It’s not very often that I get a chance to take a weekend off. What’s even more rare is a weekend off that’s still work related. And, what’s even more rare, rarer … If you will, is a weekend conference trip where I join up with 1,999 other people just like me. That’s right, I’ve found myself at the David Crowder Fantastical Church Music Conference in Waco, TX home of Baylor U., David Caresh(sp?), and the one and only Dr Pepper. In fact, I went to the DP museum and learned that Dr is no longer punctuated. It’s a D and an R. Period. No wait…

Anyway…

The randomness started about 2 weeks ago when I tracked down David Crowder’s personal email and sent him a rather humorous email pretending I didn’t know who he was, that he was hosting the conference, I even encouraged him to attend said church music conference, then asked if he or anyone from their Chruch would be willing to house a 4-eyed bearded guy from Indy on their couch for the weekend. Some funny emails ensued and I was e-introduced to Craig Nash a community pastor at UBC (Crowder’s church). Craig graciously offered to host and enter more antics.

I walked into UBC to a conversation between a few staff members (including Mr Crowder … Punctuation left out on purpose … He does live in THEE Dr Pepper house so it seems fitting) about color copy usage on the church copier and the installation of a code machine to make said copies. As a complete foreigner to the land of Waco, I found the conversation funny because I’ve been there, had the convos, and got kind of confused every time I couldn’t remember the code. I’ve since commuted it to memory from the last church I worked for. So, if you want to make copies on the music budget at the last place I had a code: 31694#. Find the righ place and you’re set for life!

Shook his hand, had a laugh about my emails, and I continued on with my tour of UBC.

Fast forward a few hours… And, I realized it’s not the videos that make Francis Chan’s hands look big. His hands make his hands look big. From 50ft away, it looked like he was trying to palm my face like a basketball in iconic Michael Jordan style every time he moved them in a forward motion.

But, here’s what really stood out from his talk. To a room full of worship leaders, musicians, and pastors he asked, “Is your life something that would have been written about in Scripture?” Would you have been one of the Pauls or Peters or Abrahams or Davids that despite their crap, their issues still pursued after GOD whole heart, feet first, brain last… after they realized they couldn’t do it alone, repented, felt the forgiveness, forgot the glory they might receive for themselves and lived in courage.

Whoa.

I think this weekend is already kicking my arse.

+PJT