Well today was the first day of Catalyst.  Since this is my first year there everything is new to me.  And everything was WOW for me.  They really don’t spare any change in making this an unforgettable event.  At least I know now why the tickets are so much…

Anyway, today was a day full of incredible stuff that challenged, some stuff that was controversial and some holy moments too.  When trying to think, of a way to describe what Catalyst has been for me so far this is what I’ve come up with

What catalyst does is mix your mind and your heart together and adds a good helping of holy getupanddosomething

Yeah, that good.

One disappointment with catalyst was the unreliability of the wifi – I was really hoping to blog during the day so I wouldn’t have these late night posting sessions but it looks like I wasn’t alone in this.  Many of the official bloggers of catalyst were unable to get any kind of wifi connection either with both the in house arena wifi and at&t not playing nicely.  Still, blogs are getting written!  If I come across any I’ll post them at the end of each post I make on Catalyst.

What I’ve decided to do is write each post in a series so that they’re all linked together.  For each speaker I’m just going to write about the one (or maybe two) things that impacted me the most out of what they spoke.  I’ll also post links that I’m aware of at the time of posting to other coverage about that speaker. I’m not going to be writing a post on every speaker, partly because there are some that I just didn’t listen to (because I skipped out early to check out booths without the crowd swarm) and some I just didn’t hear (because I wear hearing aids and have tinnitus and my prayer for close captioning doesn’t get answered…one day! One day.)  Oh, and I should mention, if you’re following Catalyst you really need to bookmark catalystbackstage.com. Visit it and you’ll know why

A few remarks I’d like to make about the beginning of the event.  A woman (sorry, my recognizant abilities are not great) opened up catalyst with an amazing Hallelujah moment and of course FEEBAND came out ROCKING the house with some awesome worship.  I’ve read about this band and now I know why people around here love them.  I’m SOOOO glad the Catalyst package included some free downloads of their music!

Andy Stanley was the first speaker.  He shared from Joshua 5:13-15 and here was the biggest takeaway for me.

It’s really not about who’s for you or against you – it’s really about who you are for.

In other words, are you, am I willing to submit my skills, abilities, opportunities, my person to God and His bigger story?  God was in effect saying to Joshua, “I have not come to be a part of what YOU are doing.  I want YOU to become a part of MY story!”

When Joshua was near the town of Jericho, he looked up and saw a man standing in front of him with sword in hand. Joshua went up to him and demanded, “Are you friend or foe?”
“Neither one,” he replied. “I am the commander of the Lord ‘s army.”

Joshua 5:13-14

The commander of the Lord’s army answered, “Neither”.  Why?  Because it’s not about who’s your friend or who’s your foe.  It’s about who you are for.  Are you for God and His plan?  Is He Lord over your life?  Are you wanting His mark to be made through you or are you just wanting to make your piddly little mark?

Andy said that there is a statement on his Dad’s wall that has always stuck out with him – “God takes full responsibility for the life wholly devoted to Him”

Andy really hit home as he finished with this:

You need to settle once and for all why you do what you do and who your doing it for…Living to make my mark is to small a thing to give my life to…so, let’s give our lives to leaving His mark!

What a challenge!  And how liberating!  You don’t have to concern yourself with who’s for you or who’s against you – concern yourself with who YOU are FOR!!  And it better be Jesus.

(check out what Kevin, Brad, Jason, and  Kent,  have to say about Andy if you want to read more)