Posts Tagged ‘Catalyst West’
SoCal [Pt.4]
April 26, 2009 | 
Author This includes the last day of Catalyst and our travel day (Sat. April 25)
It’s now Saturday…almost Sunday…
It’s been a looooooonnnnng day. As I write and post this blog we’ve been traveling since 6:15am this morning. Truth is we should have been home around 5-6 hours ago. Unfortunately, a rain and thunderstorm in Chicago brought with it lightening and consequently, significant delays. So, here we sit…no biggie; I have a chance to upload my thoughts and update on the last day of our SoCal/Catalystwest experience.
My thoughts in one word: Magnifulous! Really.
Friday was killer awesome; starting out with both Rick Warren and Andy Stanley on the same stage. Andy was interviewing Rick, but it was so much more than that…It was one of the most memorable talks I have heard to date at this point of my life and this is not an exaggeration. I would be willing to bet if you asked any one of the 3200 people at this conference, they’d echo a similar response. This was just the beginning; Craig Groeschel followed Andy and Rick with Francis Chan following Craig. Interspersed between these talks we shared worship and praise together led by the beautiful spirit in Aaron Keyes.
We visited Tony Morgan for lunch and enjoyed hearing from his heart some of core beliefs that he shares for teaching and discipleship ministries within the church. He also gave us a peek inside his latest book Killing Cockroaches.
The afternoon session was a treat as we got to hear from Perry Noble (Teaching and Lead Pastor at the Newspring Church in South Carolina). He was a joy to hear from! Overall, this was one of the most inspirational, affirming, challenging, and convicting sessions I have ever been to in my life.
We were dismissed with time to spare, so we went to the beach. I suggested we return to the place I had visited with my friend Nate earlier in the week, Huntington Beach. It was beautiful and cool. I was able to catch a few nice photos as the sun was gently setting and surfers were catching some of the last waves of the day. I’ve included a few shots in my slideshow below.
Posted in A Deeper Walk, Church Stuff, Dailyness..., iCrucified, Media, Scoop, Shaping Me | 
Tags: Andy Stanley, Catalyst West, Christianity, Craig Groeschel, Francis Chan, Huntington Beach, iCrucified, Jeff Borden, Perry Noble, Rick Warren, Spirituality | 
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SoCal [pt.3]
Day four of our trip and day one of the Catalyst West Conference…
Well, day one of the conference has come and gone…and what a day it was! Man, was there a ton of energy in the place! We started the morning (8:30am) with an awesome set of praise and worship music from the Hillsong United team of Hillsong Church Australia; great, great music and lyrics. We were also treated to Steve Fee and the band Fee leading us in worship throughout the day as well.
The first speaker was Andy Stanley of North Point Church in Atlanta, Georgia. Andy was followed by Guy Kawasaki who was followed by Catherine Rohr. Jud Wilhite, pastor of Central Christian Church (Las Vegas, NV) spoke to us before lunch which, incidentally, was a super treat provided by Chick-fil-A.
After lunch we had the privilege of being blasted with laughter from the comedy of Tim Hawkins. If you’ve never heard this guy…, man, hilarious. My side was hurting and I was worried I was going to lose my chi Chick-fil-A. I mean, the dude was waaaaay funny!
The remaining afternoon speakers were Ravi Zacharias, Brian Houston, and Nick Vujicic. I may have missed someone, but if I did…it wasn’t because they were forgettable, I’m just in a rush to get out this morning for this day’s treat. A slideshow of the day follows:
Posted in Church Stuff, Dailyness..., Media, Shaping Me | Tags: Andy Stanley, Brian Houston, Brook Fraser, Catalyst West, Fee Band, Hillsong United, Joel Houston, Ravi Zacharias, Steve Fee | 1 Comment »
SoCal [pt.1]
Monday was a long day full of airports (Buff, JFK, Salt Lake, and John Wayne Int”l) and lots of airmiles. We started with a 2am wakeup on Monday and I never hit the pillow until 11pm…it was a “beater” day to say the least. Tuesday (yesterday) was great in a number of ways; beginning with a visit to the super hospitable people of Northcoast Church in Vista, CA. We met with and talked about ministry, small group relationships, multi-site campuses, and got to sit in on a developmental “round-table” session while we were with them. It was a very encouraging and inspiring visit.
After we finished up at Northcoast, we headed south to San Diego and ventured out to Point Loma and the Cabrillo Nat’l Monument which has a world class view. Unfortunately, the photo opportunities were somewhat limited due to the haze and the time of day (taking photos during the middle of the day with the sun glare at full intensity is extremely challenging). I did grab a few shots though, and have put together a little slide show below you can look through.
Later, I managed to connect with my friend Nate. I met up with Nate in Huntington Beach for some dinner and great conversation. The Huntington Beach experience was pretty neat and I’d like to go back to kind of soak in the culture a bit, although I don’t think the opportunity will present itself for the remainder of this trip due to our busy schedule…nonetheless, the evening was great and the “Taco Tuesday” at Fred’s was awesome. I had a Grilled Mahi Fish taco and Shrimp taco as part of my supper. It was incredible!
Today we head out to the Cornerstone Church in Simi California and then on to the Reagan Ranch for a little sightseeing jaunt. The Catalyst Conference starts tonight with a “pre-conference mixer” at 6pm. I’ll try to snag some more pictures and post another update for tomorrow. Peace!
Posted in Dailyness..., Random Thoughts, Scoop | Tags: Catalyst West, Cornerstone Simi, iCrucified, Jeff Borden, Larry Osborne, Northcoast Church, Point Loma, Southern California | No Comments »
