It's Been A While.....

As the lyrics to the 'Staind' song that reflects this subject title rattle around in my head, I'll apolgize for taking SO long to post something. But here are some quick thoughts post (well really post now) Catalyst.

1) I Wanna Go Back - Not with a tin cup chalice (although Buffet was onto something there), but to Catalyst. What a great experience. I've been listening to the messages over and over in the car and am still moved by some of the greatest leadership and faith-trained minds in America. Just like any conference, though, it's hard to come back 'changed' and stay changed. I'm working on it, though.

2) The older you get the quicker the months go by. Where did the month go? I've asked my self that every month since June. I can see now why OBanion liked high school girls so much in 'Dazed and Confused' (ok, slightly off-topic an inappropriate, but I thought it, so....) - because it's easier, you don't have to develop as a person. This quickening of the months is really pushing me to prioritize differently so that I appreciate the months, not just see them in a haze of fast-paced action.

3) Stop - I stopped for 3 hours on Monday and it was great. 'Retreats' have always been tough for my ADD, workaholic, performance-motivated mind but I managed a good 2.5-3 hours of no e-mail or communication w/the outside world at Jordan Lake. It was great to walk in nature and pray and just be silent. I am a firm believer that doing this regularly (Jesus often did it), would be a core spiritual discipline for each of us to master as we strive to become less 'religious' and more 'godly'. However, I rarely do it. Here's to the next time - may it be soo much sooner.

4) Hope - I double dipped at Carolina & Duke last night for both Greek IMPACTs. Intro'd a spiritual training series at Carolina (that I thought was rather funny, dunno what the students thought), then busted up to Duke - running a red light along the way - and spoke to their much smaller chapter about becoming an Acts 2 fellowship of believers. I saw great hope in the eyes of those 9 students who have basically been 'hanging on' since losing 2 full-time staff and a bunch of good seniors. I really believe that hope is first found in Jesus, but best experienced in community, so I'm optimistic that a new sense of community and oneness will be found at a school that is so often disconnected and individualistic in mentality.

As an aside - I have GREAT hope that my beloved Hoosier football team (who I have loved through thick and thin for years now) MIGHT actually qualify for a bowl this weekend.
For those of you who don't know how monumental that would be - the last time IU went to a bowl game 12-year-olds weren't born yet, the Carolina Panthers were just an expansion dream, Frank Zappa was still (barely) alive, Groundhog Day was the IT movie and Whitney Houston was the hot singer. MAN IT'S BEEN A WHILE!

Ok, nothing deep or profound today - just wanted to get back in the saddle.

Catalyzing...

The Catalyst crew helped overcome the typical post-lunch dip with a series of interviews in session 3. Cultural research guru George Barna spoke about where the church and faith are headed and how they will help define the culture of the coming generations. He talked about the revolution that is among us that focuses on deepness and not necessarily bigness (both in ministry growth and leadership development).

The next interview could possibly have been the most raw, unscripted and passionate ministry ever witnessed at Catalyst. Andy Stanley got the chance to ask, in front of 10,000 leaders, the questions that he has asked of, and learned from his mentor – John Maxwell – over the years. It was just an amazing period of realness as Andy was giddy to hear from John and the two really invited us into what looked like a meeting among friends over coffee. John talked a lot about developing your leadership and focusing on improving your strengths verses improving your weaknesses – specifically in relation to the things that are innate to our being verses ‘choices’ we make in life. If we innately bad at singing, for example (ie we area 1 or 2 on a 10-point scale), we could take all the lessons, theory and coaching in the world, but we wouldn’t improve more than a half a point. So why bother when there are other parts of who we are that if given the right amount of time and energy could grow from good to great and dynamic in no time. He talked about the equality of time and how this generation feels the push to give equally to all, and how unbiblical that leadership theory is. He provided a great illustration of Jesus and his time w/the the disciples – how he spent some time with the masses, a deeper time with the twelve and an even deeper and more intentional time with Jim, John and Pete. We should do this with our best leaders. The best way to find great leaders, he said, is to find potentially great leaders and develop them. And allow those leaders to lead out of their greatest areas of giftedness because that’s where you’ll see the most growth.

Although it was only a 30 minute interview it was so packed with truth and information that I have only scratched the surface above. John and Andy concluded the time with one of the more passionate and emotion-filled exchanges I have ever seen on stage in front of an audience. John was moved to tears as he talked about dreaming about Catalyst 10 years ago and how they never imagined that one day 10,000 next generation leaders would gather to hear about how to be better leaders in ministry. He reflected on Bill Bright coming and sharing wisdom from years of ministry and how John was now that older sage charged to reflect and encourage the masses.

And finally he (and by extension the 10,000 of us) were moved to near weeping as he reflected on the morality of a leader. People who fall morally, he said, fall for 3 reasons:

1. NO accountability
2. Not continually in the word of God
3. Never thought it would happen to them

He talked about being asked to speak on Spiritual Purity at the first ever PromiseKeepers outside of Colorado in the 90’s and how the six months he had to prepare for that time was the most difficult six months ever – because he realized that he fell directly into category 3 of why leaders fail – he never thought it would happen to him. In those six months of preparation he said he was attacked spiritually in the area of purity so much he didn’t think he could deliver the message. He was so afraid of remaining spiritually pure that he didn’t go anywhere or do anything alone in those months. In those months, though, he found prayer and accountability partners like never before and they helped fight the spiritual battle and still today remain critical lynchpins in his life. He said that he stood backstage at that Promise Keepers event, about to speak to 72,000 people, and all God said to him was ‘well done son. I have Delivered you.”

Wow – the raw emotion of one of the greatest leaders the church and the business world know was so compelling. I mean this is John Maxwell sharing on levels that a guy o fhis stature doesn’t have to. You’ve really gotta see or hear it to truly appreciate it.

The day ended with a session from Gary Haugen from International Justice Mission talking about Gods heart for the world. He spoke in great detail about the slave trade and prostitution that is prevalent in Asia and the work of God to redeem folks in the midst of that. We talked about what Catalyst is doing about Africa and the 38 wells that are being built in Rwanda because of our giving last year. It was evident in that time that although this conference is primarily for leadership development – we haven’t lost track of those things that are truly important – the soul and heart of a leader and the soul and heartbeat of the world.

Day one of the Conference is in the books, and as my colleague Ray said last night – it’s already well worth every dollar. Day 2 includes Donald Miller twice, Louie Giglio and the Creative Katalyst of Nike, so it should be an amazing time.

Catalyst Part 1

Reflections on Session 1 of Catalyst....

Andy Stanley – pastor of a large church in Atlanta – opened the Conference with a great message on leadership from Daniel 4. He reminded us that “The Most High God is sovereign over the kingdoms of men, and he gives them to anyone he wishes.” And because of that we must remember several key things. First that leadership is stewardship and is temporary. Ultimately we are stewarding something that God is doing that will long outlast us. Because of that we are always accountable in our leadership – to him, not to man. And if we lead, we must lead with:

1. Diligence - God has specifically called and put you where you are then you need to get up every morning and lead w/every diligence you can find because you are there ON PURPOSE.
2. Fearlessness – If God is sovereign, who shall we fear? We are not working for men. We are accountable to men, but we don’t work for them or need there approval.
3. Humility - This should be our hallmark. Why aren’t Christians known for their humility, for their ‘level 5 leadership’? There is no room for an ounce of spiritual arrogance in spiritual leadership
   

Interesting how God continues to expound on this approval of God vs. approval of man idea and how we shouldn’t feel feel any pressure or stress if we are walking in the ways of the Lord.

In typical Catalyst fashion, the Marcus Buckingham introduction was all out crazy. Plenty of references to Marcus’ house in England (where he’s from) – Buckingham Palace, a Beatles ‘worship’ medley, a parade of British flags and the Royal mounted guard (of some sort – more like the knights of the roundtable) and a question as to why the British anthem is “God Save the Queen” (Is she not saved?). Buckingham, if you don’t know, is a great cutting edge developer of management. He has written 3 books – First Break All the Rules, Now Disover Your Strengths, and The One Thing You Need To Know.

This was the first time I have ever heard Marcus and all I can say is – wow. This is a sharp guy who truly understands culture, organizations and developing managers. He focused mainly on his idea of developing strengths not focusing on weaknesses. He was saddened that more Americans are actually focused on fixing their weaknesses today than they were 6 years ago when his book first came out (41% in 200, 36% now focus on improving their strengths over fixing their weaknesses).

"Very few of us," he concludes, "actually spend the majority of our time doing those things that bring the best out in us." I am very lucky that I feel like I'm in the 2 out of 10 people who are doing this on a consistent basis.

He had an incredibly real and vulnerable segment on managers, and how he wasn't a good manager even though he's a heckuva consultant on mangement. The one thing you need to know about great managers, he notes is that they “find out what is unique about each person and capitalize on it.”

I could go on for hours about Buckingham, but it’s best left to his books. I will leave with this illustration of the differences between the myth of developing your strengths verses in your own life and in the context of teams and managers verses the truths:

	3 myths	3 truths
As you grow...	your personality changes	You become more and more who you are
You grow the most	In your weakness areas	In your areas of greatest strength
What the team needs is	For you to ‘chip in’	For you to volunteer your strengths most of the time

People Pleasing & Other Randomness...

Catalyst Labs are in the books. Below are some random notes from that experience as well as other oddities of life.

1) Iiits baack. Yes, I have 25 more gray hairs and am slightly more insane than before, but the Dellie is back w/its caring owner a mere 25 days after sending to Memphis (apparently via India). Check back to see how the return of the Dell affects my peace, serenity and lack of need to be 'connected.'

2) The ATL has long been described as my favorite big city that I've spent significant time in. It's value is dropping this week, however, as I have wasted about 2:45 minutes of my life essentially driving in circles in the last day and a half. Turns out every other street is named Peachtree (I knew this), most of them change names 2-4 times and change directions (some even go in circles). I was not expecting Atlanta to be basically a more confusing version of the Triangle, but there you go.

3) It's 2:30 in the morning and I have spent the last 35 minutes trying to figure out where the damn water leak is coming from in my hotel room (a 2 bedroom Residence Inn suite). Turns out it's my colleage Ray's noise maker in the living room. Great, glad I have those 35 minutes back! Guess that's why he's on the pullout!

Now too the good stuff........

Had an interesting conversation with a great friend who is in his first year of mergers & acquisitions for a large bank on Tuesday. It pulled together a lot of what i've been thinking lately and was furthered by some Catalytic comments during today's Labs. We were discussing this idea of being people pleasers and how many people in his profession are so and have had great success in college because of this. When you get to the dog-eat-dog m&a world of finance, though, you quickly find out your people pleasing desires are challenged. Because you could do your absolute best to please the people around and above you - and still be no better than a marginal analyst.

My friend was very quickly learning in his raw 5 months out of school that we cannot count on the affirmation of others to determine our success. 100 hour weeks full of no compliments only backlash when you screw up has driven him to prayer and humilty like never before - he is quickly learning that our best chance at peace lies in giving it all you have and leaving it at the feet of Jesus: nothing more, nothing less.

Oh that we wouldn't have to work in a pressure cooker like that to realize this truth for ourselves. It's a problem that is increasingly common in our culture today and one that really takes good growth to emerge on the other side of.

I wonder, often, if too many good people, good ministries, and good intentions are missed because people are too overly reliant on the approval of man instead of just laying it all on the table and leaving it before God?

I have begun to see that perhaps I am beginning to fully understand this in my own life - in large part due to this blog. Over the last 4 or 5 days I've had several people (ok, like 4) tell me that they really enjoy reading this and that it encourages them in their daily faith walks. In times past this would serve to bring me great pride and joy that people actually approved of and appreciated what I am thinking. In other times it would utterly unfaze me in the opposite sense - the "I don't care about you so why do you care about us" sense.
But it's amazing how you find Jesus in the middle of these extremes - that the comments were nice and appreciated, but they don't MAKE this blog any more or less successful. Because, honestly, I'm not doing it for you, but for God. And perhaps for myself as well, as a means to get out what I'm thinking without succumbing to the traditional Christian torture we call 'journaling.'

I think this exercise is a microcosm of where God is moving me. I no longer need the approval of man in my ministry, in what I'm thinking or dreaming about, or in my social interactions. Sure that is nice, but it's no longer necessary. Because I'm moving to a place that as Craig Groeschel describes in his book Chazown, is defined by deo pnuema - or a compelling of fresh air by the Spirit. I'm beginning to fully understand what it means that Jesus is a lamp unto our feet - that he doesn't give us the full picture, just enough to get us the next couple steps. And if we're not seeking the approval of man but God, then we must be OK with this because if he truly is for us, then who, really, can be against us?

I'm sure all of this will make much more sense at a later point in time, as I am realizing that 3am is no time to be posting clear and lucid thoughts. So perhaps I'll revisit at another point, and maybe strike the clarity that hit me about 5 times over the head in the last 24 hours as I listened to my friend in Charlotte, a couple different Christian leaders in the car ride to Atlanta, and the encouraging words of leaders like Groeschel, Rick McKinley & Eugene Peterson at Catalyst.

But for now I should rest. Check back for more insights into Catalyst over the next few days. Our hotel serves free full-service breakfast, dinner, wine and beer - so at the least we'll be well nourished physically as we are mentally and spiritually. Although, if the wine and beer are being served with breakfast things could get interesting.....