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In 5th Grade I was told for the first time ever in my life that I would make a good pastor.  Now if anybody knew me in 5th grade, that is probably one of the most surprising statements ever.  Sure I loved Jesus and did well in religion class, but I was an introvert that would hide behind a sign if I had a speaking line for our class’s chapel.

This fall I will be starting seminary through Concordia Seminary in St. Louis, MO.  The program I am entering is one designed for people who are already working in a context that they wish to continue to serve in as a pastor.  In my case, I don’t want to go to seminary only to leave my family and the church that I love serving.  The Specific Ministry Pastor program, which is the same program our Executive Pastor, Joe Casiglia went through, is a four year program.  Starting in September, I will begin participating in a cohort with several other men who are also seeking to serve within their local congregations as a pastor.  I will immediately become a vicar and after two years I will be ordained as a pastor in the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod and then I will continue in order to complete my final two years of the program.

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[This post is from a series of notes from Catalyst 2012]

Perry Noble, Pastor at NewSpring Church focused on the making of a leader.  Perry began by addressing frustrated leaders, reminding us that there is always somebody that is not happy with what we’re doing.  In the book of 1 Samuel 16, we learn of the anointing of David.  What’s interesting is that while God anointed David, it still took time before he was in a position of leadership in power.

And when no one noticed David, he learned a skill that would propel him to a place of leadership.  David was a skilled musician, but his musical skills did not propel him to leadership.  Instead while David was still an unknown young boy, he honed his skills with the slingshot.  A skill that by the power of God would propel him into the place of leadership.  As leaders, we need to get past waiting to be discovered and desire for God to develop us.

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[This post is from a series of notes from Catalyst 2012]

Patrick Lencioni is the author of popular business fables such as the Five Dysfunctions of a Team, Silos, Politics, and Turf Wars, and more. With the release of his recent book The Advantage, Patrick focused specifically on the topic of organizational health.  Ironically, health is one of the most important keys to success is any organization yet it consistently remains to be an untapped advantage.

Any organization has two requirements for success.  One requirement is objective and easily measurable, the other is messy, emotional, and difficult to measure.  The two requirements for success is any organization is being smart and being healthy.  Being smart refers to concepts like having a strategy, quality marketing, being financially responsible, or utilizing technology.  Being healthy refers to having minimal politics, minimal confusion, high morale, and low turnover.  Most people desire a healthy organization, but few people actually take the steps to build a healthy team.  

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[This post is from a series of notes from Catalyst 2012]

The first session of Catalyst 2012 was “The Making of a Leader” by none other than Andy Stanley.  The theme for this year of conference was “Make” which focused on the making of a leader and by a leader.  As we become leaders, the information that we obtain is certainly valuable, but the making of a leader is defined by significantly more than information and insight.  ”Information and insight alone do not a leader make.”  Instead there are three things that a common in the making of a leader.

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For the last couple of years, I have had the opportunity to head to Atlanta, Georgia for the Catalyst Conference to learn from some of the best teachers, pastors, and communicators in the world of leadership. Each year I have been overwhelmed with the the things that I have learned and have enjoyed sharing some of the notes from the sessions. During the conference this post will serve as a table of contents for the notes that I take so check back often to see what notes I have for you to read.

Conference Notes

Session 1: Andy Stanley

Session 2: Patrick Lencioni

Session 3: Perry Noble

Session 8: Simon Sinek (Short Talk)

It’s common when thinking and talking about our strategies for ministry that we focus on our vision.  We focus on the preferred future that we are aiming at as the new goal for our ministries.  We create mission statements, vision statements, and strategic plans to lay out the preferred idea for how our student ministry or congregation should progress over the next several years.  While a clear, compelling vision is certainly important, we would do much better focus first on the people on our team and let the vision follow.  We should focus first on the who…then on the what.

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Developing leaders is an essential component of leadership.  One of the most important jobs that a leader has is finding other leaders, giving them an opportunity to lead, and teaching them to be the best possible leaders.  Finding a potential leader can be difficult, but it is even more difficult to spend time developing leaders so that they can lead on their own.

This post has been adapted and re-written from an original post written in October 2010.

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Apple.  Nobody produces better products than Apple.  And it would be pointless to talk about creativity, without also paying close attention to shipping great products.  An idea is nothing if it doesn’t come to fruition and not companies do this better than Apple.  They have brought forth incredibly innovative ideas for cell phones, computers, tablets, and more.  But not only did they have ideas to change the way those products were use, they carefully crafted an incredible experience with each of those.  They did the hard work of creativity that requires refining a good idea and turning it into a product that has a great design, great user experience, and gets shipped.

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