The annual Breathe Deep conference in Kemah was great this year. At least for Heather and I. We got to hang out and talk guitars and worship with the sparky David Gentiles. I admit, I’m still jealous over his redwood MacPherson 3.5 acoustic guitar. And he’s a great guy as well.

Lance Crowell did an outstanding job in the ‘What’s Your Emergent-cy?’ session. He was able to cover some differences between ‘emerging’ and ‘Emergent’ (as in Village), and discuss some leaders such as Dan Kimball, Mark Driscoll, Tony Jones, Andrew Jones, Spencer Burke, etc. While I suspect most of those who attended his sessions were pretty uninformed on the emerging realm of things, he did a great job in covering the history of the movement and pointing out the percieved dangers and successes of it– he didn’t throw the baby out with the bath water.

Besides getting to catch up with some guys I haven’t seen in a while (thanks, guys!), there were really two highlights of the whole weekend:

First, I got to hang out with my wife without kids around. With everything going on over the past few months, we haven’t had any regular date nights in several weeks. So we got to spend time together walking around, talking about random things, etc., without having to rush back to check on the boys. Talk about breathing deep…

Second, Heather and I got to spend some real quantity time with a couple who is almost in a  desperate survival mode in their marriage and ministry. His ministry is a tough, all-consuming monster and his wonderful wife has gone as far as she can go with it. She’s patiently sacrificed things (even their family at times) for over 15 years of it and now she’s ready to pack her bags and bail. Not that Heather and I have it all together, but it was really great for all four of us to spend time together and unpack what it means to serve God in the local church, and how much of a ’sacrifice’ pleases God. A long conversation that is far from over. I’ve known the guy for close to 15 years and love him dearly. He’s faithful. He’s godly. And we share the same struggles. We all needed to breathe deep this weekend.

Oh…and I got to go on several dates with my wonderful wife who, btw, is the coolest.