This past week I had a wonderful opportunity to speak at a local un-conference called Ignite Raleigh (link). My self-assigned topic, “What Would Jesus Tweet: The Interaction of Religion and Social Networking”, was voted into the top 10, and so there I was. I gotta be honest: leading up to the conference, I wasn’t totally stoked about it. I had tons of stuff to do this week (and still do), with another semi-speaking engagement on Saturday night, and then preaching on Sunday am at Harmony. But I was voted in: the people were expecting something. 
I wasn’t really nervous; I’ve spoken to crowds before, and I speak regularly every week. I was a little concerned about the time constraint (we had 5 minutes to get our point across and get out), however. I mean, come on, I’m a frickin’ preacher. I’m used to going 45 minutes a week. An hour on a good day with a couple cups of coffee. And now you’re giving me 5? Oh well. I also followed what I thought was one of the best talks of the night, from Ryan Allis of iContact. He’s a sharp guy; I picked that up from just the couple of minutes I sat with him in the green room backstage. I left the green room so I could hear him once he started; I knew there’d be some great takeaways (there were).
But then it was my turn.
And the MC (Zach Ward, who was amazing) forgot my name. Once he “recalled” it and announced the topic, the entire audience let out a cohesive ‘groan’. I hope that turns up on the video…
So here I was, literally, the no-name guy talking about a topic that no one wanted to hear about.
But God had other plans. He wanted the people of IgniteRaleigh to see a real guy with a sense of humor talking about the thing that matters most in life: why we live. And I think hope that people got to see that, by His grace and gifting.
The video will be posted soon, and I’ll definitely embed it on the blog, so I’ll let you see for yourself the presentation. I won’t bias it for you.
But know this: I left the stage simultaneously humbled because of what had happened, and joyous because I knew that He and I killed it. Most of all, I left prayerful, hoping that more than a decent talk, people saw a man chasing with all his might to be like Jesus; joyous, humorous, yet purposeful. Why is my life imitating His so important?
Because if I’m successful at following Him, it’d be a presentation worth watching on repeat.
