FREE

The last two days my husband and I were able to take advantage of a Youth Pastor's Summit in Orlando for FREE. We were able to hear from some of the most well known voices including George Barna and Francis Chan. The best part...it was FREE.



So was breakfast and lunch, Universal tickets, numerous books, a pre-screening of the movie Courageous, concert by Attaboy and life changing challenges. I love FREE STUFF! I am moved that so many ministries are able to offer amazing conferences such as these for free. If your family is anything like ours, it's not always doable to attend amazing things such as the one just mentioned.



Sometimes the best things in life ARE free. I loved George Barna and his simplicity. I loved that he refused to mention exact places where he had seen "church" done "right" or "wrong". I loved even more that he said if I mentioned the right ones you would have never heard of them because they are small and have no interest in being put on the map because they are too busy being about the true father's business.

He also suggested when asked, "Is there a specific church model we can look to, to be successful?", we simply measure our success not by numbers, sqaure footage, attendance, or staff but by fruit. So simple! Basically if your strategy isn't producing fruit, you aren't succeeding. Very humble and smart man.

I had never had a privledge of hearing Francis Chan in person. I am so glad I had the opportunity to hear of his life in the last year. What a man of faith! He left his church of 16 years after feeling he was hearing "Francis Chan" more than "Holy Spirit". His family (expectant wife and 5 kids) have spent the last year traveling the world waiting to hear where God tells them to go next. He has returned to the states to finish a few things God wants to do through him here but you could see absolutely NO RESERVATION to pack his entire family up and move across the globe all for the sake of the kingdom. Wow. I must admit I wanted to erase every blog post about having a hard time moving 8 hours from home. This man gave up his entire life.

I was introduced to a new author, Melody Carlson. Heard of her?? I am anxious to read her new book Forgotten. It was FREE! Back to my previous post, the entire conference I kept hearing whispers of "just because" straight from God. I hadn't earned my right to be there but I was and I left with some very influential thoughts and challenges. What have you gotten lately for free??