Student Leadership Conference

As I'm sitting here in beautiful Mammoth Lakes, CA on vacation I decided that this is the perfect opportunity to write a blog about my experience at the Student Leadership Conference at Saddleback Church.

Day1- We arrived at Saddleback after a very short drive. Some of our students were amazed at how close Riverside is to South Orange County. The students played on some of the bouncy blow-up toys and Mike and I went to a Leaders Meeting. The meeting went a bit long and Mike and I were some of the last people to eat while all the other students and leaders started pouring into Tent 2. A bit hectic to begin, but we survived. Doug Fields taught about the Make-up of a Leader and had some really good things to say. After the first session we took our students to the Irvine Spectrum were we rode the Ferris Wheel and Some of us had Funnel Cake.

Day 2- The morning session was excellent with Kenny Luck speaking. His daughter was in my C-Group at Saddleback so it was really cool to hear him speak. We also heard Matt McGill who I'd never heard speak before, but I loved it because he was short and to the point (good for my attention span) and he was extremely real with the students. After the session we met with our team to do this race type game called "Experiential Leadership." We were in classrooms before lunch where the students did some team trivia, human knot, ping-pong drop, etc. After lunch the students in these same teams did an "Amazing Race" (my favorite reality show) type game where the students had to build a pile of sand 4 ft. high, count parking lot spaces and much, much more. In the afternoon session we heard from an event planner from Disneylnd and Eric Rees who is the Pastor of Ministry at Saddleback. Listening to Eric made me regret not having gone to Class 301 when we were at Saddleback. At the night session we heard from Nick Vujicic, who has an amazing story about liiving a life without any arms or legs. He is an amazing man of God who has inspired many people. After the night was done we went back to the hotel and played Mafia with the students.

Day 3- The morning session had a few speakers that didn't really impress me too much so I'll just move on to the workshop time. In the afternoon the students were able to attend workshops given by different people, some from Saddleback others from other churches. I went to Mike's which was okay and I also went with some girls to a workshop about Breaking Down Barriers and beginning a Girl's Ministry. It was good to hear that every church struggles with how they can reach out to all girls. The afternoon was fun because we took our students to Laguna Beach and then to Fuddrucker's for dinner. They seemed to have a good time. The night session was pretty good with the guy from Dare2Share, Greg Stier, who has some pretty funny stories even though I'd heard them before. Also there was Erin Kerr the Pastor of Evangelism at Saddleback. They both had some really good things to say. After this session we took the students to Golden Spoon.

Day4- There was a super session in the morning on Friday. The two speakers were Dee Eastman and Jim Burns. Both which were very good and had some really good things to say. We ended the conference and the session with a time for Communion. It was a very awesome experience. After the conference we took our student to Wahoo's and introduced them to the experience that Wahoo's Fish Taco is. We actually arrived home early.

Overall, my experience at this conference is one I will never forget. It was worth the 3 nights in a hotel just to see how much the students learned and to see the look on their faces when they finally got what Purpose Driven is all about. You can only explain things so much but until a student sees it carried out it won't be real to them. We will definitely bring students to the conference for a long time.