This is a guest post from Jacob Riggs, RCMA Emerge intern and Assistant Pastor at Central Free Will Baptist Church. He live blogged Wednesday morning's breakfast session at Emerge 2013 with motivational speaker John Cassis.
8:25 am: The Triad 4 Christ Choir from here in Minneapolis is rocking out. They’ve got enough energy for everyone else in the room and then some. One song they did was “Pass Me Not.” Here is a brief video of their performance I took with my flip video camera:
8:30 am: Dr. Harry Schmidt, President of RCMA, welcomed everyone.
8:33 am: Dr. Brown from the Bethlehem Baptist Church prayed for the meal.
8:35 am: Triad 4 Christ Choir sang “Majesty.” They are incredible.
8:38 am: My food arrived. It looks amazing. Apple Crisp french toast—incredible. Egg souffle’—probably the best I’ve ever had. Homemade yogurt with fruit and granola—very, very good. Not to mention the polish sausage, scones, streusel, and fruit. I hate breakfast food, and I loved this meal.
8:42 am: Dr. Schmidt welcomed us again and is speaking about how meetings will be changing in light of culture changing. He’s a good speaker.
8:47 am: Melvin Tennant, Executive Director of Minneapolis CVB, welcomed us, then showed an introductory video about Minneapolis. “City by Nature” is their theme. Check out the Minneapolis CVB here. Mr. Tennnant introduced Jada Stumon, a young, very talented, seventh grade girl.
8:57 am: Jada has been in Annie, among other broadway shows and many other things. She’s singing “Because of Who You Are.” Here’s a video of her singing when she was much younger:
She received a standing ovation for her first song. Her second song is “Grateful.” A second standing ovation for that. Well deserved.
9:08 am: Dr. Schmidt is back on stage. “Faith-based meetings are meeting somewhere every day, because God is somewhere, everywhere, every day.” He introduced John Cassis, president of the Cassis Group.
9:15 am: John Cassis is on. Check out his website here. He was the motivational speaker for the Chicago Bears for many years. He has also been a pastor and minor-league baseball player. He wants to talk to us about “bullseyes—the truths we know.”
“We live in a world that says, ‘image, image, image.’ Give me ‘integrity, integrity, integrity.”
He led us through an example of change and how weird it feels. We crossed our arms the natural way and then the unnatural way. We did the same with our hands. Crazy how weird that felt. He said when you wait on the Lord, you can work through change.
A leader is a servant who lifts up his or her people, who inspires, who does whatever it takes to make them better.
“I need a spirit of cooperation and not a spirit of competition.” Quincy Jones when he produced the song “We Are the World.” The best leaders do that.
“I have not come to be served, but to serve other people.” Jesus Christ
“Sometimes when we want to change we get a little afraid.”
“People are not burned out at their jobs. They are burned out with the atmosphere at their jobs. And atmosphere is controlled by leaders.”
“Joy is the net of love that captures souls.” Mother Theresa
“Trust is the glue that holds relationships together.”
Cassis then had us join hands and hold them up. He compared us to the root system of Redwood trees--standing alone, we would be vulnerable to storms, but linking together, we hold one another up.
9:59 am: Dean Jones makes an important announcement to suppliers. He then led a giveaway for planners.
That ends the first general session.