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Watched ‘The Bucket List’ on the UA flight 405 from LGA to DEN, Jack Nicholson + Morgan Freeman.. I blog this as I watch it to the end. Love hearing Morgan narrate. Masterful.

Morgan’s character’s a trivia buff, cited a stat- of a 1,000 people surveyed, 96% don’t want to know the date of their life’s end.

Yet it’s certain. Not sure what the ignorance does. I’ve given that day some thought over my years, probably younger than most.. What I hypothetically dread is pain or loneliness or blood or hospital residency or life support (of any kind) or prolonged wearing out of my earthly tent. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t want to get there any sooner, but I would prefer that it’d happen fast and unconciously. (See, I can be reflective.)

So the idea of the bucket list and the popular web 2.0 portal 43things is listing all the things you’d want to do in a lifetime. For people who like planning, that’s fine for them.

I hate planning– even for the next meal, much less tomorrow. But have to do that planning thing for everyday life in the real world.

I don’t not have a big list. For me, I do have a few to-do’s on my short list. I’ll add more as I go. Hit the ground a-running. One is to travel more internationally, experience more world cities. I’ve only been to 3 in my adult life. I’m anticipating Tokyo is next. Have to figure out (and plan) how that’ll happen. Tips are welcomed. Harigatogajiamus.

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Culture is always changing, some faster, some slower. I’m one who loves ideas, not as an avoidance of real world real-time life, I hope that’s an accurate assessment. I find myself often thinking about interplay between Gospel and culture. I confess I need help moving from thinking to action. Lots of help.

Tim Keller (at Dwell Conference last week) mentioned a super way to keep a pulse on culture, especially for a New Yorker(?) — check Arts & Letters Daily. Every day it has book reviews, opinions, and essays.

So it’s looking like another action-packed month for me. I have this propensity to cram lots of activities together. Have a compulsion to stay active. Though yesterday, found myself sleeping more hours than usual. With that much going on, I’ve not kept up with the blogosphere conversation for over a month now. Get a glance occasionally at twitters of live stream tweets. No heady Arts & Letters Daily either.

This week is the move, and have to do much apartment cleaning too. Then a quarterly staff meeting in Dallas next week, plus UYWI 08 - Urban Youth Workers Institute conference at Azusa Pacific University. At least the latter is within driving distance.

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Spent a few days in Dallas in back2back2back meetings. Good to be with my teammates, especially as the bonding gets a little more stronger with every meeting. We 12+ directors only meet together once a quarter. Then we’re again scattered like the wind all over the US of A. Once in a while running into each other at conferences.

And it’s been a sombering week, with prominent tragedies all over: 43,000+ people @ cyclone in Myanmar (aka Burma), 50,000+ people @ 7.9M earthquake in Sichuan province of China, 25 people @ tornados in Missouri, Oklahoma, and Georgia, 90 people @ Jaipur bombings in India, and the on-going war battles in Iraq.

The one that hit closest was the plane crash piloted by Pastor Forrest Pollock, accompanied by his 13-year old son. Pastor Pollock was flying en route to Dallas for a conference I was attending on Monday and Tuesday, but he didn’t show up in time. About a third of the way through, we heard about his plane being lost. The next day, we heard the plane was found: crashed. No survivors. See press release from Leadership Network + any of the 63 news articles crawled by Google News.

Pollock pastored Bell Shoals Baptist Church in Brandon, Florida. View and sign guestbook over at serenitymeadows. The Celebration of Life service for Pastor Forrest Pollock and his son Preston will be webcast live on Saturday morning May 16th at 9:30am (Eastern).

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My UYWI08 workshop yesterday went well, I think. The Internet 101 workshop introduced 5 web tools using non-techie speak: website, blogging, email newsletter, podcast, and social networking. About a dozen people attended. The well-equipped room had (a very slow) PC and projector and (one button on/off auto-retract) screen all built-in the APU classroom (Duke 106). This is not the kind of class room I grew up with — I like it. For the technology alone, I would be open to the idea of being a teacher, even though teaching is not my top talent (I think).

Max Torres used his handy-dandy Flip video camera (equipped with flip-out USB port!) to record parts of the workshop - here’s the 1st 6 minutes:

That Max is one seasoned techie, 1st introduced to personal computers back in CP/M days. My own intro was with the TRS-80 in my high school days. And here’s the workshop powerpoint slides:

| View | Upload your own

I (attempted to) used my Olympus digital voice recorder [256MB version; I actually have the WS-320M; both have built-in USB:: no messing with gadget cables] to record the audio for the workshop, but the battery died about 30 minutes in. I’m using a new work laptop, so all my software + customization is gone. Taking longer than anticipated to rebuild, so posting the audio may take a few days amidst other real-life activities.

Aside: next week May 20-22, Pastor Rick at Saddleback Church hosts an unadvertised invitation-only pastors conference. Some are even calling it a “stealth conference.”

I’m in the midst of negotiations with the organizers to get access. A most impressive speakers lineup. [ht: plantingpartners.org]

Mark Batterson will be at both this PD Gathering conference AND at The Whiteboard Sessions in metro Washington DC! Don’t know of Ben Arment has a private jet to get him cross country in a jiffy. Mark, I love sweet tea too! Perry Noble is bi-coastal conferencing too. [update: got Twitter direct message @ 1036am Pacific that Ron Sylvia is bi-coastal conferencing these 2 too]

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Special thanks to Tony Steward (and Rick Warren) for getting us connected and getting us bloggers access to the Purpose Driven Network Summit this week May 20-22 at Saddleback Church! Tony has dubbed us the “LIVE Summit Team”, which includes Carlos “RagamuffinSoul” Whittaker, Josh “morethandodgeball” Griffin, Tony Morgan “Live”, and me.

We, the LIVE Summit team, will be blogging, podcasting, and live-streaming video during the entire conference. We’ll use Twitter too — those of you who twitter at the Summit, please use hashtag #pdsummit08 to be trackable.

Watch the PDSummit08 live-streaming videos and interviews at www.ustream.tv/channel/purpose-driven-network-summit-2008 The PDSummit08 conference podcasts will be posted at Rick Warren’s Ministry Podcast. And I’ll be live-blogging at the Learnings @ Leadership Network blog and here, if CoverItLive works the way I think it should. Plus, we’ll be equipped with FLIP cameras, so I’ll be posting raw videos over at my YouTube channel, a la man-on-the-street style.

Your turn - what question would you ask Rick Warren and/or any of the 35 panelists? Ragamuffinsoul already has 38 comments — don’t make me look bad with any less!

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The conference known as the Purpose Driven Network Summit kicks off tomorrow, Tuesday morning 5/20 shortly after 8:00am Pacific Time. The LIVE Summit Team will be blogging + podcasting + live-streaming videos, plus feature interviews with the 35 pastors serving as panelists. Rick Warren himself will be delivering 4 or 5 messages to the 1,500+ pastors in attendance.

At the pre-event briefing this afternoon, the LIVE Summit Team heard about the schedule and logistics. The first Rick Warren message will be live-streamed for the pastors to watch LIVE — the message is specifically for pastors, and the organizers want as many people to watch/hear it as possible. The web link for this exclusive live video feed will be emailed out to subscribers of Rick Warren’s Ministry ToolBox. Sign up at saddlebackresources.com for free.

One thing I’ve noticed today is how Pastor Rick and his staff all exude a desire to support pastors in as many ways as possible. They’ve been doing it for years via Pastors.com. This Summit looks to be quite the roll out for several great things that will support pastors on the front lines of ministry. Here’s a hint: they’re working on using the Internet to provide free videos that’ll encourage pastors weekly, especially those meeting in small groups. And, I’m anticipating there’ll be more info about how the P.E.A.C.E. plan can help more pastors and churches serve & love the world.

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Get real-time updates and videos for the Purpose Driven Network Summit at Saddleback Church, May 20-22:

• I’m running my webcam live at http://ustream.tv/channel/djchuang-live
  


• My real-time twitter at www.twitter.com/djchuang + all Summit tweets via hashtag #pdsummit08


• First PD Summit session with Rick Warren will be streamed live at saddlebackfamily.com/mediacenter/services/
  


• Live stream video to interviews and Summit behind-the-scenes at www.ustream.tv/channel/purpose-driven-network-summit-2008


• >Live blog of the PD Network Summit over at Learnings @ Leadership Network blog


• other LIVE Summit team bloggers — Carlos “RagamuffinSoul” Whittaker + Tony Morgan “Live”


• Live twittering at twitter.com/tpmorgan + twitter.com/cadillaczak

More links here as I have time to post them.

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While working out (I try to do that 3x a week) walking on treadmill, saw the big weekend news item about excalating gas prices — $3.87 national average, over $4.00 in my ‘hood. CNN was interviewing a guy from Consumer Reports saying that if you speed up from 55 to 65 mph, you lose 5 mpg in fuel (in)efficiency. Accelerating from 65 to 75 mph, you lose another 5 mpg. Tip: drive 55 mph, get 10 more miles to the gallon. Being translated, save $6 per tank when you slow down. Pointing finger at myself, no one else.

Hosting an open house and bbq at our new condo town home on Memorial Day 10am-8pm. Come by as long or as short as you’d like. Family-friendly. Swimming pool and house tour optional. RSVP to me and I’ll get you directions to Aliso Viejo.

An overflow this week with conferences on both coasts. Purpose Driven Network Summit (#pdsummit08) had over 1,700 pastors and leaders from Tues to Thurs at Saddleback. 30+ recorded videos on Ustream of interviews & conversations with panelists and attendees. I’m in a handful of them too - look for orange. At the PEACE Coalition press conference afterward, they said they’d do this Summit again next year in May 2009. Props to Tony Steward for pulling off excellent live-streaming web coverage, and my fellow conversationalists Carlos, Tony, Tom, and Mike! Aside: 1 of my audience shots.

Whiteboard Sessions (aka #WiBo) kicked off their one-day big deal on Thursday with around 1,000 — lotta videos over at ConferenceChannel.org . More than a handful of crazy pastors went to both! [update: just read these sagely words from Jeff Shinabarger recognizing people’s gift and potential — do go over there and welcome Jeff to the blogosphere! He’s blogging into his 2nd month now.]

Question to all: should I create a new Twitter account for play-by-play conference tweets? A few have said that I’ve overloaded their phones.

Shifting gears between conferencing + conference calls + phone calls + meetups has wiped out. Maybe I’m getting too old for this. Extending my weekend, starting now, to be unplugged. Peace out.

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A word of welcome to the click-thrus from the ChristianityToday news article, “Rebooting PEACE: Rick Warren adds reconciliation to an already ambitious mission strategy.“. According to the press conference after the Summit, 1,700+ were in attendance; not sure how the CT article counted 650.

See my PD Summit links (live-blogging, live-twittering, recorded live-streamed videos) by scrolling down to the blog post titled “Links to Live Summit at Saddleback“. Read great summaries of the 12 main sessions by clicking over to the Learnings @ Leadership Network blog.

On another topic, I read how this LA Times reporter lost his faith, in The Man Who Learned Too Much: For eight years, William Lobdell reported on an industry plagued by scandal, deceit and corruption. It cost him his faith, and now he’s writing a book about his odyssey. I wondered what keeps me hanging in there with my faith in Jesus Christ.

I too see and experience things about churches and Christians that are disappointing and disillusioning. My conclusion? When things seem darker, I gravitate to 2 passages: 1 Corinthians 15 and John 6:68 — ““Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life.”

What keeps you from losing faith?