For the next two days, INJOY Stewardship Solutions has dispatched me to Catalyst ’18 in Atlanta. Catalyst is a 2-day experience to help leaders build great churches, grow strong teams, and be a catalyst for change. This year’s theme is Fully Alive and is based on what the Bible says in John 10:10 – “The thief comes to steal, kill and destroy; I have come that you might have life and have it to the full.”
In addition to the content provided, the team at INJOY Stewardship would like to offer you a FREE gift. As you know, October is Pastor Appreciation Month. Simply click HERE or on the image provided and download a done-for-you script which you can read in your services to honor your pastor and staff. Being a pastor can be challenging to say the least. These words will honor and encourage your pastor and rally your congregation to a standing ovation. Don’t believe me? Click HERE.
The afternoon’s first speaker was John Mark Comer. He is the pastor for teaching and vision at Bridgetown Church. Prior to planting Bridgetown, John Mark was the lead pastor of a suburban megachurch. Before that, he played in a band. John Mark has a master’s degree in biblical and theological studies from Western Seminary and is the author of Loveology, My Name is Hope, Garden City and his most recent book God Has a Name.
The following are 26 leadership quotes and lessons from his session:
- I’ve been to more church services than John Wesley and at some point it is what it is.
- If you want to experience the life of Jesus you have to adopt the lifestyle of Jesus.
- The way of Jesus is a way of life.
- Most of the Gospels are the stories of the in-between of the birth and resurrection.
- Most of Jesus’s teaching are how to live, not how to die.
- The stories of Jesus comes to us through biographies – the Gospels.
- Most people in Western Christianity don’t read the Gospels as biographies.
- The way of Jesus is the way to the life we all crave.
- As a pastor, if I can’t say “Follow Jesus the way I follow Jesus”, then I have no business leading a church. The best thing you bring to leadership is your own transformed soul.
- Your life is your message, not just your sermon or podcast.
- Is your life a quiet rebellion against hurry and the world?
- Our churches will live up or down to our level of maturity.
- Maturity is measured by your whole person.
- “We find God’s will for our lives in our limitations.” – Pete Scazzero
- I could not lead a mega church and be an emotionally healthy person and father.
- We spend all our energy trying to overcome our limitations.
- Our potential and our limitations, both of them, are God’s signposts on our life.
- We need to slow our life way down to fit it into our potential.
- Jesus was rarely in a hurry… Jesus was a template for slow.
- You must ruthlessly eliminate hurry from your life.Hurry is the great enemy of our spiritual life today. – Dallas Williard
- People are just too busy to live anything close to a life of emotional health.
- People in a hurry do not have time to love.
- Hurry is incompatible with joy.
- The secret to happiness is present to the moment.
- Hurry is incompatible with peace. There is so much anger and anxiety in our nation. It is well-deserved. But the way out is not more anger and anxiety.
- I’m not calling you to do more. I’m calling you to do less.
Next up his Dr. Henry Cloud.
Once again, I want to make it easy to honor your pastor this month. Click HERE or on the image provided and download this done-for-you script. Your Board chair or congregational leader can read it in the service. Trust me, few things will honor your pastor more.