One Day Yesterday

Yesterday I had the opportunity to attend the #Catalyst One Day event in Lancaster, PA. I have to admit, I was expecting more faux hawks, hair product, and deeeeep v-neck t-shirts, but they were very sparse. One thing I did notice was the multitude of beards. I am cool with that though, if not for my Native American blood, I would grow one myself.

Two of my favorite people were there, Andy Stanley and Craig Groeschel. They have a lot of wisdom and experience when it comes to running a church and a business for that matter. I could probably write a book about all I learned in one day but guess what they already wrote books so I would encourage you to just buy them.

With that said, I thought I would make it palatable for my readers so here are 5 things I learned at Catalyst.

1) We are all just a part of the body, Christ is the head. - We all tend to want to force a hierarchy onto anything we do. Working with the government, I experience a top down leadership every day because when something goes wrong, you need a person to blame. The truth is, no one should lord over anyone else, none of us are the head but just parts and every part is important. John 13:3-5; Romans 12:4

2) The longer we believe lies the harder it is to hear the truth. - The longer you use a top down leadership approach, the people below you start serving you and on the occasion they provide you with any feedback, it is hard to stomach. This is because most people are busy doing tasks you have given them. The problem here is, when you make yourself the head instead of part of the body, when the head is removed, the organization dies. If you are a part of the body and delegate authority instead of tasks and let other people do the things you are not good at, the organization can survive. Psalm 36:2

3) What we value determines what we do. - Well duh! I have always know this but the real insight comes when you actually monitor what you say against what you actually do. It would seem more often than not, we do not really value what we say we value and this gap between the two is the problem. The answer is to get rid of that gap. Galatians 2:13

4) Do for one what you wish you could do for everyone. - One of the things I value is helping children find Christ by providing them with enough of the basic needs to survive n this world. Unfortunately, I don't have the resources to provide that for 1 billion children currently living in poverty. You know what I can do though, through an organization called Compassion International, I can provide that for one. In the gospel of John, Jesus healed a paralytic laying in a crowd of sick people. He could have healed the entire crowd but it was important for Him to heal that one. John 5:1-10

5) Stress Balls can be used for more than relieving stress. - you had to be there to see this one but to watch over 2000 stress balls fly through the air at the same time was amazing, of course, I wasn't the target.