unlimited conference

this weekend i unexpectedly found myself at a children's ministry conference where the keynote speaker is the family and children's ministry pastor at planetshakers church in melbourne. i'd seen the posters and expressed to bryan a desire to attend, but postponed the making of the decision until a half hour before the first session was scheduled to start. our small group from city church consisted of roana and paul, the volunteer children's pastors with five redheaded kids who had us over for dinner last week, kandaice, an expat from iowa and mom of two, and rebecca, a 19-year-old just completing her year of study at travel and hospitality school. unfortunately i had to attend without bryan, who had to work. poor guy.

the unlimited conference was fantastic, largely due to rob bradbury, the speaker. usually i'd consider 5 keynote sessions for a friday night and saturday to be too many, but he clearly had enough material to make the time worthwhile. what i appreciate about conferences is their potential for inspiration - hearing from someone doing something amazing and beginning to believe that, with the right tools, you could do it too. for that reason i was glad that instead of receiving very structured, principle-oriented messages from rob, we were given a picture of what his ministry looks like and through that were able to easily pick up on his underlying philosophy. i didn't think i'd say this, at least not for a long time, but i could see myself working at a church, alongside the kind of people who think on a massive scale in their approach to ministry.

we'll see what comes of this...

-rachel