10.14.2008
So, I'm not bashing conferences or resources (which was asked of me early Sunday), I am just processing the current status of the movement in America. I love what conferences and resources are out there, I just don't think they are the messiah, end all - be all, solution and second coming the church is looking for.
The church (God's church, the local church you are sitting at as you read this post) needs something that I am coming to realize quickly. It might not be new news to you or me, but we seem to forget it.
When I look in the mirror I see Jason Bedell. A man who has been broken, a liar, womanizer, cheater, deceiver and all around jerk - BUT... I also see the places on my skin and body where God took the brokenness and repaired me put be back together and now I see the scars. The glue. The molding of a new person.
But that is wrong.
If I see glue, scars, lines, and repair marks... I am not new, just fixed. I am not completely different, I am just refurbished. I need to recognize that God took Jason Bedell, strapped C4 to his chest and obliterated that dude. Now there is a likeness of Jason Bedell in the form of Jesus walking, moving breathing, talking and he is a force to be reckoned with. While sitting listening to Aaron Keyes lead worship and Matt Chandler speak at the unplugged session... It was not about "strategery" (ha), "leadership principles" or "the right steps to make your po'dunk church a mega church for only $199.95" - It was about chasing God.
Not just chasing, but yearning. I mean it's so entrenched in your DNA and gut that like breakfast at the Golden Corral, the hot-and-fresh sign at Krispy Kreme, or the rev'n of engines at NASCAR, your drawn to it without even thinking. It's second nature.
When church leaders will turn to God in such a lustful, passionate and uncomfortable for everyone else around them kind of way... forget conferences, resources, the next "big thing", etc. I would just get out of the way because God is going to create a firestorm of movement through the communities of the leaders who latch on to it.
I pray God does this for you.
He's slowly creating it in me. More Catalyst thoughts coming soon.
J-del *over and out*
[photo: Aaron Keyes at Catalyst/ taken by daleyhake.com]
just my thoughts.