Willow Creek Conference, Day 1

Well, my first day at the conference was a long, exhausting, and inspirational experience. It actually started at 2:30 Tuesday morning. I got up for class at that time, went to class and was home a little after 10:30pm Tuesday night. I am currently taking a class on church planting, and although the texts and topics tend to be focused on the “Purpose Driven” methods, we are diving into other concepts and ideas as well. Overall the class is pretty helpful.

So that leads me to my trip here, to Chicago. Michelle and I had planned to leave our apartment around 4:00am to drive to Columbus for my 7:15 flight. That meant getting up around 2:30-3:00am. Well, in my excitement and anticipation (as well as my slight fear of my first commercial flight) I didn’t get to sleep at all. So when I finally got to lay down yesterday, I had been up for 32 straight hours. YIKES.

My flight was not bad, but it was delayed for a little over an hour due to some communication issues. This put my whole first day in a spin. I had planned to arrive at O’Hare, get a rental car, and get to the conference just before it all began. Since I was delayed, I actually missed all but ten minutes of the first session. Bummer.

The second session was with Nancy Beach, one of the staff members at Willow Creek. She was really good, inspirational, and interesting. I will post some notes later.

Don Miller is supposed to speak Friday morning. But he also spoke at Willow creek’s Wednesday night service. I have heard him before and he is such a great story teller, but because of my sleep deprivation, I was unable to pay attention. I went out into the main part of the building a walked around, prayed, and collected my thoughts about some things I am wrestling with. So it wasn’t a waste.

Back at the hotel, I think I was awake for less than a half hour before I crashed. It was such a long day, but a great one.