Thrive

I'm a little behind with the blogging (again!). Last weekend was the Thrive conference at Bayside, Colin and Janet's (and my!) church. The conference is a little like the Willow Creek Leadership Summit, but with a wider focus (not just on leadership). The conference was really excellent, and I enjoyed and learned a lot at the sessions that I attended.

They had a combination of "general" sessions, with major speakers like Franklin Graham (Billy Graham's son), Francis Chan (a well-known pastor, speaker and author) and Nick Vujicic (an amazing Australian man who has no arms or legs!). The general sessions also included worship, led by several different groups (including the Katinas).

In addition to the general sessions, there were smaller, parallel "break-out" sessions focused on specific topics. I went to talks on "God-Size your church", "10 systems of a healthy church" (both concerned with how to build and run healthy churches), church finances and church leadership.

There was also a fair amount of "entertainment" with two Christian comedians, and the pre-screening of a new movie called To Save a Life, which is due to be released later this year (it deals mainly with issues that teenagers face).

On Sunday, they had one of the conference speakers, Chris Brown, stay on as a guest preacher, and he gave one of the most entertaining, "seeker-friendly" messages I think I have ever heard, while at the same time being one of the most challenging messages for believers that I have ever heard. Colin and Janet had heard him and his senior pastor talk about this approach in one of the break-out sessions at the conference, so it was interesting to see it in action.