I AM SO EXCITED!!!!!
Early Wednesday morning the whole staff is going on a road trip! We are going to the Catalyst conference in Atlanta. http://www.catalystconference.com/

This conference is at the church where Andy Stanley (respected author and church leader) works at. So I am excited for several reasons.

But there are two BIG reasons why I am excited:

1. The speakers will be awesome. I have read books by a lot of the speakers that will be there…so I know a little about them, and I’m excited to hear them speak. I can’t wait to hear Stanley and McManus speak!

2. I can’t wait to road trip with the staff! This will be a great team building experience. God has really blessed my intern experience here at Grand Avenue with a great staff. I am really stoked about going with them!

Bonfire
We had a Jr. High bonfire last weekend; it was a lot of fun. It was a good chance for the Jr. High students to hang out with each other and their small group leaders. It was just a fun relaxing time. We had hot dogs, smores, and we carved pumpkins. It was kind of funny though, because even though it is now officially fall…that day was randomly 90 degrees. So everyone was like WAY far away from the fire.

Except for Parker. Parker is one of my favorite Jr. Highers. He has a lot of energy and imagination. He’s also a pretty sharp and scientifically-minded kid. So he LOVED the fire. He sat next to the fire for 2 hours just sweating…enjoying every second of burning stuff. Haha…this is why I love Jr. High students.

Sermon
I told Brooks the other day that I have narrowed it down to like 10 possible ideas. I hope to spend some time this week working on that.

Sunday Night Church
I will be teaching for our Sunday night worship service for the next few weeks. This should be an interesting experience…I hope I have enough time to prepare because we have a short week (going to a convention).

Green
We are doing a 4 week sermon series entitled: “God is Green.” Don’t sweat it…Grand Avenue has NOT gone activist! But it is a series that will talk about the design and beauty of creation. We will also discuss respecting creation, and we will close the series talking about a new creation (I’m particularly excited for that Sunday)!

tim