Moving the Barriers, Digging In

The Catalyst moment of truth has arrived.

Here's where we are so far.  We believe the mission of Catalyst is clear.  We're a faith community that's committed to helping people connect the dots about God clearly so we can connect with God deeply.  We're all about connecting those who've felt disconnected from God, qualifying those who may feel that life or their past has disqualified them from God, engaging those who may have felt disenfranchised in traditional church, journeying with and sharing life with those who've felt disillusioned by religion in general.  We're about new starts...do overs...exploring and living out the way of Jesus together.  

We've established values and guiding philosophies.  

We've connected 6 great ministry area leaders and formed 12 ministry teams to begin preparation for all areas of our previews and grand opening.  (which is 130 days away) These teams are hungry and excited to begin preparing for great weekend experiences for all of our guests across the age spectrum.  We're working to make good connects with like-minded ministry partners in our community.  We're taking a close up look at the way some of our partner churches do particular areas of ministry, from music selection to tracking with newcomers to setup and teardown philosophies and life together gatherings, seeing what we duplicate, what we reshape and use, and what doesn't fit for Catalyst.

We're getting ever closer to meeting our fund-raising goal in pledges and gifts, so if you're a financial partner with Catalyst now, or are still considering joining us in this way, we thank you so much and your gifts will push us over the top to our $30,000 fundraising goal for this pre-launch year.

We're locked in with our meeting location and we've begun making what I believe is a good introduction of Catalyst to the community, engaging lots of people who are asking, "So, what is Catalyst?"

And now we are focusing on generating an additional 25-40 partners to help us with the launch process.  While some of these partners may be persons who come to assist part-time in the launch experience, we are specifically looking to recruit persons who are stirred by the mission of Catalyst and are relationally connected with present team members.  This is the important next step in the life of Catalyst.  Without success in this engagement endeavor, Catalyst cannot launch.  We have to expand the team!  We have to jump the fence and connect with new persons and invite them to allow God to use them to help birth this new faith community.  It starts with me and the 13 people I have on a list in front of me.  So we're going to eat lots of meals with friends, share what we're doing and why it really matters, and invite them to consider how they might be part of what really is an unbelievably exciting group of people.  

I'm asking you to pray for us specifically that we'll meet our goal of 25-40 new team members over the next couple of months.  Ask God to bring us into the paths of people for whom being part of Catalyst is the next step for their lives in terms of their journey.  Ask God to help us listen well, and to raise up the exact people we need to launch Catalyst with the laser-focused mission that He has given us.  We're digging in for lots of hard work and lots of connections this summer.  We're asking God to move the barriers before us, and that we will be his hands and feet in pushing those barriers to the expanse He gives us.

Gathering isn't easy, but necessary

The Catalyst train keeps rolling on.  I do honestly believe that starting a church is like driving a train.  First, you have to get direction on which track your going to be heading on and where your direction is.  Then you fire up the engines, and some passengers get on at your point of embarkation.  But you know that you're going to have to pick up more passengers along the way in order for the trip to be its most effective.  So you're advertising like crazy that the train will be passing through so people can plan to jump on board when it passes by where they are.  And as engineer you're telling your friends, "hey if you want to come along on this journey, it's going to be an experience like you've never had before."  And you're telling your current ticketed passengers that if they know anyone down the line who'd like to experience journey to invite them.  And a few people here and there start to join.  As the engineer, you know you're more than willing to stop the train for even one new passenger.  Sometimes you think though, what do your current passengers think when you stop the train at a station down the line and no one gets on?  Do they begin to question their own choice to make the journey?  And you know as the engineer, you know that the Company is looking to see if this "itinerary" is actually going to "take," that this is going to be a regular ongoing journey.  So if they see that people aren't lined up to buy tickets for the inaugural journey, they may begin to wonder if this itinerary needs to even be continued.  But as engineer, you know with all your heart it is.  You know you were born to drive this train to this place.  And you know that as people see the train go by a time or two, their interest is going to be piqued, and maybe some will check out the journey for themselves, especially when they see their friends through the windows or get a call from them as the train goes through their part of the world.  

This little metaphor describes pretty accurately where we are right now.  The train is starting up, but its starting slowly and we're working hard and re-strategizing how to invite more people to the inaugural journey and thinking creatively how to make the journey fun, life-giving and connective with God and with other "passengers."  We want to be God honoring and passenger friendly.  Last night we had an explore gathering in the community.  We saw a lot of people in the park, and we had probably 20 people be part of our gathering.  Unfortunately, we had lots of people we invited who didn't make it and nearly all of those 20 people were people we've made connections with before.  So we're back to the drawing board and the conversation of how can we focus our energies on the two tasks of gathering and preparing more effectively over the next few weeks?    So please pray for us today that we would hear from God clearly about this request.  We want to be focused on gathering and preparing effectively.  Please pray with us that God will continue to draw new team members to the dynamic team we already have in place.  We're heading somewhere.  Somewhere that God has revealed to us.  It's just the train is moving slowly right now and we need to get up to speed a bit more quickly to keep our journey on schedule.

Launch team gathering last night

I'll post some pics of this event at some point.  Even the undynamic has the potential to be sensationally important in the life of a new church.  I am so excited at the big steps which were taken last night. It may not seem like much, but forming ministry teams who are taking personally their leadership roles in Catalyst is the next huge step for us.  Teams are brainstorming and beginning to embrace the Catalyst philosophy, forming that into preparation for previews and Launch.  Don't worry, our teams aren't full, so if you're reading this and want to be part of any of our six ministry areas, there's a place of engagement for you at Catalyst.  

I also got to spend what was supposed to be 30 minutes (but turned into 55 minutes) presenting answers to some important Catalyst F.A.Q.s last night. (Frequently asked questions).  My 11+ pages of notes did not get completely discussed, and there was lots of discussion and clarification I hope along the way last night.  I jokingly referred to this document as the Catalyst Manifesto, and if you'd like to take a look at it, I'll post a link to the document here.  Click on the Catalyst Plan.pdf.  (Requires adobe acrobat to read)   Much of the questions center around our philosophy of ministry, our mission and values.  If you feel so inclined to take a look and have thoughts you'd like to respond to, email them to me at chris@iamcatalyst.org.