Dean Inserra

I am very excited to go home today! I am fully unplugging tomorrow and just hanging with Krissie and Tommy.

Two Books I am reading this week:

-Church Unique by Will Mancini
-The Forgotten Ways by Alan Hirsch

As I work through these books it reminds me more and more of the lack of missional living taking place in Tallahassee Christian life. By missional living…I do not mean drinking coffee, wearing emo glasses and going to shows with your Christian friends who cuss.

It means living the Gospel everyday by intentionally forming relationships with those who do not know Christ. It means serving and helping those in need. It means being able to articulate the Gospel message. In summary…I would say it means you literally see yourself as a missionary in the context God has placed you.

I see the urgency. I see many who claim to believe yet seem ashamed of the whole Gospel message.

Few randoms:

-I watched Top Gun in the hotel last night. I get crap for this…but I do believe it is one of the all-time most OVERRATED movies. Lots of time watching planes fly around.

-A heard a guy speak Tuesday night about how cell phones are hurting people spiritually. We walked out in the lobby after he spoke and his phone rang really loud. Probably had to be there…but it was pretty classic.

-I could eat Texas Brisket for breakfast.

Q just wrapped up here in Austin. It was a great few days of hearing the most thought provoking presentations I have ever experienced. We heard from Christians, Non-believers, liberals, conservatives, Pastors, Authors, Activists and Professors.

I also had the chance to spend quality time with some folks who I have always admired from a distance…and had the amazing chance to get to know on a personal level while in Austin. It was a treat.

A major theme throughout the conference was different areas of injustice around the world and how the Church can/should do something about this.

My caution for folks in any discussion about cultural impact is that true change only comes through Christ. We can make the world less consumer focused, cleaner, safer, and end starvation…but apart from the Cross of Christ…those are temporary fixes.

As those who follow Christ, we must take these issues in the world seriously as a result of our calling as believers to love a broken world. I am not a huge fan of the word injustice. When I see that concept in the Gospel story I only see it at Calvary. I prefer to describe what we are called to do as Christ-like compassion for those who are hurting and in need. The ultimate need of all people is to be reconciled to God. As those who are reconciled to God…our job is to help the hurting.

Hanging out with David Crowder was awesome. I am also now a big fan of Kirsten Powers of FoxNews. Got some wisdom in a convo with Tim Stevens of Granger, and I have a new friend in Tyler Wigg-Stevenson of the Two Futures Project.

Austin is a fun city. Very weird. Very fun.

Over The Rhine in concert was beyond awesome.

Brisket is oh so good.

Back to Tally. Sunday here we come.

After a 4:00am wake up call and a 5 hour delay in Atlanta…I finally made it to Austin for Q. Day 1 was great.

Q is hard to explain. Many of the best Christian conferences are great at showing what is currently happening in the world of ministry….Q shows you where it is going in the future. We are at the historic Paramount Theatre in Downtown Austin and it is straight up awesome.

I have been around some amazing leaders today. Authors I read, Pastors I follow.

There is a major crappy part about this trip. No Krissie and Tommy. I miss them a bunch.

I look forward to hearing George P. Bush, Kirsten Powers (fox news…talked to her today…she is very cool), Mike Foster, Chris Seay, and David Crowder tomorrow. It will be a great day!

To learn more about Q go here.

Awesome night. We often talk about vision…tonight we celebrated it.

14 people were baptized at the Well tonight. Thank you Jesus.

I cannot think of anything more important or bigger for a local Church. It is and always should be the thing that gets us the most excited.

If your Church does not get excited about Baptisms..please rename yourself something different than a Church.

Tonight we continued our 4 Letter Word series by looking at the word, LORD. The verse from 1Kings that will be in my head all week (hopefully longer) is 18:21: If the LORD is God follow him…if Baal is god follow him. Wow.

I am sitting in a hotel next to the Jacksonville airport. Before the sun comes up I will be jumping on a plane headed Austin for Q. It is going to be amazing. I get the HUGE opportunity to be around some great leaders.

Krissie and Tommy will be missed very much. I hate being away from them. Tommy loves baptisms.

What a night! We will miss our graduating seniors.

Sarah Graves is a rock star.

If you haven’t had a sleepless night about vision, you haven’t heard from God.”

-Perry Noble at Catalyst West Friday-

Ummm…I can relate.