from CATALYST posted late...

Catalyst Blog October 5, 2007

Spent the last two days at Catalyst…a leadership event for young leaders, well church leaders, well business leaders, well just leaders. It is just a place for leaders who love Jesus Christ to gather and think through how we can lead the church, our business, and our families. If you follow Christ you realize that none of us have it together, none of us are qualified because when we place our lives alongside Jesus we never can match up. Jesus still comes along us and says come on….let’s do this together. The great thing is we only have to see HIS PLAN, and Jesus always has a plan. The plan of Jesus looks so different from any other plan we can find but yet it always leads us to love God and love People, it is simple but complex and calls us to yield everything to this idea because it is all consuming. WELL – enough – it is great to be around leaders who love Christ and are trying to live for Christ and get on His plan.

I am in the conference right now and God has brought up so many things ONCE AGIN. God never seems to leave me alone when I get to hear folks talk about leadership. Right now John Maxwell is talking about adding value to people every day. WOW, Am I doing that? WOW, that is all I can say. Several moments have been huge but Francis Chan asking us if we were still understood the fact that God has made no mistake with where he has placed us as leaders. God knew, Jeremiah 1 makes it clear that God has made no mistake where he has placed us and we do not lead because of any other reason than God has given us the chance. God has called me to say or do the hard thing because he has placed me and He has the plan. There was something God was doing in the room because we all tend to assume we are so important and we have developed our influence, we have made it and all the time GOD is leading the way.

Rick Warren sat in a chair on stage and called us to a second reformation, a reformation of not creed but deed. A chance for our generation, for our churches to change the world. We can change the way people see the church, we can change the image of what people assume of Jesus. Saddleback has launched the PEACE plan…our churched can embrace the call of Jesus and live lives that will look like Jesus. I find myself being drawn to that place. I am not sure what it will look like but I am in.

For me I am more worried about what Jesus is thinking about my life and ministry and family rather than what PEOPLE (the people I am supposed to impress) think. God has placed me in a unique place of doing ministry with people I love and I will lay my life down with in the name of Christ. Our family at Grace is amazing and we are getting to rethink church and living out our faith. My wife has supported me every step of the way in my journey with Christ and we are on the same page – we are dreaming dreams together and loving Christ together. I am also a dad – well I am just trying to serve my girls. I feel like I have the chance to live with no chains of religion or people pleasing (yes I struggle there) Well we will see what happens, this is just where I am right now. Let’s live in the freedom of Christ…freedom to love, freedom to serve, freedom to LIVE in the moment.