Blogging from the Mariott Residence Inn in the Woodlands. Spent the day at the Smart Growth Church Conference at The Woodlands UMC.

A few notes about the day.
Opening Worship - Zach Hendrix, one of the worship leaders on staff, led worship with a female vocalist and a second acoustic. The second acoustic player was obviously an electric player, complete with Gibson Jumbo run through 5 or 6 pedals into the system.
They opened with "Forever." In B! It was really high for most of us and early in the morning at that! Then they went into "Blessed Be Your Name," which was nice. They closed with the Tomlin version of "Everlasting God," which was pretty dead on but, again, way too high in C#.

Then we heard Mike Slaughter from Ginghamsburg Church in Ohio. It was phenomenol sessions. I was so impressed with his heart, his honesty and the bold steps he's taken in leading his church.

Then I headed to a session on "media" for the Loft. The Loft is TWUMC's "alternative" service. The session was pretty lousy - it was a bunch of tech guys who, while being very smart, seemingly had done so little to prepare. We did tour their media offices and I got to see their new recording studio. It wasn't finished, but it was laid out really well. They let us hear some stuff from an upcoming Matt Brouwer Christmas record. It was pre-mix, but it still sounded nice.

Went to lunch at Macaroni Grill with the staff, then back to the conference to hear my old pal Leonard Sweet, who totally killed. His session reminded me why I like him - because he's brilliant and bold and willing to say what needs to be said.

For the next session, I headed back to the Loft to give them one more chance. The session was led by The Loft's pastor which was very cool. It's a pretty programmed service (which always has its ups-and-downs) but I commend the dude for being honest and backing up his ideas with scripture.

After that, we grouped up and headed to the hotel for snacks, resting and a little blogging!

There's a Blue Like Jazz performance tonight. Apparently, it's a drama now.
We opted to skip the Blue Like Jazz performance. I believe it is a wise decision.