Can't you just stay home?
This past week, our staff took a quick work trip out to Seattle. The day before we left, my eight year old son asked me what we would be doing while we were gone. I responded, "We'll be meeting with a church staff to see how they do ministry, and we'll do some staff vision planning." He quickly shot back, "Can't you do that in Des Moines and stay home? Just go to Hope (a giant church in our neighborhood) or something." Uh...yes, yes we can.
We were planning on going to the Resurgence conference, but God had different plans. The conference was cancelled, and we were stuck with plane tickets. So we made the best of it. We met a great team from Reach Church, and we were able to take a hard look at how God is working in our church. It was a profitable trip that involved a lot more work than play, but I was still able to catch some fun pics along side my other camera crazy friend, Josh.
Looking back, we actually couldn't have accomplished in Des Moines what we did in Seattle--in Omaha maybe, but not Des Moines. There is something special about breaking away from your routine. It was a super fast, crazy and profitable week.