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Our First of Many Visits Around Atlanta!

May 02, 2008

This past Thursday we took to the streets of greater Atlanta visiting some of our Catalyst friends and delivering the latest and greatest Catalyst Group Leader Kits. The Catalyst Team has done it again - an amazing experience package designed to equip group leaders to help build vision and excitement for the Catalyst Conference in October - usually delivered in the mail, but not today! We traveled through parts of Lawrenceville, Buford, Gainesville, and Duluth making stops along the way to group leaders that have been a part of the Catalyst Movement - some for many years!

A huge thanks to Kristen Paxson, Bruce Hardy, & Sean Jazdzyk for taking time out of their busy schedules to briefly entertain us and the Catalyst Vanagon - for some reason, the Catalyst Vanagon seems to kill any and all office productivity! We had a lot of fun... check out some of the pictures:

Bruce Hardy & the team from Cross Pointe Church in Duluth, GA

Sean Jazdzyk (far left) from Free Chapel in Gainesville, GA

Posted by Catalyst Roadtrip at 10:00 PM • Permalink •

The Pop Culture Strategy

We are in exciting times for Evangelicalism. The world is changing. Church attendance seems to be dropping, our culture seems to be getting more secular, Web 2.0 and other media are connecting us like never before, and Post-modernism is giving us a run for our money!

In response to this we have: the emergent church, the missional church, the Church Plant Explosion, new monasticism, the Simple Way, and all kinds of other stuff.

There are several new thoughts and strategies (and books and CDs) about how to reach the lost in America. One strategy is to use Pop Culture to reach un-churched people and make the Gospel relevant to their lives. Of course you've heard of Tim Stevens' new book, Pop Goes the Church. While he has big fans of the book here and here, there is a critical voice here (that Tim Stevens graciously linked to and humbly wonders if there is a kernel of truth in what they're saying).

We will probably always debate about what strategy is best for advancing the Kingdom. Wouldn't it be great if there was one all-encompassing forum where we could debate with grace and love and the whole Church could be on the same page? Until then, what do you think of Tim's strategy? OR, what is your strategy?

Posted by Catalyst Admin at 08:07 AM • Permalink •

The Waiting Room of Postmodernism
By Tim Willard

May 01, 2008

Had breakfast this morning with a friend and our pastor. We like to grease our insides with Waffle House at 7am one day a week. But I digress.

Our discussion centered on Timothy Keller's new book The Reason for God. His approach to apologetics is refreshing - less evidential, more presuppositional. He alludes to the fact that more and more people are flocking to Christianity because of its doctrine - not because the church cafe serves Starbucks. Our pastor commented that one of the reasons Islam is taking Europe by storm is because people desire a belief system. Who knew?

The current (fading) trend in the western church downplays denomination, is light on sacraments and is bent on innovating the latest-greatest church experience. While we at Catalyst love a creative experience we wonder how long this mode of church will hang on.

If Keller is right (and this is not his central theme, just a point that sparked some thought) that "robust religious beliefs dominate the world," then perhaps we should move from this wishy-washy postmodern approach to doing church and put a doctrinal stake in the sand, put on our work clothes and get dirty spreading God's love and his message.

For ongoing thoughts and reflections on Keller's new book, hook up to our feed and throw some thoughts in the ring.

Tim Willard is a consistent contributor to Catalyst Monthly and was the managing editor for the Catalyst GroupZine. Check-out Tim's blog - FlickerNail.com

Posted by Catalyst Admin at 06:56 AM • Permalink •

Orange Conference, Day Two

April 30, 2008

New pictures from the second day of Orange 2008 are now up on our Flickr! Page, check them out! It's been a great event and we've had a chance to meet a ton of people from all over the country - the bright yellow van is a great ice breaker! Breakout sessions are in progress and then the final session will begin at 4:15, just wanted to send a quick update...

Your Friendly Catalyst Road Trip Team
(just had a conversation with a new friend from Toronto, could the Catalyst Vanagon make it that far north???)

Posted by Catalyst Roadtrip at 10:02 AM • Permalink •

Homosexual Loved

There has been some interesting news regarding homosexuality this week.

Last week's "Day of Silence" - a day where students protest the lack of acceptance of homosexuals - was met with love from Christian groups this year, rather than boycotts and animosity.

From the Christian Post:
As part of the "Golden Rule Initiative," students passed out cards throughout the day vowing to live in the manner of Christ's teaching to "Do to others as you would have them do to you" in reference to the passage from Scripture. The cards also read, "As a follower of Christ, I believe that all people are created in the image of God and therefore deserve love and respect."
...
"The LGBT community saw something revolutionary â€“ they saw Christians loving them and more than that, they saw the love of Christ. What would happen if next year, hundreds of Christian students walked around with duct tape in silence?" she recalled in her email, a day after the event.

This is very interesting indeed. One of the few examples I've heard of homosexuals feeling loved by Christians. This story comes from The Christian Post, a very conservative and traditional source of Christian news. I hope more of us can make a change from condemning people to loving them. Is this marking a turning point for Christians?

Posted by Catalyst Admin at 06:58 AM • Permalink •

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