Catalyst Conference Blog Post #1
I know Kevin will want to weigh in on the things he learned at Catalyst, and I took some pics that he’ll have to post (since I don’t know how to do that). But I did want to share what an awesome week I had last week.
Kevin and I went with 4 others to an absolutely amazing church leaders’ conference called Catalyst in Atlanta. Yeah, if you click on that link, the website is amazing and just the facade of what actually happened there. I got to hear amazing speakers, both secular and Christian. (more on them in another post) One of the speakers likened this conference to “drinking water out of a fire hydrant”. Very true.
The worship experience was probably the best thing about the conference. I really didn’t even know who the worship leaders were, and it didn’t matter. There’s something about worshiping in the dark and at very high decibel levels that takes you out of your element and gives you freedom to do and say whatever the Lord leads you to. I love being Southern Baptist, but more and more I’m not-so-much liking the stigma of worshiping like Baptists do.
Most of all, I was touched by the group of Kenyan children that got up on the stage to dance and lead us in worship. They were representing a project called the 410 Bridge. (Many children in Kenya are orphaned, and even more do not have drinkable water). I was just blown away by how these children could recite Scripture so easily and with such conviction…
One recited Psalms 23 - “The Lord is my Shepherd; I shall not want…”
Another recited John 14 - “Do not let your hearts be troubled….”
Most American children (myself included) have never been in want. They don’t know what it is to be troubled. And yet, these Kenyan children would dance and lift their hands in prayer and worship to God. I was completely broken because lately I have been so lazy in memorizing Scripture. It’s not that I don’t know how to memorize, I just don’t. I need to be a better steward of my Bible. And the first Scripture I’m going to memorize is John 14. I took pictures of these darling kids and will (get Kevin to) post them later.
In my Bible study of the Beatitudes this week, it says “God allows us to be poor in spirit (etc.) because it causes us to have a need to rely on Him.” Boy, does it. I know I live my life on some sort of “sin” curve (pronounced “sign” but looks like sin…) - up and down and back up again. I’m thankful God gets my attention and allows me to be broken.
More later.
1 comment October 14th, 2008