catalyst conference 2006

Catalyst it is an innovative and organic community of young leaders that provides relevant training and cutting-edge resources to maximize their influence. In other words, it's cool, it's relevant, and it's helping me become a better leader.

I went to Catalyst last week (Thursday and Friday). Got to hear Andy Stanley, Louie Giglio, Donald Miller, John Maxwell, George Barna, Marcus Buckingham and others. And oh, get this, as a special treat halfway through day one, they brought out Jeff Foxworthy. He did a whole bunch of redneck stuff including "Rednecks in the Bible." Here's a sampling:

"Sampson had the mother of all mullets. He killed a thousand men with the
jaw bone of donkey. If that isn't WWF pay per view! Tell me you
wouldn't pay $29.99 to see that."

But I digress. Back to the stuff that impacted me the most...

Andy Stanley kicked things off on Thursday morning with a powerful message about leadership. Here was my bottom-line take-away from his talk:

"Leadership is stewardship. It is temporary and all leaders are accountable."

He used Daniel 4 and 5 as his text. The key phrase from the text that keeps repeating in those passages is: The Most High is sovereign over the kingdoms of men and gives them to anyone he wishes.

Andy emplored us to lead with diligence...we've been put where we are for a reason. He said that if God has called you and gifted you...is there anything you should be afraid of? No! Fear nothing! You're not working for man (you're accountable to men), you're working for God.
A personal note to myself during this session...I wrote down, "My hallmark should be humility." Andy said that we are where we are because God put us ther and he can take us out at any time (that's humbling if you ask me).

To sum it up: Leaders should be

• diligent
• fearless
• humble

I'm working on it.

I'll blog more about the other speakers. Maybe I'll take one per day for the next week or so. Stay tuned...