NYC!!!!

I was in NYC (Manhattan) today for what was supposed to be a Church Planters' Roundtable with Nelson Searcy and Kerrick Thomas, who are the Lead Pastor and Executive Pastor (respectively) of The Journey Church of the City. I say "supposed" because there were actually about 40 of us in attendance! Much too large for a roundtable, so it turned into a seminar... which was still cool. BTW, If you're a church planter, relaunching a church, or just need to get some systems in place, you definitely want to invest in some of Nelson's seminars... awesome stuff! Today's seminar was great... and really helped to crystallize some things in my own mind as Mosaic Community Church prepares to launch in the spring. Nelson and Kerrick are also putting on The Launch Conference: Starting a Church from Scratch in January... wish I'd had that to attend when I was just getting on the field! Thanks, Nelson and Kerrick, for your heart for church planters!!

I also got to hang out a bit with Gregg Farah, who leads Mosaic Manhattan Church... he had some really helpful and timely advice to give. It's always a great thing to be able to lean on the wisdom of those who've gone before us... and I appreciate Gregg's willingness to pour into a young bro!

NYC is a great place!! I most definitely couldn't live there, but it's a great place to visit. And I've never seen such a large police presence in one city before in my life!! Jimineez!! But it was a good thing... one street I went down, there were bunches of vendors and some other people on the sidewalk trying to sell whatever they were offering: jewelry, clothes, books... even haircuts! This guy was like, "Yo, my man... hop right on down and get you a fresh cut!" I looked into the "hole in the wall" where he was pointing, and it was a staircase which led to... who knows where! There was no way I was hopping anywhere near that joint! I probably would've come out with not only my hair gone!! No wonder there are so many police around there... haha!

But, all in all, it was a good trip... I was totally amped to be in NYC for the first time in my life... and I made it home in one piece! Praise Jesus!