Last week I had the incredible privilege of attending the Q Conference in Austin. I say that it was an incredible privilege of going to the conference not only because of the presenters but also the caliber of people I was able to connect with at the conference. According to their website Q is

a gathering where church leaders and cultural influencers from the fields of business, politics, media, education, entertainment and the arts are exposed to the future of culture and the church’s responsibility to advance the common good in society.

Each “presentation” was only 18 minutes long – which was an interesting thing in and of its self. Some of the presenters included Andy Crouch, George P. Bush, Mike Foster , Shari Thomas , David Crowder, Tyler Wigg-Stevenson, Chris Seay John Burke, Tim Keel , Micah M. White, Rick McKinley , Gregory Berns, Catherine Crouch, Ambassador Max Kampelman, Shane Hipps, Heather Larson, Alan Hirsch, Charles Lee , Bill Townsend, Gabe Lyons. The topics ranged from why Christians should work to get the world to zero nuclear weapons to “Neuroeconomics” and how our brain works under fear and stress to “The Spirituality of the Cell Phone.”

A few take aways for me ( I will be posting on other topics in more depth later)

- Be fully present where ever I am
- Being Counter Cultural for the common good will have greater long term effects then trying to be relevant
- At best the “attractional” church model will only reach 35-45% of the world – what will reach the other 55-65% ?
- If I keep digging in the same hole (only deeper) I still will not find new answers
- Multitasking = doing more things less effectively
- Be aware of how technology is shaping and effecting my spiritual life
- I need to risk more

If you attended Q and need a place to “download” your intial thought please feel free to do so here.