This is cool stage where all the main sessions for the Orange Conference have been taking place.  Pretty sweet setup, right?

Francis Chan is the pastor of Cornerstone Community Church and the president of Eternity Bible College in Simi Valley, California. 

He is an incredible speaker that I’ve had the privilege of hearing on several occasions and he is always great.

Today was no different.

Because Francis’ style of communicating is not the easiest to take notes on, you’ll have to settle for this random collection of comments and observations I wrote down:

“Have you ever done something and someone praised the Heavenly Father because of it?” 

“If I had never read any other books or taken any classes in seminary, and I just had the Bible to go by, I would probably just say to God, ‘Please give me the Holy Spirit!’”

“On Pentecost, no one walked away and said, ‘Man, that Peter is awesome!’  No, no, no…they said, ‘Man, God is awesome!’”

“I’m embarrassed by a lot of people in the church…I’m embarrassed because they don’t have the Holy Spirit living within them.”

“Are you experiencing God in your ministry?  Are you sure it’s Him?” 

“A ‘miracle’ today would be if the church loved their neighbors as themselves!”

Well, the Orange Conference has officially begun.  Last night, Reggie Joiner opened up the conference with a teaching from Luke 15. 

If you’ve never heard of Reggie, you might be interested in knowing that Reggie is the founder and CEO of the reThink Group, Inc, as well as the co-author of one of my all time favorite books, The 7 Practices of Effective Ministry.

I would love to let you in on everything that Reggie shared, but I’m just going to give you his outline and let you chew on that the rest of the day. 

Loving Fathers are preoccupied with whoever is missing.

Older brothers are preoccupied with themselves.

Loving Fathers operate from a context of forgiveness.

Older brothers operate from a context of shame.

Loving Fathers throw parties

Older brothers throw fits.

Loving Fathers confront “older brother” thinking.

Older brothers criticize “loving father” thinking.

Loving Fathers keep the lights on for as long as it takes.

Older brothers close the door and turn off the lights.

He concluded by asking this simple question, “What would happen if we decided to treat every prodigal like a loving father would treat his own son?”

Anyway, it was a great start to the conference. 

More to come.

I’m heading off to “The Orange Conference” tomorrow and I’m taking with me some of Southside’s best and brightest volunteers.  Over the next few days, we’re going to spend most of our waking hours listening and learning from some of the most influential family ministry leaders in the country.

It’s going to be great and I can’t wait. 

Also, as I usually do on my conference excursions, I’m going to try my best to give you the highlights from the conference so you can learn right along with me. 

In a couple of weeks I’m starting a series on Wednesday night and I have no idea what to call it. 

I have great Scripture passages and subject matter, but no title. 

This is where you come in. 

I need your help in naming this series. 

Let me describe my idea and then I need you to help me come up with a name. 

In the month of May, I’m going to be sharing a few principles, truths, phrases that have stuck with me over the years and made a tremendous impact in my life. 

I’ve learned these principles, truths, and phrases from various books, conferences, and sermons, and I’ve honestly never any forgotten them, so I thought since they’re so powerful and practical, that that they might benefit all of you as well.

Anyway, I don’t want to give away any of the sermon ideas on the blog, but you need to know that I’ll be passing on some really powerful principles in this series. 

But as far as the title of this series is concerned, I’m stuck. 

So what’s a good title for my series? 

I seriously need your help.

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