So it's Monday evening and I'm exhausted but I want to give you a few updates. At the end of this I'm going to go back and pull together some common themes but I can already see a few key truths coming through. Some confirmation, some brand new for me.Today I spent time with Russ Bennett from Anderson University. Russ is bringing a team of about 30 students up to Baltimore in the spring. Russ has a great heart for missions work and he's got some experience in inner city environments so I'm looking forward to working with him for about a week in March. Russ was around when New Spring was just getting going so he was able to share some of his perspective of the beginnings. He obviously loves his church and respects its leaders.
After spending time with Russ I went and visited New Spring. Their campus is a construction site on the back side as they prepare for brand new kids and teen facilities. Perry's heart is all about reaching people and he's passionate about giving the best to children. It's obvious with the types of facilities they are putting together for their kids.
At around noon I met up with Tony Morgan. Tony and I had met a few times before but hadn't really talked at length. I really enjoyed our time together. Tony is a sharp guy who loves God-sized vision and wants to use his talents for the Kingdom. We talked a ton about life and some about ministry stuff. Tony and I got to talking to our waitress and it was cool to see Tony go out of his way to see to it that she was able to get a ride to church. I've been around plenty of "church leaders" who treat the general public like garbage. I always lose respect for them. Tony however tuned in to this young woman as she shared that she had visited New Spring before but lost her ride and now felt like she was 'missing something'. Tony got some info from her and promised to work on setting her up with someone in the church to get her a ride regularly.
Melissa is over at TheBaltimoreProject.com. If you go to UNLEASH in March I want to encourage you to consider making a trip into 'town' to see Melissa at Matty's Downtown. They had great food and Melissa was wonderful. In March go eat there and give her a huge tip.
When we got back to the church building I asked Tony if he would be willing to do a quick shout out on TheBaltimoreProject.com. He graciously agreed but didn't want to pimp his upcoming book or the conference or blog or whatever... So I brought up a touchy topic we spoke about at lunch. Gary Lamb's town of Canton.
Here's the truth. Canton IS a small town. But Canton has the feel of a "big town coming soon". You can tell it's a town in transition. Apparently Tony had enough of Gary playing the John Cougar Melencamp theme music and decided to call out Gary for his small town with a big-town feel :)
If you go to summize.com and search @GaryLamb or @TonyMorganLive you will see their exchange from Monday night. Both of these guys are great men of God and I'm glad to have been able to visit with them this week.
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