Catalyst Reflections – Day Two – Start of Main Event

The day started out very promising – Rich and I had a 7 am breakfast meeting with Andy Crouch.  Rich had already heard my gushing over the session the day before, so he was already quite annoyed with me (I tend to be unrelenting in talking about things that excite me).

Anyhow, we met Andy at the lobby of the hotel, and we proceeded to head over to the Starbucks inside Krogers.  In the car ride alone, we discovered:

– Andy is friends with Greg Jao and they did stand-up comedy one night for grad students.

– Andy comes to NYC regularly, as well as Atlanta.

– We were lucky to spend time with Andy.

For the next hour or so, we discussed so many things, ranging from his talk the day earlier, his book and the insights therein, culture-making as it relates to his family, our families, and our community at new life, the phillies and how they dominate the mets, and so many other tidbits that I’ve been pondering since we left Catalyst.

All this to say, this meeting was easily the highlight of the trip for me.  And even though Andy is a Phillies fan, we must get him to share some of his insights at New Life sometime.  Word.

Here were some of my general thoughts as the day went on:

1.  Catalyst is leadership adrenaline – I petered out by the late afternoon, but yes, I can see why so many 20-somethings are into Catalyst.  It’s an explosion of people, performances, platforms, and passion.  There are throngs of people, and when you get so many of them together around a common purpose, the energy is really pulsating.  Meanwhile, there’s a panoply of activities, booths, and did I mention people?  Plus, major props to the emcees.  They were HILARIOUS.  Do you like all the p’s in this paragraph?  I thought it was quite clever.

2.  Speakers are from diverse perspectives, which I appreciate – You had Andy Staley, Jessica Jackley, Malcolm Gladwell, Shane Hipps, Rob Bell, Tony Dungy, Matt Chandler, and Francis Chan.  All of these folks are from various theological spectra and settings.  For instance, Rob Bell uses more zone blitzes than Tony Dungy’s cover 2 scheme.

Okay, that was only funny to 15% of you, but whatever.

But yes, the positive side to all of these different voices is that we can find where they agree and differ, and receive what we discern God wants us to receive and apply.

With all that said, Francis Chan brought us back to communion to end the night, and what an appropriate way to say, this is what we agree on, this is what we believe, and this is the hope of the world.  It was an extraordinary time.

3.  I was surprised at the lack of minorities in the audience – For some reason, I expected to see a lot more minorities in the audience.  I mean, of course I knew that the conference would be predominantly white, but I didn’t realize it would be overwhelmingly so.  So yeah, I was puzzled by this (although I appreciate the efforts to diversify the stage).

4.  Did I mention this is a really well run event? –  The quality of this event is really outstanding.  Catalyst crew, thank you for putting on a sensational conference.  Thanks for all the hard work.

5.  I’m in a good place – I love NYC, and I love New Life Fellowship.  There’s no place I’d rather be.

Here are some other highlights from Day Two and the beginning of the larger conference.

– I walked into the arena and my jaw dropped.  So Many People.  This reminded me of Urbana, which is probably larger in scale, and similar in raw energy.

– Ate at Chik-Fil-A for lunch, and then a Korean food mart for dinner.  There was a small Korean plaza in Duluth next to the arena, and my soul came alive when I saw it.  The food felt like home too.  Doug and Rich were introduced to Mochi ice cream as well.  Yes, in Atlanta.

– First time hearing Andy Stanley.  He’s a fantastic communicator, with a special gift toward leadership as well.  He started us off on the right foot by calling us to re-prioritize why we’re doing what we do.

– Malcolm Gladwell is a wonderful storyteller.  He tells stories the same way he writes about them – with suspense, interesting detail, and then a punch at the end.  Really cool that he was here, and I needed to hear the encouragement to remain humble.

– Rob Bell is really gifted.  He speaks with great ease, passion, and creativity.  I appreciated his passion about this topic in particular (Sabbath-keeping, caring for family, and being okay with thinning crowds).  I thought he was going to mention Pete Scazzero’s book, but his topic was good to hear nonetheless.

I also loved how he went to bat for the women in leadership issue.  That was very cool, although some might disagree.

It saddens me that people give him so much grief about being unorthodox.  I think it’s fair to say that for anyone who has heard him speak, he really loves the Bible.

– We had a great conversation with Warren Bird about multi-site churches.  It’s always nice to connect with friends of New Life.  Plus, he invited us to take some munchies from the Leadership Network suite.

–  I missed Tony Dungy and Matt Chandler.  I couldn’t keep up.  I found a spot in the bowels of the arena, and did a daily office for an hour or so.  I needed the opportunity to breathe.

– Francis Chan’s session was moving, intimate, and unplugged.  He spoke things that we all really feel, and spoke truth in a simple and poignant way.  Plus, he only spoke for 15 minutes or so, and let God do his thing.  I guess less really is more.  My favorite session.

– It’s fun hanging out with Doug Slaybaugh.  I was so grateful to have Doug there.  He was so loving in the ways he asked and answered questions, and he probably thought we were stalking him considering how many times we would randomly see him throughout 12,000 people.

– Rich is a great travel buddy.  He’s up for adventures, thoughtful, and is super laid back.  With that said, I’d trade him for Tina any day.  I’m sure he’d say the same about Rosie and Karis.  Btw, he kept showing me pictures of Karis, and then I’d miss home somehow too.

And then I’d respond by talking about the Andy Crouch session.

Catalyst Reflections – Day One Labs

It’s been a wild 24 hours.  Rich and I flew in to Atlanta late last night, and finally arrived at our hotel about 12:45 am, only to find that all the rooms had been given away.  We were sent to the Marriott down the road, and unfortunately, they were out of rooms as well.  The kind folks at the Marriott directed us further down the road to the Courtyard Marriott, where they had rooms available, but none with two beds.

We finally arrived at the Holiday Inn at around 2:00 am after the entire ordeal, and besides being a good character-growing exercise, it was a series episodes I’d prefer not to repeat in my life.

With that, we went into day one of Catalyst, known as a prominent conference of “pure leadership adrenaline”.  I wanted rest more than adrenaline after the hotel hopping, but hey, the more unpredictable, the more exciting.  🙂

Anyhow, here are my thoughts about the conference thus far.  Keep in mind I’ve only attended labs, which are kind of like seminars.  The main bulk of the conference is Thursday and Friday.

1.  This is a really well run event – From volunteers, to materials, to venue, to speakers, etc – this really is a massive production, and I’m impressed with the kind of detail work that goes into the packets, room set-ups, speaker lineups, and other fun stuff that makes catalyst catalyst (including live music, peanut vendors, African coffee, etc.).  I appreciate the care that goes into this event.  I certainly feel cared for as a result.

2.  I wish we had more time for silent reflection planned into the schedule – There’s such thought-provoking content being presented, and it’s hard to process all the information so quickly.  I’d recommend an hour of intentional silent reflection as part of the schedule.  I’ll share a bit more about this later, particularly why this is hard for me as a personal discipline at a conference like this.

3.  For me, large conferences tend to breed a celebrity culture – I don’t think is unique to Catalyst, I think this is what invariably happens when I go to conferences with a bazillion speakers – and high quality ones at that.  I found myself asking the following questions – “Is this person good? Who’s worth listening to?  Who’s someone I shouldn’t miss or someone who has something extraordinary to say?”

I caught myself for a moment, and realized we all have stories of God’s faithfulness, and yet an invitation to be a speaker at a large conference comes with a certain cache that gives weight to one’s particular story.  And when the conference rolls around, “competition” (because there are other speakers on stage) inevitably brings a comparing and contrasting, liking and disliking.

I’m not quite sure how to get over this, but I think there’s a level of contemplation and prayerfulness that I need to have to remain centered, listening, open, and non-judgmental.

With all that said, here are the following sessions I went to and my brief reflections on all of them.

Session 1 – Andy Crouch – Incredible.  I was flabbergasted by the end of it.  Crouch wrote a book called Culture Making which is one of the best books on creativity and work that I’ve ever read.  If you don’t believe me, Keller recommends it too!  We used parts of it to inform our Your Life is Your Calling series.

Anyhow, his seminar was on creative power vs coercive power, and he introduced several new perspectives on power.  I can’t do justice with a recap now, but I found his take on redefining power to be so compelling (even the use of the word!), along with the end discussion on power and privilege.  Basically, he spoke of the beauty of creative power when it’s given away, and the reflection it takes to know that I’m giving it away, and not holding it as privilege.

There’s A LOT more to this, but yes, brilliant.

To be honest, the rest of the labs were meaningful and insightful too, but having heard this first, it stuck so clearly in my mind that it was difficult to engage heartily in what others were saying.  Hence, the need for silent reflection.

However, I was stuck at a crossroads – do I go reflect and journal for a couple of hours, or do I potentially miss something as stirring as Crouch’s talk?  I was torn.

So what did I do?  I plowed through three more sessions.  First, because I tend to think of these conferences as a “waste” unless I go to everything, and second, because I tend toward dutiful action.

Ah, the conflict.

Because of this first session in which my mind was piqued, I don’t think I fully engaged as much as I could have.  Yes, Andy’s session was that good.

Session 2 – Alan Hirsch – He spoke about communitas and liminal space, something very congruent with one of my favorite authors and theologians, Richard Rohr.  Hirsch is a great communicator who’s very thoughtful and engaging.  He was encouraging us that journeying in community by taking risks (particularly entering liminal, unsafe places of crisis and challenge) inevitably builds up a deeper community (communitas).

Great stuff, and wholly relevant to the Western mindset.

However, this topic begged the question for me – what’s the balance between leaping into liminality and resting?  After listening to the talk, I found myself getting really motivated and… tired?  Yes, tired.  There’s such an edge on mission and risk-taking, that it’s hard not to feel like I’m missing out unless life is constantly a dangerous adventure.

Many of the speakers here are advocating that we take risks constantly – very few are encouraging contemplation.

3.  Session 3 – Scott Belsky – Time’s almost up, but a stimulating talk on making ideas happen.  Scott is based in NYC at Behance, and I’d love for him to come to New Life to share some of the principles he’s seen in successful organizations.  This is a weakness of mine, so I was mesmerized by his talk, although I didn’t get to reflect on it much.  Why?  I was writing the entire time.  And thinking about Crouch’s talk.

But seriously, there was so much insightful content in Scott’s talk, and I was challenged in areas of prioritization, execution, and team building.

We’ll see if it makes a difference when I’m back at church!

The good thing is, it seems like we’ll be able to hear more from Scott since he’s a local guy.

4.  Session 4 – Ian Cron – Contemplative spirituality through the lens of St. Francis.  His influences seem very similar to ours, including Rohr, Desert Fathers, and other contemplatives throughout church history.

He’s another person that would seem great to connect with, especially since he’s in nearby CT.

I believe most of the leaders at Catalyst are stirred by Contemplative Spirituality – I’m curious about the masses that attend.

It seemed like Ian was interesting a wholly different perspective, and it was refreshing.

That was my first day.

We went to meet up with Chris Kim later at Richard Blais’ Flip.  Great times, great food.  Chris is on staff at Northpoint, in many respects the host of this enormous conference.

I loved hanging out with Chris and Rich.  They keep it real.

We missed some evening labs, but I think it’s just what I needed that night.

Will write more later but gotta bounce!