Catalyst, for those of you who don’t know, is a leadership event in Atlanta where 13,000 young leaders will converge to hone their leadership abilities. It features high-octane speakers (this years speakers include Andy Stanley, Seth Godin, TD Jakes, Craig Groeschel, Francis Chan, Beth Moore, Perry Noble, charity: water founder Scott Harrison), powerful worship, innovative programming, and an experience unlike any other.

Why I Am Such A Believer In Catalyst

The year was 2004 and I was attending my first Catalyst in Atlanta. I came out of a legalistic past with a whole lot of baggage and misconceptions. My stereotypes of the church were shattered at Catalyst that year as I experienced just how diverse and amazing the body of Christ is.

In the Gwinett arena, thousands of people with diverse backgrounds, denominations and theology joined together to worship and grow as leaders. The little box I had put God’s church in all of a sudden didn’t fit.

Catalyst 2004 was a milestone for me in my Christian walk. It permanently changed me as a leader. Every Catalyst I’ve attended since then has had a profound impact on my walk with God and growth as a leader.

And that’s why I want you to go with me this year. If you’ve never been to Catalyst, 2010 is the perfect year to go. You’ll have the opportunity to interact with over 13,000 next generation leaders in a fully immersive, learning and creative experience.

Best Rate Ends THURSDAY!

The Catalyst Conference this year is October 6-8. The Best Rates on Catalyst tickets end this Thursday, August 26th, so register now. Call 888.334.6569 to speak to a Catalyst Concierge, or register online at www.catalystconference.com. You can use Rate Code FOB for an additional 10% discount off your ticket price. Catalyst will sell out, so make sure and register early!

I’m looking forward to another amazing year this year at Catalyst and can’t wait to meet you there.

P.S. - Stay tuned for information on this year’s Blogger Meetup!

Will you be at Catalyst this year?

I’ll be at the Cultivate conference in Chicago on October 27. This event could probably better be described as “organized conversations” rather than conference since the discussions will be driven by the groups in the various breakout sessions. These sessions will be facilitated by some of the best and brightest minds in church creativity including Kem Meyer, Carlos Whittaker, Jon Acuff, Brad Abare, Terry Storch, Cynthia Ware and Bobby Gruenwald among others.

Myself and fellow designer Michael Buckingham will be leading a discussion for one of the Cultivate sessions on creativity. Here’s the Twitter-style description of our session in 160 characters:

Jesus hates Papyrus and so do you…join other creatives as we talk about overcoming creative blocks, pitching ideas and dealing with criticism without going postal.

It’s going to be a great session with some fun stories and, hopefully, great ideas you can learn from other creatives. I’m looking forward to an amazing event and tons of creative conversations.

As an added creative-shot-in-the-arm, immediately following the Cultivate conference is STORY (previously posted about here). This promises to be another amazing event examining stories and how we, as communicators, can tell them better.

Will you be at Cultivate or STORY? If so let me know so I can look for you while I’m there.

Catalyst For Dummies: Post-Event Tips

1. Turn Ideas Into Actions

It doesn’t matter how many pages of notes you take, if you don’t put anything into action you might as well tear up your ticket. Chances are that God used one or two specific sessions to convict you about something you need to change or do. Don’t put it off! Set a date to have it done by or talk to a mentor about keeping you accountable. The longer you wait after a conference is over to act on what you’ve learned, the greater the chances are that those important things you were supposed to act on fade from your memory.

2. Follow Up With People You Meet

For me, Catalyst is as much about networking and meeting new people as it is learning new leadership principles. If you were able to make it to the Bloggers Meetup on Wednesday you undoubtedly met tons of new people. Hopefully you were able to get contact information from the people you connected with throughout the week. Don’t let those cards just sit in your desk drawer. Send a short follow-up email this week to start developing the relationship while their face and conversation is fresh in your memory. Some of my best relationships have grown out of the emails or phone calls I’ve traded with people I’ve met at Catalyst.

Tip: When someone gives me their business card, I’ll often jot down a few notes on the back to help me remember details (example: met at Bloggers Meetup, he grew up in Florida, our mutual friend is John Phillips).

3. Tell YOUR Story

When you come off the high of an event like Catalyst it’s easy to come back home discouraged. You start thinking crippling thoughts: my leadership sucks, I could never do what they do, I don’t have the skills or resources to pull this off. It’s easy for thoughts like that to creep in after two or three days of emotional highs. However, as Jon Acuff reminded us, all of the stories we heard from speakers this past week – no matter how amazing they were – belong to them. You have your own story to tell. Don’t let the world be robbed of your story because you got too hung up comparing yourself to someone else. Take what you’ve learned, be encouraged and inspired, but tell your story. We need to hear it.

Were you at Catalyst 09? If so, what was your favorite part?

Which brings us to the social media experiment part. Yesterday as part of the kick-off to the conference Lanny asked the question, what could social media accomplish if thousands of people Tweeted a single hashtag and web site? Could it get someone on The Jay Leno Show? After making his pitch tens of thousands of people began to Tweet the hashtag #LannyOnLeno and the web site LannyOnLeno.com making it a top trending topic on Twitter for most of the day. We’ve been told by Leno’s camp that if enough people Tweet this hashtag over the next 96 hours Lanny will in fact be invited to make a guest appearance on Leno.

So here’s where you come in. Just for fun would you consider Tweeting about this over the next few days and trying to get as many people to ReTweet it as possible? There’s 3 things you can do:

3 Ways You Can Help Get Lanny On Leno

1. Tweet this from your Twitter account: #LannyOnLeno a 48-hr Twitter experiment 2 get @LannyDonoho on Leno http://LannyOnLeno.com (Pls RT)
2. Update your Facebook status to Help me get Lanny Donoho on the Jay Leno Show – post this status on your facebook & tell your friends http://lannyonleno.com
3. Email your friends and tell them about it (be sure to email them the link to this post)

I’ll keep you posted right here about the results of this social media experiment as it unfolds.

This was such an amazing talk. I’m sure I didn’t do it justice in this post. If you can you really need to hear this message when it comes out on CD or DVD.

Rob Bell – “10 Years Ago I Didn’t Get This”

• Is bigger better?
• John 6 – “…from this time on many of his disciples turned back and no longer followed him…”
• Jesus had to confront many misconceptions the Jews had about who the Messiah was and what he was to do. When he told them about what the Messiah came to do many of the disciples said, “We can’t do that.”
• Sometimes the crowd thins and people leave.
• What would Jesus say to modern church growth experts who say “If you do A, B and C then this and this will happen”?
• Yes, sometimes there are large crowds but sometimes large groups leave. Sometimes the crowd thins and not everyone comes with you.
• Luke 21 – Jesus saw the rich giving large amounts and the poor widow giving a small amount. Even though the rich had given more money Jesus said that the poor widow had given more than all of them. More is not always more.
• Rob took a stab at magazines and organizations that rank churches according to their influence and creativity. “Really?” he said, “And this coming from people who claim to follow a man who said ‘The first will be last’?”
• Is the church in our culture known for its beautiful, self
• When you rank and break down a church into numbers and statistics you violate the bride of Christ and what she was meant to be.
• Have you had a deep dissatisfaction with what you’ve done? Are you carrying this burden for this thing you’re building for God? Have you stressed about the size of your church or organization? God wants to set you free from that.
• The ten commandments end with “You shall not covet.” Some people view this as more of a reward than a commandment – if you love God and seek him wholeheartedly you won’t want any other life than your own?
• Have you been observing a sabbath? Which day of the week are you busy doing nothing? Which day of the week have you set aside to feed your own soul so on the other six you have enough food to share with others? Which day of the week can you not be reached by phone or email?
• Does your spouse get your very best or does your spouse get what’s left over after you’ve given your best to the church? (personal note…holy crap! Talk about kicking you in the teeth!)
• If things are going well with the church but not with your family then they’re not doing well with either. They are inextricably linked. You ignore the one at the peril of the other.

Your thoughts?

Shane Hipps – The Medium Is The Message

• Christianity is fundamentally a communication event
• “The methods change but the message stays the same.” i.e. You have to innovate your methods otherwise the gospel becomes increasingly irrelevant.
• The medium, in fact, IS the message – how you say something as much as or more than what you say
• What you use to communicate will determine how your message is heard and received
• The content of any particular medium is like the slight-of-hand that a magician performs. While we’re distracted the message is subtly communicated
• In advertising there is a big difference between the printed words and images. Our brains process them differently. When you present your views in an essay format, it invites argument. However, when you present your opinion using images, it represses the logical side of our brain and causes us to become more accepting of the message.
• Mark 2:22 “No one pours new wine into old wine skins…” Jesus makes the emphasis that the wine is new as well as the wine skin. In other words, you must update your methods and your message. The gospel of message has changed through the years depending on who it was being presented to, where they were at and at what time in history they were from.
• And yet, the ever-changing gospel never changes. How is that possible? Look at a picture of yourself when you were a baby. You look, act and function completely different now than you did when you were a child…and yet, you are still the same person.
• The look, function and feel of a mustard seen is completely different than the look, function and feel of a mustard tree. And yet a mustard tree cannot exist without that tiny mustard seed. They are the same and yet always changing. The leaves that grow on the tree do not invalidate the mustard seed.
• The DNA of the gospel will never change (love wins, grace is free, etc.)

I haven’t read Shane’s book, Flickering Pixels, yet but I want to after this talk. Your thoughts?

Malcom Gladwell

• Experts can still make mistakes. You need look no further than the current economic crisis to see an example of this.
• Does more information allow you to make a better decision? You can still be wrong wrong even with more information. In a study, a group of individuals were asked to make a decision about a certain thing with little information. As more and more information was provided to them their decision didn’t necessarily change but their confidence in their decision increased.
• Incompetence irritates me, overconfidence scares me
• We generally like people who are overconfident. When a brain surgery says before surgery, “Don’t worry, everything is going to be fine,” he is being overconfident and we want him to be. And yet he can still be wrong in his overconfidence.
• When we’re trapped by our overconfidence and arrogance, the world around us can change and we will never know it (example: the banks, and mortgage brokers who thought the economy would keep going up…)
• In times of crisis we think we need daring and bold decision making from our leaders. We don’t. What we need in times of crisis from our leaders is humility (note: I thought this was an interesting point…I’m not sure what I think about Malcolm’s point here but maybe I need to hear more context)
• Andy Stanley’s Question to Malcom: What are the warning signs of an overconfident leader? There is a potential for overconfidence in all of us. We should be looking for it in every leader in our organization. The biggest warning sign is when our leaders stop listening to the advice of others.
• The opposite of an overconfident person is a person with humility – being willing to listen to others
• When a small business reaches a certain point in their growth, the entrepreneur fails to realize that the same rules that helped them grow to where they are at now will not take them to where they need to be. As your organization or church grows, it becomes imperative that leadership begins to become more and more collective.

Your thoughts?

Leaving Your Mark – Andy Stanley

• Most leaders won’t realize the significance of their mark until long after it has been left.
• In Joshua 5 Joshua encountered an angel standing before him with a drawn sword. God basically told Joshua, “I have not come to be a part of your story. I’m not even here to be a part of Israel’s story. I’m here to find out if you’re willing to be a part of MY story.” Our response to that question will determine the mark we leave behind
• God is not someone who has been invited to play a part on my story. Instead, as a leader I have been privileged to play a part in His.
• Am I willing to submit my leadership gifting to a bigger picture and a larger story?
• Joshua determined that he would not be a man in authority but a man under authority. He would not be a man out to make his mark but a person who would be commited to let God make a mark through him.
• “God takes full responsibility for the life that is wholly devoted to Him.”
• It’s not about the mark you leave. It’s about being in the perfect place so that God can make his mark through you.
• When God does his greatest work through you, you won’t even know it happened.
• Living to make my mark is too small a thing to give my life to. But when God calls us to let him make his mark through us, that is the thing willing to give our life for.

Catalyst For Dummies: Before You Leave

1. Killer Tunage Is Essential

Seriously, this is probably the most important thing for any road trip (almost as important as mapping out rest stops after you’ve drank 4 cups of coffee to wake up). So before you leave be sure to load up your iPod with plenty of cool jams. Here’s a few suggestions:

• Catalyst Roadtrip Podcast (what better way to start off your trip and get excited for Catalyst?
• Hope Rising by Fee (just released today)
• The Outsiders by Needtobreathe (amazing album)
• Half Light by Athlete
• Ocean Eyes by Owl City

2. Pack Extra Socks

Extra socks and underwear are important for those who will be sharing the vehicle with you on the long ride back Friday night when you’ve been sweating all day.

While you’re packing those extra socks, remember to bring a few extra for Atlanta flood victims. Catalyst wants to serve the city of Atlanta by bringing items & gift cards through Hope Atlanta & Convoy of Hope. They will be collecting items for flood victims, as well as needed resources for SafeHouse Outreach, an inner city homeless ministry in Atlanta.

Donated items & gift cards will be collected in bins around the Arena as well as at the Convoy of Hope truck, which will be parked near the entrance to the Arena. All Catalyst attendees are asked to bring the following items in the list to the right.

3. Tweeting Is Cool

I’m seriously hoping that by now you’ve discovered the joys of Twitter. If you haven’t, do yourself a favor and sign up for an account before you get to Atlanta. You’ll regret it if you don’t. Trust me.

Here’s a few great people to follow:

• Official Catalyst Twitter
• Anne Jackson
• Carlos Whittaker
• Jon Acuff
• Pete Wilson
• Michael Hyatt
• John Saddington
• Kent Shaffer
• And of course, yours truly

Remember, the official hashtag for this year’s Catalyst is #cat09 (don’t know what a hash tag is?).

4. Bring Your Bible

And I’m not just talking about the one that has your name embossed in gold letters on the front cover that you got from your Youth Pastor when you graduated. I’m talking YouVersion. You’ll want to have the latest version installed on your smart phone to take advantage of live updates, polls, speaker notes and much more.

Keep checking back for more Catalyst For Dummies updates this week.

What did I miss? What is an essential element of your Catalyst road trip?

Last year’s meetup was a blast. Over 75 bloggers that either lived in Atlanta or were in town for Catalyst showed up to meet people they had previously only known through blogging and Twitter. I myself met people there that I’ve become good friends with since. I’ve always believed and said that blogging and social media is only valuable if it leads to actual face-to-face interaction.

[photos: Ryan Detzel / Scott Fillmer]

This year we’ll be meeting on Wednesday, October 7 at 7 PM at the Loafing Leprechaun, which some of you remember who were there last year. Because of space this event is limited to the first 100 people who sign up.

So head over to BloggersMeetup.org for details or to sign up. We’ll be Tweeting about it using the hashtag #BloggersMeetup. And if you feel like letting your blog readers know I’ve made a couple of sidebar graphics (300px & 125px).

I can’t wait to see you there!