CATALYST DAY 1

Well, today was the first day of Catalyst and once again they have pushed the envelope of creativity, stage design, leadership training. As you can see to the left, the stage was in the center of the arena and massive wall of LED screens surrounded the drummer in the center of the stage. The only thing that stinks about this stage set up is that you can't always see everything that is going. But all in all the lighting, sound, and design was stellar.

After the opening worship set, led by Steve Fee, was over and the circular LED Screen lowered back down...Andy Stanley took the stage first as usual and spoke to the leaders about our moral authority. He challenges us to understand that moral authority is so much more powerful than positional authority. He said, "As soon as you lose your morals you've lost your influence and if you don't have influence then you no longer have authority, regardless if you have positional authority or not." Later on we had the an awesome opportunity to hear Jon Foreman (the lead singer of Switchfoot) do an acoustic set while he played guitar and another band member played the cello.
We also had the chance to make the biggest floam art piece in the world. If you have no idea what floam is and I have totally confused you then you can either look the photo provided or you click here for more info. They also interviewed this 14 year old kid that started a basketball fund-raiser when he was 9 years old that raised $2,000 the 1st year, $30,000 the 2nd, $120K the 3rd and $210K the 5th year running. He felt called to raise money to build schools in Africa at the age of 9 and with one thought created a non-profit fund-raising ministry, partnered with world vision ministries. WOW! What an inspiration to all of us leaders. Afterwards they raised $1,000 for every slam dunk the extreme team made. THEY RAISED $10K in about 2 minutes. WOW! I need them to come to our youth ministry....lol
Not only were we entertained during intermissions with floam, basketball, and bands but we also got to see a semi-celebrity from one of my favorite shows, So You Think You Can Dance. This kid is amazing. He didn't make it through the competition on TV because he dropped out but he came back on the season finale to battle another pop and locker. This is a photo of his performance today but you can see a video of him here. Although all of us this was quite fun and inspiring I would say that I was most inspired by a guy that took the stage at the age of 28 (the same age I am).
It's a guy by the name of Steven Furtick who after 2 years of leading his church, Elevation Church, it now runs 3,500 people in weekly attendance. His humility and appreciation for where God has brought him moved and inspired me and challenged me to live and minister with the same passion and vigor. I even continued to watch him as he left the stage and approached his wife. They embraced and hugged for quite a long time and you could just see the amazement between the both of them, that God had done, what they thought, was the unthinkable. For a guy that was in the nose bleed section of Catalyst just 2 years ago, he now found himself as one of the very speakers/leaders he aspired to live like. Day 2 of Catalyst is ahead and I feel like so much has been experienced. Stay posted for tomorrows update. Until then...Lead the people around you like it's the last chance you 'll get!