This was one of the best reminders of living for things that matter that I’ve ever witnessed. I cried like a baby. In fact, I’m crying as I type this. MAN! I want my life to mean something. For $38 a month a life was saved and a life was changed. Why would you not want to do that? Sponsor a child. You will literally change the world 1 life at a time.

Go watch this video now!

http://www.catalystspace.com/catablog/full/2009_catalyst_compassion_moment/

One of my favorite communicators on the planet spoke Friday at Catalyst. Since the late 90s his leadership and teaching have profoundly shaped me. When I first began to lead worship, I listened to his talks on worship (on tape!) at least a dozen times in a 6 week stretch.  Here’s what Louie said on Friday and then I’ll add a couple of thoughts:

“Leadership is about knowing and following Jesus.”

This was his premise for his whole talk. He then added that this was all he could say because he doesn’t know much about leadership. I found that one amusing at best. I guess a little humility never hurts. So, Louie’s point was the purpose of leadership was to get to a destination. And for Christians that destination is Jesus. So, leadership really is about seeking Jesus as He is our ultimate end. What a great reminder in a time when vision, strategy, marketing, systems and the like are the talk of the town.

What’s awesome about this by the way is the fact that this is basically the same message he’s been preaching for 20 years. Louie has been a constant voice for the glory of God and the face of Jesus for 2 decades and that has impacted an entire generation. I would know, I’m one of them. Thanks Louie for all you do.

Had an amazing opportunity to host Michale Hyatt, CEO of Thomas Nelson Publishing at a Backstage Leadership lunch at Catalyst. We packed out a room and got to engage Michael with Q&A. It was a mini Backstage Leadership session like we do every month with our other speakers.

Michael said something interesting that I wanted to share with you. When asked about priorities in his life, he put God first, then himself second, wife third, then kids, then job and so on. He went ahead and said what everyone was thinking, but isn’t that selfish? He said, if I’m not taking care of me physically, emotionally, spiritually, then I’ll be no good to anyone, especially my wife.

It was a great reminder that we have responsibilities to take care of ourselves if we are to maximize our leadership and influence. Too often leaders neglect their own health and in the end, everyone suffers. That reminds me of something I heard about Spurgeon. He was taking a train to a preaching opportunity and he paid for a private first class cabin. When asked why he wasn’t being a better of steward of God’s money and sitting in open seating, he said he was, he was being a steward of God’s man.

What does that look like to you? Gym? Eating better? More sleep? Taking a day off?

One of the themes that kept coming up in various talks and settings this year at Catalyst was this:

Size is not the most important factor in your success or purpose.

Numerous times it came up about being faithful where you are and with the numbers you have. One speaker even laughed about the idea of the list like “fasting growing churches in America” or “most influential church in America”.  He then went on to talk about how Jesus said the first shall be last and the last shall be first. I’m not saying we shouldn’t grow as churches or try to be influential. I think the point is this: if we become too focused on our numbers or where we are on some list, or better yet, where we’re not on the list, it has become about building our kingdom not His.

I think its a huge reminder that ultimately, how ever many people we’ve been entrusted to lead, we should work just as hard for 10 as we do for 10,000.

What did you learn from Catalyst?

Last week was one of the busiest weeks I’ve had in a long time, but it was well worth it. Let me give you a quick run down and then I’ll post later this week more details.

Monday

Got to play golf at East Lake with some new friends at Giant Impact. The grand stands were still up from the week before where the PGA played the Tour Championship. An amazing course and was incredibly hard. Well worth the agony of walking all 18. Thanks to LV, Jayson and David.

Tuesday

Helped set up at the Catalyst Conference. If you bought anything from the main resource center, then you saw my team’s work. More to come on Catalyst later. Later that night I got to see U2 play at the GA Dome. Been waiting a long time to see them live and it was well worth it.

Wednesday

I went to my quarterly peer coaching group. It is always a great day of learning and encouragement. We got a surprise opportunity to sit in on a Northpoint staff meeting and listen to Andy lead his staff.  A great backstage opportunity for sure. Wednesday afternoon I headed back to Catalyst for a few Labs. Got to connect with some friends and speakers for Backstage Leadership. Later that night went to the bloggers meet up and met even more people.

Thursday

Day 1 of Catalyst did not disappoint.  Brad and his team did an outstanding job. Had a great conversation with Charles Lee about some future projects. The speakers were good, but you’ll always want to make sure your theology’s align. The worship was awesome too. Fee’s new album is really really good.

Friday

Day 2 of Catalyst was even busier. We had a great Backstage Leadership lunch with guest speaker Michael Hyatt. Michael was very gracious with his time and gave each participant a copy of Donald Miller‘s new book. A huge thanks to Michael. Friday was awesome because my wife was with me the whole day. The Compassion moment was simply amazing and deserves an entire post.

All in all, an amazing week. Tons of new relationships. Tons of learning. Tons to implement.

More details to come soon!

For any of you that are in the middle of following after a vision, idea or calling you feel the Lord has given you, but it’s getting tough and you are on the verge of quitting, DON’T!!!  You must keep going.

Years worth of work, praying, and dreaming culminated into one of the best learning moments of my life a few days ago. And it almost didn’t happen. There were many that thought Backstage Leadership wouldn’t work. There were doubters, haters and even laughers. After months of planning and implementation, the voices started getting to me. And I almost quit. Maybe they were right and I was chasing a stupid dream. At that exact hour of my desperation, God spoke through a book written by now friend and speaker for Backstage Leadership, Mark Batterson. Mark’s book, Wild Goose Chase explored the toughness of following God even during the hard times. For many people looking in on your crazy idea, they will in fact think you are crazy. But you have to keep pressing on. Even though I didn’t know how it would happen and even if it would work in the end, I decided I had to find out.

Fast forward almost a year’s time to Tuesday night with the first main speaker Q&A session with Chuck Colson. It was the most loaded, jam-packed 90 minutes of learning I’ve ever experienced. 35 years of Christian leadership will provide that. Chuck taught principles from his life; and from Chuck’s humility, God did some major leadership development.  I’ve already listened to the mp3 3 times and still need a few more to take it all in. It was an amazing night for me and for every one of our team and participants. It still blows my mind that we got to ask Chuck any question we wanted to for an hour and a half.

But for me it was extra special because God showed his faithfulness to me in a new and enormous way. It was worth the times of doubting and days of worrying. It was worth the months of living in darkness to see if this would actually work. The amazing thought is that Tuesday’s call was just 1 of 12 amazing sessions over the next 8 months. It’s only going to get better! For those that are thinking about quitting, keep pressing on. It will be worth it! Plus, you have no idea of how many other people will be effected by your decision.

For more information on Backstage Leadership, visit the web page.