We’ve been pretty busy...and apparently so have you. For the past month I’ve been talking with many of you both online and in person about what you’ve done and what you’ve got planned for your AC-fueled Christmas. It’s incredible to see how you’re taking this simple idea to accomplish monumental change.

And people are taking notice in a big way. Last week I had the chance to speak with Todd Perry, CEO of the Pujols Family Foundation. These people are doing some amazing things in the world for children with Down Syndrome as well as others in the Dominican Republic. Albert Pujols is way more than an incredible baseball player. He is an amazing Christ follower who finds true joy as a servant. As we were talking we realized how much our two groups have in common. I asked if Albert would like to speak at an upcoming event we’re throwing in St. Louis. I sent him an email and explained what we’re about. I figured, hey, why not? He could only say no. But he didn’t. In fact, he let us know how excited he was to speak at our event the very next day.

So here we go. We are excited to host “Advent Conspiracy: Entering the Story” in Chesterfield, Missouri, November 11 at The Crossing Church from 9-10:30am (doors open at 8). If you are a pastor, teacher or business leader we’d would love to extend to you an official invite. If you know someone who fits this criteria, please forward on the information. Greg Holder, lead pastor of The Crossing and co-author of the Advent Conspiracy book and Albert Pujols will vision on what AC is all about and how you can teach others to make Christmas personal again. To register, click here.

Oh, one more thing. We kindly ask that you not bring any items for autographs. 

We’ve been blessed to have a number of great people offer their thoughts on Christmas and the Advent Conspiracy. Recently we asked Rob Bell to share his heart on what he feels the story of Christmas can offer our world. Rob is the founding pastor of Mars Hill Church in Grand Rapids, Michigan. He is a best selling author of Sex God, Velvet Elvis and his most recent work, Drops Like Stars. Rob also the creator and speaker behind NOOMA, a series of short films that explore the world through the perspective of Jesus.

Listen to the Podcast now by clicking here.

This year we thought it’d be great to expand our Podcasts by asking guests to chime in on their thoughts about AC and how it’s affecting their Christmas. So, we made a few phone calls. The result was as humbling as it was exciting. People were excited to talk to us and share their story. So far we’ve posted interviews from two amazing people. The first is Stan Patyrak from Living Water International. We’ve been friends with Stan for a long time and are always eager to hear his passion for clean water. The second is Micah White, a contributing editor for Adbusters Magazine magazine. We met Micah at the Q Conference this year and were really impressed with his opinions on consumerism and what it is doing to our culture. Two totally different viewpoints, two powerful Podcasts about what it means to Give Presence. We’ve got a great lineup of guests coming soon that you won’t want to miss, so head over to iTunes and subscribe today. 

Micah White, a contributing editor at Adbusters shares his thoughts with Rick McKinley on advertising and the culture it has created in our society and what it means for Christ followers. Click here to get the Podcast now. 

We’re looking for a few people to give their thoughts of the book on Amazon.com. If you’re interested, shoot us an email at . The first 40 people will get a free copy, so get those fingers typing. 

Our good friends at Catalyst have asked us to host a booth for the conference in Atlanta this year. Personally, I’m pretty excited for a few reasons. For one, I love Atlanta. We were their for the first Q Conference a few years ago and it was, as the South says, “Just a real fine time.” There’s plenty to see and do, like the aquarium, which is especially awesome. And if you’re lucky like I was you may get to see Ted Turner at his Southern-food-gone-North restaurant, Ted’s Montana Grill. The bison burgers are what the french would call le yum. Besides that, it’s just an honor to be there. We’re excited to meet all 200,000 who are attending the conference, so if you’re going, stop by our booth and snag some free AC garb. I’ll also have our camera on hand, so run a comb through your hair cuz I may ask to interview you!

Hey gang. Well, it’s October first, and as we promised, the book and DVD are officially available. Of course, they were available earlier than today, but we couldn’t be “officially” official. Now it’s official. So officially head to the website that I’m gonna throw your way in a minute and let us know what you think!

Official website is officially available to you by clicking here