Catalyst Sunday Rewind, Feb. 28th

It was another great day at Catalyst Church. You know that time when the sheer mental exhaustion of bringing home a new baby wears off, and the reality of "hey, we've got a baby to raise here" kicks in? We're there. We're having a great time watching this little baby church grow! It's hard to believe we're four weeks old!!! And It's hard to believe we're only four weeks old!

• We finished our first series, "If You Really Knew Me," this weekend. Chris talked about the fact that we've all found ourselves wandering. It's our hardwiring. It's our nature. And God will work with us and through us even as we are prone to wander.
• Brad and the band keep getting better and better. They take it up a notch every week, and that's with a lot of new and different people playing and leading each week.
• I know we've only been at this a bit, but I'd put our load-in/setup team next to teams that have been setting up for 10x longer and they'd hold their own. Every week we walk away thinking, "okay, should we push back our setup arrival time" because they get finished so efficiently and quickly. What do you think guys, should we let them sleep in a little longer?
• Heather and Lauren and their team, so proud of you all. You're helping kids love church. Awesome.
• I think we've finally worked out our bugs with the podcast. This weekend's will be posted by tomorrow afternoon.

We've talked often about how our community doesn't need another church, but could definitely use a different kind of church. Next week, we begin our new series called "Church Different." We're gonna talk about thinks like what community, what journey, what transformation and what impacting our community looks like at Catalyst. If you're in the area, check us out. You'll love this church. We promise you'll leave feeling refreshed, encouraged and challenged to take the next step in your relationship with God. And if you're out of town, we're gonna blog more, keep checking out the facebook fan page and the catalyst website. it'll be somewhat like you're right here journeying with us.

Catalyst Sunday Rewind, Feb. 21st

It was a quiet day this weekend at Catalyst. Seemed like though things went well we were just a half step off to begin the day. Maybe it was just the weather, but we were a little extra quiet this past Sunday. God still moved, still taught us and still drew us close to Him, and really that's all that matters.

• It was week three of our "If You Really Knew Me" Series. We talked about feelings of emptiness and fulfillment. If you're not following on Twitter, you should. We post teaching notes in real time, during the message. Just one more way to track with what God is saying to our community.
• We had some new people in different serving roles this week. Thanks team Catalyst for all you're doing each weekend. There is no Catalyst without each of you.
• One week left in the series, and it's going to be the best of the bunch.
• We're already gearing up for our next series, "Church Different," Easter, and the Free Journey coming up beginning April 11th. There is some great stuff coming in the weeks ahead.
• One apology. We continue to have some problems with our podcast. We've made promises about making teachings available online, and to be honest, we haven't gotten it done these past two Sundays because of recording issues. Please accept our apology for this. We think we have a solution that we can implement next week, and so if you'll extend us some grace one more week, we will have our recording situation straightened out this weekend we hope.

Brad, Dan and I are spending some time at Mountain Lake Church north of Atlanta on Monday and Tuesday of this week. I can say without hesitation that Catalyst will be a more effective church at fulfilling our mission to help everyone in our community know how to continue our journey with God and live more like Jesus. Thanks for letting us continue to be learners.

The journey continues this weekend through life groups. Make it Personal guides are a great opportunity for further application from the weekend and are available online at catalystchurchweb.org. Looking forward to seeing you all again Sunday.

Catalyst Sunday Rewind, Feb. 14th

So, everyone wonders...what do you do for week 2 after you have a great kickoff on week 1? We continued our series, "If You Really Knew Me." Today we discussed the statement, "I have doubts." Let me just say, we're a few months in, two weekends into our Grand Opening. And I love our church. Listen, it's winter in Indiana. Our team lost the SuperBowl last week. Snow is piling up, and we unload and load in in temperatures well below freezing. And yet, Catalyst is excited, committed and passionate about the eternal transformation we're working to cultivate in this community and beyond.

• 88 persons with us today. 64 adults, 24 infant-elementary.
• Had several families return from Grand Opening last weekend, and we're having new families connect with Catalyst each week!
• Today was that day we've anticipated was coming...we hit a few tech bugs. Nothing that's not immediately fixable, but you know when you're getting started it's bound to happen. So we improvised.
• We ran out of bibles last week. (I may have mentioned that last Sunday, but it's worth repeating. It's always a good thing to get God's Word into people's hands.
• It's always awkward to compliment your own teaching, but I felt as in the groove today as I have on any Sunday so far. Used a lot of scripture passages today. Probably the reason it felt so good. Hard to screw up God's words, much easier to screw up your own!
• Key thoughts from the teaching...When we Have doubts/questions, it's critical that we keep with the journey, that we ask God for help with our unbelief, and that we build on the solid stuff that we do know.
• Catalyst Kidz is hitting it out of the park every week. I know that there are families who keep coming back because their kids are having a great time. Heather and Lauren and your teams, if you're reading this, I hope you know the world of difference you're making every week!!!!
• Had a little problem with the podcast this week, but we're going to work that out and get something posted.
• The adventure continues next week. If You Really Knew Me You'd Know I Still Feel Empty. Love to have you join us if you're in the area. Come check it out!

Catalyst Rewind, Sunday February 7th

Sometimes you have experiences in life which are hard to use words to describe. Yesterday at Catalyst was one of those days. It's like the birth of a child. When you hear that cry for the first time, how do you verbalize the euphoria that you're feeling? Week One of Catalyst's Grand Opening month took off with high energy, great excitement and a sense that this is just the beginning of something huge in Pendleton/Lapel/Fortville/Ingalls.

• 177 people were part of yesterday's grand opening. 50 of those were children!
• 7 new families indicated interest in being part of a life together group.
• Several extra volunteers in all our hospitality and Catalyst Kidz areas did a great job of assisting and guiding our extra guests.
• Setup team was awesome in basically reconfiguring our auditorium for additional seats.
• Thanks to our friends at Church at the Crossing for loaning us the extra chairs, we needed them all!
• It was a great time of celebration and worship. The band was on it's A-game yesterday.
• We began a new series called "If You Really Knew Me." Chris taught from Mark 5. We're all bleeding. Maybe the biggest step we could take is to finally admit to ourselves and to others that we're in over our heads.
• Brokenness+Openness+Jesus=Healing and Hope.

And now the countdown is on toward week 2. God set the bar pretty high for us this past weekend, and we believe that He's going to do even greater things in the weeks and months and years ahead.

We're already beginning to post some photos on our Catalyst Fan Page. Click here if you want to take a look or become a fan (or both). If you were praying for us, I believe God answered our prayers. If you were a guest with us, we hope that you connected with God and His Spirit moved you in our time together. And if you're considering giving Catalyst a shot, we'll be waiting to welcome you and refresh you and encourage you and challenge you to take the next step with God He desires for you!