Post-Catalyst West Thoughts: Part 1

Catalyst West Just Blew my Mind

How does one recount two days of mind-blowing teaching, heart-pounding worship and glimpses of God at work in his people across the country?

How do you describe 3,200 voices praising God, lead by Hillsong United into His presence?

Or hearing some of this generation’s best Pastors and teachers challenge us to rethink how we spend our days?

You can read the backstory on Catalyst here, but it is a gathering of church leaders usually held in Atlanta, GA. This year was the first time Catalyst held it’s conference on the West Coast (for those following the events on Twitter, you can see the buzz here).

It was graciously hosted down in Orange County at Mariners Church, on their sprawling campus. For some amazing backstage scoop here is the Catalyst GreenRoom site by Brian Wurzell.

Here are some awesome notes from the sessions by Rick Warren, Guy Kawasaki and Andy Stanley, taken by Ryan Smith a fellow volunteer.

Trying to regurgitate this event simply wouldn’t do it justice, so here are a few of my heart souvenirs:

• God is bigger than we can imagine. From Andy Stanley, Francis Chan to Ravi Zacharias, this theme hit me squarely. My thoughts of God have been too small. Too ineffectual. Not worthy of who He really is.
• “What if we were to unleash people to pursue their dreams rather than tell them how bad they are?” How I loved it when Erwin McManus said this. Anyone who’s heard him speak knows this statement comes from a loving place… a desire to see all of us step into the fully-alive, abundant life full of adventure, led by God’s Spirit. This is diametrically opposed to the dead religiosity that characterizes a practical athiest’s life.
• “Look at them, over on the Bad Pile” spoken by Catherine Rohr, as she described how she used to view convicted prisoners before God got ahold of her and called her to work with this population. Her understated admission of being judgmental exposed the ugliness inside all of our hearts. It wrecked me.

So much more to process… but these are the few thoughts that God used to convict me at Catalyst West. More to come.

If you were there, what struck you? What have you done with all this truth?