Accelerate Conference '08

My family just attended the Accelerate Conference at C3 Church in Clayton, NC. What a time of worship and learning! There were breakout sessions Friday afternoon which I missed due to work, but the general sessions last night and today were FABULOUS!

The worship time at C3 has opened my heart to the Lord more than any other place. I feel free to worship our Lord openly and without reservation. What a change for me - in a good way! Special thank you goes to the Worship Praise Team!!!!

I was able to listen to not only Pastor Matt Fry (C3 Church), but also Pastor Greg Surratt from Seacoast Church in Charleston, SC. Seacoast Church is a multi-site church with 13 campuses and about 10,000 members - what a PRAISE!

Through the stories and laughter I was able to learn a few things (LoL). Pastor Greg talked this morning about Teams..."there is nothing that can destroy a team faster than pride" and "to become GREAT you must find the 'least of these' and get behind them" and the end result will be "People will notice and Jesus will become famous, then you will become Great" - POWERFUL!

During a Q& A with the different pastors at the conference I also heard this: "there is a difference in leaders that serve and servants that are given the opportunity to lead", "you must be able to lead yourself with discipline first, before leading others" and "everything that doesn't work now used to be a great idea...it may need to die to become fertilizer so new things can grow" - AMAZING!

Pastor Matt Fry closed the session talking about the Leadership, using Nehemiah. He compared the church to the military - we have a 'hospital' to heal the wounded, but the main focus is on the war we are in with the enemy. As leaders, there are 4 principles...

1. Survey the situation (ask God, ask others)
2. Build a team (don't do it alone, serve and equip your team)
3. Give them a vision bigger than themselves
4. Lead! (leaders lead, be courageous, take that step of faith, step up to the plate)

- THOUGHT PROVOKING!

I am presenting to my department at work in about a week and cannot wait to build some of these team and leadership principles into my presentation.

I want to thank C3 for pulling this together it was such a blessing to me and my family and we cannot wait to hear more about what the Lord is doing in all the churches that were in attendance!