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The word adventure has been on my mind a lot for the past 2-3 months. Not just on my mind… but in my soul. I can feel myself longing for adventure in a way that I never have before. Am currently reading a wonderful book by Donald Miller that is feeding this fire. In the book he waxes poetically about taking in the world around you. This year, I hope to widen my horizon and take in much more of the world around me.

The beauty of thinking about past and future adventures is the realization that most often don’t unfold alone. Adventure happens in community. My adventures have and will happen with my wonderful wife, and the wonderful group of friends who surround me and serve as co-adventurers.

In this vein, I stumbled upon this photo essay (here for slide show. here for list.) that I linked to off of the Cincinnati Enquirer’s website. It’s a collection of 101 things to try in 2011 in the Greater Cincinnati area. I thought it would be a fun blog and/or Facebook exercise for everyone to share the list of the things they’ve done, and the things they’d like to do in 2011. After all, if you can’t adventure in your own backyard, how will you do so in any other context?

Here’s both of my lists and a quick nod to the friends whom accompanied me on the journey.

The things I’ve always wanted to do, and hope to make happen in 2011.

The following is an email I sent to the attendees of LoveStories. I thought I’d post it here as well in order to provide a brief recap of the event, and to invite others to help us in our final fundraising push.

LoveStories Attendee,

We wanted to say thank you for your presence on Monday night at LoveStories. Each of you truly made the evening something to be remembered. We want to take a moment to update each of you on the financial goals, and applaud the sponsors and storytellers.

First and foremost, we are thrilled to report that together we raised $700 for Mimi’s House! $500 is the direct result of your dinner tickets, and $200 is the result of a few generous contributors who gave above and beyond. After sharing these figures with friends of the event, we have been encouraged to raise the bar and shoot for a final LoveStories total of $1,000.

A $1,000 gift from LoveStories would enable us to participate in the tile program at Mimi’s House (click here to read about the tile program). This will give LoveStories a permanent presence on a wall inside the house where these young girls will experience love and opportunity in a way previously unimaginable. Do you want to contribute towards the final $300? Have you told a friend about your LoveStories experience that might want to join the cause? Please reply to this email for further instructions on how to give.

We also want to make sure that our sponsors and storytellers are well recognized. Please take a moment to read a little more about each person and organization below who helped make LoveStories possible.

Sponsors

• Event Producer – Luke Dooley: Read Luke’s blog here. Follow him on Twitter. Attend his next event which will be announced soon!
• Photographer – Jessica Agee: Jessica has offered to give a discount to any LoveStories attendee who books a photography session with her. View Jessica’s work here. Email here at the following address to book her services: Jess [dot] Agee [at] yahoo [dot] com
• Chef – John Schwab: John is available for all types of catering and food services. Contact him about your party or special event by calling his assistant cook at: (phone number removed for blog post. contact me to connect with john.)
• Decor & Supplies – Journey Church and Monroe Church of God generously donated printing services, sound equipment, room decor, and much more. Visit their websites which are linked above.

StoryTellers

• Christopher Gilmore – Read Christopher’s insightful and witty blog here.
• Julie Bauke – Visit her website to read about her career consulting services and to buy herwonderfully helpful book.
• Larry Renner – Follow Larry on Twitter. You’ll appreciate his insight, and love his heart!
• Jennifer Scroggins – Read more about Jennifer’s paradigm shifting story of her travels to Lebanon by reading her feature report on AmericanCatholic.org
• Doc Wieland – Catch up with Doc on Facebook. If you live in the Lakota corridor look for Doc’s beautiful family on a Journey Church mailer in your mailbox next week.

Thank you again to everyone who made LoveStories such a success by helping, giving, sharing, and attending. Until next time.

“Have a Story Worthy Week”

LoveStories Organizers

P.S. If you were unable to submit your payment at the dinner due to the inability to process credit cards, please reply to this email and we’ll help you get squared away.

I followed a link on Twitter today for a youth ministry. I figured I could give  a few minutes and help whoever it was trying to gather information to do so. One of the final questions they asked was an essay question that simply asked: “What Is The Gospel?”

This is my answer. I would love to know how you would answer this question!

The Gospel is God’s ongoing story of restoring all people (available to all, given to those who accept). God has been, is, and always will be authoring a grand story, which He has invited us to play a role in. It is the story of creation, fall, redemption and restoration. We have a choice to make: Will we star in our own story of brokenness and insignificance, or play a supporting role in God’s grand story of hope, redemption and healing. To join God’s story is to play a part in advancing the Kingdom… not through rules, regulations, and religion, but through love, justice, and relationship.

The Gospel is nothing more, and nothing less than God offering everything He has to us in order to restore us to the people that we were created to be. He does this so that we may enter into a loving relationship with Him, so that He may fill us with His Spirit, so that we may be fully equipped to complete our primary task as humans made in God’s image: To reflect the Glory of God, so that others may see, and the Kingdom may advance. That is Gospel.

I had a really engaging small group discussion with some of the high school students in Journey Church’s student ministry last night. We talked about a variety of subjects, and the conversation got pretty deep. Questions were asked by me that were over their heads, and questions were asked by them that were over my head! Good stuff! Probably one of the highlights of my year.

Ultimately the conversation centered around the question why. More specifically, how would we answer questions like these:

• Why do you love God?
• Why do you go to church?
• Why do you even do this “Christianity” thing?
• Essentially this: What’s the point of God/Church/Christianity?

I have a great fear that there are thousands of people sitting in Christian churches each Sunday, who have been in the pew for a long time, but have no clue how to answer these questions. I’m not suggesting that there is ONE right answer, but I think there are some key principles and ideas that people simply fail to understand, or lack the ability to communicate about.

So… how about you? Why?

There is something about a good story that has the capability to capture so much more than just our attention. A good story can capture our hearts, souls, bank accounts, or any number of other things. Bottom line, I love a good story… as does just about every person on the planet.

I had the great privilege of going to Chicago last week to serve on the resources staff for the inaugural STORY conference. STORY is the product of one of my favorite bloggers, and good friend Ben Arment. It was truly a wonderful experience for me to serve alongside Ben and so many other great leaders as we poured into the 1600+ ministry leaders who attended STORY.

The heart of STORY was to gather and learn from some of the most gifted Gospel Communicators in the land.  These leaders talked about their stories, how to more effectively share stories, and ultimately about the greatest story ever told: the Gospel story of rebellion, rescue and redemption. It was quite an experience.

I highly recommend that any ministry leader who was unable to attend STORY purchase the 2009 STORY DVD. This DVD will include all of the main session teaching content, and some of the creative elements as well. This is a steal for $79. Also, begin making plans now to attend STORY 2010 in Chicago. STORY will be expanding to a 2 day event next year, with tickets available now for $149. You can click here to find both of these resources!

Check out the STORY Flickr photostream for some great shots from the event!

Sitting around last night before bed, I decided to check out what a few of the churches that I follow from a distance (via the internet) did for Easter. I ended up settling down on my couch, and watching the Easter message from Elevation Church in Charlotte, North Carolina.

This church has an incredible story, and an unbelievable leader in Steven Furtick.

I post this link to his Easter message with a couple of basic headlines.

1.) The dude can flat out preach. Like old school preach, but it’s awesome.

2.) As one who enjoys “preaching” myself, this gets me fired up… I was ready preach to the masses from my couch at midnight last night as I watched this!

3.) What an awesome telling of the Easter story. The Gospel is the most compelling truth on this planet, when communicated with passion, it’s a unstoppable force.

Check it out here: http://www.elevationchurch.org/mediaPlayer.php?sermon=168