I am fired up about next month’s Catalyst Conference! I will be joining over 13,000 NextGen leaders for three incredible days together. My friend Brad Lomenick heads up Catalyst and is one of the most influential Christians in America.
In preparation for that event, I am proud to have him as a Guest Blogger. Below are his thoughts on what this year’s Catalyst theme, “Be Present”, means to him personally. Enjoy and if you haven’t signed your team up for Catalyst yet, please click the links or the ad on the left and do so today.
“I’m so excited about Catalyst Atlanta and our theme of “Be Present.â€
So what does Be Present really mean to me?
– Focused and Undivided. Focused on what is right in front of you.
– Engaged In Your Community.
– Focused on Your Family & Marriage. In the mess.
– A Close Community of Accountability & Friendships.
– Leading where you are. Staying in the moment and not losing focus on the here and now.
– Embracing the role and opportunity God has given you right now where God has placed you for this season, vs. focusing on what’s next.
– Creating margin that allows for interruptions and moments of inconvenience, which can be moments when God does the greatest work through us.
– Having consistent connection with your organization, team, and staff.
– Being consumed by Jesus and the presence of the Holy Spirit. Because He is Present.
– Balancing a culture of distraction and consumption with a commitment to solitude and thinking.
– Being vs Doing. What should I do? The tension of a cause driven culture saying do something now vs. the contented state of “being.â€
– In the TODAY. Yesterday is gone, tomorrow is on it’s way. But today is the present. Focus on Today.
– It’s about staying. Showing up and not leaving. Having a presence in a place, a location. About context. Connected to an address, neighborhood, city, zip code.
– Where you are. Wherever you are, be all there. It’s our responsibility to embrace what God has put squarely in front of us. Take action right where we are. Being fully present in one place.
Be Present. We get caught up with what happened yesterday and preoccupied with what will happen tomorrow. We live in a constant state of being plugged on, plugged in, status updates, requests, and real time perspective. Is this really the real you though? What if the people in your life knew the real you? What if you stripped back all the layers of fake, and fluff, and façade? What would people see? What would people think? To know this purpose, we must first know Him, Jesus, and living life fully in who He has called us and created us to be.
Let’s strip away all the “stuff†and be real. Aware of what is happening around us, within us, and through us. Be Present.
And we want you to BE PRESENT with us this October for Catalyst. It’s going to be an amazing time and I hope to see you there.”
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