8.14.08

Catalyst Conference 2008

Last week we took some Journey leaders to the Catalyst Conference in Atlanta for some leadership encouragement and cutting edge praise & worship. I think everyone who went left with a better idea of leadership and how it can be applied at The Journey in our different areas of focus. Anyways, here are some things that stood out to me:

1. Pastor Steven Furtick. He had an incredible story about planting Elevation Church in Charlotte, NC. They started out with roughly eight families and now are running 3,500 people on Sundays at two (high school) campuses in just over two and a half years. He challenged us to remember the promise God gave us (in our case planting The Journey) and not to forsake the process (where we have been over the last two years and now) so that one day you can enjoy the payoff. The process is always the toughest part but Pastor Steven encouraged us to be faithful during the this time and not to give up. Oh, by the way, Pastor Steven is under 30 years old just like our Lead Pastor. Coincidence? I think not!
2. Pastor Andy Stanley of North Point Community Church in Atlanta talked about moral authority. Moral authority occurs when what you say aligns with what you do. He said you usually lose your authority and influenece with others when your creed and deeds don't align. He then talked about having moral authority in three key areas: forgiveness, family, and finances. We can't ask people to forgive if we are not forgiving. We can't ask people to spend quality time with their family if we are not. We can't ask people to give money to our organization if we are not.
3. Jim Collins author of Good to Great spoke to us about how good is the enemy of great and many other fasinating leadership topics. He said that greatness is not a function of circumstance, it is of choice and discipline. He also said that you need to ask the question who before every what. The thing that really stuck out for me is when he said that time is finite and work is infinite. To me, this means I need to spend more time with my family and friends because life is short and the work will always be there for someone to manage.
4. Dave Ramsey, world renown financial help author and radio host talked to us about the enemies of unity. He said few churches or organizations ever experience real unity. The five main enemies of unity are poor communication, gossip, disagreements, lack of shared purpose, and sanctioned incompetence. He also said that a successful leader develops and maintains a culture in which negatives are handed up and positives are handed down. Finally, he said that for the sake of unity in the organization, the leader must go to battle early and often with any of the enemies of unity.