I just got back from a vacation break at the beautiful Donner Lake and a week of study and speaking at Zephyr Point Conference Center. Was studying the book of Jonah while there as we are teaching it through in September and October at Vintage Faith Church.
I am writing this week as I turned in my latest book to Zondervan and it was so long, they are turning it into 2 books. So I am working on retweaking the first one now. It is basically an apologetic for the church. There has been a lot of understandable negativity about the church from both Christians and non-Christians. But hopefully we learn our lessons and now move onward in mission. I stress why I believe the "organized" church is a good thing (and I define what I mean by "organized") and the potential of what happens when the church organizes itself towards others-focused mission. I was quite wounded and burned by the church once by a leader in the church I served on staff on. It made me question church, want to bag it all, made me suspicious of "pastors" in general quite honestly (and I was one). But I came out of that realizing we are all messy and my expectations of what church even was, wasn't correct. It was no excuse for the dysfunction of what happened there - but then I realized I am messy, we all are messy. Yet despite the mess, Jesus wants us to be the church on mission and the church is His bride and beautiful. It can be very weird too. And some leaders quite honestly, shouldn't be leading until they get over their serious dysfunctions as it hurts people. But the church is beautiful and I want to and need to belong to an organized church on mission.
I start this first book telling the story of when I first began being part of a church in my 20's. I was asked to be in this musical and be in the choir as I was just starting to serve with youth ministry. They thought it would be good for the youth seeing me in the choir.I was a "shepherd" wearing a bedsheet and weird shepherd thing on my head. But on the night of the musical, it was so embarrassing that I ducked down and hid behind the choir for the whole performance. I was stuck up on the stage, so I hid and wondered "how did I get from being in a punk band in London England to be wearing this bedsheet and singing in this horribly embarrassing musical?" So I write about some of the weirdness of the church, but then the beauty of it.
The second book will be an apologetics book on the key theological issues of today I believe are questions being asked within churches and many outside of the church as well about what Christians think about these things (fundamentalism/the BIble, pluralism/universalism, homosexuality, atheism,science/Bible, sexism/chauvinism in the church). Both these books are "trade" books, which mean they aren't only for church leaders but for everyone. They will both be out in 2011.
Now... about the title of this blog post. I have been part of Catalyst West Coast for the past 2 years. It has been life-giving and a joy to be part of. I blogged about this past year's here. And the bigger momma-Catalyst is happening in October in Atlanta. I am at so many conferences each year and a few stand out which really impact my life personally. Outreach Convention is one that I have spoken at every year since it started and feels like a home to me. And Catalyst is an event that I have only been to two of them, but you immediately feel like it is a home and a joining of people you want to be hanging around with. It is difficult to even describe as it is an ethos created. You have the main sessions which are incredible. You have the "labs" which are always thought provoking and more interaction can happen there about critical topics. And most of all you have the people attending and the Catalyst team. The conversations that happen all around the place. The Catalyst team is so incredibly thorough, although they are so humble and passionate about serving the people there. So it creates this culture. But it isn't just a cool culture - it is about encouraging leaders who love Jesus. The whole thing is really about what it means to be a leader who follows Jesus.
The deadline for early registration for October's Catalyst is Thursday, August 26th. If you use the code "FOB" you get 10% further off the reduced registration rate. So go here for the info and registration.
When I was there this past year, gifted worship leader Carlos Whittaker did an interview with me. We informally talked about a bunch of things including the need for people to be outside of the Christian bubble, the importance of having a deeper theological understanding of what the Bible says or doesn't say about homosexuality and a couple of sidetracks. It was a informal sort of discussion with someone I admire who has some great music out. You can listen to that interview here on the Catalyst web site.
Long post... I don't post too much as I have so much going on with church, books, family - but as soon as this book is done I will be refocusing on issues about church and emerging culture especially here.
I thank the Catalyst staff for impacting so many lives. As they encourage leaders, it isn't just a conference. As the leaders then go back to their churches and worlds and impact others. So I don't even see Catalyst as a conference, as much as I see it as a life-changing regrouping of people serving on the mission of Jesus together. So if you go, don't look at it as a "conference", look at it as an intersection of lives to encourage, inspire, share, learn and remembering you are not alone. As you leave the joy is that other lives will be influenced by what happens there in addition to those who go. So that makes it much more than a "conference". Back to writing now.....
