Hello Friends,

Here’s how I’ve spent the majority of my past two weekends: Standing behind a table.

Why you ask? Well, I’m glad you did.

I’ve spent the past two weekends at Youth Conventions in Ohio and Kentucky. The purpose for my being there was to serve as the face of Catalyst Resources International.

If you know me at all, and likely you do if you’re reading this, then you know that I have a significant history with this organization and the work they do in Guatemala. And it is great work. We build homes and churches. We provide clean water to villages. We comfort the afflicted, and clothe the unclothed. We rescue beautiful girls from tragic situations, and bring them into the comfort of Mimi’s House. We provide a safe environment for them that includes: healthcare, education, nutrition, and emotional nurturing.

What you may not know is how all of that great work gets accomplished. It requires partners. You see, there is no magical money tree that funds the work of the Greene family in Guatemala. These wonderful people who serve as missionaries there have literally sold everything (multiple times) in order that they might see this great work through and the vision of CRI fulfilled. The Greene’s have given everything, and in turn they need people like you and me to give something.

The past two weekends I’ve stood behind a table for hours, and stood on 4 different stages in front of 1,300+ people to share the vision of Catalyst Resources International. My hope in doing this was to spread the word about what we were accomplishing in Guatemala, and to ask people to join us in this effort.

I figured; what’s one more pitch. This blog is now my digital stage. I stand behind this table, full of information and brochures, faces of precious girls, and videos displaying the work in progress. I stand behind this table and ask you to join us. Partner with us.

• Sponsor a girl for $30 per month.
• Give a year end gift to the Greene family.
• Help us pay off the mortgage on Mimi’s House by purchasing a tile for $1,000.
• Take a trip to Guatemala to see thing firsthand.

Do it now. Read the website, explore the links, ask me how you can become involved. I, like Paul in Acts 20 have been compelled to action. I pray that you may be as well.

I’ll take your Facebook “Like” or Comment as your intention to partner with CRI.

Thanks for reading.
Luke

- Around the church, programming begins as an answer to a question, over time it becomes part of the organizations culture. The problem with this is that as culture changes, many of the questions remain the same, but the answers don’t. The tendency is to institutionalize our answers. If we institutionalize an answer, the day will come when it is no longer a valid answer.

- We must continue (or begin) to be more committed to our mission than to our programming or our model. Over time, sustaining the model can become the unrealized mission. Over time, the model can work against the mission.

- In the for-profit world, any product that does not have a significant market/buyers will be taken off the shelf in rapid fashion. Yet in the Church we have spent (and continue to spend) enormous amounts of time & money on programs & products that have no meaningful market.

- “If we got kicked out and the board brought in a new CEO, what would he/she do? Why shouldn’t we walk out the door, come back in, and do it ourselves?” – Andy Grove (Only the paranoid survive)

- We can not afford to fall in love with dirty old couches. The message & mission is too important to allow something to block it.

- “The way I was doing the work of God was destroying the work of God in me.” – Bill Hybels (via Craig)

- The single greatest thing you can do to create momentum in your church or ministry is to bring about spiritual momentum in your personal life.

- I will do TODAY what I can do TODAY, to enable me to do TOMORROW what I can’t do TODAY!

- Four things to do today:
1) Do something to defeat your dark side (your sinful self).
2) Create artificial ministry deadlines.
3) Delegate what someone else can do.
4) Do something only you can do.

- (On delegation) You can have high control and low growth, OR you can have low control and high growth.

- Pastors who don’t take time off do so for two reasons: Pride & Poor Leadership.

- If you come to these events, and see these big churches, and think that all of this success comes from anything other that a deep burden born in the heart of a leader to see people enter into relationship with Jesus, then you are severly missing the point. (WOW)

*Craig knocked it out of the park on this talk. He closed by saying: “If you have put the success of the ministry above your relationship with God, and/or your family, then you need to repent today.”*

- The longer your ministry is stalled, the more dramatic & drastic the mindset change will need to be.

- “Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.” – Romans 12:2

- Think differently about these 5 things: Church culture, Programming, The Mission, People leaving the church, and Limitations.

- Think different about your church culture. What needs to change about your church culture?

- Your people will not go where they are not led.

- A church will always be a reflection of the key leader(s). Their character, heart, generosity, passions, dreams, goals, etc…

- The old school thought is that we have to do MORE to reach MORE. Maybe a better model is; We can reach more by doing LESS things, and doing them with excellence.

- “Do the thing(s) that you are uniquely called by God to do.”

- We can’t allow a good/nice/loving person to hold the church back from fulfilling the mission of the church. “You have to love the mission of your church enough to make the painful people decisions.”

- Go DO these things, and make these changes. It’s good to pray about them, and talk about them, but you MUST DO them.

- Three components of sustained momentum. New, Improved, Improving

- Negative circumstances are fertile soil for a burst of positive momentum.

- Organizational momentum is often triggered by one of three things: New Leadership, New Direction, New Product.

- If something new is not a significant improvement over the old thing, don’t impliment it. Make it significantly better, and then launch it. The bigger & better the improvement, the longer the shelf life of the momentum.

- *Side note* I am continually amazed by how Andy Stanley absolutely mesmerizes a room. It’s unbelievable. Jaws are dropped & inks pens and keyboards are flying.

- Staff & Leaders are the R&D department of the church… Evalute early and often. Unfiltered evaluation is required for improvement to happen.

- Manager types are critical & important, but there is the potential to over-manage, and thereby manage away creativity & leadership.

- “I’ll take a couple of things with momentum over several things that are decent anyday!”

- “Ask yourself; ‘What are the behaviors we like or dislike, and what are we doing systematically to either foster or eliminate those behaviors?’”.

*Awesome session… Can’t wait to take in more content. This event is a power packed 8 hours; no fluff and little break-time. I will be mentally exhausted at the end of the day.*