Last weekend I was at a wedding in Atlanta. I had a fabulous time enjoying the company of friends and new friends, with activities galore and conversation most of which started out light hearted and eventually evolved into the point where we could be real with one another.  This happens when you spend a significant amount of time with someone with whom you enjoy spending a significant amount of time.

At the end of my time away I talked to Carie on the phone and we talked for a while I was waiting for some transportation to move me toward Worcester.  Carie, always being sensitive to the way I feel and act, mentioned that I sounded really happy.  I told her that I was, and for two reasons.  First of all I couldn’t wait to return to my amazing wife.   She completes me in every way, and I am always able to be the real me when I’m with her.  Second, during the weekend I was able to completely be the real me, in community with a group of guys who accepted the person I am.

Something I’m pondering this week is how to create this type of community outside of a special weekend, retreat, or organized activity.  At our suburban churches in America we get all excited about that weekend away from everything.  That Promise Keepers or Women of Faith event that will definitely take us to the next level, and for what?  So that we can go back to our caged in lives of plastic smiley faces and non authentic words, pretending that we don’t have problems, opinions, or a desire to figure out what it’s all about?  Our world won’t be changed until we take the transforming power of God away from the occasional weekend away and move it into the “normal every day life”.

So at Fellowship that’s what we’re trying to find out – how to have authentic community in a world and a culture where we’re trained to be – I’m sorry – to look perfect.  So that at the end of every week I can come home from work or basketball or whatever it is I might be doing with my time and my wife can say, “Wow, you’re happy”.  And I can respond,

“Yeah, this is the real me.”

I’m not a great photographer or anything, but I took some pictures of my weekend, and here are my favorite ones (that I’m at liberty to share).  Enjoy!

On Thursday, I ordered a Jalapeno Popper Burger, Sweet potato tempura, and a krispy kreme milkshake at Flip Burgers

Thursday night at Red Sky Tapas with friends and family

Is any trip to the south worth it without making your way to Cracker Barrel?

Laser Tag with the groomsmen and ushers

I just keep telling myself, "Authentic community. Authentic community"

I love these ladies! My Georgia family for 12 years now.

What a throw by Eli!

Either its the mafia or Mercy me's 4th album.

The reason we were all in Atlanta.

Ladies and Gentlemen, Let me introduce you to Mr. and Mrs. David and Cherie Huey!

I think Thanksgiving gets shafted.

Seriously, we pay more attention to Christmas and Halloween because they make for better marketing, but Thanksgiving is one of my fave holidays.  And not just because it’s the one holiday I can watch my dad suffer through another defeat of the Detroit Lions, his favorite team.  No, I love being thankful.  So all this month I want to share with you what I’m thankful for and I’d love to get a glimpse of what you’re thankful for.

Let’s start with God.

I love His continued presence in my life.  Though I’ve fallen away at times and been as selfish as a bear holding a picnic basket, He is always there, watching, guiding, convicting, loving.  This week I fly to Atlanta to be in the wedding of one of my closest friends.   I have a love/hate relationship with that city.  I loved the year I spent there and the people that were in my life, and I hate the way I acted so selfishly.  Through all of that, God was there.  And through where I am now, He is here too.  You might even say I’d have a difficult time getting away from Him. I love that!

How are you thankful for God?  Or are you?

Hanging out with Mike and Roo after an 18 hour drive

The times I remember the most are the ones I had to get off my duff and have.

The time Carie told me she’d never ever date me, then two weeks later, after she had time to reconsider, I remember watching the sun set on a Friday night (August 29, 2003, if you were wondering) listening to the reasons why she changed her mind.

Or the time I drove to Massachusetts in 1997 on about 2 hours notice because I had 5 days of nothingness.  The trip took 18 hours of driving solo.  Then after hanging out with my friends Ruben and Mike for 2.5 days, I headed back 18 hours to Atlanta.  Oh yeah, and I had just arrived into Atlanta from Tucson, AZ (35 hour drive) that evening.

Or the time Dave and I decided to gank a newspaper machine from out front a dollar store.

Or watching a play I wrote and directed be performed on Easter 2001 here at Fellowship Church.

Or taking pictures with the family in Mexico that our team had built a small house for.

Or the time last Saturday when I stood inside of a crowd of people, mostly younger, and jumped up and down to a few hard core Christian bands for the first time in more than 5 years.  I kept thinking to myself, I’m too old to be here.  But after reading Donald Miller’s newest work of art, A Million Miles in a Thousand Years, I realized I was just creating another memorable scene in my life.  The kind of scene that I will look back and and be happy that God put me on this earth to live out an incredible story of memorable scenes.  Not necessarily a story (on this earth anyway) with an incredible climax where all my problems go away and my life eventually resolves itself, but one of fulfillment through Jesus and…

a whole lot more memorable scenes.

It appears that my friend of many years, Dave Huey is finally tying the knot and getting married on November 7th, 2009.  Dave and I met in college somewhere around 1995, and bettered our friendship a few years later when we both lived in Hotlanta.  In honor of Dave’s upcoming marriage, I’m going to share a story a month about Dave.  They will all be funny and they will all make me look as bad as Dave I’m guessing.

One of my favorite memories of Dave was when I was starving in 1998.  Not for attention.  Not for relationship.  Literally starving.  I worked in sales for a few months in Atlanta, and one thing is for sure – I’m not a good salesman when I don’t believe in something.  So I was making ends meet – kind of – and eating ramen noodles and barbeque sauce most of the time.  Then one day Dave and I went to Chick Fil-A.  At the time, this was a big deal for me, because money was scarce.

Chick Fil-A was running this special deal where when you bought a meal, they would give you a card that had their nutritional facts on them with multiple choice guessing.  If you guessed the right answer, then you received a free food item.  The funny part was the answers were all on their nutriotional board next to the order counter, so a smart person would always get the free food.

So as we stood in line and Dave ordered.  Flirting with the cashier, Dave jokingly (but very sincerely) asked if he could have a stack of cards instead of just one.  Not wanting to be “uncool” or flirting back, for whatever reason, the cashier said, “sure, but don’t my manager see you.”  Dave lovingly responded, “Oh, I would never do that,” and we all laughed, like this was so funny.  It wasn’t all that funny, but it was great!  Because…

we ate good for the next 3 weeks!

“So it finally happened. I got caught.  I had expected it for some time, living in the shadows, and hoping no one would see me doing it.  But alas my time had come, and I had no one to blame but myself.  I made the bad decisions. I lived as I pleased.  And now I would pay dearly.”

In August of 1997, I was a college graduate that loved to have fun and who had just gradauated from a college where I could not make my own decisions.  This did not make for a very good combination.  I tried to figure out what I wanted to do as far as work was concerned, but it wasn’t easy.  I wanted to be some sort of half pastor/ radio DJ/ politician. Like a mix between Rush Limbaugh (he was “in” back then) and Billy Graham.  Instead I chose to be a high school history teacher in Atlanta.  Pretty cool, huh?  I thought so.  I remember loading up my new car – a 1993 cherry red Nissan Sentra, and began the drive from Tucson, Arizona where my parents lived, to Hotlanta.

After leaving Tucson at 9:00 pm on Friday, August 1st, I finally arrived in the “land of sweet tea” on Sunday, August 3rd at around noon.  The friends I was temporarily living with in Atlanta had called me and told me they would be away.  They left a key underneath the flowerpot or something, and I could make myself at home.  They were at some camp with kids and I was in Atlanta until next Friday by myself.  Cable television kept me busy until around 5:00 pm until I got bored and decided to drive around the suburb I would be living and explore.  On that drive, I discovered Chick Fil-A. But it wasn’t open on Sunday!

Then I received a call from my friend Ruben.  Ruben was a crazy man who loved to stretch me in all things adventure and this conversation would be no exception.  He confessed he was in Massachusetts, having a great time,and since I had a week before I had any responsibilities, I should come up.

Now remember I had just driven 35 hours or so to get to Atlanta and had only arrived hours before. But something about Ruben the adventurer always made me say yes.  So around 7:30 pm, my car hit the highway again to drive to the northeast, a place I had only visited once before.
I share this story with you because this was the way I lived my life.  Adventure and fun drove my decisions.  No one dared to tell me what to do any longer.  I could drive to Massachusetts if I wanted to drive to Massachusetts on an hour’s notice. I could go to bed when I wanted to go to bed. (I know that is a funny thing to say for a 21 year old, but the college I attended had a bedtime of 11:00 pm)  And I would from now on make my own decisions.  I was free!  You might even say I was my own king.

By October of the same year, I had hit my stride.  My students loved me.  I taught not only in school, but also a “singles class” at the church I attended.  Don’t worry, I was not teaching people how to be single, I was teaching life, a subject I was certainly qualified to teach, right?.  In short, I was on fire.

The only thing I didn’t have was money, but that would come sooner or later, now I was serving and having a blast with a bunch of people around me – peers, parents, students, and whoever else wanted to come around.  I remember walking from one class to another one day telling myself how invincible I was becoming. Life couldn’t get any better than this!

But it could get worse.

Thinking your invincible is a little like thinking you’re the best at the game of basketball because you hit a shot from 3 point land while you’re shooting around by yourself.  No one can prove you’re not the best, and of course that’s where the burden of proof lies.  So when you hit the shot, you smile smugly to yourself about how good you are,and how the Celtics deserve to have a guy like you on their team.  Basically what I’m saying is, it’s ludicrous to think that way…

This was part of an rough draft introduction to a project I recently started working on entitled,”The Worst Story ever told and a few really bad ones too.”

Tonight I’m tired.

I learned a lot from the speakers, the friends I’ve caught up with, and the all around Catalyst experience.  I was thinking about giving you our schedule for the day, but since I like to highligt relationships, I’ll share the people I saw speak/met/reconnected with.  It’s a great list.

Speakers @ Catalyst on day 1:

Andy Stanley (Once again. he would not let me wash his feet with my hair)
William Paul Young (author of “The Shack”)
Jim Collins (author of “Good to Great”)
Brenda Salter McNeil (author of “A Credible Witness”)
Steven Furtick (amazing pastor!)
Seth Godin (One of the best bloggers out there)
Craig Groeschel (founder of “One Prayer“)

People with whom I reconnected:

Dave Huey & Cherie Rector (Dave and I go way back to PCC days)
Tim Payne (doing a great job as the life groups pastor at this church)
Shane Kenney (Saw him from ’93-’97 at PCC and never talked to him until this conference)

People I’ve met:

Vince Antonucci (author of “I became a christian and all I got was this lousy t-shirt“)
Hank Wilson (planted a church in Boston)
Pete Wilson (No relation, but it was an honor to meet this great pastor/blogger)
Tim J Chambers (great to finally meet this pastor from New Jersey)
Steve Harrison (invited me to dinner with him and the remainder of this list; capped off a super day)
Michael Harrison (pastor in VA and brother of aforementioned new friend)
Aaron Swensen (Life group pastor of Lifechurch.tv Tulsa Campus and hater of Sonnys BBQ ribs)
Jay Stevenson (self professed bum who will someday find a job, and a nice guy)

I love Catalyst and seeing all of my new and old friends!  And Billy, Bramlett, and Al loved seeing Robbie Seay Band and Jon Foreman play an acoustic concert tonight.

They were on the front row.

We have driven more than 1200 miles, stopped for a 2 hours in Greenville, and now attended the New Thing Networks pre-lab.  eally we were too tired to enjoy it, but if I had been more awake…  I even met Vince Antonucci, author of “I became a Christian and all I got was this lousy t-shirt.” and met a blogging friend for the first time, TIm Chambers.
Billy drove 800 miles.
I drove 400.
Steve stayed up with us most of the time.
Steve Bramlett did not.

And now we’re in our hotel room, at noon on Tuesday, and ready to sleep.
On FCTV, via Fellowshipholden.com, at 5:45pm, we’ll broadcast our first live thoughts.

Please check out what’s happening!

Catalyst ’06 with Jeff and my southern family, Dave, DD, and Ridgeway!

This week the team at Fellowship Church is taking a road trip to Hotlanta to attend the Catalyst Conference.  I’m really looking forward to spending time with them and praying and talking about the future of our church, along with hearing from some of the best leaders in America.
I’ll be blogging and twittering throughout the event, and even plan on sharing some live stuff from our trip and hotel meeting room on Mogulus.

We leave soon.  Are you excited?

I’m going to Atlanta next week.  I used to live there in the late 90′s.

In the mid 90′s I lived for a time in Arizona.  And I wonder,

Which place would you rather live.

Atlanta or Phoenix?