Journal Notes from Catalyst Day 3

A great Day 3 (final) at again amazing wisdom from Jon Acuff, Craig Groeschel, Matt Chandler, Simon Sinek and (again) Andy Stanley.  Amazing creative elements, I’d never even seen an Earth Harp.  I was blown away by the power of the worship set led by Michael W. Smith and I’m still smiling every time I think about the Catalyst Speaker Action Figures (and hope the Rob Bell and Frances Chan dolls have worked things out).  

Perhaps the quote of the week that sums it all up came from Geoffrey Canada (who also had amazing wisdom to share) –

 “I never knew being a Christian could be so much fun.”

It was fun and thought provoking three days.  Here are the final day’s notes from my journal.

Remember who you are and remember you are not what you make.

Fame is the most dangerous drug in Christianity.

Be content that the Creator of the universe knows your name.

God and His glory will never be handcuffed by your failure or unleashed by your success.

What if our celebrations were so big and exciting that people would stop to ask what’s going on?

Only God fixes problems with parties.

“I’d rather go to a pet store and look at kittens than go to Wal-Mart” – Criag Groeschel.  Amen!

Trust the promptings of the Holy Spirit.  Live deo ho pneuma

Don’t stop just because you don’t know what might come next.

To step toward your destiny you will have to step away from comfort.

Whenever you take an uncertain step of faith you will face resistance.

If you are not ready to face opposition for your obedience to God you are not ready to be used by God.

Everything of God, everything significant and everything new and effective will face resistance.

If I blame myself for the declines then I will take credit for the increases.

Don’t worry when you are being criticized – worry when you aren’t.

Uncommon clarity can’t be achieved without taking a first step of faith.

Smiles on faces sometimes hide devastated hearts.

There is a temptation to define our value by external things.

We can’t.  God can.  Rest in that!

Be faithful wherever you are, but celebrate what God is doing in other places (especially other churches)!

This job is not better than knowing Jesus.

We are never going to make Christianity so cool that no one is offended.  If no one is offended its not the gospel.

Inspire people to do what inspires them.

Everyone knows what they do.  Most people know how they do it.  Few people know why they do it.

People aren’t drawn to what you do, they are drawn to why you do it. So define yourself not by what you do but by why you do it.

To be successful you need the clarity of why, the discipline of how and the consistency of what.

Never confuse celebrity with leadership.

Everyone in your family thinks they are in your top 7.

Leaders never leave early.

Church is a place where people give money to create volunteer positions they have to fill.

If you don’t know why something is working when its working you won’t know how to fix it when it breaks.

Seminaries create thinkers.  Churches need doers.  Recruit doers not thinkers.  It’s much easier to educate a doer that to activate a thinker.

Great vision without great people is irrelevant – Jim Collins

Put the best people on your most important tasks.

Performance-oriented people like to win – define the win.

Don’t force people to work around the organization.

Critical mass is critical to success.

Bad wisdom – “Its not about your ability its about your availability.”  Would you choose a surgeon based on that?

We can’t make anyone fall in love with Jesus, but we can set them up on a date.

Final Word (from Andy Stanley):  What we (the local church) is doing is important because we are the Body of Christ and Jesus Christ is the Hope of the World!

Amen and Amen.

157 days until the Drive Conference

362 days until Catalyst 2013