading and Duffy Robbins speaking.  It was an amazing time of reflection and a great way to start the day.

After worship we began our 8 hour intensive tracks.  Thankfully they weren’t 8 hours straight.  After wrestling what may be the best track for me to take I decided that Dave Rahn and Chuck Klein’s track, Moving Your Ministry on to the Campus, would be most fitting for me.  Our church is located in the fastest growing school district in the state of Ohio.  There averaging a new Middle School every two years and a new High School every three years.  It is hard to keep up but it is also an amazing mission field.  Over the past year I have been racking my brain as to what is the best way to get a vibrant campus ministry going.  I was extremely pleased to have some great insight from Rahn and Klein as to what has worked well for them.

Later that afternoon I got of watch Megan Vallely at a cheerleading competition that was also being hosted at the Convention Center.

I left early and missed the evening talk which was led by Kay Warren, pastor’s wife of Rick Warren and Saddleback Community Church.  It was Anna and my 11 year anniversary.  We got rid of the kids (thanks Upchurch family) and went to the Cheesecake Factory.

Overall Day 2 was a great day and it made me look forward to Day 3.

Tonight, Anna and I had the amazing opportunity to have a free meal at the new Cheesecake Factory @ Polaris.  It was there trial/survey night and thanks to Terry (our Senior Pastor) we got reservations.  Unfortunately Terry is out of town but we had a great night with Kelly, his wife, and their oldest son, Nick.

The food, like always, was fantastic.  here were our selections:

Anna–Four Cheese sauce over Angel Hair Pasta

Kelly–Shrimp and Steak

Nick–Stuffed Chicken Tortillas

Me–Chicken Pesto Pizza

Desserts–Chocolate Oreo Mudslide Cheesecake and Adam’s Peanut Butter Cup Cheesecake.

A\The food was a true 10 out of 10. 

The service was a little lacking but believe that was a result of the chaos of it being the first night.  I would give the service a 6 out of 10.  Overall Zach, our waiter, did a pretty good job. 

As we filled out the survey, we all agreed that the overall experience was an 8 out of 10!!!

By the way, our bill for the night would have been $109.54