At Catalyst Dallas, Matt Chandler of The Village Church (Flower Mound, TX) discussed preaching the gospel continually.

When God is calling, it doesn’t always mean that you will be cutting edge. God is doing what you cannot.

Don’t view the gospel as something that you need to believe to get into the game and then move on to other things. Paul preached the gospel over and over again to Christians. It is as if Paul believes that the gospel not only saves you but sustains you until the end of the race.

Romans 1:15
So I am eager to preach the gospel to you also who are in Rome.

Paul was talking about preaching the gospel to Romans who had already heard the gospel.

Galatians 1:6-9
6 I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting him who called you in the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel— 7 not that there is another one, but there are some who trouble you and want to distort the gospel of Christ. 8 But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to the one we preached to you, let him be accursed. 9 As we have said before, so now I say again: If anyone is preaching to you a gospel contrary to the one you received, let him be accursed.

The gospel is cosmic. Look at Ephesians 1-2.

Phillippians 1:15-17
15 Some indeed preach Christ from envy and rivalry, but others from good will. 16 The latter do it out of love, knowing that I am put here for the defense of the gospel. 17 The former proclaim Christ out of rivalry, not sincerely but thinking to afflict me in my imprisonment.

1 Corinthians 15:1-6
1 Now I would remind you, brothers, of the gospel I preached to you, which you received, in which you stand, 2 and by which you are being saved, if you hold fast to the word I preached to you— unless you believed in vain. 3 For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, 4 that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures, 5 and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve. 6 Then he appeared to more than five hundred brothers at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have fallen asleep.

B.B. Warfield says,
There is nothing in us or done by us, at any stage of our earthly development, because of which we are acceptable to God.We must always be accepted for Christ’s sake, or we cannot ever be accepted at all. This is not true of us only when we believe. It is just as true after we have believed. It will continue to be trust as long as we live. Our need of Christ does not cease with our believing; nor does the nature of our relation to Him or to God through Him ever alter, no matter what our attainments in Christian graces or our achievements in behavior may be. It is always on His blood and righteousness alone that we can rest.

In 1 Corinthians 15:1, Paul says they “received” the gospel in past tense, the gospel “in which [they] stand” in present, and the gospel “by which [they] are being saved” in present future.

The gospel is the meditation of our hearts. It is the meditation of our minds. It is what we go over and over and over again. You don’t have to be a theologian. You just have to know the gospel.

Behind secret sin is a failure to understand the gospel.

Some people say I don’t want to go to hell, and I don’t want God to give me cancer so I will observe these rules. That is idolatry. Heaven is not a place for those who are afraid of hell. Heaven is a place for those who love God.

We have been given three weapons of grace.

3 Weapons of Grace

1. Blood of Christ
   Ephesians 2:13 says, “But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ.”
   God’s glory is made manifest in the fact that he does use us. You don’t need to feel good about you. You need to feel good about Jesus. You have been brought here.
2. The Word of God
   2 Timothy 3:16-17 says, “All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, 17 that the man of God may be competent, equipped for every good work.”
3. Promises of the Covenant
   Hebrews 9:15 says, “Therefore he is the mediator of a new covenant, so that those who are called may receive the promised eternal inheritance, since a death has occurred that redeems them from the transgressions committed under the first covenant.”

3 Truths About the Gospel

1. If someone runs to the gospel, they get it. If they run from the gospel, they don’t get it.
2. Do you teach your people that sin is an external action or a matter of the heart. Do you attack the root or the branches. If you treat symptoms but not the cause, your patient dies.
3. Grace-driven effort is violent. Most of us don’t deal violently with sin. People who understand the gospel understand that sin shames the name of our God, so we deal with sin violently.

You’ve got nothing without the gospel.

Can you grow a church without the gospel? Absolutely.
Can you attract a lot of people without the gospel? Absolutely.
Can you do Christian things without the gospel? Absolutely.

You can do all these things except see hearts transformed and worship.

I don’t care about your packaging. I care about your content. You have to proclaim the gospel over and over again. Do you believe it yourself?

At Catalyst Dallas, Craig Groeschel of LifeChurch.tv (Edmond, OK) discussed wisdom for the older and younger generations.

I believe God wants us to work together as younger and older generations. I believe the devil wants to add division between generations.

To The Older Generation

• Don’t resent, fear, or judge the emerging generation. Instead, believe in them.
• You were different at one time from those who went before you.
• If you aren’t dead, you aren’t done.
• Don’t be threatened by younger generations. Realize that they need you.
• Many of us don’t know how to delegate. We think delegating is giving people something to do. Delegating tasks creates followers. Delegating responsibility creates leaders.
• Younger generations need your wisdom.
• Just be yourself. Don’t try to be cool. Authenticity trumps cool every single time.

To The Younger Generation

• You need those who have gone before you.
• Studies show that the younger generation is most often described by employers as entitled.
• Because the emerging generation feels entitled, when it comes to ministry, you feel you need to do it all now.You want to be in leadership, but you can’t speed up maturity.
• You often overestimate what God wants to do through you in the short run, and you often grossly underestimate what God wants to do through you in the long run.
• Always show your leaders honor. Honor publicly results in influence privately. Do not treat your leaders as common or ordinary.Dishonor and faith in the leaders before you limit your church.
• Some people need to repent for dishonoring the God-ordained position above them.
• Your generation is the most cause-driven generation of modern history.You are a chosen generation.
• I believe that you can do what I couldn’t do.

I am doing what I am doing right now because of the previous generations that have invested in me.

At Catalyst Dallas, Christine Caine of the A21 Campaign discussed living a risky life.

I grew up in a culture that said not to take any risks, but you cannot avoid risk. Living is risky. God created us to live a risky life. But somewhere along the way we interpreted living the blessed life with living the safe life.

God has called us to live in the time and the place that we live into to give solution to the world we live in. We live in a world that is broken, that is full of injustice, and that is full of pain.

The purpose of life is not to arrive at the coffin safely. God has called us to a radical life. Often you will find that freedom and safety are not the same thing.

Compassion is never compassion until you roll up your sleeves and cross the street. Do not confuse sympathy for compassion.

God is looking for a generation of leaders that will step out of safety and comfort.

At Catalyst Dallas, Scott Belsky of Behance discussed making ideas happen.

Most ideas never happen.

Ways to make ideas happen.

• Overcome reactionary workflow (i.e., emails, texts, social media messages, voicemails). Unplugging is becoming the competitive advantage of the digital age.
• Have a culture of capturing action steps. As leaders, we must have an action oriented nature.
• Reduce your amount of insecurity work (i.e., social media, analytics, actions that don’t push the ball forward, etc.).
• Never stop optimizing. Don’t be confined by the horizon of success.
• Spend energy on how you organize.
• Creativity x organization = impact
  You need both creativity and organization. You can have all the creativity in the world but zero organization equals zero impact.
• Share ideas liberally.
• Share ownership of ideas.
• Divided interests equal divided results.
• Seek competition.
• Overcome the stigma of self-marketing.
• Value the team’s immune system.
• Find and empower the hot spots.
• Incentivize innovation by tolerating failure. Many organizations wants innovation but only reward success. Innovation and failure go hand and hand. Allow pockets of failure.
• Push people into their intersection.
• Gain confidence from doubt. All remarkable people at one point did something great that others thought was crazy. When everybody keeps telling you’re crazy you’re either crazy or you’re onto something. Nothing extraordinary is ever achieved through ordinary means.

Creativity is not only an opportunity. It is a responsibility.

At Catalyst Dallas, Gary Haugen of International Justice Mission discussed choosing bravery over safety.

When did it begin to occur to the twelve disciples that following Jesus was going to be dangerous?
When did it occur to you that following Jesus is going to be dangerous?

There are two ways to respond to fear: (1) seek to be safer or (2) seek to be braver.

Jesus is in the business of making people who are braver. Jesus is not in the business of making situations safer because he uses unsafe situations to make people braver.

You must make a choice between being safe or brave. Jesus tells us we will suffer for him.

1 Peter 4:19 (NIV)
So then, those who suffer according to God’s will should commit themselves to their faithful Creator and continue to do good.

There are two things that are always God’s will and dangerous:

1. Telling the truth.
2. Loving people in need.

If my life in following Jesus, doesn’t feel dangerous I might want to check if I’m actually following Jesus. 1 John tells us that if we see people in need but do not help them then the love of God isn’t even in us.

Isaiah 1:17
Learn to do right! Seek justice, encourage the oppressed. Defend the cause of the fatherless, plead the case of the widow.

Micah 6:8
He has shown you, O mortal, what is good. And what does the LORD require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.

God is calling all of us to the work of justice, but it is not safe. Do you want to experience your power safely? Or do you want to experience God’s power dangerously?

The Bible says God has not given us a spirit of fear but of power and love and a sound mind.

At Catalyst Dallas, John M. Perkins of John M. Perkins Foundation for Reconciliation & Development was interviewed and discussed the reconciliation of the gospel.

The purpose of the gospel is to burn through racial and economic barriers and bring people together for God. Segregated churches minimize the gospel.

God reconciles people to himself and to each other, and we do that as one body. We need to be the incarnated bride of Christ.

Success is connecting with people in your communities who have pain and staying with them.

At Catalyst Dallas, Andy Stanley of North Point Community Church (Alpharetta, GA) discussed 3 types of courage you need for ministry.

Often times in life, a single act of courage is the tipping point for something extraordinary to happen.

Look at earlier this year with Egypt’s single expression of courage to tell their government they’ve had enough. And that single act of courage encouraged thousands around the world to stand up to their governments.

Look at Rosa Park. Her resistance to move to the back of the bus became a single act of courage that led to the anti-segregation movements.

David walking into the valley of Goliath was a single act of courage. Moses telling Pharoah, “Let my people go!” was a single act of courage. Joseph chose to marry his girlfriend, Mary, when she showed up pregnant. That took courage.

The Bible is full of single acts of courage that are tipping points into something new and extraordinary. Looking back it seems so obvious what they should do, but in the moment, it is full of isolation.

And then there are our mundane lives. You’re not going to lead an army like Gideon. You’re not going to walk into a Pharoah’s palace. And when your girlfriend shows up pregnant, you aren’t thinking that’s okay.

When you look back on your life, you won’t tell stories about the 5-year goals you met. You will tell stories about the opportunities that came along, and you sensed God moving you to take advantage of those opportunities. You were scared, but you took advantage of them anyways. Those are the stories you will tell.

I don’t want you to miss it. I don’t want you to look back and say, “If only I had…”

Three Types of Courage You Need

1. The courage to stay when it would be easier to go.
   You never know what hangs in the balance when God whispers, “Stay,” when everything else says, “Go!” If ministry is hard, it just means that you are in ministry. It is supposed to be hard. You are dealing with people. And then the grass looks so green on the other side. It takes courage to stay. Your decision to stay may be the tipping point for something extraordinary to happen in your community, your family, and your church.
2. The courage to leave when it would be easier to stay.
3. The courage to ask for help when it would be easier to pretend that everything is okay.
   Isn’t it true that more people have had to leave ministry because of this? Secrets are dangerous, but secrets in the life of a leader are extraordinarily dangerous. People become afraid to confess their secrets because they are afraid of what people will discover about them and even more afraid about what they will discover about themselves. I do not know of a high profile leader who has not been in counseling. We are all a mess. I don’t care how large your ministry is. When you are at the tip of the spear leading, you get worn down far more quickly than everyone else. We need more help and sooner help than the average people, but we are the least likely to ask for help. In the last few months, has your spouse or trusted friend said, “I think you might need to talk to someone about that”? They are right because they had the courage to say it.

What we should fear is waking up one day and not knowing if we are in the center of what God wants for our life. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of stuff.

What story do you want to tell? Every decision you make is eventually the story of your past. And the tipping point for all of us at some point in our life is a single act of courage.

At Catalyst Dallas, Jeff Shinabarger interviewed Shaun King of TwitChange and Courageous Church, Tyler Merrick of Project 7, and Jenny White of Art House America on the future of philanthropy.

Art House America was founded in 1991 to connect artists’ faith to their art.

Project 7 is a for-profit company that exists to help nonprofits by selling lifestyle branded products. Their mantra is don’t buy more stuff, change what you buy.

TwitChange brings celebrities, fans, and causes all together by auctioning off tweets by celebrities.

What have you learned by starting something out of nothing?

TM: It is always harder than you think it will be.

SK: Two small lessons that I learned are: (1) I made the mistake assuming that my wife would be on board just because it was my idea. If you want a loved one to believe in your idea, you must still sell it to them. (2) I am learning the difficulties of mixing of business and church relationships. It is difficult to have people see me as their pastor and CEO.

JW: You need to be okay with asking for help. And be okay with not having it all together. Be patient.

How to you improve an idea that you have launched and identify what works and what doesn’t?

SK: I try to surround myself with people who don’t always blow smoke up my butt. We have outside consultants advise TwitChange. Because TwitChange exists to raise money for causes, we judge the quality of an idea by how much money it makes.

TM: We sat down with nonprofits we work with to get insightful feedback and criticism about how we do things. If we don’t adapt and make changes, we would get lost. We stay mobile and agile and willing to change our message.

What are your team’s creative spaces like?

JW: As a startup, our office isn’t very creative, so we will go to coffee shops to fill that need.

TM: We stock our company kitchen with free food that our team likes because we want them to feel comfortable and want to be there. We leave are doors open and let music play.

SK: Most of our team works remotely. For me, a creative space is about having the time and place to focus on thinking clearly and creatively. The physical space doesn’t mean that much to me, but the experience matters. You can have an amazing physical space, but if you go in there burdened down mentally and emotionally, it will not do anything for you. Having sacred hours during your day where you do something specific is important.

What social media advice would you give on how to engage an audience?

TM: It has been important for us to find some good social media talent. Customer service is important. People are way more likely to reach out to us via social media than to pick up the phone.

SK: We get a ton of volunteers online, and they are always strangers. It is a new frontier because they definitely know me and then expect me to know them. People who are very friendly with me online actually see me as their friend. So when we ask for volunteers, people often think, “That is Shaun, my friend, asking for help.” I also love and don’t love the real time criticism. It is beautiful because you get to respond to people right away, but it is also nagging. And how you handle that is difficult. You don’t need amazing technology to change the world for good or evil.

What would you say to a church leader about how they can serve someone like you?

TM: The church always is battling trying to serve all needs for all people. The opportunity that I have seen is prayer. Having prayer support from the church is a huge part. You don’t really need another book or a podcast. You need relationship and support.

JW: See our nonprofit as a resource and not something that will take people from your church. recognize that we are trying to serve all people who are called to a lifestyle of creativity.