I had the opportunity to attend Story 09 in Chicago, Illinois. In the style of the weekend recap, here’s the conference recap.

• Story was the brainchild of Ben Arment, who is possibly the nicest human being on the planet. The Paramount Theater was a great venue for a conference like this.  Here’s some pictures.
• I attended the conference with Jaker (our student ministry director), Tracy (my assistant) and Suzy Jordan (not sure what she does, but at least she’s got twitter now)
• Ed Young kicked off the conference by making up words and dropping a bunch of rhymes. Takeaway:  While it’s safer in the marina, we need to go out into the depths of the ocean where people are drowning.  Great points that may have been lost in an over the top presentation.
• Dave Gibbons said that many church discipleship models are flawed because they treat the church as the only source for meeting needs.
• Chris Seay said that you get tired when you do the wrong things, but when you engage in meaningful stuff, you’re energized.
• Stacey Spencer challenged us to treat a sermon like a movie by introducing the text to the dilemma, putting people in the story, throwing in a twist, and telling a redemption story.
• Donald Miller did a fantastic job talking about the elements of story and conflict.  Takeaway:  Without conflict, a character will not change for the better.  He also said something about saving cats, but I’m not so sure about this.
• Day two was a set of smaller workshops, the best of which was led by Skye Jethani, who talked about the difference between teaching and preaching.  If people do not INTEND to follow Christ, then practical application on how to do it will fall way short.  There is a time for instruction and application, but preaching is about painting a picture of what the Gospel really is.   It was the best session of the entire conference.
• Kevin Sterner said that while excellence has stopping power, story has staying power.
• We had dinner at a Brazilian Steakhouse with Paul and Tony.  Also ate some great Chicago pizza.  If you want detailed notes on the sessions, check out Tony’s blog.
• Whenever I attend a conference, I take notes and return to them later for additional processing.  But I also make a separate list of quick action steps or things to implement right away.  Songs to sing in church, websites to check out, creative element to share with the team.  Story generated several ideas, and those ideas alone are usually worth the price of a conference for me.