All posts tagged Catalyst Conference

David Kinnaman :: Catalyst 11

by Tim Schraeder on 10/07/2011 in Catalyst 11 with No comments
David Kinnaman is the President of Barna Group.  He is the author of the best-selling book, unChristian: What a New Generation Really Thinks About Christianity, and the Barna report, Teens and the Supernatural.

Since joining Barna in 1995, David has designed and analyzed nearly 500 projects for a variety of clients, including Columbia House, Compassion, Easter Seals, Habitat for Humanity, Integrity Media, InterVarsity, NBC-Universal, the Salvation Army, Sony, Thomas Nelson, Time-Life, Prison Fellowship, World Vision, Zondervan and many others.

As a spokesperson for the firm’s research, he is frequently quoted in major media outlets (such as USA Today, Fox News, Chicago Tribune, New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Dallas Morning News, and The Wall Street Journal). He is also in demand as a speaker about trends, teenagers, vocation and calling, young leaders, and generational changes.

The son of a lifelong pastor, David has served in various capacities within congregations he has attended, including working with teenagers, teaching, and providing strategic consulting. He graduated from Biola University (La Mirada, California), where he served as Student Chaplain.

David and his wife, Jill, live in Ventura, California, with their three kids.

  • David did research to ask why and how young people are leaving the church.
  • He went into the study assuming that people were leaving for the same reason.
  • They discovered there were three categories that people fall into:
    • Prodigal – the person who loses their faith.
    • Nomads – people who still call themselves Christians but no longer attend church.
    • Exiles – feels lost between the safe Christianity they grew up in and the culture they are called to impact
  • Why people were leaving…
    • They feel the church is too protected.
    • We are one of the most protected, sheltered generations.
    • The world is small, everything is closer.
    • They want to engage the world but feel that the church is too safe and too small.
    • They don’t see people in their churches taking the kinds of risks that they read about in Scripture.
    • We’re losing young artist, musicians and designers – they want to engage the world and engage culture but don’t feel we are allowing them to express their God-given creativity in broad culture.
    • They felt the church was anti-science.
    • More than half of church-going teenagers want to go into careers that involve science.
    • They feel many churches are silent or antagonistic towards issues of science.
  • Knowing this information helps us rethink and understand people’s spiritual journeys.
  • The world needs the church that this generation is capable of creating.
  • How do we respond?
  • This generation is asking new questions and living in a new culture.
  • How do we engage in the spiritual journey of the new generation to ensure the future of our faith?
  • How do we show them that the Church matters?

Cornel West :: Catalyst 11

by Tim Schraeder on 10/07/2011 in Catalyst 11 with No comments
Cornel West is a prominent and provocative democratic intellectual. He is the Class of 1943 University Professor at Princeton University. He graduated Magna Cum Laude from Harvard in three years and obtained his M.A. and Ph.D. in Philosophy at Princeton. He has taught at Union Theological Seminary, Yale, Harvard and the University of Paris. He has written 19 books and edited 13. He is best known for his classic Race Matters, Democracy Matters, and his new memoir, Brother West: Living and Loving Out Loud. He appears frequently on the Bill Maher Show, Colbert Report, CNN and C-Span as well as on his dear Brother, Tavis Smiley’s PBS TV Show. He is also co-host of the popular radio show “Smiley & West” heard on PRI around the country. The Smiley & West radio show is a highly acclaimed progressive program.

He made his film debut in The Matrix – and was the commentator (with Ken Wilbur) on the official trilogy released in 2004. He also has appeared in over 25 documentaries and films including Examined Life, Call & Response, Sidewalk and Stand.

Last, he has made three spoken word albums including Never Forget, collaborating with Prince, Jill Scott, Andre 3000, Talib Kweli, KRS-One and the late Gerald Levert. His recent spoken word interludes were featured on Terence Blanchard’s Choices (which won the Grand Prix in France for the best Jazz Album of the year of 2009), The Cornel West Theory’s Second Rome and the Raheem DeVaughn’s Love & War: Masterpeace. In short, Cornel West has a passion to communicate to a vast variety of publics in order to keep alive the legacy of Martin Luther King, Jr. – a legacy of telling the truth and bearing witness to love and justice.

  • It takes tenacious audacity to lead a church in today’s world.
  • Church leaders are the glue that holds society together today.
  • Hatred of injustice is not the same thing as a love for everyday people.
  • Love is about going on the offensive
  • It pays a price.
  • You’re willing to pay a cost that is real.
  • Costly grace, not cheap grace.
  • That’s what the cross was all about.
  • We are who we because somebody loved us.
  • Family, church and community help us learn to love ourselves.
  • We only have our own life to talk about.
  • We have to be true to the love that’s been given us and true to the gift of grace that we receive.
  • The blood is what makes us different..
  • The benchmark for me of a Christian pastor is the recognition that this world is not your home.
  • You are a pupil, you are suspicious of all forms of idolatry.
  • Wealth, status, stature, position… all of the things people are addicted to.
  • All you have is a gift a to give.
  • We have to love ourselves before we can love others.
  • People are insecure and immature about love.
  • Jesus is love… it’s unconditional, unapologetic and unequivocal.
  • The distinctive feature of Martin Luther King Jr was that he was first and foremost a pastor and a teacher.
  • He was a civil rights activist and a freedom fighter, but he was a pastor first.
  • You are a part of the Kingdom activity in time and space.
  • We must always move towards the cross.
  • Messiahs are crucified; prophets are assassinated.
  • Without Jesus, we cannot make it.
–
Conversation with Bob Lupton and Charles Lee
As we face injustice, there are 4 steps: we have to gather the data; begin the process of negotiation; go through a period of self-purification; and lastly, ACT.
  • Not all mercy ministry is merciful.
  • How we do mercy has everything to do with whether or not people feel that they are loved.
  • We need to check our own motives.
  • Too often we like to put ourselves in the middle of story, not Jesus.
  • One of the questions that seldom comes up is, “Where are the saints deployed?… Does God have an opinion of where we live?”
  • Where we live has a big impact on how we minister to the world.
  • As we all look at issues and challenges, we can be guilty of being an island.
  • We can be guilty of being “in the church” when God is calling us to be “in the city.”
  • The lines between disconnects and divides are fading in a collaborative kind of way as churches partner together.
  • Team work makes the dream work.

Blake Mycoskie :: Catalyst 11

by Tim Schraeder on 10/07/2011 in Catalyst 11 with 1 Comment

Blake Mycoskie is the Founder and Chief Shoe Giver of TOMS Shoes, and the man behind the One for One movement. To date, TOMS has given over one million pairs of new shoes to children in need around the world.

Blake has always had an entrepreneurial spirit; he created five businesses since college. His first was a successful national campus laundry service, which he later sold. Between business ventures, Blake competed in the CBS primetime series, The Amazing Race. With his sister, Paige, Blake traveled the world and came within minutes of winning the $1 million dollar grand prize.

He put this same tenacity for success into starting TOMS in 2006. When he witnessed the hardships facing children in Argentina growing up barefoot, he felt a need to help, and the One for One movement was born. He returned the following year with friends and family to hand-place 10,000 pairs of new shoes on children.

It didn’t take long for the world to take notice; TOMS was officially recognized for its unique approach to business only a year after its beginning. In 2007, TOMS Shoes was honored with the prestigious People’s Design Award from the Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum, Smithsonian Institution. And two years after that, TOMS and its Chief Shoe Giver were the proud recipients of the Secretary of State’s 2009 Award for Corporate Excellence (ACE) presented by Secretary Hillary Rodham Clinton. The award celebrates companies’ commitment to corporate social responsibility, innovation, exemplary practices, and democratic values worldwide.

While running TOMS, Blake also speaks at campuses and conferences all over the country. He is passionate about inspiring people to help make tomorrow better, encouraging everybody to include giving in everything they do, from business practices to everyday decisions. His hope is to see a future full of socially minded businesses, and consumers.

Blake is an avid reader and traveler. He is 34-years-old and lives on a sailboat in Los Angeles. A favorite quote of his by Gandhi: “Be the change you want to see in the world.”

On his book…

  • Over the last 5 years he’s learned so much.
  • The #1 question he got from people was, “I have an idea, how do I get started?”
  • He realized he had not only learned a lot from his experience at TOMS but also from other entrepreneurs
  • He wanted to create a “working handbook for anyone who wants to start something.”
  • We all want our lives to be significant.
  • We want meaning in the work that we do.
  • 50% of the proceeds from the book go back to help people make their dreams possible.
Start Small
  • His goal in starting TOMS was to help 250 kids.
  • He saw a need and wanted to help meet it in a sustainable way.
  • He didn’t quit his job, make a business, plan, etc.
  • They developed the “One for One” model.
  • It started small but has now served over 2 million children.
Why is “give” such a huge element to what you do?
  • When TOMS started, there was a spontaneous response to help.
  • Giving feels good.
  • Everyone who has given their time, energy, or finances know how good giving feels.
  • Giving is also good for business.
  • Giving is good for your personal brand.
  • “Give your first-fruits and your vats will be full…”
  • In the first few years of TOMS they were losing money and kept giving away shoes.
  • It would have been easy to start and wait until the business profitable before they gave, but they kept the idea of giving central to their core from the beginning
Things He’s Learned Along the Way
  • One of the challenges of building a community is that as it grows, it can grow more and more diverse.
  • Leading a community and movement of diverse people is challenging.
Be Present
  • Life goes by fast.
  • You can be doing a lot of good stuff for the world and still not be present.
  • Our days on this earth are numbered.
  • Make the most out of every single day you have on earth and be thankful for them.

Francis Chan :: Catalyst 11

by Tim Schraeder on 10/06/2011 in Catalyst 11 with 1 Comment
Francis Chan is the best-selling author of books, Crazy Love & Forgotten God, and the host of the BASIC.series. He has also written the children’s books Halfway Herbert, The Big Red Tractor and the Little Village and Ronnie Wilson’s gift. Francis is the founding pastor of Cornerstone Church in Simi Valley, California, and is the founder of Eternity Bible College. He also sits on the board of directors of Children’s Hunger Fund and World Impact. Francis now lives in Northern California with his wife, Lisa, and their five children.
  • “I’m really bad at being present.”
  • There’s nothing worse than being in a conversation with someone that isn’t present.
  • Being present means dwelling in Him… His presence matters.
  • If God decided to make His presence known, that’s all that matters.
  • “…whoever abides in Me and I in Him, He will bear much fruit. Apart from Me you can do nothing.”
  • The one who abides will bear much fruit; if you don’t abide with Him you won’t.
  • God’s presence matters
  • It’s the Spirit that gives life; not the flesh.
  • Psalm 27: one thing I have asked, and one thing that I seek… to dwell in the House of the Lord.
  • “If I could get a transcript of your prayers over the last month, what would be the one thing you kept praying for?”
  • Was it to dwell in the House of the Lord?
  • David strengthened himself in the Lord.
  • The enemy knows everything hinges on our connection with God.
  • That’s why he works so hard to keep us distracted.
  • Abiding in God bears much fruit.
  • Hebrews 5:7 - Jesus was heard because of His reverence.
  • God does not listen to all of our prayers.
  • God does not hear all of our prayers.
  • It even says, “God doesn’t hear the noise of our songs…”
  • Instead of our fasting, God wanted us to care for the least of these.
  • We ask and don’t receive because we ask out of selfish motives.
  • If you pray with doubt He will not listen.
  • It’s not about “just praying,” it’s about having a posture of reverence.
  • Restore your relationships.
  • Pray with faith.
  • Care for the needy.
  • Let your heart break for the things that break God’s heart.
  • Pray with reverence, not half-heartedness.
  • Are you present enough in your prayer life that God actually hears you?
  • In his new ministry, they are adopting apartment buildings in San Francisco.
  • People commit to praying 2-3 hours per week for that apartment building.
  • They follow-up by going to those apartment buildings and asking them what they need… anything… from clothing, food, etc.
  • Then, they ask how they can pray for people.
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