Yosemite Summit Report and Video

[This is a reprint from YosemiteSummit.org since I have more readers here] Don’t miss the Highlight Video at the end of this post! (Remember, click any image to view larger!) This year Yosemite Summit came for me in the midst of a very busy schedule, which is why I haven’t been able to do a report for over a month. In fact, had it not been for Yosemite Summit, I would not have ever slowed down! Which is exactly why Yosemite Summit exists, as I wrote about in Built in Pit Stop. Before Yosemite Summit, there were seasons in my life when I didn’t ever slow down! Yosemite Summit has taught me to slow down, in fact, it has taught me the power of stopping. Actually, Yosemite Summit played a major role in my moving my family to Colorado so I could live a state where the pace is slower and where stopping is easier… though I am still learning to apply it on a monthly basis. If you are a kidmin professional in Colorado, ask me about my Colorado Hiking Club, The Fellowship of the King! This year’s Summit brought together seven guys from around the country. Two returned…

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What is it about Yosemite?

This place is beyond description, though of course, I try. As I often say, it is where God showed off. Our language lacks adequate words to do Yosemite justice. Incredible. Amazing. Spectacular. Breathtaking. Beautiful. Magnificent. I suppose the best I can use is awe-inspiring. Awe at the sheer size, and height, and depth, and distance, and beauty, and splendor that hits your eyes all at once. And no matter how many pictures you take (and I take a lot) you can’t contain it. You can’t get your mind around it. You have to be there and just experience it. But what is the “it” – “it” is not Yosemite, it is GOD. His Bigness, His Majesty, His Beauty, His Greatness, His Power, His Creative ability, – I do not worship Yosemite – I love Yosemite because it draws out of me a depth of worship I can only experience there. It’s like somehow God is more there than anywhere else. While I know theologically that isn’t true, this broken spiritual vessel is somehow healed there – even if only temporarily – and able to feel God’s presence like no other time. All doubts, All worries, All concerns, All pressures, All…

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Back from Yosemite

Yosemite Summit 2010 is now history. I’m sitting in the airport waiting to come home. E-mail and work will still need to wait until Tuesday (sorry), my family is eager to spend some time with me. It was, as always, an amazing week. I did both my hardest hike ever (Upper Yosemite Falls) and discovered the most amazing, most incredible, most mind-numbingly beautiful hike in Yosemite that we did when when weather caused us to cancel our original plan to head to Hech Hechy due to its higher elevation and possible road closures. I’ll perhaps write more about it later, but online it will only be referred to as “The Trail That Shall Not Be Named” since it is by far both the best trail in Yosemite and the least known. You’ll have to ask me personally for its name and location, and yes, I will tell you, I’m just not posting it online for random web surfers to read! I’d like to help keep the trail traffic low! But aside from the amazing hikes and scenery, it was a fantastic week of rest and time with the Creator. We enjoyed good fellowship, encouraging conversations, prayer and enriching friendships that…

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Off to Yosemite Summit

Just letting y’all know, that from this Saturday night through next Thursday I will be COMPLETELY off line. No e-mail, no cell phone, no facebook, no twitter, no nothing electronic, except worship music on my iPod shuffle and my Sony Alpha 350 digital camera enjoying Yosemite Summit with several other guys. Many people joke that going offline must be ‘torture’ for me, and they forget I created this event. This may come as a shock to some, but while I very much ENJOY ministry and serving others and am comfortable ‘in the spotlight’ I do not crave it, I am, in fact, an introvert and crave being alone and feed off being disconnected and long for times like this. So, fear not, I’ll be back, for it is my Calling from God – but I’m very much going to enjoy the next few days and will not be bothered a bit that my inbox, voicemail, and snail mail box will be piling up while I am away. I appreciate your patience while I recharge! PS: I’m also testing mobile blogging from my iPad here, lets hope this worked! [Posted with iBlogger from my iPad]

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Built in Pitstop

Is life crazy busy for you? Have you tried to get it in balance and failed? Have you strived for margin and seen it fill up over and over with church and other stuff and fought to get it out again? Have you wondered, “Can I ever win this battle to get control of my life?!” Me too. But at least something is different now. I have a built in pit stop in my life, called Yosemite Summit. Every May, me and eight other children’s pastors (or ministry leaders) go to Yosemite National Park for a complete break-away from ministry to just fellowship with each other and focus on our relationship with God and our  relationships with our wives and kids. And nothing else. and… We WALK AWAY FROM IT ALL. I’ve had to accept that while I will always be working on it, I will never master getting my daily life or week under control. There is just too much to do all the time. But at least I can look forward to once a year, every year, when I walk away from it all for four glorious days when I just enjoy God’s incredible creation in THE most…

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