The pace of this northwest road trip has not let up. Sunday and Monday were packed full of fantastic meetings with local pastors coupled with memorable moments caught on camera - Seattle is absolutely beautiful! Here is a look back on our Sunday adventures...
Sunday
Morning - Wade Olinger and I attended EastLake Church in Bothell, WA and had a chance to connect with their lead pastor, Ryan Meeks, and his dad, Mike Meeks from San Diego, who was their guest speaker...didn't know we were going to have a chance to make southern CA connection in Seattle!
Ryan is a young pastor with a huge church and is regarded as one of the most inflential churches in the area...talking to him afterwards offers a glimpse as to why - so easy to approach, remembers names like crazy, and took time to take interest in people as they approached him. A big church, but incredibly relational...
Lunch - Nate & Jenni Poetzl and their family took Wade and I to lunch Sunday afternoon - incredible asian food! Nate is the Senior Pastor at New Life Center in Everett, WA. Nate is the former National Director of Foursquare's College Ministry based in Eugene, OR and is now leading a congregation of 2,800 at New Life. We had a blast just hanging with their family and hearing about their family's story. Nate was in Wade's wedding so this was almost like being invited in to Sunday family time. Who knows, might be headed to Cambodia with them this summer!
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SUPER BOWL - Heartbroken. still can't believe Fitzgerald's unbelievable touchdown was upstaged by Santonio Holmes' last minute game winning touchdown catch, unreal!
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Dinner - We drove over to Celtic Bayou (where I was hoping to find a Cajun Irishman, hmmm...) and met Mike Howerton, Jesse Butterworth, & Danny Lund from Overlake Christian Church in Redmond, WA. Mike is the lead pastor, Jesse is the worship pastor, and Danny is the guru of all things creative for the church.
I don't think I have laughed that hard in a long time...and it was so needed. Thuse guys are the real deal and I can't thank them enough for carving out time to just hang out. Honest. Real. Laid back. And so fun. Thanks guys! We will be seeing them again soon at Catalyst West in April!
Tuesday morning was coming early, so we went to bed as soon as we got home. Tuesday updates coming soon...
LV
Dino Rizzo at Healing Place Church, author of Servolution, is starting a campaign with several other churches around the country to serve our communities and share the love of Christ. It's a ONE-PRAYER-esque event which is uniting the big "C" Church by gathering churches for a common goal.
Check-out the 7 Days of Servolution website! There are already 42 churches united to serve in Jesus' name.
The second thing the ROOV guys told me, was:
If you go looking for money, you'll get advice.
If you go looking for advice, you'll get money.
It's hard to find funding for a risky startup. But when you ask for advice, everyone loves to share their opinion, and some people really want to share their knowledge. When you come to someone humbly asking for advice, they will invest their experience and knowledge in you, and perhaps also buying-in to your project.
follow the ROOV guys on Twitter: @mdavis, @ethanfisher, @chriscapehart
Wade Olinger and I will be hosting several gatherings for leaders and pastors in the Seattle area over this next week with the hopes of meeting so many of you that are having community wide impact in the Great Northwest, a region of the country that is still so new for us and for much of the Catalyst audience.
If you can make it we would love to meet you, PLEASE JOIN US! Details...
Monday Morning, February 2nd (Northern Washington)
Tuesday Morning, February 3rd (Seattle Area)
Tuesday Afternoon, February 3rd (Snohomish County)
Wednesday Morning, February 4th (Olympia Area)
Wednesday Afternoon, February 4th (Pierce County)
Hope to see you soon!
LV
I'm in Dallas attending the Innovation3 Gathering .com. I'm staying with some buddies, the ROOV guys.
If you haven't met them, they are AWESOME, Kingdom minded, servant-heart, entrepreneur guys! (follow them on twitter: @chriscapehart, @mdavis, @ethanfisher)
They've started a few companies and, although they're youngish, they've learned a ton about how to entrepreneur things.
This is the first of several quotes they gave me about entrepreneurial ventures:
"If you'll do now what most people won't. You'll be able to do, for the rest of your life, what most people can't.
It's the biblical principle of delayed gratification. You sacrifice your desire now so you can reap future rewards. That may be: investing in your retirement, working out, eating healthy. In the case of Kingdom Entrepreneurs it means sacrificing time (every week, even every day) to start working on, praying about, researching, discussing your venture. Whether it's a church plant, a collaborative project, or launching a non-profit, to start your own thing, it's going to take sacrifice.
Consider the benefits of your dream. Figure-out what you can do now that most people won't, and start doing it!
(and if you need help, the ROOV guys would probably love to coach you through the start-up process)
