Catalyst – Craig Groeschel
The more I listen to Craig Groeschel the more I like him. I’ve heard him speak a few times at conferences like these and I think he’s fantastic. I love what Lifechurch.tv is doing to serve local churches in America through things like www.youversion.com, www.churchmetrics.com and also making Bible apps for the iPhone. He shared some thoughts from his new book called “IT”. The concept is simply this. Have you ever been to a church that just had IT? Have you ever been to a church that definitely did not have IT? What is IT? He doesn’t know but he shared a few thoughts about what “IT” is.
This message was really more of an impartation, “had to be there” type message, there was some powerful ministry going on after his message so its kind of hard to capture that in this medium but here’s my best try. Here they are.
1. God makes IT happen
2. We cannot create IT
3. IT isn’t a model, system or program
4. IT has an upside in that lives are changed
5. IT attracts critics because whenever God is doing something unique, someone will always be there to criticize.
6. If you have IT you can lose IT. If you don’t have IT you can get IT.
* IT is about being overwhelmed by God’s presence and power.
* Do you measure success by inward obedience or by outward success?
* You have to do something drastic to get IT back. If little tweeks are what you needed those would have worked a long time ago.
* Do you rationalize God’s voice and leading if it sounds to crazy or big?
* There is more in you that you are capable of doing.
* Is God stretching you, if not, ask Him too.
* Before God can stretch you, He has to heal you, before He can heal you He has to ruin you. We need to be ruined by God.
Great day this first day of Catalyst. Looking forward to tomorrow.
Catalyst – Seth Godin
Seth Godin has the number one business blog in the world and is the leading marketing guru on the third rock from the sun. This talk was based on his new book Tribes which he gave a copy of to every attendee of Catalyst. Here are some points.
* Everyone is part of a tribe (a group of people)
* A crowd is not a tribe, a tribe has something in common
* The greater connection in your tribe the greater your organization will be.
* If you want to grow don’t focus on marketing, focus on leadership.
* If you play it safe, you’ve already lost.
3 ways to build a tribe
1) Find people alone who are not part of a tribe.
2) Find people who are like them
3) Put together a group of people who would never be together.
A heretic is someone whose faith is so deep they are willing to go against the grain to do what they believe in. Be a heretic.
Here are his thoughts on how to lead a tribe.
* 1) Challenge the tribe
* 2) Create a culture for the tribe
* 3) Create curiosity in your culture.
* 4) Lead with charisma
* 5) Communicate WITH the tribe not AT the tribe.
* 6) Connect with the tribe.
* 7) Commit to the tribe.
* Here is what the tribe wants from you a leader
* 1) Connect with the tribe
* 2) Create meaning for the tribe
* 3) Make a difference as a leader
* 4) They want to be noticed
* 5) They want to know that the matter
* 6) They want to be missed
* If you are not inspiring you have no right to be a leader
* Are you doing something for the tribe or to the tribe?
Catalyst – Steven Furtick
You may have heard about Steven Furtick. He is the 28 year old pastor of Elevation Church in Charlotte, NC who planted a church about 2 1/2 years ago with a small core group and is now running around 5,000 people. Its the second fastest growing church in America and a pretty exciting story. He talked about the process of God in between the promise and the payoff.
* God’s promises start small.
* Be faithful in the process, don’t give up.
* God is preparing you for what He is preparing for you.
* Do not doubt what God has spoken about your ministry. Hold fast to the promises of God and embrace the process.
Catalyst – Brenda Salter McNeil
Brenda Salter McNeil shared about God wanting to “Shake us up.” Here are a few of the points.
* When people are too scared to go into the ends of the earth on mission, they stay back and pray instead.
* Catalytic events provide opportunities for movements.
* When God shows up in power like in Acts 2, the natural overflow is that people go, not stick around.
* The church was intended to be multi-ethnic.
Catalyst – Jim Collins
Wow, amazing session. Jim Collins did not disappoint. He is the author of the bestselling business books, Good to Great and Built to Last. I’m probably not going to write all of my notes, cause I would not like to get carpel tunnel syndrome but here are the highlights.
* Good is the enemy of great.
* Greatness has nothing to do with the cards we were dealt but rather our conscious decisions and choices we make.
* Most overnight success stories were about 20 years in the making.
* No one person or organization is immune from falling.
* The great generally fall from overreaching, which is the undisciplined pursuit of more. You become seduced by your own success.
* When you start compromising the quantity over the quality, you will fail.
* The question to ask when making changes is generally not what should be done but rather who should be leading. Better who’s will make a better what.
* The one trait of Level 5 leaders across the board is the trait of humility.
* If whatever you are leading is ultimately about you, it will fail.
* It is irresponsible for churches to depend on a personality to sustain the church.
* The true report card of your performance comes after you are gone.
* A to do list needs to be accompanied by a stop doing list.
* Values and practices are different things. Every generation needs to determine its own set of practices to accomplish the goal and the values may never change.
* You need to have the right people on the bus.
* Stop giving answers and start asking more questions.
* When you are thinking about transition, its time to change.
* What are you willing to endure the pain of to become a Level 5 leader?
* We are not imprisoned by staggering defeats but rather freed by our choices
* Greatness is a function and result of the choices that no one sees.
Andy Stanley came up and interviewed Jim Collins for a few minutes to wrap up the session and here were some of the little nuggets that came out of his answers.
* The moment you feel a need to tightly manage someone, you probably made a hiring mistake.
* Its more important for people to understand their responsibilities rather than to have a title.
* Good intentions are no excuses for incompetence.
Catalyst – William Paul Young
The author of The Shack was interviewed by Ernie Johnson from Inside The NBA. The Shack has had a little bit of controversy surrounding it specifically by the implications of personifying the Trinity. William Paul Young’s response was that he was not writing a theological treatise but rather trying to help people cope with their hurts.
The book was based on his life over the course of about 11 years. He actually wrote it for his kids specifically. What is amazing about this book is that he was a janitor when he wrote it. He spent $300 on marketing and no publisher would pick up the book so he and a couple friends put together a publishing company to publish it and now all the publishing companies are kicking themselves in the butt for that.
They put it all on their credit cards, (Which I doubt Dave Ramsey was happy to hear:) but since I’m sure they have payed all that off. All in all, interesting guy, interesting book.
Catalyst – Andy Stanley
Catalyst got kicked off by Mr. Catalyst himself, Andy Stanley. His message was a leadership lesson from the life of Nehemiah. Here are a few of the highlights.
* The majority of our leadership comes from our moral authority (which is essentially our character and who we are when no one is looking)
* Everyone is essentially a volunteer, cause anyone can quit a job if they want to.
* Genuine, authentic people draw people to follow simply by their authenticity which is a direct result of their moral authority
* Nehemiah did not take advantage of the money and power he had to buy land or enjoy some of the privileges that he could have had, because of that, people followed him.
* 3 areas we need moral authority
* 1) Forgiveness
* 2) Family
* 3) Finances
* We cannot impart forgiveness if we have not received it and practiced it. Its important because its the fundamental message of Christ
* We lose our moral authority to preach about family when we are neglecting the most important area of our life.
* Don’t sacrifice what’s permanent (Being a father), for what’s temporary (being a pastor).
To lead generous people you must live a generous life.
