From July 16, Wednesday Evening - Washington D.C.

From Columbia, MD we drove south into Washington D.C. - in my opinion one of the greatest cities in the world!  Mark Batterson and the staff at National Community Church (NCC) are good friends with the Catalyst team, and even though Mark was out of town, we were able to spend some time at a coffeehouse started by NCC - Ebenezer's Coffeehouse (pretty cool story).  Matt Morgan, pastor of Reston Community Church (where Ben Arment used to be pastor before joining the Catalyst Team), was our point man to gather several pastors and ministry leaders from the D.C. area.  We all met at Ebernezer's and shared stories about what God has been doing in their churches.  Many leaders met for the first time, and as we were sharing coffee on the patio out front, I sat back and thought about the theme of this year's Catalyst Conference - Together.  It was a perfect title for the evening.  How do you measure the value of face to face interaction?  There was no need to force some preconceived outcome...our time together fostered connection and relationship; it was good to be together.  Here is a glimpse of one story we heard tonight at Ebernezer's:

"My wife and I are starting a church in Leesburg, VA later this Fall called “the noise."  We’re excited but scared to start a new church.  We don’t feel ready, equipped, or qualified.  But we’re going to do it anyway.  I think that’s the way God likes it, He leads us to do things that we can’t do and we have to totally depend on Him to come through.

I also work full-time at Prison Fellowship as the National Director of the Next Generation Initiative – Prison Fellowship is an organization that remembers and serves those whom our society often neglects and scorns: prisoners, ex-prisoners, and their families.  We’re in the midst of launching an effort to engage young adults in this ministry.  There are 2.3 million people in prison and around 600,000 come out each year back into our communities.  Around 55% of those men and women end up back in prison within 2-3 years.  These men and women need churches and followers of Christ to come along side them to help them heal, change, and grow as they walk this journey so they don’t end up back in prison.  We need young adults to remember those in prison and get involved to make a difference in their lives." 
                                                                                                         -Drew Clyde, Lansdowne, VA

Thanks to everyone for coming and for hanging out, I can speak for Mack and Tripp when I say we were blessed to spend time with this great group of young leaders!  Mark, hopefully we can catch you the next time we are in town, thanks for letting us crash your patio at Ebenerzer's!

After dinner Matt Morgan took us by the Lincoln Memorial.  I could sit there for hours, it just doesn't get old.  Unfortunately it was late and we had to get up early Thursday morning so we drove back to Matt's house and headed to bed.  Another busy day, another great day!  Thanks again to Matt and Tricia Morgan for letting three Vanagon Vagabonds  take over their living room floor...

LV
on behalf of the Catalyst Road Trip Team