It

It is not a model, system, or program.
It changes lives.
It attracts criticism.
For those of you that have it, you can lose it.
For those of you that don’t have it, you can get it.

These opening remarks at Catalyst 2008 by Craig Groeschel, pastor of LifeChurch, outlined his journey from the early days of ministry to today. Groeschel came to cal this powerful, life-changing force It. His powerful talk centered on these phases of life:

• Stretch me
• Ruin me
• Heal me

A summary statement that for me, says it all:

Your heart should break for the things that break the heart of God.

Discovering the Dreams God Has for You

My Catalyst 2008 experience actually began with a Pre-Lab event called “Discover the Dream”, by Dave Ferguson and the team at Community Christian Church in Naperville, IL. Using the real-life story of Norwegian explorer Fridtjof Nansen, they illustrated a seven step process to discovering the dream God has for us. Read more about that here.

As I look back, this session became the key that unlocked the power of the dream within me. It wasn’t a single event, but began a process that has been reinforced multiple times since that day. The Scriptural roots are in Ephesians 2:10 – God has prepared a specific dream for each of us, and we need to be moving toward it. The questions we need to ask?

• If I could do anything for God, I would…
• What barriers keep me from that dream?
• Is there a certain people, place, or passion God is calling me to?
  
  

Once you begin to answer those questions, you will find that discovering God’s dream begins to change things:

• You, and the questions you ask
• People around you
• The world!
  

I am asking those questions, and I am earnestly seeking God’s dream. What about you?

Six Months Later...

My first Catalyst experience was a little over six months ago, but it was just like yesterday. I started the event by attending a Pre-Lab session with Dave Ferguson on Wednesday morning, and I participated in every session through the end of Friday evening.

For my immediate reactions to the event, read my blog posts beginning here. While those certainly reflect my feelings then, the purpose of several posts this week will be to look back on Catalyst events and how they continue to shape me. It’s also a reminder that Catalyst West starts this Wednesday in CA. I’m praying that it will impact the participants, and then their churches, and then their communities in a big way.

Catalyst 2008 was more than just a three day event – it was a movement, a convergence, an experience. What I found when I stepped inside the Gwinnett Center was simply this: total immersion in a learning, worship, and creative environment that was relentlessly sold out on God. Catalyst brought together many types of people: the influencers, the do-ers, the cultural architects, and the change agents who daily reclaim our communities and culture for good.

It’s been described many ways, but words fall short of the full-on multi-sensory experience – just call it what the organizers do – pure leadership adrenaline.

Mid-Week Museings

Hey, it's not the middle of the week, but my Wednesday was too busy to post. I left home at 6:45 AM for a full day:

On the road for about an hour to have a breakfast meeting with a new local church pastor, part of my Together Tuesday initiative coming out of Catalyst 2008. A couple of weeks ago as I was returning from a meeting at one of our job sites, I took a different route home and passed by a church. I was impressed to contact the pastor, which I did when I got home. We set up a breakfast meeting for yesterday, and it was a good, God thing. He's relatively new to the area, and the church is doing well. We had a few similar interests and family situations, and it was good to fellowship together. He had a lot of interest in Catalyst so I left my summary with him and encouraged him to check into attending next year.

The monthly conference call with NACDB Advisory Board was next. I pulled over into a parking lot and our group of six spent the next hour reviewing recent developments in our business, making plans for our annual meeting in February, and looking ahead to 2009. Since I'm the secretary of the group, I took notes for later distribution.

Then it was back on the road to my noon meeting, about an hour away from my breakfast meeting. Taking advantage of technology, I had three mini-phone meetings with the office, an architect, and my editor. Safety note: I have a Bluetooth in-ear receiver for hands free talking!

Pulled into Boone for a design review meeting on a project with the church AVL team and Signature Sight and Sound, our AVL systems integrator on the project. 3 hours later, we had a major design modification, revised equipment list, and satisfied customers.

Since I was right around the corner from my son's house, I stopped by and dropped off a Christmas ornament for my new grandson. I knew they weren't there, but it was a great feeling just to pull into the drive of their new house and know that the work they were doing was going to make it a home.

Back on the road for a 2 hour drive to Huntersville, taking advantage of technology again to make a few calls.

At my home office, I did a quick review on a proposal for the next meeting, printed it out, and headed out to drop my son off at his youth group. My daughter arrived home on Christmas break as we were headed out the door.

The meeting at my next prospect went well: we submitted a feasibility study for them and had good dialog with the group. Some of the learnings from Church Unique are coming into play in this setting, and it will be interesting to see how they play out.

Back at home, and time to catch up on the paperwork of the day: Client Meeting Reviews for all my meetings of the day, both in person and on the phone. It's part of my 100% communication pledge: I type up our meeting comments for their review to make sure we all heard the same thing and are clear on next steps. I also typed up the NACDB conference call notes and a year-end summary.

I started and ended the day with a few WhiteBoard exercises: I'm finding the practice very beneficial in several ways. Currently, I have a flow chart of all the projects I'm working on - later today I'm going to translate them into the calendar for the rest of the month. Then I'll clean the board for a new day and a new thought process.

Ended the day with a quick read of a couple of chapters of a book I'm working through for our company's marketing/sales process. Called it a day at 11 PM.

That was a long, but satisfying, day.

Catalyst Roundup, Part 2

Four days after the event has concluded, my head is still spinning, my heart is still resonating with a new beat, and my spirit is still soaring. Evidently, the Catalyst event will do that to you. For another first timer's thoughts, check out Church Solution Editor Karen Butler here. A quick perusal the past couple of days of some of the key leaders' blogs reflects the same excitement and amazement. Even leaders who have been to every Catalyst are saying this has been the best yet. But can the emotion and excitement translate into movement, action, and, most of all, a growing desire to be with, and serve, God. I think it can!

I hope you have had a chance to take a look at the short blogs I posted from the event last week. If not, why don't you drop back and take a look at them now?

My words are inadequate, but I hope you have been able to understand a little bit of the Catalyst event. I will certainly continue to relive the 3 days for a long time to come: Intellectually, because I want to understand what the message from all the leaders is and how it can help our churches; Emotionally, because I want to continue to feel the power of God for us, our woeful inadequateness, and His unconditional love for us; and Experientially, through the CDs and DVDs of all the sessions.

If you are interested in a conversation about Catalyst, drop me a line at badams@jhbatten.com.

I want to close my Catalyst posts with 3 statements from various sources that Andy Stanley ended Catalyst with:

• To reach people no one else is reaching, we must do things no one else is doing - Craig Groeschel

• The Next Generation product almost never comes from the previous generation - Al Reis

• When your memories exceed your dreams, the end is near - Michael Hammer

We can do much more together than we can on our own.

Catalyst-Day One Wrap Up

I am wonderfully, powerfully, emotionally spent. When a day begins with a 45 minute worship experience with 12,000 people on their feet praising God, includes powerful messages by Andy Stanley, Steven Furtick, and Craig Groeschel, AND includes challenging, relevant presentations by two of the most in-demand business writers of today - Jim Collins and Seth Godin - what other response is there?

And I didn't even mention 24,000 white-gloved hands under black lights, moving to the beat of 3 DJs; a percussive dance troop that let their feet stomp out the rhythms; hilarious speaker introductions that included a school bus, mariachi band, dodge ball champion, fiddler, and a pig (you had to be there-ask me for the whole story).

And I didn't mention the worship sets that kicked off each of the 5 sessions of the day - talented, humble musicians who led the arena into the presence of God.

And I didn't mention the amazing stage in the round that dazzled the crowd with video and lights but didn't detract from the experience, instead ushering us into it.

There's more that I didn't mention, but this I will: a catalyst is an agent that causes a reaction to accelerate, but is not consumed in the reaction. Instead, it is available to be used again and again.

God, make me a catalyst-for my family, my faith, my friends, and my future with You.