Catalyst - Day One

Wow, what a great first day of Catalyst. We really didn't think it could get better after the lab sessions yesterday but today was pretty incredible. There are over 11,000 people filling the arena we are meeting in. (It makes the lines at the bathrooms extra long.)

Andy Stanley started the day off by asking the question, "What do you do when it dons on you that you are the most powerful person in the room?" He talked about how leadership brings power and that the true leaders learn to leverage that power towards other people. The most powerful leader is one that can give the power up.
I really enjoyed the session with Andy. Great stuff.

Next up was Patrick Lencioni who wrote "The Five Dysfunctions of a team." He talked about the three reasons for job misery.



Then we had a panel talking about the book unChristian. It was kind of a repeat of what we heard the night before at the final lab session.

Francis Chan brought one of the most powerful talks of the day. He talked about truly loving people and that God has set us apart and called us to do what we do. One of the great moments of the session was just pausing and reflecting on how big and mighty our God is. We didn't say a word, but just sat and thought about our God. Truly this was one of the highlights of the day.

And to close out the day Rick Warren talked about the church and the kingdom of God. What is the kingdom? It's wherever Jesus is king. He shared that God's agenda is the church. We cannot love God and hate the church. That's like telling someone that you like them but hate their body. That would be offensive.

The church is God's agenda and it will be the one thing that lasts.

Here are a few more things from Rick:
I'm not interested in changing culture, I'm interested in creating it.
When God asks you a question its not for his benefit.
When God does a miracle its never to show off, its to teach a truth.

Wow, what a huge day. It's time for me to hit the bed so we can do it all again tomorow. And then the travel home! I may not post Day 2 until Saturday morning.