I started out the day in Newnan, Georgia yesterday – singing and speaking about Compassion International at Heatherwood Baptist Church.  I was given the entire contemporary service, something they’ve just started, and the 150 or so folks who were there sponsored 30 kids.  Thanks for that and an incredible lunch with a couple of the pastors and their wives.  We had a real heart to heart about contemporary versus traditional approaches to music and church services and growing up Baptist (and whether denominations mean anything to anyone who isn’t working for a denomination): We swapped war stories and breadsticks.  It always happens: complete strangers feel like cousins pretty quickly when carbs and Christ get involved.

Then, with my belly full and my eyes heavy, I drove to Berry College a few hours away.  This school is the most beautiful I’ve ever seen – and I’ve seen a lot of colleges in the last seven years on the road.  Remember the Titans and a Casting Crowns video were filmed there but it looked like something out of Dead Poet Society to me.

The part of the campus I was on was built by Henry Ford and looked more like a monastery or castle than a college.  It’s the largest college, they say, in the U.S. if you just measure acreage.  Did I mention this place is beautiful?  Check this out.

I have to board my flight to FLorida now.  I’ll have a layover in Orlando and I’ll try to find some Wi-Fi so I can tell you about what happened after last night’s show.  It’s worth it’s own post.

Oh, and by the way, the 53 students who showed up for last night’s show sponsored 13 kids with Compassion.  Yea, college students did that.  I have no fears about what the next generation will do when they’re leading the American church.