2011 National Youth Workers Convention

So I had the privilege of attending the National Youth Workers Convention (NYWC) this year. It’s always a great time. In short, Its a retreat for youth pastors, to learn, grow, connect, and refresh. Here’s a glimpse into the convention. It’s a party:

It’s honestly become a tradition for me to go the convention on an annual basis, its usually held in San Diego at a resort-esque conference center, where we can go to seminars and learn, order in room service, hit the jacuzzi, or hang out by the pool, I chose to do all of the above.

Though the highlights this year for me were not the main sessions or the seminars though they were all amazing, this year I took advantage of the opportunity to connect with other youth workers and speakers, and was able to meet with various guys and talk blogging, speaking, theology, life, or whatever else.

Here are a few things that I gleaned out of the weekend:

1. Let go, Let God– Though cliche, after having lunch with an old friend, it stuck. For the season of life I’m in and the transitional stage I’m facing, it was a great reminder to trust God, step back, let go, and give Him the reigns.
2. Hustle– as I’ve been pretty open with my goals and dreams in life on this blog, I decided to meet with various guys at the convention who have been or are currently living out what I’d like to be doing, the one thing I hear consistently was in order to achieve your goals you need to continuously work you butt off, and in doing so, in essentially “hustling” you’ll create a remarkable product, and in the end it will pay off.
3. Follow God and things will fall into place– piggy backing off the first one. Just re-emphasizing that I need to abide in Him and no matter how weird or crazy the things he might ask of me, I need to follow…

All of these things I did not gather from Doug Fields, or From Francis Chan speaking during a “main session” I got these from friends, peers, other youth workers who are in the trenches with the rest of us (not to say that Fields, and Chan are not in the trenches). What I love about conventions like these are the fact that it brings like minded men and women together to encourage and pray over each other… Which is exactly why i continue to go back year after year to this convention.