Tag Archives: Road Trip
Road Trip to the Volunteer State
Posted on 18. Oct, 2011 by Kenny.
That’s Tennessee in case you didn’t know that.
Next week I’m taking off to spend three days in beautiful Tennessee. I’m actually flying into Nashville on Tuesday morning and I’ll be driving all over the state. So, here’s my road trip itenerary.
- Tuesday: Nasvhille
- Wednesday: Knoxville
- Thursday: Memphis
Honestly, I’m heading to TN because we’re going to be hosting an Illuminate Conference there in a few months (February 18th to be exact). So I’m going out to take care of some details and while I’m at it, I’m hoping to connect with kidmin leaders all over the space. So, I’m setting up lunches in all three cities where I can meet and connect. I may even have some time to connect outside of those lunches, but the schedule is starting to fill up pretty quick.
So, if you live anywhere near any of these three cities, I’d love to have lunch with you! Maybe you know someone in kidmin near any of these three cities. I’d love to have lunch with them too! Let me know either way so that I can get you all the details!
Can’t wait. I have a feeling that there will be some video blogs next week!
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Accountability from a skinny man works
Posted on 26. Feb, 2010 by Kenny.
Okay, so I almost forgot to post this. Before I left for my road trip I asked Sam Luce to hold me accountable. I’m in the middle of my biggest loser competition with my staff and being on the road where I’m eating out for almost every meal would be tough. It’s during these occasions that I tend to over-indulge. So I asked Sam Luce to hold me to my commitment. In the end, my goal was to weigh less than I did when I began.
So, Sam was a gracious accountability partner. Maybe it was a dumb thing for me to ask him to do it, but he didn’t make a big deal out of it. Every now and again, he’d give me the evil eye when I was reaching for an extra cookie after dinner. There were a few meals that did not fare well for my plan, but I just tried to eat as much as Sam ate. I figured that if I ate what a skinny man eats, I’d probably lose some weight.
So, I’ve got some bad news and some good news. I came home late Monday night and my biggest loser weigh in was the following day. For my official weigh in I was one pound heavier than the week before. I was actually quite pleased as I expected worse. I had a bit of a cold all week and just didn’t feel up to running on the treadmill once. The good news, by Tuesday I weighed in a pound lower than the previous day and on Wednesday morning, I was another pound lower. I’m on track to have lost 4 pounds this week, taking me to a record low for this competition.
I know there are probably very few people who care, but since I brought it up before I left, I figured I’d be true to my word and share how I did.
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Time with the “sign guy”
Posted on 24. Feb, 2010 by Kenny.
One of my favorite parts of my road trip last week was getting to spend half a day with my friend Matt McKee. He goes by many names though. The Ministry Monday Guy, or the Two Minute Tuesday Guy (After it was too late, Sam and I had the great idea to film a Two Minute Tuesday with Matt, when I pretended to be Patriot and Sam pretended to be Aslan) and the infamous Sign Wednesday guy. But if that’s all you think Matt McKee is, you’re pretty far off.
Matt’s one of the most creative guys I know and I only know a few people in Kidmin who are as entrepreneurial as him. He’s always thinking up new ideas. Whenever I’m naming something or designing something, Matt’s the first person I call. He was a significant force behind G-Force curriculum and Elevate curriculum while he was on staff at Fellowship Church. Although he’s been serving at smaller church in Cincinnati, he’s working on big stuff that will influence the world of kidmin. I really like hanging out with people like Matt. I’m better because of it.
So, Matt McKee is the social media king. Well, maybe not the king, but he’s at leas the mayor. He was on twitter for at least 9-10 months before it got popular. I remember hearing him talking about it long before I decided to check it out. So what does every social media mayor need? Social media badge pillows for his couch. I respect for him went way up when I saw these.
So here is Matt’s legendary wide-format printer. I actually first met Matt at the C3 conference back in 2002 or 2003. At C3, they were always encouraging people to use plotters, and I had a few conversations with Matt about wide format printers. He also hooked a brother up with some wall calendars last year. I just felt complete seeing this. Matt’s the sign guy, and here’s his sign maker.
This one here is my favorite pics. I call it one of my bucket-list pics. Every time I video chat with Matt, I see this Starbucks sign in the background. It looks good, huh? It’s made of Styrofoam with green and white paint. When you’re up close, you see it was hand painted and such, but from far back, it looks like he swiped it from a Starbucks. About 6 months ago I got a picture with Jonathan Cliff’s infamous tree. Now I’ve got a pic with Matt’s Starbucks sign. Now to work on my other items… that will probably be the next road trip.
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Quit being a loner. Go meet someone!
Posted on 22. Feb, 2010 by Kenny.
I’m home form my six day kidmin road trip with fellow blogger and children’s pastor Sam Luce. First of all, it was a total blast. Shooting around Tennessee, Kentucky, Indiana and Ohio with the mission of connecting with as many children’s pastors as possible was a total blast. Over the 6 days, we connected with over a dozen children’s pastors, one kidmin band from New Zealand and the infamous Jim Wideman.
Our tour connected us with a virtual mosaic of personalities and ministry styles that both humbled and impressed me. On multiple occasions, reality defied my expectations in an unexpected, but pleasant way.
The biggest thing I’ve learned from this whole kidmin road trip is that ministry in isolation is stupid. I can’t even tell you how much I learned in the past six days, but I would never have learned so much if I hadn’t left my church behind for a week and charged out to meet some new people (and visited some I hadn’t seen in a while). Going to a conference is good, but too often conference attenders don’t really venture out to meet new people, exchange ideas, challenge processes and dream of the future ministry ahead. How does that happen? You sit in a coffee shop for several hours with someone in ministry you respect. You take a look at someone’s facilities and ask question after question after question. You connect with someone you want to learn from and go to their house, eat their food and play with their kids.
So, this week (maybe a little of next week as well) I’ll share with you some of the experiences Sam and I had. Don’t rely on mine though. Reading this is just touching the tip of the iceberg. I’ll continue to have conversations, chats and meet-ups with the people I mention that you won’t know about. You need to make your own “kidmin road trip.” Maybe it won’t take you hundreds of miles away crossing state lines. It could start with the church on the other side of town. How are you going to make this happen in 2010? You’ll be glad you did, I promise!
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Kidmin Roadtrip: Busy, busy, busy
Posted on 18. Feb, 2010 by Kenny.
Wow, only 2 days in and we’ve been on the go, go, go! Sam and I’ve connected with a bunch of my old friends in IN, hung out with Matt McKee in Cincinnati, connected with Jarred Kennedy and Tony Kumer in Louisville and then had dinner with the Lads Band… and we’re just getting started. Our Infuse retreat starts today with Jim Wideman. Due to all the meet ups and the traveling, I’m behind on my blogging. So, I’ll be finishing up my series on curriculum and teenagers next week. In addition, I’ll be writing posts about all the meet-ups we’re having, there’s so much I want to tell you about these great Kidmin leaders we’re connecting with.
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Help from a skinny man
Posted on 16. Feb, 2010 by Kenny.
As I’ve shared in an earlier post, I’m three weeks in to a “Biggest Loser” competition with my staff. So far so good. Three weeks in and I’m officially 8 pounds lighter. We’ve got 9-10 weeks left to go, which is good as I still have 18 pounds to lose… minimum. I’ve been really disciplined with this competition. I’m very goal driven and have been known to get a little competitive from time to time. Regardless of the outcome, I’ll be a winner as I shed the pounds I’ve carelessly added over the years. As I wrote in a post a week ago, I’ve been using the iPhone App “Lose it!” It tracks the calories I consume as well as the calories I burn through exercise. My caloric diet to lose two pounds a week is about 2100 calories a day. Sounds ridiculous, I know, but remember, I’m a big dude. Whether by consuming less or burning extra calories through exercise, I try to net only 1500 calories a day. It’s taken a lot of forethought and discipline.
However, I’m a little nervous. This week I’m on a road trip with Sam Luce culminating in an Infuse retreat with Jim Wideman. We’ll be in the car a lot, staying in a hotel and eating out almost every meal. That’s really bad for someone in my situation. I’m going to need some help. My natural tendency is to really enjoy my self when it come to food. I’m hitting several of my favor restaurants in the area and I’m inclined to big out, you know, really enjoy myself. I can’t do that.
So, I’ve done what any really smart man would do in my situation. I asked for help from a skinny man. Sam Luce wrote the book on being a skinny man. No really, he did – or at least he’s writing several chapters. For the next six days, Sam’s going to be a constant companion. I’m sure he’s got good genes, but a skinny man is skinny for a reason, he’s smart about what he eats. So, I’ve asked Sam to be my accountability during this week. I’ll continue to use Lose It to track how I’m doing and if the hotel has a treadmill, I’ll try to burn some calories at least two times. But ultimately I’m defaulting to him in this area. I’m giving him permission to trump my food decisions. We’ll see how that goes. I think there are probably only a few people in our lives that we can give that kind of power. If it’s not the right person, you might murder them. Good luck Sam.
So my goal? To weigh less by Monday. So far I’ve lost weight every week since I started three weeks ago. Monday Morning will reveal how I did. I’d even be satisfied if I stayed even… but we’ll go for loss.
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