Catalyst ‘Reverb’ 2007 in Review

I’m still processing everything I heard and saw at Catalyst 2007 … but Church Marketing Sucks has a great post linking to notes from the main sessions and more.

Here are a couple of quick notes, or just my thoughts a week or so later:

• Patrick Lencioni’s Three Signs of Job Misery — Anonymity, Irrelevance and Immeasurement — was especially relevant to me … and I think it has great relevance for church volunteers and how to make them see how vital they are to your church’s ministry. Plus, he’s absolutely hilarious.
• Andy Stanley’s talk about how systems create behaviors was worth the entire conference. We’re still talking about it.
• Craig Groeschel’s session on Practical Atheism personally impacted me the most. It is so easy to talk the talk and not walk the walk. I needed this one … and if you feel crusted over in ministry like I have, you should buy the CD, listen to it and then repent as I did.
• Francis Chan and Erwin McManus speak the language and demonstrate the passion of the next generation of young leaders. Although I enjoyed them both, what they had to say resonated most deeply with the two guys in our groups who are both in their 20′s.
• Social justice seemed to be an underlying theme of most of the speakers and throughout the conference.
• Steve Fee (MySpace and Official Site) and the rest of the worship leaders and band were, quite frankly, uh … awesome. At one point during a set, they were having so much fun in worship and so into it that I think the roof rattled. A truly incredible worship experience.
• And I thoroughly enjoyed bumping into a number of old friends from Midwestern and other places of service. That was an unexpected and pleasant surprise!