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Catalyst One Day Bonus: Andy Stanley’s interview with Judah Smith

I’ve enjoyed sharing my notes and take aways from Catalyst One Day with you this week. My hope is they’ve been helpful. Truth is my notes can’t relay all the great stuff shared by these guys so I’d encourage you to check out the Catalyst One Day website and watch for One Day coming soon to a city near you this year! Here are ideas some I wrote down from an interview that Andy Stanley did with Judah Smith who hosted the Seattle One Day.

  • When you go on vacation don’t go to church. That’s not a family vacation that’s a ministry trip to look at other churches.
  • Leadership is acknowledged not appointed. So try out young leaders. Give them something and see what they can do with it.
  • Acknowledge leadership in young leaders who have a proper view of authority and demonstrate a teachable spirit
  • The test of any church is how it responds when the lead personality is gone
  • Adjustment and progress are better words than change
  • If past leadership is trusted you’ll have the opportunity to be trusted
  • Every change a new leader makes is a critique of the past
  • Remember everything is where it is
  • It’s unrealistic to expect everyone to just get in line with the picture you have of the future and where you’re going
  • Expect tears and pain in change
  • Demonstrate extraordinary empathy to the past and the value of all that has come before you
  • Work through powerbrokers and influencers. Each influencer receives honor differently and there are keys to everyone’s heart so don’t approach them all or treat them all the same.
  • Don’t play with false humility
  • Honor is convenient when everyone is on the same page but real honor comes in a moment of conflict and conviction and when you have to put personal agenda aside and do what is best for the people
  • People want Jesus and the Gospel works!

This is your last chance to grab more Catalyst Resources for yourself and your team for free! I’m giving away a brand new copy of “The Power of Momentum” a 4-part video teaching series from Andy and Craig. Just sign up here and I’ll let everyone know who the winner is next week!


Posted in Leadership

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Catalyst One Day Session 4: Programming by Andy Stanley

Andy Stanley gave a talk in session 4 on “Creating a Culture Around and Through your Programming” that I know you’re going to find helpful. If you’re responsible for ministry environments (worship services, children’s ministry, small groups, student ministry, etc.) than this talk is pure gold for you!

  • If everyone doesn’t have the same picture of a win you end up with chaos and nobody ends up winning
  • Funny Andy Stanley moment: “If I could heal people at will to draw a crowd I would, but I can’t…so I have to hire a band”
  • Every single ministry program (worship service, student ministry, small groups, children’s ministry) is being evaluated, not formally, but by participants. Wouldn’t it make sense for you as a staff to go ahead and have a plan to be on the same page and evaluate it together?

3 Irreducible Minimums for an Irresistible Ministry Environment

1. An Appealing Setting

  • The physical environment
  • Settings create first impressions (What does it appear to be at first pass?)
  • An uncomfortable or distracting setting can derail ministry before it even begins
  • Every physical environment communicates something; there are no neutral physical environments
  • Design, décor, and attention to detail communicate what and who you value most
  • Design, décor, and attention to detail communicates whether or not your expecting guests
  • Periodically we all need fresh eyes on our ministry environments
  • Are your ministry settings appealing to your target audience?
  • Do the design, décor, and attention to detail in your environments reflect who is most important to you?
  • What’s starting to look tired?

2. An Engaging Presentation

  • Engaging presentations are essential to the success of our mission
    • Presenting the Gospel
    • Teaching them to “obey everything I’ve commanded you”
  • To engage is to secure one’s attention
  • Generally speaking it’s the presentation that makes information interesting
  • An audience’s attention span is determined by the quality of the presentation
  • Engaging presentations require engaging presenters
  • Always sacrifice the one for the many not the many for the one

3. Helpful Content

  • Helpful = useful
  • It’s not enough for it to be true. It has to be helpful
  • Helpful content is content that addresses helping people think and act differently
  • Information that doesn’t address a felt need is perceived as irrelevant
  • Is your content helpful?
  • Do you content creators know the goal of content is to help people think and act differently?
  • Is your content age and stage of life specific?

Want to grab more Catalyst Resources for yourself and your team? I’m giving away a brand new copy of “The Power of Momentum” a 4-part video teaching series from Andy and Craig. Just sign up here and I’ll let everyone know who the winner is next week!


Posted in Leadership

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Catalyst One Day Session 3: Creating a Culture of Self Awareness by Craig Groeschel

This talk by Craig Groeschel on “Creating a Culture of Self Awareness” was worth the price of admission by itself. My notes by no means do this talk justice. You’re going to have to go to Catalyst One Day and hear it for yourself.

  • Those who don’t know, don’t know they don’t know
  • The higher we rise in an organization the more difficult it is to get people to tell you the truth, the more perceived power that you have the more people are going to tell you what they think you want to hear.
  • The problems you don’t know about are the problems you can’t fix

3 Principles of Self-Deception

1. We as leaders have limitless capacity for self-deception

  • As leaders we love to tell ourselves that things are better than they really are

2. The longer we believe a lie the harder it is to hear the truth

3. The leaders lack of self-awareness is the leaders greatest barrier

  • The problem with the self-deceived leader is we always find something else or someone else to blame
  • We need to change our language from “They won’t…” to “I haven’t led them to…”

How do we uncover the truth about ourselves?

1. Pray ask God to point it out to you

2. Listen

  • The more convinced I am that I’m right about something; the more likely it is I’m wrong (Peter is a great example of this…”Jesus I’ll never leave you…”)
  • Build a team that craves and gives helpful feedback
  • If the Leader isn’t open to evaluation then no one else in the organization will be either
  • Implement annual 360 evaluations for every team member
  • Really listening to others about yourself will be more helpful and more hurtful than you will ever imagine

3. Change when God shows you something…do it

Moments that God used to get my attention:

  • When I heard Bill Hybels say, “The way I’ve been doing the work of God has been destroying the work of God in me.”
  • When my young daughter innocently said, “This isn’t your home, you live at the church.”
  • When I recognized that my self worth was connected to the growth and decline of the church.
  • When my wife told me over and over and over again for months, “Would you please put down your phone and be a dad.”
  • We confess to God for forgiveness…we confess to others for restoration and healing

Want to grab more Catalyst Resources for yourself and your team? I’m giving away a brand new copy of “The Power of Momentum” a 4-part video teaching series from Andy and Craig. Just sign up here and I’ll let everyone know who the winner is next week!


Posted in Leadership

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Catalyst One Day Session 2: Staffing by Andy Stanley

I’m posting my notes this week from Catalyst One Day and here is session #2 from Andy Stanley where he talked through how the culture you’re building on your staff drives the organizational culture you’re creating!

  • If you make your church an extraordinary place to work then you’ll have a team full of extraordinary people because they will want to be there.
  • Great leaders don’t pretend everything is perfect and great; they take the time to investigate and understand what’s happening in their organization…they work on their work
  • Follow “we” never works. It sounds good…but “we” doesn’t get much done.

The Principle of Mutual Submission:

Healthy and productive staff cultures are characterized by mutual submission

The Message of Mutual Submission:  I’m here to facilitate you’re success regardless of where either of us show up on an organizational chart.

The Assumption of Mutual Submission: While our responsibilities differ we are both essential to the success of the organization.

The Question of Mutual Submission: What can I do to help?

  • The biggest problem for this in the church world is the entitlement of Sr. Pastors who think they are special and anointed of God.
  • If you’re the boss it makes you responsible, not important. It means you have more available to you in order to leverage to help others in your organization be successful.
  • Titles create distance. If you have to have a title to have leadership you’ve already abdicated leadership.

6 Principles of Mutual Submission:

1. Do for one what you wish you could do for everyone

2. Systematize top down service

3. Create and maintain a sustainable organization pace

  • Show me an overworked staff and I’ll show you turf wars and politics…when we are too busy we withdrawal to our own little world and we don’t have time for others.

4.  Celebrate and reward mutual submission when you see it

  • What’s rewarded is repeated

5. Confront your ego

  • What’s most important, creating a great organization or creating a name for yourself?

6. Drop the term loyalty from your vocabulary

  • If you have to ask people to sign something to be loyal, you are the one with the loyalty problem. Earn it.

Want to grab more Catalyst Resources for yourself and your team? I’m giving away a brand new copy of “The Power of Momentum” a 4-part video teaching series from Andy and Craig. Just sign up here and I’ll let everyone know who the winner is next week!


Posted in Leadership

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Catalyst One Day Session 1: Values by Craig Groeschel

I’m posting my notes this week from Catalyst One Day and here are my notes from the first session where Craig Groeschel did an incredible job unpacking how values influence and drive the organizational culture you’re creating!

Healthy Cultures never happen by accident, they are created

  • The #1 source that shapes your culture is your values
  • What we value determines what we do, what we believe determines how we behave
  • If you want to change your culture you have to change what you value

5 Ways we allow our values to shape our culture

#1 Honestly determine what your actions say you value

  • There’s often a big difference between what we claim to value and how we behave

#2 Identify the values that God has put in your heart

  • Don’t copy values. It doesn’t work. You have to be you.

#3 Narrow down your values to 10 or fewer

  • If you value everything you don’t value everything

#4 Once you clearly define your values write them down in short life giving statements

  • If they don’t move you to action get some new values
  • If you can’t tweet your values they are too long
  • If they don’t move you emotionally they are too dry

#5 Build your people and shape your culture around your values

  • Lead towards your values as if your future depends on it, because it does
  • Organizations don’t change; people change. If you want to change the organization you have to change the people.
  • Hire and recruit for your values.
  • Remove people with distinctively different values
  • If you don’t like where you’re going, change directions

Want to catch more Catalyst Resources for yourself and your team? I’m giving away a brand new copy of “The Power of Momentum” a 4-part video teaching series from Andy and Craig. Just sign up here and I’ll let everyone know who the winner is next week!


Posted in Leadership