Day 1 - Catalyst 2007 - Atlanta GA

Live from Atlanta GA - today is my first of three days at a major leadership conference in Atlanta called Catalyst.

I will let you "listen in" by sharing some of the interesting things from my notes. Today consists of "pre-sessions" called Labs. Tomorrow (Thursday) begins the main event - and I am told there may be as many as 10,000 people here to hear some nationally known presenters!!

Okay - here goes...


Mark Batterson is a pastor in Washington D.C. The church has three locations, plus it operates the largest coffeehouse on Capitol Hill. He was asked why a church would get into the coffeehouse business. His reply? "Because Jesus hung out at wells." (That is where people came to get water! So Jesus might well be at a coffeehouse in our day and time!)


Chris Seay is a pastor in Houston TX of all places! Here is info about his church. I have heard about him for a long time but this is my first chance to hear him. His presentation was on "The Cost of Consumerism," and he suggests that consumerism may be the primary threat to true Christianity in our day and time.


Jud Wilhite is a pastor in, of all places, Las Vegas! Read here about his church. He suggests that too often in church we try to get people to 1) behave, 2) believe and then 3) belong. He uses a different model - 1) belong, 2) believe and finally 3) become - become who God would have us to be! Too often our churches are gated communities. It is time to tear down the gates. He shared some amazing stories about life transformations in Las Begas.


Leonard Sweet is one of my favorite speakers. I have heard him many times, and couldn't resist hearing him again. It was good to hear a Methodist speaking out here!! (By the way - he will be at The Woodlands at a workshop some of us are attending later this month!)

He said there are five forces we must take seriously:

1 - Size does matter, but "do little large." The power of "one" has never been greater.

2 - The well curve has replaced the bell curve. The bell curve targets the middle - the center. The well curve focuses on the edges. (Not necessarily good news for "middle of the road" Methodists.

3 - "EPIC" rules - in anything. Anything that works in our culture is E.P.I.C. which stands for
E - experiential
P - participatory
I - image driven
C - connective
(What does this mean for worship??)

4 - Coming to terms with Islamic realities will be huge. Communism used to be our "sparring partner." No more.

5 - The decline of our once great nation - America has become "America the ugly." We don't realize how far behind we are. Our country used to take the high road.

He also mentioned the "four galloping horsemen" of our time that we are not speaking effectively to...

1 - Genetics
2 - Robotics
3 - Information Technology
4 - Nanotechnology

(He covered a lot in a short time - I need to read more on this!)


Finally after a time of worship we had a roundtable discussion tonight on a new book that has just been published - called "UnChristian - What a New Generation Thinks About Christianity." Read about it here.

In surveying the 16-29 age group, there are six huge negative opinions about Christians, that they are:

• anti-homosexual
• judgmental
• hypocritical
• sheltered
• political
• proselytizing

There was some great discussion about how to bring the Christian message into a culture that basically has a negative view of Christians (though not necessarily a negative view of Jesus!).

Well enough for now. I will try to post more tomorrow evening!