If you follow me on twitter you know from all my tweets Thursday and Friday that I was fortunate enough to attend one of the best conferences I have ever attended called Catalyst. Catalyst is a Christian Leadership conference that focuses on the making of a leader.
I thought I’d share some of the highlights from the conference with you guys. So if you are looking for some great 411 or some awesome people to follow on twitter better get ready. You are about to be swarmed.
First of all….if you have not heard of The Kid President you have GOT to check this little guy out. He is hilarious! I was luckily enough to see him live at Catalyst and am now a big fan. What a cutie. You can watch his youtube videos here. The advice I loved most from this kid was referring to the election “Don’t be IN a party. BE the party.” Gotta love the advice from a kid.
Andy Stanley also spoke at the conference. I really respect this man and always enjoy hearing him speak. Some of my favorite advice Stanley gave at the conference included “It’s better to make a difference than a point” and “Always pay attention to the tension.” He also talked about how God gets more mileage out of adversity than anything else. You can follow Andy @AndyStanley.
Another speaker I really enjoyed was Bryan Stevenson, a lawyer for inmates on death row. Bryan talked a lot about the how we have the power to say things to the world around us. The statement he made that stuck out to me the most was, “We will be judged by how we treat the broken. Not the rich.” I also didn’t realize until after I heard Bryan speak that the US is the only country that will sentence children to life in prison. Main point. You have the ability, right, and power to make a stand! You can follow Bryan @eji_org.
My hands down favorite speaker was Mark Burnett (executive producer of The Voice, Survivor, The Apprentice, and Shark Tank) and his wife (Touch By an Angel star) Roma Downey. Get ready because I am about to give you some awesome, ground breaking news….Mark and Roma are currently producing a ten hour docudrama series on The Bible! The series is awesome (I got to watch a trailer and a clip from it) and will air in Spring 2013. Stay tuned for updates on the series. Some really interesting things I learned from Mark and Roma was that all 3 major networks said NO to Survivor when Mark first pitched the idea. Mark’s point here was “this nation gives everyone the opportunity to do what you want but you have to have the courage to make it happen!” He also said this “if you need to be certain of something you will never do anything.” Wow. That’s powerful. Follow Mark (@MarkBurnettTV) and Roma (@RealRomaDowney) on twitter these two are awesome you guys!
Another really powerful speaker was Christine Caine. Her big point was “the weight of this generation is the weight of entitlement.” She reminded us all to run with perseverance the race marked out for us! Another powerful point she made was that “It is better to be marked by God than marketed by man.” You can follower her @ChristineCaine.
Francis Chan is the last speaker I will talk about although they were all awesome. Francis Chan is the best selling author of Multiply and is working to start a church planting movement in the inner city of San Fransisco all while launching a countrywide discipleship movement. This guy had story after story of real life miracle. His big point on why he has so many stories of miracles is because “if you go out to make disciple you WILL experience God.” He asked the big question of “Are you living by faith? Are you becoming more and more like Jesus?” He also said we should all “The church has to get back to the #1 goal of becoming like Jesus because Jesus said to be imitators of him.” The most powerful statement he made (which you have already heard if you follow me on twitter) is “We would never neglect an order from our boss yet the CREATOR is commanding us to be do-ers of the Word. Are we???” Talk about a powerful statement! Pray for boldness to have the courage to share the Word.
Talk about a wonderful, inspiration conference. Please feel free to share this with all your friends and share any feedback.
So glad you enjoyed it! Catalyst always inspires and challenges!