Catalyst One Day

What a privilege it was to attend Catalyst One Day at North Point Community Church today. Craig Groeschell and Andy Stanley are two men who I highly respect. Their messages challenged me as a leader and as a follower of Christ. If you missed today, I'll try and summarize what I learned over the next few blogs.

Busting Barriers with Mindset Changes :: Craig Groeschell

Mindset Change #1 - Think differently About Your Church Culture
Craig defined the term "culture" as what your church is passionate about and the actions the church takes to support that passion. Many times, I blame the people of the church when I see a lack of either passion or action. I think, "The people of Auburn Church just won't ______________________ (fill in the blank...i.e. serve, tithe, invest & invite, etc). Blaming people is easy. However, the mindset change is this if the people of Auburn Church just won't ___________________, it's because I, as the leader, have not led them to ___________________ (serve, tithe, invest & invite, etc). It's not a people problem, it's a leadership problem. I need to lead our people by example and affirm those who take appropriate actions.

Mindset Change #2 - Think Differently About Programming
The common misconception here is that we have to do more to reach more. We've all heard of the church that has tons of programming choices. Leaders of these churches are of the mindset that we can reach more people if we offer more options. Usually what happens is that resources (volunteers, leaders, money) are stretched thin and most if not all programming is mediocre at best.

The mindset change here is that you can actually reach more people by doing less. Instead of starting more programming to reach more people, begin to think about what programming you need to stop in order to be a good steward of all your resources. Do a few things. Keep it simple and do them with excellence.

That's enough for tonight. I'd love to hear your thoughts on the first two mindset changes. How would your church experience change if the leadership of the church thought differently about church culture and programming?

Bobby