John Sampson recently blogged (THANKS RHETT!) 6 reasons why he likes the bi-vocational model - where ministers/staff choose to work a regular job and do a church job on top of that (for free?).

WHY WOULD ANYONE WANT TO DO THIS!!?? What do you think? Here's what John said:

1.Shared Responsibility: All Christians have a job to do.  We can’t leave the ‘ministry” side of life to the paid “sage on the stage.”

2.More Money Goes To Ministry: Less overhead forces/enables people to look at what God is doing around them and see how to serve and bless others.

3.A Good Kind of Messy: Removing the strong “staff vs everyone else” divide flattens the power structure, which may usher in more conflict. But it’s conflict that would be there in any model–It’s just hidden in others.  Here, people are forced to deal with problems instead of ignoring them.

4.It’s Sustainable: If you’re planting a church, it’s tempting to grow quickly to become self-supporting.  But often that leads to shortcuts that transfer Christians rather than reach out to engage people outside of the church.

For the other two, go to our buddy's blog: RhettSmith.com

What do you think?

Shane Hipps spoke last night to wrap up day one at Q and did a brilliant job. Talking on the “distraction of technology” and how it pulls us from being “present in the moment.” So true. I find myself constantly checking twitter, email, facebook, safari, wordpress, and whatever else I have on my phone the minute I find myself bored or have at least a small window of margin in my time during the day. Is this healthy? Not sure. Does it help in creating true community? Again, not sure. Really wrestling with this. In many ways, we’ve become addicted and controlled by our phones, computers, and clocks. Shane argued last night that this is not healthy, nor is it Biblical. 

Really excited about Shane speaking at Catalyst in October in Atlanta. Get ready to be challenged!

Shane Hipps spoke last night to wrap up day one at Q and did a brilliant job. Talking on the “distraction of technology” and how it pulls us from being “present in the moment.” So true. I find myself constantly checking twitter, email, facebook, safari, wordpress, and whatever else I have on my phone the minute I find myself bored or have at least a small window of margin in my time during the day. Is this healthy? Not sure. Does it help in creating true community? Again, not sure. Really wrestling with this. In many ways, we’ve become addicted and controlled by our phones, computers, and clocks. Shane argued last night that this is not healthy, nor is it Biblical. 

Really excited about Shane speaking at Catalyst in October in Atlanta. Get ready to be challenged!

The first ever Catalyst West Coast was a HUGE sucess!  Check out pictures and videos highlighting last week's monumental moment from the Catalyst West Coast Green Room hosted by our good friend, Brian Wurzell.  Thanks to Brian for providing live streaming and real time updates on all that was happening during Catalyst West...stay tuned for more exciting details on Catalyst West 2010!  This is just the beginning...

Catalyst West Coast Green Room

Our new Catalyst Conference website is LIVE! CatalystConference.com

This year's speakers includes a wide variety of voices including: Andy Stanley, Matt Chandler, Louie Giglio, Francis Chan, and tons more! check it out.

Also, we're giving $1 to a charity of your choice, free. All you have to do is click. So take a sec and give now!

And we're giving away a FLIP VIDEO once every 100 hours before the event! (that's a lot of flip videos) ENTER TO WIN NOW - the sooner you enter, the more chances you have to win!

there are several more fun things on our website that you have to go see: including real stories from catalyst leaders (upload your own), fun games, and a geo-caching-treasure-hunt-extravaganza!