I’ll just recap my experience by saying this… Catalyst was the best conference I have attended. In many ways it put YS to shame. One problem I’ve experienced with YS is that there’s no real cohesive theme - aside from “youth ministry”. It feels like a shotgun approach. I loved how for Catalyst they brought speakers (Christian and secular) together with one singular purpose in mind. The results were fantastic. My favorites were Craig Groeschel and Andy Stanley. Craig was simply powerful and Andy was full of wisdom. I gleaned much from this and am still unpacking it in my mind…

I also got to connect with the Kevin twins (Bussey and Twombly). Bussey and I go way back and spending time with his is like a family reunion. Twombly I only knew through the blogosphere. We talked, prayed and had lunch together. Getting to know him better was a blessing to me. Spending time with new and old Kevins is always a good thing.

So to bring this Catalyst recap full circle. Here’s my vote of confidence… I’ve already got my tickets for next year. Enough said.

Oh man, what a day. It pays to have good friends. Kevin Bussey scored us some VIP seats, sweet cushy seats on the floor of the Conference hall. All the action happened 6 feet in front of me. It was awesome.

I’ll say this, I’m not a conference guy. They’re okay, I just don’t get real excited about sitting all day and not doing much. YS is great, but I’ve been once and don’t really need to go back. So, I carried this mindset into Catalyst and was blown away. The day passed so fast - it was amazing. Great speakers, it was incredible.

I was really hit by Craig Groeschel. He is a phenomenal communication, and I’ve never seen someone so powerful and transparent. He really shook me and leveled me. I’m still unpacking much of his message in my heart. The basics: we need to continue to be stretched, pushed and ruined by God. We need to pray for that. If we’re not face down and broken on a regular basis, then something is wrong. Powerful message.

And we were also part of making the world’s largest ball of Floam.