Catalyst 09

For three days last week I was in Atlanta Georgia at the Catalyst Conference. Catalyst is a church leadership gathering originally geared for those under 40 years old. This was the 10^th anniversary of the conference. It may still be geared the under 40 crowd, but it not only attended by that age group.

Those who gather in Atlanta for this conference run the gambit in ages, denominations, positions and most notability dress. Catalyst seems to be a black hole sucking in anyone pastor with a goatee, faux hawk, graphic T or a iPhone from all over the US (guilty as charged on at least one account)

Catalyst is summer camp for pastors. There are skits, loud worship bands with good looking young hipster leds, good teaching and entertaining distractions. Oh did I mention the pony, the armored car or the 35 foot belly flop into a kiddie pool with only a foot of water!

In the end Catalyst is about teaching leadership ideas to church leaders either directly by sharing management principles or in directly by refocusing the leaders on the Shepherd of the church. There was no unstated alternative like the National Pastors Conference which is a great book sale disguised as conference sponsored by Zondervan.

However, Catalyst is half helpful and half fluff. The valuable part comes in the form of the exposure to world class teaching from church leaders who are in the trenches of everyday ministry, Andy Stanley, Matt Chandler, Rob Bell and Francis Chen to name a few. And yes, there were some ladies involved, Jessica Jackley from Kiva, Margaret Fienberg and Phyllis Shirer. These people are some of the best biblical communicators in the world and they come to Catalyst to teach and encourage church leaders of all kinds.

Also, the worship music was incredible! Moving, inspirational and executed excellently. Again, the musicians were second to none. I just wish the names of more than Steve Fee and Eddie Kirkland came to mind.

The fluff part came more in the amusement. A comic host/side kick, 13,000 little rubber footballs thrown around the arena in mass, crazy videos, confetti poppers and don’t forget the hardly seen pony (we think it was a colt for Tony Dungy) and the Guinness world record setting belly flop!