Catalyst One Day Conference

Yesterday Mark and I went to hear Andy Stanley and Craig Groeschel at a conference. These are two of my favorite pastors to gleen from and listen to, so to have them both at a conference was so great!

We learned a lot that I’ll share over time, but the main thing that is so valuable is to keep changing. Our church is NEVER done. We’ve never arrived, we’ve never got everything the way we want it, and no strategy of ministry that we have now will be relevant in 15 years. The mission of God is not about settling in and getting comfortable with what we like…it’s about doing WHATEVER it takes to reach a community that needs Jesus.

As with most good conferences, a leader worth his/her salt leaves both very encouraged and very discouraged at the same time. That’s because there are some things where you say, “I think we are doing OK in that area” and then there’s the rest of it…

The reality is that we’ve got a long way to go as leaders. Both speakers planted their churches about 15 years ago and experience has been their greatest teacher. We are just about four years in to this and I already feel like I’ve learned a life’s worth of lessons. I honestly can’t wait to see who we are 10 years from now.

It was a wonderful day with Andy and Craig! They are such different leaders in every way possible, and yet the common thread is that they are very good at what they do. So grateful that they would fly across the country to make us better leaders!