I have been in Dallas, Texas, for the last two days at a conference at Fellowship Church. The church is a megachurch with a reported 25,000 average attendance in 2020, which started in 1990, so it has grown rapidly in the last 30 years. I haven’t attended a conference like this in quite a few years. When I first started pastoring, I would attend at least two church growth conferences every year. I did it in the 80s and 90s because I was so dumb and wanted to learn how to be a good pastor. I usually learned some things, but the primary value in going was the passion and drive I came home with from the seminar to work hard as a pastor and build God’s church. I came to this one because I was bringing two young pastors with me and hoping that it would do for them what they used to do for me. I had forgotten how successful these conferences were at motivating me. I am at the age that I don’t want to be motivated anymore, but I got all fired up anyway!! After a full day, I am back in my motel room and exhausted from getting so excited!!! One of the principles I have taught for years is that motivation is caught from others, not cranked up in our minds and hearts. You put a dead log into a fire with other logs on fire, and it is only a few minutes before it burns bright.