Andy Stanley of North Point Community Church (Alpharetta, GA) closed Catalyst Conference’s last and 10th session by discussing how to create a healthy work culture at your church.. Here is what he said:

I think that your church and your church culture should be the healthiest organizational culture in your city. I think that business people in your city should stop by during the week and say, “Wow! I have never seen an organization run so well!” I am not talking about on Sunday. I am talking about your church’s weekly work culture.

Think about this.

In the local church we have so much going for us culturally (if we follow the Bible… love, harmony, work as though unto the Lord) that we should have the best work cultures. Yest some of the meanest people I have met are on church staffs. Some of the laziest people I know are on church staffs. Some people think it doesn’t take much competency to work at a church because they lazy people who work at a church. And that is a shame.

Healthy people are drawn to healthy cultures. Healthy people don’t stay in unhealthy cultures. Unhealthy people thrive in unhealthy cultures.

Occasionally, there are gaps between what we expect people to do and what they actually do. As leaders, we choose what to put in this gap. And what you as a leader choose to put in that gap will shape your culture. And what you put into that gap, will also be what your staff puts in that gap. You will either assume the worst or expect the best.

There are a couple of things that determine what I put in that gap:

1. What I see
   If someone consistently brings you poor quality, you will always assume the worst.
2. Who I am
   Your past hurt and betrayal will influence what you put in that gap. We like certain types of people. And we dislike others.

Developing a culture of trust is critical to the health of your organization. Trust fuels productivity. The message of trust is this… I think you are smart enough to know what to do, and if you make a mistake, you will tell me then fix it.

A culture characterized by trust attracts healthy people.  You will never know who you can trust until you trust them. The longer you refuse to trust people, the longer that untrustworthy people can hide in your organization. The moment you feel to tightly manage someone, you might have made a hiring mistake. And if you don’t address the hiring problem, you might create a culture where everyone distrusts each other. You will never know who you can trust until you trust them. Trusting is risky. Refusing to trust is riskier.

Trust enables an organization to move faster. In an organization of trust, the culture is fluid. When their is a high level of trust, I am going to act/email/write/communicate as if I believe the best. Teams use trust as currency. The development of trust then becomes a significant leadership strategy. It feels 100% relational and 90% emotional.

Developing a culture of trust begins with a leader. Trust and suspicion are both telegraphed from the leader throughout the organization. We must learn to choose to trust.

When you choose to trust, you must choose to confront. The moment there is suspicion in a person, everything he does is tainted. When you and I sit on our raw assumptions, and it leaks out to our family and organization, the energy makes our suspicion grows bigger and uglier. And then all of a sudden, a handful of offense gets a huge response. If you want to build a culture of trust, you must confront fairly and quickly and refuse to sit on it. Before I assume the worst, I should at least ask for the facts. The consequences of concealment are far greater than the consequences of confrontation.

To develop a culture of trust, leaders must be trustworthy. Worthy of trust does not mean perfect. It means when I create a gap where your expectations don’t line up with the experience I give you, I talk to you about it.

5 Essential Commitments of Trust

1. I will believe the best.
2. When other people assume the worst about you, I will come to your defense.
3. If what I experience begins to erode my trust, I will come directly to you to talk about it.
4. When I am convinced I will not be able to deliver on a promise, I will come to you ahead of time.
5. When you confront me about the gaps I’ve created, I will tell you the truth.

The gaps are the opportunities… the gaps are the litmus test… for you to choose what culture you will have.

Questions to Ask

1. Are there people in your organization you have a hard time trusting.
2. Is it your issue or is it theirs? (if you have never chosen to trust it is still your issue)
3. What can you do about your part?
4. What do you need to address with them about their part?
5. Who do you sense having a difficult time trusting you?
6. Why?
7. What can you do about it?

If you choose to trust, you will create an organization that is more nimble and effective.

Louie Giglio of Passion City Church (Atlanta, GA) discussed how everything in life is about Jesus during Catalyst Conference’s 9th session. Here is what he said:

I don’t know much about leadership but I do know this:

It is all about the person Jesus Christ.

There is nothing going on that is not about the person Jesus Christ. Leadership is about knowing and following Jesus Christ.

The only thing I had going for me in elementary school was that I was fast. So I wanted to race everybody. But before you race, you always have to ask a question:

Where are we racing to?

So if you are on your mark, I think we need to ask where are you going? We are all going to a common destination, and it is important that we all get our minds around this.

Your life is shaped by the end you live for. You are made in the image of what you desire.
-Thomas Merton

We all a have a common end at the end… the face of the Son of God. We are on a collision course with the face of the Son of the living God. From Him are all things. Through Him are all things. And to Him are all things.

And I believe that leadership is choosing wisely to see His face and to reflect His face to the world. 1 Corinthians 13:8 tells that love never fails but abilities fade away. You have to say, “I as a leader am determined to know the face of Jesus and reflect that face.” Jesus has the face that has launched thousands of churches and has raised from the grave millions of people.

Two Things We Find on Jesus’ Face

1. We find matchless beauty and significance, and it is what we were made for.
   It is what our souls were made for. A.W. Tozer says,”God formed us for His pleasure, and so formed us that we as well as He can in divine communion enjoy the sweet and mysterious mingling of kindred personalities. He meant us to see Him and live in Him and draw our life from His smile.”  If you want a heart that is beautiful, generous, and pure, it is on the face of Jesus. And reflecting His face shapes us into that. Anyone who sets out for anything else other than the face of God, will be turned into that, which is less than what God wants for your life.
2. The confidence and the courage to be the leaders we need to be.
   It is not about you. It is all about Jesus. And you know that when you see the face of Jesus. We have to rise up out of “we don’t have enough money to do that” and “that would be crazy to do that.” We must not be afraid. Jesus is the head and not you. And Jesus is unstoppable.

When the world says, “I found God on your face,” that is leadership.

Chuck Swindoll of Insight for Living discussed 10 things he has learned in almost 50 years of ministry during Catalyst Conference’s 8th session. Here is what he said:

Fifty years ago, I was a first year student at Dallas Theological Seminary. I was scared, unsure of myself, and fresh out of the Marine Corp. I did not know much about seminary.

I remember sitting in chapel, and a minister told me, “When God wants to do an impossible task, he takes an impossible person and crushes him.” I am so proud of everything you are dreaming of and doing that I hope that you remember to leave room for the crushing.

10 Things Chuck Swindoll Learned in 50ish Years of Ministry:

1. It’s lonely to lead.
   Leadership involves tough decisions. The tougher the decisions, the lonelier it is.
2. It’s dangerous to succeed.
   It is dangerous to succeed while being young. rarely, does God give leadership that young because it takes crushing and failure first.
3. It’s hardest at home.
   Nobody at home is applauding you. They say, “Dad! You’re fly is open.”
4. It is essential to be real.
   If there is one realm where phoniness is personified it is leadership. What I care about is that you stay real.
5. It is painful to obey.
   There are rewards, yes, but it is painful nevertheless.
6. Brokenness and failure are necessary.
7. My attitude is more important than my actions.
   Some of you are getting hard to be around. And your attitude covers all those great actions you pull off.
8. Integrity eclipses image.
   What you are doing is not a show. And the best things you are doing is not up front but what you do behind the scenes.
9. God’s way is better than my way.
   God is going to have His way.
10. Christ-likeness begins and ends with humility.

2 Corinthians 4:5-7 tells us that we must be willing to leave the familiar message without disturbing the Biblical message. We get that backwards. This was written in the first century, and now we are in the 21st century. The message stays the same. Don’t miss the message. As you alter the methods, don’t mess with the message.

Traditionalism is the dead faith of those still living. You will defend those things that don’t need defended.

Three Important Observations:

1. With every ministry a special mercy is needed.
2. In every ministry the same things must be renounced and rejected.
   That is hiding shameful things, doing deceitful things, and corrupting truthful things. Guard against deception. Guard against deception.
3. Through every ministry a unique style should be pursued.
   We don’t preach or promote ourselves (it isn’t about us). We declare Christ Jesus as Lord (it’s all about Him). We see ourselves as bond-servants for Jesus Christ.

Five Statements Worth Remembering During Your Next 50 Years of Leadership:

1. Whatever you do, do more with others and less alone.
   It will help you become accountable.
2. Whenever you do it, emphasize quality not quantity.
3. Wherever you go, do it the same as if you were among those who know you the best.
   It will keep you from exaggerating. it will help keep your stories true. Your good friend will tell you things that others will not. They will hold you close to truth.
4. Whoever may respond to your ministry, keep a level head.
5. However long you lead, keep on dripping with gratitude and grace.
   Stay thankful. Stay gracious.

Dave Ramsey discussed the importance of unstoppable momentum and how to get it during Catalyst Conference’s 7th session. Here is what he said:

Despite The Beverly Hillbillies not airing since 1971, many people (even born after 1971) can sing the theme song.  How would you like to have that impact? Imagine people being about to talk about what you did 39 years after you did it.

When you have momentum, you better than you are. The thing I’ve discovered about momentum is that it is very important to get some in every area of your life. Momentum is not a random occurrence. It must be created. You must pour yourself into your calling. You must pour yourself into your craft.

Learn the momentum theorem.

Momentum Theorem
Focused intensity over time multiplied by God creates unstoppable momentum.

Focus is lost for two reasons:

1. Fear
   Fear can cause you to lose focus. Fear is not a fruit of the spirit.
2. Greed
   You can get greedy for money, stats, fame, and/or more. James 1:8 says, “A double-minded man is unstable in all his ways.”

With focus, you can’t see anything but what you are looking at. With focus, you have an unbelievable advantage. Rick Warren says, “Focus is intentional.” You have to be proactive. You have to happen to things.

Intensity  matters. Ecclesiastes 9:10 says, “Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with all your might.” If you are going to be an intense sports fan and take your shirt off and paint yourself blue, live your life with that same intensity. Be intense at parenting. Be intense about your calling. Intensity moves things. You’ve got to be fired up. You can’t do it with lack of focus because your intensity will be too spread out then.

Focused intensity is good, but if it only lasts for three days, it is not going to amount to anything. This is the hardest part of the equation. Og Mandino says, “If I persist long enough, I will win.” As Paul talks about - run your race well. It is a long race… over time. Don’t quit. Stay on course. Keep moving. Be the focused, intense tortoise and not the ADHD hare.

If you are quickly successful be very, very scared because you may not have the proper foundation underneath it.

But even still, you need God. When you multiply your focused intensity over time by God then God gives you the energy and ability needed to win. Get plugged in to God as your power source and your momentum will become unstoppable.

Matt Chandler of The Village Church (Highland Village, TX) discussed the importance of confession, repentance, and focusing on God during Catalyst Conference’s fifth session.

There are a lot of things going on in your churches. Some of you are in good places. Some of you are in bad places. Remind yourself what you have been caught up in.

Apparently according to Hebrews 11, the gauntlet that you and I will run has seasons with lions and seasons where we escape the sword and seasons where we die by the sword and seasons where the dead will rise and seasons when the dead are dead.

Somehow the idea of confession and repentance has become negative. It seems like the longer we are Christians, the more we think you shouldn’t be confessing things. The problem is, well… the Bible. 1 John 1:5-10 says if you live and walk as if you are sinless, you are a liar.

Look at every delay as an opportunity to deepen the waters with the God of the universe. It is a lack of gratitude and therefore a sin that causes you to want to be something that you aren’t. A day is coming when history in your life will be rewritten as it really is. Your role is bigger than you think.

Look to Jesus because He is the founder of our faith. Without Him there is no reconciliation with God.

May we remember what we have grown up in. May we remember what God has called us to. And may we run well.

Malcolm Gladwell, author of The Tipping Point, Blink, and Outliers, discussed the danger of overconfidence during Catalyst Conference’s second session. Here is what he said:

People who were experts still made mistakes, which led to the current financial crises.

If you have more information, do you get better at making a prediction? But a research study showed that it doesn’t really make a difference. However, with more information people’s confidence in their predictions improves.

Too much confidence in a guess is called miscalculation.

Incompetence irritates me, but overconfidence scares me. Incompetent people rarely have the opportunities to make mistakes that greatly affect things. But overconfident leaders and experts have the dangerous ability to create disaster.

In 1863 during the Civil War in Virginia, the Union army was in incredibly poor shape. And Lincoln in Washington was becoming increasingly worried. Fighting Joe Hooker came and happened to know more about Confederate General Lee than anyone. Hooker devised a brilliant battle plan by distributing his army in thirds and surrounding Lee’s army. Lee was significantly outnumbered 2 to 1. Hooker said that even God Almighty couldn’t prevent them from victory. What happened next was the Battle of Chancellorsville. Hooker expected Lee to retreat, became trapped by his confidence, and did not plan for anything else. In fact, the Union army lowered their guard; Lee attached, and Hooker’s army ran away only to suffer one of the worst defeats of the war.

We think we need daring and bold decision making from our leaders in time of crisis. But we don’t. We need humility.

QUESTION: What are the warning signs for leaders being to overconfident?

When you stop listening to those around you. You cut yourself off from others.

QUESTION: What do you say to the church leader who has resisted accountability because of fear?

When a leader can no longer do everything all by himself, you have to change.  When your growth reaches a certain point, you have to change. Leadership has to become more collective.

Ed Stetzer of LifeWay Research shared his major church planting mistakes at Catalyst’s third lab. Here is what he said:

All too often church planters run gung-ho into church planting like they’re storming the beaches of Normandy but then get mowed down. I share mistakes, so that hopefully you can avoid them.

I knew that I needed to make some change in my life. People never change until the pain of staying the same grows greater than the pain of change.

ED’S BIG 7 CHURCH PLANTING MISTAKES

1. Forgetting the mission.
   Our motivations can naturally be mixed. We often focus on our own agenda rather than God’s agenda. You should want to plant a great church because of who God is rather than to prove something about yourself to others. God intervenes when we make it about our minds and our power and our glory. If at the end of the day, you could have done it without God, then God isn’t in it. The goal is God’s glory. You can’t become distracted by the tools.
2. Being married to a model.
   If you are more excited by the “how” than the “who,” then you are being distracted. I must be sure that I do not fall in love with someone else’s ministry model and mission. If you listen to other churches’ success stories, you can become distracted by the model. Ministry pornography is an unrealistic depiction of something that you never going to have that distracts you from what you are supposed to do. The “how” of church planting is in many ways determined by the “who,” “when,” and “where” of culture. Too many church planters plant a church in their head and not in their communities. If you aren’t asking “how” you should plant, you have a problem.
3. Not taking care of yourself.
   (1) First and foremost, you need to take care of yourself physically. If you don’t take care of yourself, then you will not be able to properly prioritize God in your life. Don’t tell yourself that you will take care of your body after you… plant that church… write that book… whatever. My job first and foremost, is to be the type of Christ follower, husband, and father God wants me to be, and if I am not taking care of myself, then I will never be able to be who God wants me to be.
   (2) You also need to take care of yourself spiritually. The personality type that plants churches is not consistent with the same personality type that is great at walking with God.Your people need more a pastor who has been with God than an entrepreneur that is full of ideas.
   (3) And you need to take care of your family. Your family will be with you in the end, but often the people you start a church with are not the ones you finish a church with.
4. Arrogance.
   I was too sarcastic and didn’t listen well. There are different reasons people are arrogant, but my arrogance was from trying to desperately prove myself to others. I needed to realize that my Father in heaven is already pleased with me. Unfortunately, my needs got in the way. Churches whose pastors have a weekly mentor pastor churches that are twice as large as churches whose pastors are without mentors.
5. Not taking believers deeper.
   People who are yearning for maturity are longing for what Christ followers need. But I made the mistake of thinking their quest to go deeper was not aligning with the church’s mission to reach people. If your vision doesn’t take people deeper spiritually, then you have a bad vision. You don’t want to take pride in what God calls a problem. Christians wanting to grow deeper are not you enemies but your partners.
6. Ignoring hidden agendas.
   Every person in your church has a vision for your church, and it is not the same as your vision for the church. Often the people you start with go away, and the people who stay try to hijack the vision a year later.
7. Afraid of finances.
   Part of why I was afraid of finances is because of the popular mindset of the time that said that talking about finances would offend seekers. Talking about money is fine… just don’t talk about money in a creepy way.

What your church needs is a godly and God-directed church planter. Anything else is not his agenda but yours. Anything else is too much about you and not enough about Jesus.

Reggie Joiner of The reThink Group discussed the importance of family at Catalyst’s second pre-lab. Here is what he said:

Most of us (attending Catalyst) have been influenced by the church. Yet although some of us have been influenced by the church, we have all been influenced by our family.

God uses 2 entities – church and family – to teach the gospel to a child. If you can influence a family, you can influence in an exponential way.

1. We are influenced by family.
2. Somewhere along the way we develop a picture of what we think family looks like.
   A church may use a stock photo of a family, but it likely is an unrealistic representation of a family.
3. If we hold to tightly to an ideal picture of family, we set families up to be disillusioned.
   Things don’t work out the way we thought they would.
4. God never gives s a picture of an ideal family in the Bible.
   God isn’t trying to give you an ideal picture. He is trying to tell a story through your family and my family. God is trying to unpack something that is much more bigger than family, bugger than church, and much, much bigger than a nation. Your calling as a leader should not e to get families to conform to a common picture. Your calling is not to build better families. Your calling is not to build a bigger church. Your calling is to lead people into a relationship with Christ. Our purpose is not to build better families but to use that family to influence the world.

Two ways to influence families:

1. Present an ideal, “better” picture of how families should be.
2. Encourage families to cooperate with the story God wants to tell in their lives regardless of their mistakes.

Parents don’t need a better picture; they need a bigger story. Never forget that the approach and mindset we have in ministry towards the family can disillusion them or give them hope. An ideal picture can make you feel like a failure. But reality is God has chosen to use us.

God is at work telling a story of redemption in your family. Never buy into the myth that your family has to be picture perfect. God doesn’t use perfect pictures. He uses broken people. Give us a generation of leaders who are authentic and broken.

Moses had a bigger story approach in Deuteronomy 6. When you have a bigger story approach, you:

1. Imagine the end.
2. Fight for the heart.
3. Make it personal.
4. Create a rhythm.
5. Widen the circle.

Somewhere along the way, the church has to switch from a Sunday mindset to a daily mindset. A church has 40 hours a year to reach a kid, but the parents have 3,000 hours.