I returned yesterday from the Seattle/Tacoma trip.  Here are a few of the highlights:

Mars Hill Reunion 

I spent Saturday night with Jamie Munson an elder and Lead Pastor (Mark Driscoll is preaching pastor) at Mars Hill in Seattle.  Mars Hill has gone through a bit of transition and Jamie and I spoke about that.  We also spoke about how to create systems that reflect an organizations vision/values.  Through many seasons, Jamie has much to offer in this area of thought.  Lastly, he showed me a demo of their site, "The City" which was exciting and good timing since we launched a similar set of features with Ekklesia for churches and their members.

Soma School

Finished a week at Soma School.  Capped the week with lunch with Caesar Kalinowski and Jeff Vanderstelt. I continue to grow in my appreciation for the friendship and shared vision between Kaleo & Soma.  On Sunday I was able to spend the day with a family from Soma Community, Mark Tilden who took us (Bryce & Chad from Sojourn in Louisville pictured below, their wives inside in the warmth) on his yacht to Vashon Island.  Mark has built and sold internet companies, his latest venture is FlightStats.com so he and I spoke about entrepreneurial things together.

Heather & Family

My parents flew up from Sacramento and we all spent Friday/Saturday together at my brothers.  My wife, Heather and I took a walk around around the last place we lived in Seattle, Greenlake.  As you can see we weren't quite ready for the 'summer days' of Seattle, having been spoiled by San Diego's weather.  In all of our years in returned visits (we moved in 2001) we always run into people we know here, and this trip was no exception.  

All-in-all a very profitable trip connecting and learning from others.  I look forward to my next conference in Raleigh, North Carolina.

Merry Christmas everyone!  It's always a little strange to celebrate Christmas in San Diego, it's 70+ degrees and sunny.  On Christmas Eve we took the boys to an ice-skating rink next to the Pacific ocean.  Today we rode our beach cruisers around the town.  It's been a while since I've uploaded family pictures, so here is a select collection from Halloween through Christmas.  Enjoy.

It's been a while since I've posted some pictures.  Here are  a few shots from the last few months that are mainly family pictures.    I typically don't do many 'personal' posts since I'm not wanting to have a 'cat blog'.

Cat Blogs are blogs for and by and about the person blogging. All sorts of posts about you and your cat, what you did today, how you feel, what you ate.  You get the picture.

Boss Blogs are blogs used to communicate to a defined circle of people.  Some pastors write most of their post for their congregation as a communication tool.  These would be boss blogs.

The third kind of blog is the kind most people imagine when they talk about blogs.  These are the blogs that are changing the face of marketing, journalism and the spread of ideas. Godin calls these Viral Blogs.

You can read more about this from Seth Godin's book, Small Is the New Big183 Other Riffs, Rants, and Remarkable Business Ideas (Or in his free e-book) where he classifies three types of blogs: Cat Blogs, Boss Blogs & Viral Blogs .   As more and more people people (including pastors, ministry leaders, etc) start their blogs, you need to determine what type of blog you want to have.  Who are you looking to communicate to?  What information are you willing to share?

During the busy seasons, it's often nice to get away for a break.  We had a chance to head up to Disneyland yesterday.  I've uploaded some pictures of our Disney trip . Pictures include:

• Gideon's fight with the dark side
• The Cars characters
• Fairchild's & Goodmanson's

Welcome to Goodmanson.com .  If you are new(er) here, I began this blog in July of 2004 and today I've posted for the 500th time.  I got out my calculator and discovered that over these 825 days, I've made a post every 1.65 days.  Over the years I've posted a lot on church planting, technology, churches, leadership and culture.  Here are some posts I'd recommend if you haven't been here the whole time.

CHURCH PLANTING 

Five Trends for the Future of Church Planting 26Aug06

The State of the American Church - Why Church Planting is Critical to the Future of American Christianity 16May06

CHURCH

A Partnership of Externally Focused Churches 11Aug06

Emerging From Church De-Construction to Church Kingdom Building 19Sep05

Fun with Angry, Yelling, Legalistic Christians who Know Everything 03Apr05

Is the Twelve Tribes a Cult? 02Nov05 (From my year-plus stint as a weekly Sheep & Goat column for the San Diego Reader)

LEADERSHIP

Preaching the Gospel to Yourself 26Oct06

Deacon Training & Development 02Jun06

Triperspectival Ministry Assessment 12Oct06

The Dangers of Confession while in the Pulpit 20Oct06

TECHNOLOGY

Why God is more glorified by Web 2.0 09Oct06

Technology and the Mission: Conference Session 25Sep06

List of Church Technology & Website Blogs & Resources 27Sep06

CULTURE

My own ‘Sin City’ 18Apr05

The role of the Christian artist in the secular world 20Aug04

FAMILY

New Son Roman! 30Jan06

Gideon Turns 2 Years Old 26Mar05

It’s been a great season of travel, family and learning. If you read my blog, you know I attended the National New Churches Conference in Orlando in April, the Reform & Resurge Conference in Seattle in May and I just returned from Palm Springs where we stayed at a vacation place my parents have. Earlier this month, we were very excited to have my parents and Roman’s birth mom Holly and her daughter here in San Diego for Roman’s dedication. I’ve uploaded some pictures of the trips and the dedication for friends and family to check out!

Photo Gallery

My son, Gideon, turned two on March 19th, because we had friends who had a marriage on the 19th, our party was this week. Here are some pictures from the bash.

Album: Gideon Two Year Old Birthday Party >

We took our son to the snow for the first time. Bill Munson let us use their cabin for part of the week. We packed our bags and headed up there with the Fairchilds. Gideon sled down a hill, a couple times on his own. It was pretty amusing to see our almost 2-year-old son trying to figure out the snow. Picture Gallery >

Here are some photos of our trip to Sacramento for Christmas. My mom, who is recovering from chemo/cancer is doing much better. It was great to spend some time with my family. Picture Gallery >

Last week my family returned to Seattle (we lived there nine years) and attended a conference at Mars Hill. The conference was called Reformission 2004. “The gospel has the power to transform lives, and indeed our culture. The goal of the Acts 29 Network is to plant churches that effectively reach the emerging generation. To accomplish this, young leaders need to be equipped with a solid theological understanding of the gospel. If our understanding of the gospel is weak, our proclamation and evangelism will be weak and fruitless. The Reformission conference will speak into areas of theological confusion prevalent today.” The most amazing part of the conference was hearing John Piper. That man blew me and a lot of people away. I hear they are going to put up his talks on the reformission.com site. I strongly encourage you to listen to these.

We also had an opportunity to hang with my brother. Picture Gallery >

Here are a few photos that were sent to us as Heather was caught by the paparazzi (photographer: Joy Thomas) while visiting Balboa park in San Diego, CA. Photo Gallery >

Here are a few images from a trip to the pumpkin patch. The images include Heather & Gideon, Joy & Lilly and Amy’s leg and Trinity. Image Gallery >

A trip to the beach, Heather golfs with friends and a home group meeting at our house. Image Gallery >

Here are some pictures of Gideon from April 2004. They include his first haircut (by Paige) and a trip to the beach. Photo Gallery >