When it comes to Catalyst, it seems that it is much about celebrity. That should not really be a surprise and is not really unique to this conference – but it seems the voices we most often hear from at conferences aren’t from normal practitioners. What I mean by “normal practitioners” is this – guys who lead churches anywhere between 100-499 people. That’s normal. Normal is not 10,000 people in your church.

Yet, this is the tension of most conferences. The normal guy with a normal church with normal people is what is normal, not the massive churches that spend $200,000 on a flexboard on stage coupled with smoke and intelligent lights. That just isn’t normal for most normal people in most normal churches. I am actually really okay with Catalyst (and really any other conference) not inviting the normal church guy to speak. Why? Because I get to talk to that guy any particular week, but I don’t have the chance to hear from Andy Stanley, or John Maxwell, or Matt Chandler. So it’s nice to hear from someone who is at a different stage of church work and the complexities and challenges they face. We can learn from that.

The danger in Catalyst is to go home frustrated that your church doesn’t have that smoke or lights and has a pulpit instead of a table. That you’ll start thinking you’re doing something wrong or bad or not as good as someone else because the guy on stage has 10,000 people in their church and therefore they have some special connection to God that you don’t have. Ceratinly, this is not the design of the conference, the design is to equip leaders – inspire them even to be better leaders than they are where they are. That’s a really good thing.

With that understanding – I was challenged on some levels of my leadership. Let’s just call them deficiencies that needed to be sifted. As I’ve reflected, I’ve been given a new lens as to how to see these things. That was a major plus. I was encouraged to do the little things, because “God is in the little things and by saying yes of the little things, he blows it up to big things. Just be faithful to the little things.” (I can’t remember who said this). I was challenged to be faithful and let God determine my portion. In this particular stage of life, I think I often get worked up about being “behind” some of my peers in church life. I’m not behind anyone… I’m right where God wants me. This was a helpful critique to my flawed (and sinful) mindset.

I’ve had several people ask me how I felt about the conference, and mostly it’s been a shoulder shrug. Am I thankful I went…yes. Mostly because I was able to dialogue with my cohort for the D.Min at SWBTS. I think this conference leads you to have dialogue with others in the same field as you. I think this may have been my problem walking into the commence – we were instructed to go in with a critical eye… and I had to work hard to see the silver lining throughout.

I suppose this is the major problem or frustration I had with the conference – I’m grew tired of having to sift for nuggets of theological motivation in each of the talks. Too often I heard “just start another service” or “give away iPads” or “have a carnival” and people will come to your church. But what you win people with, you must keep them with. This type of bait and switch is bad for the local church and I think quite terrible.

I want my theology to motivate my mission and practice. I think too often in a conference like this I received a lot of mission and practice, but not a lot of theological foundation as to why we should do what we do.

That being said, I appreciated the challenges given. It defiantly was a more diverse gathering I’ve been to in some time. And I walked away with some practical challenges as to how I can better serve the church and participate in the Kingdom of God.

FINAL THOUGHT: As I engage the culture, i have to remember that other people will engage in ways that will be different than I do. If it isn’t heretical, I must leave it alone because I will never know what God is up to.