Because the Divine Renovation Conference 2016 was designed to let participants 'see under the hood' at how St Benedict's parish, Halifax works, this preamble to the main talk on the Tuesday morning of the conference is included separately because it gives an insight into the culture of the place, and the love and teamwork that keeps it going.
Dan O'Rourke gave this preamble. You can find him on Twitter as @DanORourke and you can find the podcasts here and here.
Dan O'Rourke: Good morning and welcome to Day 2 of Divine Renovation 2016. I am so thrilled that we're all here. It's a full house yet again and lots of people streaming online. I mentioned yesterday that we were the No. 1 trending hashtag on Twitter nation-wide (#DR16). So for those Twitter users, I encourage you to keep taking photos and tweeting quotes. It's amazing. That's driving people to click the Livestream to join us from their homes all over Canada. So please keep tweeting.
In a minute I am going to invite up onto stage my two podcasting buddies, so Fr James Mallon and Ron Huntley will be joining me in a moment. And there's actually a 4th staff member that is part of that podcast. He doesn't appear audibly, but he is our producer and our audio tech, and he's also the guy who plays the central role for all the audio and AV for this entire conference: Paul Lang. Paul, are you around here somewhere? Are you up in the booth? There he is. So there's Paul way up in the booth (clapping). So Paul's a young guy. He's been putting in a lot of hours lately and it just so happens that today's actually his 24th birthday and he's going to spend it here working – working long hours of overtime. But I was just wondering if all 600 of us could turn around and sing Happy Birthday to him. So Paul, stand up again, we want to be able to see you buddy. (singing). Paul, we love you man, you do amazing work.
So I've been blown away by all the love that the podcast has. So many of you have been coming up to me and saying, 'I love the podcast', 'I listen to the podcast'. A few of you have come up and said, 'When's the next podcast coming, it's been a while since we've heard a podcast?' Many of you would know, since we put the podcast on hiatus in the lead up to the conference for 2 reasons. 1) We were doing a conference 2) Fr James had committed to himself, to the team and to others to write another book.
We haven't talked too much about the book, but the Divine Renovation Guidebook is available to buy at the Novalis table at the back. Novalis has been a wonderful partner with us. So if you haven't yet checked out the guidebook, there's a few copies remaining. There's not many. They're the only copies in existence. They are taking orders. And what I want to be able to (I know Fr James will kill me for even telling about it), but what's important to note is that all (he doesn't earn a dime off the sale of that book), all the money from the sale of that book goes straight back into the Divine Renovation ministry. So if you buy the book, know that you are not getting Fr James a new Lexus, he's still going to be driving the same old car he's been driving for a long time. But the book's back there. I know they're going to sell it real soon. They are taking orders. And for anyone who orders at the conference they are offering free shipping of the book – so that's part of the deal there.
I know many of you know Fr James really well – many of you would also know Ron Huntley, who is also on the podcast. And he's had a couple of workshops. But not all of us have met Ron. If you have met Ron, there's no doubt that he's already invited you to Alpha. So that is what Ron is best known for: inviting people to Alpha. But honestly he's a key member of the Divine Renovation team, he's a key member of St Benedict's parish, he's a quintessential coach and he's the host of the Divine Renovation podcast. He brings to life what Patrick Lencioni was talking about last night, which is that healthy conflict. Watching him and Fr James go back and forth is like, I feel like a referee, watching the 2 guys having a healthy conflict in front of me sometimes. So if I could ask you all to help me welcome Fr James Mallon and Ron Huntley up onto the stage (clapping)
………………………………………………………………..
I understand that the Divine Renovation Guidebook is designed to be written in, but how I wish they had released a Kindle version as well as a paperback version!
What you see here is Dan O'Rourke being a living example of Romans 12:10 (Outdo one another in showing honour). He's modelling two things that should be seen in parish life, but often aren't: 1) thanking people for their hard work – especially the 'behind the scenes' people and 2) praising them for how well they do it. Both things encourage people to keep serving God. Hebrews 3:13 (Every day, as long as this 'today' lasts, keep encouraging one another.)
This is the kind of love that Laurie experienced, the love the Holy Spirit had poured into the hearts of the parishioners at St Benedict's, the love that ultimately drew her to Jesus.
Dan O'Rourke gave this preamble. You can find him on Twitter as @DanORourke and you can find the podcasts here and here.
Dan O'Rourke: Good morning and welcome to Day 2 of Divine Renovation 2016. I am so thrilled that we're all here. It's a full house yet again and lots of people streaming online. I mentioned yesterday that we were the No. 1 trending hashtag on Twitter nation-wide (#DR16). So for those Twitter users, I encourage you to keep taking photos and tweeting quotes. It's amazing. That's driving people to click the Livestream to join us from their homes all over Canada. So please keep tweeting.
In a minute I am going to invite up onto stage my two podcasting buddies, so Fr James Mallon and Ron Huntley will be joining me in a moment. And there's actually a 4th staff member that is part of that podcast. He doesn't appear audibly, but he is our producer and our audio tech, and he's also the guy who plays the central role for all the audio and AV for this entire conference: Paul Lang. Paul, are you around here somewhere? Are you up in the booth? There he is. So there's Paul way up in the booth (clapping). So Paul's a young guy. He's been putting in a lot of hours lately and it just so happens that today's actually his 24th birthday and he's going to spend it here working – working long hours of overtime. But I was just wondering if all 600 of us could turn around and sing Happy Birthday to him. So Paul, stand up again, we want to be able to see you buddy. (singing). Paul, we love you man, you do amazing work.
So I've been blown away by all the love that the podcast has. So many of you have been coming up to me and saying, 'I love the podcast', 'I listen to the podcast'. A few of you have come up and said, 'When's the next podcast coming, it's been a while since we've heard a podcast?' Many of you would know, since we put the podcast on hiatus in the lead up to the conference for 2 reasons. 1) We were doing a conference 2) Fr James had committed to himself, to the team and to others to write another book.
We haven't talked too much about the book, but the Divine Renovation Guidebook is available to buy at the Novalis table at the back. Novalis has been a wonderful partner with us. So if you haven't yet checked out the guidebook, there's a few copies remaining. There's not many. They're the only copies in existence. They are taking orders. And what I want to be able to (I know Fr James will kill me for even telling about it), but what's important to note is that all (he doesn't earn a dime off the sale of that book), all the money from the sale of that book goes straight back into the Divine Renovation ministry. So if you buy the book, know that you are not getting Fr James a new Lexus, he's still going to be driving the same old car he's been driving for a long time. But the book's back there. I know they're going to sell it real soon. They are taking orders. And for anyone who orders at the conference they are offering free shipping of the book – so that's part of the deal there.
I know many of you know Fr James really well – many of you would also know Ron Huntley, who is also on the podcast. And he's had a couple of workshops. But not all of us have met Ron. If you have met Ron, there's no doubt that he's already invited you to Alpha. So that is what Ron is best known for: inviting people to Alpha. But honestly he's a key member of the Divine Renovation team, he's a key member of St Benedict's parish, he's a quintessential coach and he's the host of the Divine Renovation podcast. He brings to life what Patrick Lencioni was talking about last night, which is that healthy conflict. Watching him and Fr James go back and forth is like, I feel like a referee, watching the 2 guys having a healthy conflict in front of me sometimes. So if I could ask you all to help me welcome Fr James Mallon and Ron Huntley up onto the stage (clapping)
………………………………………………………………..
I understand that the Divine Renovation Guidebook is designed to be written in, but how I wish they had released a Kindle version as well as a paperback version!
What you see here is Dan O'Rourke being a living example of Romans 12:10 (Outdo one another in showing honour). He's modelling two things that should be seen in parish life, but often aren't: 1) thanking people for their hard work – especially the 'behind the scenes' people and 2) praising them for how well they do it. Both things encourage people to keep serving God. Hebrews 3:13 (Every day, as long as this 'today' lasts, keep encouraging one another.)
This is the kind of love that Laurie experienced, the love the Holy Spirit had poured into the hearts of the parishioners at St Benedict's, the love that ultimately drew her to Jesus.