THE FAITHFUL

There's about 2,900 miles between Mike Anderson's home in Seattle, Washington, and Durham. But something drew him here this weekend.

"I think God's doing some things that are pretty special right now," he said. "He's both focusing on theology, which lots of times has been kept in the churches that are viewed as more conservative and they haven't engaged with people. At the same time, he's raising people up with a heart to care for people and to save people and to go out to the ends of the Earth."

Anderson was one in a crowd of 2,700 who came to "Advance: Resurgence of the Local Church" at the Durham Performing Arts Center. The event, started by a Christian group called Advance, features pastors from around the country discussing issues facing the church and how this young generation can fix them.

"It's a bunch of churches coming together saying we want to see these dead churches in the South, where it's maybe 30 to 40 older people where they're not seeing a lot of younger people come in to take over as they get older ... we want to come in here and we want to revitalize things," Anderson said.

The event started Thursday and runs through Saturday. Click here to see the full schedule.

VISITORS' IMPACT HERE

In this economy, each and every visitor to Durham adds up. In 2008 the city hosted 6 million travelers. The Convention and Visitors Bureau figures it'll be down about 13 percent. But spending is down 25 percent.

"They're either staying in a less expensive place, eating in a less expensive restaurant, shopping less," said Reyn Bowman, President of the Durham Convention and Visitors Bureau. "We still may pull out of it. There were some signs of recovery in late May, June, but it'll be a down year."

Bowman said the travel sector always feels the impacts of the economy first and recovers slowest.

"Some optimists say it'll come back up in the last quarter. Other folks say it'll be about 18 months," he said. "Durham runs much higher rates for restaurants, shopping, hotels than other communities - both nearby and our competitive set. The higher you are, the further you fall and it takes a while to rehydrate that."

On a positive note, Bowman said day travel will increase during a time like this because people aren't traveling long-haul.

"Both overnight and daytrip leisure travel in Durham has only been slightly down," he went on to say. ."It's actually been very good."

Yet conventions are down about 12 percent.

"Durham exceeds fair market share for business, exceeds fair market shares for conventions and in fact we draw more conventions, per capita than almost anywhere in the state."

But cities like Durham are prepping for one the economy does rebound.

"The actual confidence level for travel is up ... people who actually plan to travel in the next 12 months," Bowman said. "Right now - we're getting on people's lists for when they do recover."