The Threads Blog

The Threads team recently moved to new offices and decided to welcome ourselves to the neighborhood. Since fall is so beautiful here in Tennessee, why not throw a Fall Festival block party. Here are a few photos so you can share in the ridiculousness of it all.

How can my faith begin impacting my actions? This isn’t a question that should be asked, because the answer should be obvious. Our faith should impact everything we do and every decision we make. For many churchgoers, faith is a thing that’s talked about but seldom lived. It’s easy to seem “faithful” on Sundays or in your church crowd, but honestly, how often does your faith show up the other 95% of your week?

I love football. This weekend I’ll be pulling for my Hokies to keep the run alive and beat Georgia Tech. While doing my usual pregame activities this week, like reading anything I can find mentioning Virginia Tech football, I ran across several articles talking about our running back, Ryan Williams. You see, from a very young age he loved Walter Payton and even has a tattoo of Payton’s number 34 with the tag, “Little Sweetness” on his forearm. Now that Williams is getting national publicity for his success, many people are comparing him to his hero. They have a similar style and greatness in the way they play the game.

In my opinion, October is the epicenter of the sports calendar. With the onset of fall, you’ve got all kinds of greatness. You have Major League Baseball Postseason. There’s the real meat of the college football schedule. And the NFL is kicking into high gear. Though my petition with the NCAA to have March Madness moved to October to ensure its total dominance over any other month is currently under consideration, I nevertheless am giddy with excitement because every week brings plenty of fodder for anyone who has even a casual interest in sports. To that end, I’d like to briefly highlight this weekend of sports.

The 2009 Catalyst Conference was incredible. Threads authors Mark Batterson, Ed Stetzer, and Margaret Feinberg had pre-labs before the main event.

Another year of Catalyst is about to wrap up, and it’s been fun to be a part of it. I’ve been around this event for several years and I’m always grateful for my time here. Thanks so much to Brad Lomenick and the Catalyst team for inviting me to participate in the Backstage Experience and for taking such great care of me.

Check the archives if you missed my recap of Thursday morning. Here is a tiny glimpse into my notes from this afternoon and evening. We heard from Shane Hipps, Tony Dungy, Rob Bell, Matt Chandler, and Francis Chan. Feel free to check my Twitter history to see some of my commentary on each speaker’s message. In addition to some incredibly powerful worship with Aaron Keyes, the crowd was invited to participate in communion this evening. Coming fresh on the heels of Chandler’s great message before dinner and then Chan’s incredible talk tonight, you can imagine how powerful it was. If you missed the memo, we actually streamed much of this evening’s service to everyone watching at home. It was cool to see folks from across the globe joining together online. Til’ tomorrow!

Well, Catalyst has officially begun and it’s been great thus far. It’s hard to live up to the hype that comes along with an experience like this, but it’s not disappointing! The labs were very good yesterday, especially from Threads authors Mark Batterson, Margaret Feinberg, and Ed Stetzer. We’ve heard this morning from Andy Stanley, Malcolm Gladwell, and the folks from KIVA. In addition, the antics of Lanny Donahoe and Reggie Joiner are always fun. Below are a few highlights from the notes I took this morning. I’ll summarize the rest of the day later this evening.

The Threads team is excited to be at Catalyst 2009 this week in Atlanta, Georgia.

Day Three of the Scouting the Divine video shoot was set in a Tennessee vineyard. I think every neighbor decided to mow their grass at some point during the day, but overall, it was a great day of filming. Perfect way to wrap it up. The video, cartwheels and all, shows that we all had a great time. Thanks, Margaret, for working so hard!