Every year for the past several years I get pumped around this time.  Partly because I made it through Valentine's Day and didn't forget to take my wife out.  (Caution- Rant upcoming): That's one of the reasons I'm not a fan of the holiday- if you need a special day as an excuse to date your wife to show her you love her you don't know what real love is and you should be forced to watch chick flicks every day for the rest of your life! (End of rant).  

I love this time of year because the Velocity Conference from Churchplanters.com happens the last week in February.    I went to the very first one just before we launched and was encouraged.  It was just what I needed to prepare me for the adventure I would take as a church planter.  That first year it was just my wife, Sonja, and I.  But the next two years we took our leadership team and staff and it was invaluable to have them there.  They got to be around some of the best leaders and experience awesome worship.  I had an opportunity to be sharpened by Shawn Lovejoy & David Putman and others at Mountain Lake Church.  But the conference is special to me for a different reason.  I was on staff at Mountain Lake in the early days.  Back when we met in a primary school and then a high school.  We did crazy stuff back then.  I remember it was probably  my most creative season of ministry.  (I still have copies of videos we did that I could use to blackmail Shawn, Chad, Rodney and Casey).  Those were great days. Together we prayed for God's favor and saw God do things we never could have imagined.  My faith was stretched, my leadership was sharpened, my heart for church planting was cultivated.  That's why I love this conference.  

This year we're taking some of our ministry team.  These guys have never been and I can't wait to see how they experience what I believe to be one of the best conferences around.  Now that I've told you all this– here's the bad news– It's sold out.  Just found out this morning.  But the good news is, you can watch the main sessions ON DEMAND starting March 1st.  I'm going to gather some of our team that didn't get to go to the conference and we're going to watch some of the sessions together. If you can't be there, the next best thing is to follow along on twitter (journeypastor) or check my blog out Monday night or Tuesday and I'll post some of the notes.