Last night we kicked off the second annual SOW with an acoustic concert from Matt Papa, some Q&A with Billy Foote, Chris Orr, Jake Gutledge and I, a little old school medley sing along, and some pizza. Not your typical opening session but it worked great.  Today was jammed packed with 60+ breakout options from some really, really great teachers and one main session led by yours truly and another by Chris Orr. We were honored to have Billy Foote and Wade Morris be our main session speakers and are already working on having some pretty big surprises for next year. Thanks to all the people who helped make it another successful year!!!

I was really only supposed to teach 2 classes but due to some last minute requests and a last minute teacher (read: really late), I ended up teaching four.

1. Building a Functioning Website (this was way out of my skill set as anyone who visits here regularly will know)
2. Sound System Basics (again…not something I really prepared for but I think somebody got something out of it)
3. ProPresenter and Keynote: Reason Enough to Buy a Mac (I really thought I was prepared for this class but I’m pretty sure nobody walked out of there wanting to change what they were already doing)
4. Making A Video Basics (this one was fun but I think I might have talked a bit too much)

By the way, if you were in my video class, I’m going try and salvage the videos we made and post them on here in a day or two so check back.

I could write many paragraphs about all the great things we experienced during the second week of camp in Ohio, but I know you blog readers hate long posts so I’ll keep it short. 50+ students committed to full-time ministry. Dozens of others made decisions to follow Christ. God moved mightily and I was hoonred to be a part of it. And now some photos to share:

Ergun is my new favorite human being.

Couldn’t win in dodgeball (my boys didn’t help very much)

So many great relationships made with so many great students and churches.

My wife and son showed me how much better they were at fishing than I was.

Kayla was a huge help to my wife and my boys love her!

6 on 6 volleyball champions (no photo so you’ll just have to believe me).

We had a great time and look forward to being back in Ohio again soon.

So…my band guys have created a new game they have been playing for a couple weeks now. I’m not playing so I don’t know all the rules. And I can’t tell you the ones I do know. It’s like Mao. You have to agree to play and then figure out the rules as you go along. What I can tell you is it is no fun to lose. Check out the video below of the first loss.

UPDATE: I couldn’t figure out how to keep the video from recommending not so nice videos at the end so I had to pull it from the site. sorry.

Man, I did not need to see this or this.

I’m already saving my pennies.

Great students, authentic worship, lives changed, amazing conversations…two great weeks in a row and can’t wait until next week with Ergun Caner. Thanks to all you guys who made the week so memorable. We didn’t really like getting beat in dodgeball or volleyball, but it was worth the loss to see so many decisions made. We pray they stick!!!

It is always a blessing to walk into a camp as totally strangers and walk away believing you’ve made life long friends. We’ve played for much bigger crowds with much sharper production and much more posh facilities, but these guys were being moved by God…and so were we. What an honor it was to spend a week with people so ready to give God everything and worship Him in spirit and in truth.

Were you there? What say you?

I’m not going to lie, there were a couple of moments I wanted to just stop in the middle of the song and say “hey girls, it might be better if you worshipped God instead of my bass player” or “could the youth leader of the guys sleeping on the floor in the back having their hair finger-combed by a collection of females please intervene.” But I restrained myself. And with good reason. By the end of the week it was obvious God was beginning a mighty work in a lot of the lives here in Panama City Beach. My prayer is it sticks and they take the fire home and change their community with the power and peace of Jesus Christ.

We are down in PC Florida leading worship at Xtreme Summer. It started tonight with a little worship and a concert by Flights From Egypt. Tomorrow it is, Hawk Nelson. Wednesday is Barlow Girl. Thursday is Newsong. We’ll be all alone on the last morning.

It is a little wierd going from a camp where you lead about an hour and a half of worship a day to a camp where you lead about 20 minutes. Keep us in your prayers and I’ll keep you updated to all the exciting happenings (like this great burger place we found that has the best shake I’ve had in a long time).

We were honored to worship with you nd can’t wait until next year. Check the media page for more pictures and videos (if I can get them to work) from the sessions.

Leave comments and let me know what God did in your life this week.

Here are some pictures from tonight’s service.