va beach.

Well it didn't quite make it to sunny with a high of 75 at the beach this week. It was only about 70 both days--a bummer, I know.

It's always good to see old friends, and I'm amazed looking back at how many people were there that I knew--from church growing up, from working over the past 7 years with Impact Virginia!, old family friends (not that the friends are old, or that my family's old...). And meeting some new people too.

The keynote speaker during the two-day conference/va baptist annual meeting was Leith Anderson, the pastor of Wooddale Church in Minnesota. I missed his first two messages because I was too busy catching up with people. But I caught his last one. His point: our sole purpose in life is to make God look good, to enhance the reputation of God. Nobody will want to be a God-follower if we're making God look bad. Pretty good thought. [side note: Leith is taking over as President of the National Association of Evangelicals after Ted Haggard's incident last week...].

In other ground-breaking news, the representatives from each church voted on the VA Baptist budget for the year--delegating finances to missions, staff positions, church plants, and partner institutions. Alumni and supporters of one institution was upset that they weren't getting as much money as last year (over $300,000 to less than $150,000...I will give it to 'em, that was a big drop). So in order to not raise the budget, they just decided that they still wanted their $300,000, their institution was better than two of others, and so they recommended taking more than $150,000 from those two schools and giving it to their beloved college. Why is it that some people are so greedy? All 3 schools are educating young leaders. If they had really needed the extra $150,000+ they should go out and fundraise it. Churches shouldn't be their crutch to lean on... Enough ranting.