Catalyst – Seth Godin

Seth Godin has the number one business blog in the world and is the leading marketing guru on the third rock from the sun. This talk was based on his new book Tribes which he gave a copy of to every attendee of Catalyst. Here are some points. 

• Everyone is part of a tribe (a group of people)
• A crowd is not a tribe, a tribe has something in common
• The greater connection in your tribe the greater your organization will be. 
• If you want to grow don’t focus on marketing, focus on leadership. 
• If you play it safe, you’ve already lost. 
• 3 ways to build a tribe
• 1) Find people alone who are not part of a tribe. 
• 2) Find people who are like them
• 3) Put together a group of people who would never be together. 
• A heretic is someone whose faith is so deep they are willing to go against the grain to do what they believe in. Be a heretic. 

• Here are his thoughts on how to lead a tribe. 

• 1) Challenge the tribe
• 2) Create a culture for the tribe
• 3) Create curiosity in your culture. 
• 4) Lead with charisma
• 5) Communicate WITH the tribe not AT the tribe. 
• 6) Connect with the tribe. 
• 7) Commit to the tribe. 

• Here is what the tribe wants from you a leader

• 1) Connect with the tribe 
• 2) Create meaning for the tribe
• 3) Make a difference as a leader
• 4) They want to be noticed
• 5) They want to know that the matter
• 6) They want to be missed

• If you are not inspiring you have no right to be a leader
• Are you doing something for the tribe or to the tribe?

Catalyst – Steven Furtick

You may have heard about Steven Furtick. He is the 28 year old pastor of Elevation Church in Charlotte, NC who planted a church about 2 1/2 years ago with a small core group and is now running around 5,000 people. Its the second fastest growing church in America and a pretty exciting story. He talked about the process of God in between the promise and the payoff. 

• God’s promises start small.
• Be faithful in the process, don’t give up.
• God is preparing you for what He is preparing for you. 
• Do not doubt what God has spoken about your ministry. Hold fast to the promises of God and embrace the process. 

Catalyst – Brenda Salter McNeil

Brenda Salter McNeil shared about God wanting to “Shake us up.” Here are a few of the points. 

• When people are too scared to go into the ends of the earth on mission, they stay back and pray instead. 
• Catalytic events provide opportunities for movements.
• When God shows up in power like in Acts 2, the natural overflow is that people go, not stick around. 
• The church was intended to be multi-ethnic. 

Catalyst – Jim Collins

Wow, amazing session. Jim Collins did not disappoint. He is the author of the bestselling business books, Good to Great and Built to Last. I’m probably not going to write all of my notes, cause I would not like to get carpel tunnel syndrome but here are the highlights. 

• Good is the enemy of great. 
• Greatness has nothing to do with the cards we were dealt but rather our conscious decisions and choices we make.
• Most overnight success stories were about 20 years in the making. 
• No one person or organization is immune from falling.
• The great generally fall from overreaching, which is the undisciplined pursuit of more. You become seduced by your own success.
• When you start compromising the quantity over the quality, you will fail. 
• The question to ask when making changes is generally not what should be done but rather who should be leading. Better who’s will make a better what. 
• The one trait of Level 5 leaders across the board is the trait of humility. 
• If whatever you are leading is ultimately about you, it will fail. 
• It is irresponsible for churches to depend on a personality to sustain the church. 
• The true report card of your performance comes after you are gone. 
• A to do list needs to be accompanied by a stop doing list. 
• Values and practices are different things. Every generation needs to determine its own set of practices to accomplish the goal and the values may never change. 
• You need to have the right people on the bus. 
• Stop giving answers and start asking more questions. 
• When you are thinking about transition, its time to change. 
• What are you willing to endure the pain of to become a Level 5 leader?
• We are not imprisoned by staggering defeats but rather freed by our choices
• Greatness is a function and result of the choices that no one sees. 

Andy Stanley came up and interviewed Jim Collins for a few minutes to wrap up the session and here were some of the little nuggets that came out of his answers. 

• The moment you feel a need to tightly manage someone, you probably made a hiring mistake. 
• Its more important for people to understand their responsibilities rather than to have a title. 
• Good intentions are no excuses for incompetence. 

Catalyst – William Paul Young

The author of The Shack was interviewed by Ernie Johnson from Inside The NBA. The Shack has had a little bit of controversy surrounding it specifically by the implications of personifying the Trinity. William Paul Young’s response was that he was not writing a theological treatise but rather trying to help people cope with their hurts. 

The book was based on his life over the course of about 11 years. He actually wrote it for his kids specifically. What is amazing about this book is that he was a janitor when he wrote it. He spent $300 on marketing and no publisher would pick up the book so he and a couple friends put together a publishing company to publish it and now all the publishing companies are kicking themselves in the butt for that. 

They put it all on their credit cards, (Which I doubt Dave Ramsey was happy to hear:) but since I’m sure they have payed all that off. All in all, interesting guy, interesting book.

Catalyst – Andy Stanley

Catalyst got kicked off by Mr. Catalyst himself, Andy Stanley. His message was a leadership lesson from the life of Nehemiah. Nobody teaches leadership like Andy Stanley. Here are a few of the highlights. 

• The majority of our leadership comes from our moral authority (which is essentially our character and who we are when no one is looking)
• Everyone is essentially a volunteer, cause anyone can quit a job if they want to. 
• Genuine, authentic people draw people to follow simply by their authenticity which is a direct result of their moral authority
• Nehemiah did not take advantage of the money and power he had to buy land or enjoy some of the privileges that he could have had, because of that, people followed him.  
• 3 areas we need moral authority
• 1) Forgiveness
• 2) Family
• 3) Finances
• We cannot impart forgiveness if we have not received it and practiced it. Its important because its teh fundamental message of Christ
• We lose our moral authority to preach about family when we are neglecting the most important area of our life. 
• Don’t sacrifice what’s permanent (Being a father), for what’s temporary (being a pastor).
• To lead generous people you must live a generous life. 

Screenagers Conference – Part 6

Well, I don’t know if you’re still interested in this, but I’ll keep blogging. Anyways, this is actually the second part of my last blog on this, Part 5, but it was so long I’m splitting it into two. This was still information from Dr. Tim Elmore. Here are some more characteristics on Millenials. The first wave of Millenials are just graduating from college and entering the workforce, here are some of the challenges and advantages that mark them. 

• They will job hop in search of a perfect career. Long gone are the days of someone working for one company for their whole life. Its our responsibility to build authentic relationships with them and help them have realistic expectations for their life. 
• They will force new rules to be made regarding technology. They are more bold and innovative than previous generations, partly because technology allows them to be. They are revolutionizing how to communicate using technology. As many say, e-mail is a way to communicate with “old people.” Don’t be offended when a Gen Yer questions your use of technology for communication, welcome their input. 
• Waves of depression will be coming and going. Because many Millenials are so optimistic, when things don’t go there way, mental health issues become a big problem, Many times they have never heard “No” as an answer and do not know emotionally how to deal with rejection. 
• Parents are involved in job and salary negotiation. Again, a classic sign of the overall immaturity of this generation is that in more and more situations, these young adults are having their parents go with them to job interviews. 45% talk to their parents every day on the phone. 
• They expect change and amusement. They are used to multi tasking and being stimulated from many different sources. Many times this manifests in them not being able to finish projects and tasks. They get bored with it too easily. 
• They are on a search for meaning, not just money. Although money is more important than we have ever seen in generations past to Millenials. They want to do something significant with their lives, not just piddle around at their job, but make a difference with or through their job. 
• They want to work with their friends. Relationships are really important to them. 
• They have a hunger to participate in the global marketplace. We need to let them think outside the box, they could take our businesses to the next level, globally. As Thomas L. Friedman says as the title of his book, “The World Is Flat” Technology has leveled the field worldwide. Its anybody’s game. 
• They have a hunger for influence and affluence. They want to use their influence for good and they also want to be wealthy and affluent.

There is still some more in this session that I will cover tomorrow about how they learn, which is pretty fascinating stuff. More to come soon. 

Screenagers Conference – Part 5

This session was by Dr. Tim Elmore, he called it the care, feeding and grooming of Gen Y. 

1. They are ambitious, even about money. This generation said more about money than previous generations. 

2. They are progressive and a bit more liberal than their elders. 

3 They are respectful…..but dissatisfied with current leadership. This spans politics, business and even churches. They hate status quo and want change.

4. They are preoccupied, especially with themselves. My favorite example of this was the growing trend of getting themselves gifts for Mothers Day in honor of their mothers. 

5. They are generous…..but know little about handling money. No one has really taught them how to handle money and know very little about delayed gratification. 

6. They are optimistic….but can become disillusioned quickly. They know that the world is broken, but contrary to Gen Xers they want to do something about fixing it. 

7. They are, in a word….passionate. They are determined to find their passion and give their lives to it, or maybe part of their life. IN fact, Millenials have so many passions that this is many times the problem, they won’t stay in one place long enough to make significant accomplishments.

Screenagers Conference – Part 4

Session 4 got back to the Gen Y guru, Dr. Tim Elmore. He started out by comparing and contrasting Gen X and Gen Y. A couple of the highlights of that session.

Here are some of their similiarities.  

• Both love community.
• Both appreciate authenticity.
• Both recognize the world is messed up.
• Both hunger for better, more healthy families.
• Both are at home in the world of digital technology.
• Both learn best through images, relationships and experiences.

Here are some of the differences

• Gen X is anti-establishment and Gen Y works within the establishment.
• Gen X is cynical and jaded, Gen Y is optimistic.
• Gen X struggles with authority, Gen Y struggles with reality.
• Gen X wants to escape their problems, Gen Y wants to fix their problems.

One of the interesting things about Millenials is specifically how males are very unmotivated. Elmore calls them the Lost Boys of Neverland, not Michael Jackson’s kids, but a Peter Pan reference. He means that they are mischievous and full of adventure, they wanted a mother figure and they refused to grow up, really being the key point. They lack responsibility and are percentage wise, letting females take leadership positions in student organizations on campus. 

This statistic was pretty crazy for me to show how Millenials struggle to grow up, 60% of all Millenials upon graduating from college move back home and live in their parents house. This is a major shift from previous generations and shows the overall immaturity of Millenials. 

One pretty interesting statistic, is that Millenials are really a baby boom type generation, in fact, another one of their many names is the echo boomers. The statistics show that there are around 80 million baby boomers, 30 million Gen Xers and probably 100 million Gen Yers. Currently over half the population of earth is under 21. Historically when there is a huge boom in population, violence increases.  

This will blow your mind. Currently there are 67 countries where a “youth bulge” exists. (This means nations where more than 30% are kids). Currently, 60 of those countries are presently in a civil war or are experiencing mass killings. 

Hopefully this will give you a good glimpse on why reaching young people with the gospel is paramount around the globe. Jesus is the ultimate answer. 

Screenagers Conference – Part 3

This is the first one of the Chick-Fil-A Execs that spoke. I will just say, I always liked Chick-Fil-A and always appreciated their excellence in their stores but I was way impressed with this company. From top-down, these guys were amazing. This session was from a guy named Andy Lorenzen. Now before you ask why in the world would Chick-Fil-A Execs speak? What qualifies them? I would answer you by saying the tens of thousands of Millenials that they employ and lead would give them some authority to speak and the conference was held at the Chick-Fil-A headquarters in Atlanta. Most of his talk was about what Millenials want from a job and what they are doing to accommodate them. 

Chick-Fil-A calls team members (employees) who are their best ones Ambassadors. First, these are people whose pay is not primary, meaning they don’t specifically just work to earn money, there is a purpose to their work there. Secondly, they give voluntary discretionary effort, meaning they go above and beyond without being called upon to do so. Thirdly, they know what makes Chick-Fil-A different. I think we all understand that one. 

Chick-Fil-A’s hiring principles are character, chemistry and competence. They are very selective and intentional about who they hire. Meaning, leadership culture is vital to any successful organization. 

Their motto for these team members is made from the acronym SERVE.

See and shape the future

Engage and develop others

Reinvent continuously

Value results and relationships

Embody the values

One could see that if young people could get this by just working at Chick-Fil-A than you can see why their company is run with such excellence across the board. Just to reinforce this, there were two people who stood up and told everyone else that they had worked at a Chick-Fil-A in high school and totally vouched for all of this. They talked about how much leadership they had learned at their local store. The executive in both cases asked them what city they worked in and then said, “Oh yeah, ’so and so’ is a great operator (the name for the people who own the stores). These are senior level executives that new the name of their local manager/owners on the spot. Impressive.