Today was my friend Reggie Joiner’s Birthday. I had to work all day and didn’t get to do anything special yet. But, hey it made me think about a few things. I went to his facebook and sent him a note and then I copied the picture that is his facebook profile picture and made it my profile picture as well.
I’ll attach it here. As you can see …it is Reggie and Me and Andy Stanley. Here is my thought. The three of us have been friends for a long time. We have gotten to do some absolutely amazing things together. I have memories of ministry, and teaching and laughter and fun and life change and struggle and disease and heavy hearts and pure joy with these guys. God has given us people in our lives where he has revealed his very presence and nature and sometimes we forget. On birthdays, we stop and remember. And thank God for friendships like these that you would never replace for anything in the world. None of us really knew each other 20 years ago. We had heard of each other but we would never have dreamed what God would do in our lives together. That is the heart part of this. The fun part would be to have all of you send Reggie a note saying that he looks a lot older than Andy and Lanny. Send it to Reggie on his facebook account Reggie Joiner or ..dang i really want to give out his personal email address here. but …i won’t. go to tour@rethinkgroup.org
Thanks

Another in the ping pong links. Just cool and fun.

hey. i’ve got some more life stuff …heart stuff to write about. And i am getting lots of feedback about what speaker you listed to and why and who is different than whom and why you like and don’t like.
Fascinating stuff. I probably won’t post most of what you are saying but i will let you know what comes out of the information. Meanwhile. The Olympics. Most of you don’t know that i play ping pong. Fairly seriously. Haven’t as much since my back surgery but I am a member of the USATT and have played in a number of tournaments and played against some world ranked olympic guys. Actually learned alot years ago from the Olympic champion from France. So…just to let you know …as a break in the normal kind of blogs here. The ping pong stuff is coming on tonight at 10. And to get you pumped if you like it. Here is a cool video

Hey just for clarification. On the last blog i asked for your input about speaker. Someone thought it was so i might bash someone. Just the opposite. This won’t be used for anything other than info and fun and no bashing on my part is allowed. Remember, the theme for Catalyst is “Together”
There is enough bashing going on already. I just want your opinions. I won’t even let your comments get through the approval part of the blog. So…no worries please. I can keep your thoughts to myself.
Lanny

So…i have an idea. But first i need to know. Who do you think are the top 20 preacher type guys you like to hear. or…that you don’t like to hear. Who are the top guys being listened to?
I know i am supposed to know this but i want you to tell me from your perspective in this world.
And…who are the ones that are together in what they say…
and who are the ones that are opposites or…
heaven forbid…talking badly about the others.
Pass this on to everyone you know and havem send me their answers.
this could get kind of sticky. or fun. After that…interesting stuff…
Say what you want, i won’t post it if you ask me not to.

Ok, now and then just for fun,I’ll put something from the past on here.(Maybe two years ago) This was probably one the most fun days at Northpoint Church I’ve ever had. Andy was great, as always, and allowed us to do some really fun stuff. Enjoy.

17000 people came to Bigstuf this summer. No way to explain how God did what he did. But….he used a great team of people to do it….here are some…this team rocked the stage and the hearts of tons.

this team won the hearts of everyone and displayed god’s smile.

this team made me smile

this team made everyone smile

and this team did our north pole bigstuf

someone told me that i really ought to quit making them cry with every post. maybe do something fun or normal or mundane, like just write about what i did today.
put antlers back on a moose.
watched the expression of a fly’s face as he tried to jump after i pulled his wings off.
started writing a book about how to write a book called “the mirror”
i reflected.
once in the mirror i didnt reflect..got scared. then realized it wasn’t a mirror.
did my geneology all the way back to patrick henry and patrick swayze and found a time travelor .
wondered if the dark knight should have an arch nemesis called the bright kday.
put a humidifier and a de humidifier in my room tonight just to see what might happen .
published this worthless piece of literature…but hey….nobody cried.
well….i did….just a bit.
lanny

We have a lot of nights of worship at Bigstuf. Most of them are indescribable. Usually though if we have 1500 people singing and praising, you might see a few people not engaged. Tonight in the arena in Daytona Beach Fl. over 3000 kids were fully engaged in an unforgettable experience where it felt like you could reach your arms up and touch the edge of heaven. I am so thankful to be able to experience this so often and create a place where this is not so unusual. Most of the people in the world will never know what this is really like until they step on out of this life. So, if this is just a fraction of what that will be…we have a lot to look forward to.

I told you about Rachel Kent in the last blog. Bigstuf host lots of incredible students who exemplify a wonderful spirit even in the midst of the hardest of times. Rachel is one of those students.
This is a bit of her story.