Meeting one of my Heros - Catalyst Part 2

Ok, so it took a little while to get to this 2nd post. I know some of you passed out while holding your breath.
Catalyst was awesome - 1 of the highlights for me was meeting Dave Ramsey

Dave is a real American hero to me - he has a nationally syndicated talkshow on getting out of debt and handling money wisely - also was just named as a host for the new Fox Business channel.

While I give God all the credit and honor for where we are in our financial life and the blessings of almost being totally debt free (check back for an update on this), I know that a lot of the inspiration and practical steps we took to get where we are today came from Dave Ramsey and Financial Peace University. If you're struggling with debt or want to do better with what you have, you absolutely need to take Financial Peace - it will absolutely change your life.

Highlights from Dave's session:
- Main point = What could the People of God do for the Kingdom of God if they were debt free?
- Quote from Bill gass "Prosperity is having the money to do God's will in your life"
- Its not your money - You are just a manager for God. Start using it as if it belonged to Him, not you.

Dave showed a video testimony from a couple that received $10,000 from another couple in their church (who had been through through financial peace and were debt free) to pay off their debts so that they could afford to adopt a child. It was one of the coolest things I've ever seen or heard - I was crying like a baby.

I left that session with the verse ringing in my head, "remember the words of the Lord Jesus, that He Himself said, 'It is more blessed to give than to receive.' Acts 20:35

Catalyst Rocked my world

This week, I attended the Catalyst Leadership Conference in Atlanta. I was pretty excited about this conference and the line-up of speakers, but I had no idea how this conference would challenge me.

Some highlights from the conference:

The worship was absolutely awesome. Worshiping God with 11,000 people was amazing - I know we can worship with 1 or 11,000, and its not the size that matters - but it just made me think - I can't imagine what it will be like to worship God in heaven someday with ALL of his family singing and shouting praise to the God who created us all!

Andy Stanley is perhaps one of the greatest speakers and communicator I have ever heard. I love his down-to-earth style and practical & wise instruction.
He said spoke of how to use your power, position, influence etc to honor God as a leader - whether you're a teacher, a pastor, a parent, coach, etc. As true leader, always use your position/influence to leverage power for the benefit of others, never for yourself.

Patrick Lencioni, author of The 5 dysfunctions of a team, had a ton of great points on management. MANAGEMENT IS MINISTRY. As someone who manages people, a major part of our job should be to care for and coach the people under us.

Francis Chan was one of my favorite speakers at the conference. This guy challenged me to the core - If I love my neighbor as myself, does this mean I should be willing to spend as much on my neighbor as I do on myself?
Wow, that was profound and something along the lines of what I have been tossing around the last several months - what if everytime I was going to make a purchase for myself of something I don't really NEED (vacation, new clothes/shoes, new toy etc), I gave away the same amount to someone else in need, or chose not to buy the item seeing that I probably don't really need it anyway? I think this would help me to evaluate the cost of that thing and whether I really needed it and would also help me to become less self-centered and a person who had an even greater heart for those in need.
Francis also shared the story of accepting Christ as a teenager and how he had this burden to share Christ with those he knew - as a Junior & senior in High School he made it a point to go through his yearbook at the end of those years and talk with each of the people he knew to tell them about Christ and how he loved them and didn't want them to go to hell. That was powerful.

Well that's all the time I have for now - Check back for my other thoughts on CATALYST.