A few quick thoughts from Conclave '09

A small group of folks from my church have joined me in Duluth, Ga this week for the annual "Conclave" youth pastor's conference. I'll right a more in-depth analysis of the conference once I return. But for now here are my highs and lows:

High
Opening worship session - Todd Agnew lead music and was freak'n awesome and then Francis Chan spoke for about an hour. He was top notch as always and only cemented the fact as to why he is my favorite communicator alive today.

Low
Brock Gil the MC / magician...errrr illusionist. I forgot we are at a baptist conference so you can't call something "magic". I get this feeling Brock tried and failed at making it in Vegas so he turned his attention to Christian entertainment since Christians are notorious for jumping on any kind bad quality entertainment if the words "Jesus", "God", or "Christian" can be labeled with it. (ex. see 90% of all contemporary "Christian" music")

High
Gwinnett Convention Center. This is my 3rd time here in the last 9 months and each time the place is top notch.

Low
Crowd. This is by far the smallest youth pastors conference I have ever been to. There are around 1500 people which they seem really excited about but when you're talking about this being a regional event (It's hosted by the Southeast Baptist) and only 1500 youth workers can show up, then that's not very good percentages.

High
SWAG! (Stuff We All Get) There is so much free stuff here I've already filled up 2 huge duffel bags. Plus Beth won a video Ipod!! Very cool!!

Low
My first breakout group. It was ok at best but not the quality of what a major conference should offer.

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