http://www.amazon.com/Memoirs-Ordinary-Pastor-Reflections-Carson/dp/1433501996

Our multi-site church has identified our “shadow mission” (see John Ortberg’s book “Overcoming Your Shadow Mission”) as being a “cool church for cool people.” We are a trendy bunch seeking to “help people take next steps with God. We have realized, however, that “pure motives” is an oxymoron and we must never let the shadow mission overtake the mission.

On a related note, while I love Catalyst, the spiritual highlight of my year is the annual Pastors Prayer Summit that I take along with dozens of area pastors. No agenda, speaker or leader. We spend 3-4 days praying together. Period. Incredible! http://www.prayersummits.net

Results of the Prayer Summits have included cooperation between the churches, joint worship services (dozens of churches come together on Palm Sunday each year), community service (we have given away hundreds of filled backpacks to under-resourced kids), and a beautiful spirit of unity (see John 17).

Blessings to you all!

As for the tattooing, the fashion tips, and the other jabs- well, we counted faux-hawks all weekend. There were definitely guys who gelled them up for Catalyst that had never sported one before! But there was also a collection of the most diverse, authentic people you would ever see gathered for a Christian conference- ages, genders, styles, ethnicities, political leanings, everything…

While there were a lot of “big” names, there was also a lot of talk about not comparing ministries or just trying to be bigger or better or even “the same as” some one else. About being authentic to what God is calling us to do. I think those messages are great for anyone- especially an Andy.

I also wondered when these “big time pastor guys” were able to be fed. Francis Chan spoke very tenderly about spending time with Louie Giglio for just that purpose- ministering to each other. So I hope they had opportunities to be fed as well.

While I didn’t care about the tattooing, I found myself uncomfortable at how much money had to have been spent on media (esp some of the promo videos) instead of going to the causes like Compassion or Hope international that were being plugged. I think anyone who attended (and certainly those who just hear about it) can find something they didn’t like.

But overall, I really felt it was a good jump start for our church leadership, and for my husband & I in our personal mission fields as well.

Sorry, I feel like i just started commenting on your blog & I’m already writing WAY long responses. You just get us thinking!!

As a former youth pastor of a small, rural church body with less than 100 folks and a very small budget, I really resonate with the sentiment here.

I don’t have any answers worth wrestling out in some blog comments, but I thought you might get a chuckle out of my campus pastor’s description of Catalyst (and this is from a blog post encouraging people to support Lanny Donoho, our pastor’s friend and the host of Catalyst, just for context):

“Catalyst is… a big-deal gathering of thousands of leaders who get together annually to groom their goatees and compare fashion tips about shirts with embroidered dragons on them.”

Great post Shaun

I wasn’t there so I can’t say why they did that. But I wouldn’t have a problem with it and wouldn’t have thought someone at Catalyst would. Southern Baptist Convention? Yes. Catalyst? I’m surprised.

Thanks for the link! I’ll check it out for sure.