Weekend in Denver

All four of us are at the DAWN North America Leaders Conference in Denver. It's a gathering of leaders from around the U.S., Canada, and Mexico who are helping to lead simple church networks.

It's been a fascinating contrast of highs and lows for me.

Excited to see how this thing has multiplied from the past conferences I attended, mostly before law school (five years or more ago). Excited to hear people explain successive planting, and how we now see the spring harvest, but it's just a preparation, small roots preparing the soil for the deeper root canals needed for the real harvest, which is still a ways away. What season is it? It's early spring.

Also excited to meet six people hear from Indiana, some right in Indianapolis, who are already well on this journey. We will certainly partner with them for regional affiliation once we land in Indy this summer. Affirming of our decision to move there.

Yet, frustrating. Frustrating to see how white, and boomer, and former pastor, and evangelical this group still is. Great people who are worthy of the utmost trust. Yet something (or, more accurately, somebodies) is still missing.

Frustrating also because, in the spirit of family being the primary expression of church, all four of us came. That means I have been unable to fully engage in the conference (chasing Luc around), yet that would be OK if we could fully engage in family, but because there's a conference going in, we haven't been able to do that either. A strange frustration. A few other parents brought kids along, but most of them are younger than Lucas, so it is not the same. And, the great majority of people here have kids who are already out of the nest, or soon to be. Something would be added if parents with school-age kids were here. Yet the practical difficulty of doing family and conference simultaneously (which we've experienced first-hand) both explains and predicts why that isn't happening.

Still, meeting people on the journey from Indy is very valuable and encouraging.

For more insight into what's happened here, I'll link you to Andrew Jones' blog. He's also here attending, and he has a refreshing style of articulating it.