So Catalyst West Coast Has come and gone… What an incredible conference! Changed my life.

Here are some highlights from the talks in day 2:

Craig Groeschel

• Romans 12:2 – Don’t be conformed to the American dream!
• Don’t rely on the package of your church… Trust in the power of the Gospel
• Lukewarm Pastors build Lukewarm Churches
• Church should be a safe place with a dangerous message
• Build your church on what you’re about, not on what you’re not
• Don’t build your ministry and church – build the Kingdom
• Don’t blame yourself for the declines, you might take credit for the increases
• When your identity is in the numbers, you won’t obey God
• How can you accept the term ” ” when there are 4 billion people that don’t know Christ?
• We’re a small church with a mega vision
• People want to join a big mission, not a big building
• Level 1 Believers – Believe in the Gospel enough to benefit from it
• Level 2 Believers – Believe in the Gospel enough to contribute comfortably
• Level 3 Believers – Believe in the Gospel enough to give their lives to it

Erwin McManus

• Our job is unleash people to do good, not just stop them from doing bad
• At your church, can people discover the power to be who they are?
• Before we were pounded into the ordinary, we dreamed of the extra ordinary
• We need to be more committed to the dreams of other, than to our own dreams
• Small acts may not change the world, but they can tilt it to go in the right direction
• Our job as spiritual leaders is to detonate obstacles in the way of others dreams

Rick Warren

• Healthy churches don’t grow fast… fast growth= cancer
• If you don’t  care about numbers you’re telling people  to go to Hell
• We need to Divert daily, withdraw weekly, and abandon annually – the world can get along without you
• A crowd is not a church
• Nobody is the model… Jesus is thee model
• Never Compare – Foolish comparison: 1.) Find people better – discouraged 2.) Find people your better than – Pride
• Jesus isn’t going to ask you “How come you weren’t more like your hero? He made us to be us… He doesn’t need doubles
• Learn from Everybody
• The simpler you get, the more God will use you
• Judge your church on it’s sending capacity
• We need to be interested in an army, not a crowd
• You can fake love for a year or two, but you can’t fake it for 30!

Francis Chan

• If you hear pastors name more than God’s name when people are talking – we’re missing it
• We’re picky about going to ball games, plays, restaurants, etc…. People are the same way with our churches
• You can talk people into making a decision… but you’ll have to keep talking them into everything else
• I hate the book of Acts, you never put it down and say, “That sounds like our church!”

Perry Noble

• The size of the vision God will give me is directly related to the amount of pain and discomfort I’m willing to endure
• W/o pain and discomfort – we don’t know how much we need Him
• Dry times allow you to experience God’s provision
• When we learned to be obsessed and desperate for God and trust Him, that’s when we’ll succeed
• We don’t give into God’s vision because of: 1.) Fear 2.)  Laziness 3.) Being obsessed with being discovered instead of Development
• If you’re still where you are, you’re not ready for the next level
• Leadership is as easy as listening to God!
• If you haven’t had a sleepless night over vision – you don’t have a vision from God
• What would you do for God if you knew you couldn’t fail? -> Your a coward if you don’t do that
• Are you scared? If not, God isn’t in it, because you could do it yourself
• Listen to Jesus and when you’re ready – He’ll blow your freaking mind!
• Don’t you dare give up on a God who’s never given up on you

I’ll  probably have a post or two on my whole experience at Catalyst – God changed my life… man! So excited!

Wow… I am loving the West Coast so far! The conference is being held at Mariners Church in Irvine, CA in Orange County. The church has probably the most impressive campus I’ve ever seen.

You can check out pictures of the church along with pictures from day 1 here courtesy of Ben Rath.

Day One was amazing! Here are some highlights:

Opening Session with Erwin McManus Highlights:

• Unfortunately there is usually no connection between doing church and changing humanity
• Do we pretend we’re reaching the world when in reality we’re only loving and reaching people that are like us?
• An atheist asked me a question I didn’t know and I said, “Just because I can’t answer your question, doesn’t mean God doesn’t exist, it just means I’m stupid”
• Is your ministry an exclusive club just for Christians or can anyone come and feel welcome?
• Is your life leading people to God?
• Problem – everybody wants to be popular… you’re going to have to give up popularity in order to influence the world around you
• Jesus is the instant path to enlightenment

Session 2 with Eric Bryant Highlights:

• When people have a need do they think of you as someone who can meet it? Do they think of your church?
• We need to allow people to belong before they have to believe
• The church is not here to meet our needs, its a place to take care of the worlds needs
• Are we befriending people different than us?

Session 3 with Dan Kimball Highlights:

• Who is the last person (Non-Christian) you hung out with outside of church? Prayed for?
• Jesus first Words: “Come follow me” Last Words: “Go”

Session 4 with Mark Batterson Highlights:

• The greatest blessings in life often come out of nowhere!
• In the long run your competence will have less and less to do with your success… Your success will depend upon your ability to get competent people around you
• Numbers 11 – Moses and God…. Sick chapter… God made things happen out of nowhere – Moses knew God would come through…
• How big is your God?
• You’ll never be more than 80% certain
• Church – You’ve got to Grow More so you can Give More

• You can’t take credit for things that happen “out of nowhere”

Session 5 with Erwin McManus Highlights:

• Are we earning the right to have meaningful conversations in peoples lives?
• We don’t “bring” Jesus to the World… He’s already there… we just get to jump in and be a part of what He is already doing (Wow!)
• People are more committed to success than they are spiritual transformation
• If you refuse to define yourself, you’ll get defined by others

What an incredible day… tons more happened that was fun, but I’m done….. Good night from Orange County!