Catalyst

I had the opportunity to go to the Catalyst conference in Atlanta this past week. It was great and really gave me a chance to step back from the day to day and focus more on the big picture, of my own life and ministry. It's funny how just getting away from our normal setting and routine can allow the Holy Spirit to really work in us. Not sure why that is, but I'm thankful that I had the chance to get away.

The conference was great and I'll probably write more about it as I reflect on it. One thing for today though. This was a conference where they spent around $1 million just on audio and visual stuff. And it was sweet. But normally when people try to lead corporate worship (I hate using that word to talk about church music because it makes us think our worship is confined to singing, but that's the current vernacular, someone come up with something better please) in a setting like that I hate it because it is such a performance. But this time was different. You could tell that the people leading were really singing to God and they did things that conveyed it wasn't all about them. They would stop playing so we could all hear each other's voices and they constantly directed the focus to God (which is as it should be, but it's amazing how often that doesn't happen). So big ups to the leaders at Catalyst who led us into the presence of God. I'm not saying we should consistently spend millions of dollars on AV stuff, but it showed me that God can be worshipped in spirit and truth in any setting.

I promise future blogs on the conference will be a little more interesting. Stay tuned for the whoopie cushion world record!