Doesn't this look AMAZING? Catalyst will be back in Dallas, May 9-11, 2012. Check out the site HERE, download your FREE present HERE!

If you attended last year, what was your favorite moment, speaker, song? Tell us in the comments!

Young leaders consistently ask me: “What’s one practical piece of advice for becoming/being a leader who gets things done?” A leader that is trustworthy and reliable. The kind of leader when you ask them to get something done, you have complete confidence that it will happen.

My answer is always the same: Write It Down. Always. What do I mean?

1. Never show up to a meeting without a pen and a notebook. My preference is a sharpie and a moleskine notebook. But doesn’t matter whether it’s a legal pad or a Red Big Chief pencil, Or your iphone or laptop. ALWAYS show up to a meeting ready to record thoughts, ideas, takeaways, and action items. I tell my team this all the time, whether we are having a group meeting or individual meetings.

2. Carry a pen and notebook with you wherever you go. If you have a thought, write it down. Remember a task that needs to be completed while in your office, capture it in an email or in a running to do list on your desktop or in Evernote. In the car?…. capture it on your iphone audio memo or on a dictation machine. Great ideas seem to always hit us at random times. But always make sure it is captured somewhere. Always.

3. Create a system for organizing your ideas and thoughts. I did a blog post a while back about this entitled The Way I Get Things Done. Highlighting how and where I capture ideas and the way I organize them on my computer and in different email folders and notebooks.

BONUS thought: One of the most important, if not THE most important person in the room during a brainstorming or creative session is the notetaker. And if you don’t have a notetaker for these meetings, find one. Don’t have another meeting without one. It has to be someone who is really good at listening, filtering, and capturing. It CAN’T be someone who is actively engaged in the creative or brainstorming elements.

By doing these things, it frees you up to have energy to be creative, think outside the box, dream, and ultimately have a list that works and a way to keep a running account of what items are on your list to get done.

What method do you use for capturing ideas & notes? Share in the comments!

Read more of Brad's thoughts HERE or follow him HERE.

Catalyst Atlanta 2011 | Francis Chan from Catalyst on Vimeo.

Being Present means dwelling in HIM.

HIS presence matters is the understatement of the year.

Does ANYTHING ELSE matter?

Think to the OT stories, his presence MATTERED!

In the NT, people prayed & were FILLED with the presence of God.

[John 15:5] I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing.

EVERYTHING is dependent on HIM.

Where are you seeing God's presence in your life? What fruit do you bear as a result of Christ IN YOU?

  Every now and then I love to post quirky and inspirational quotes on Twitter. It's become a hobby of mine actually. I search for the sage words of the heroes of yesteryear and meditate on them myself for a bit before I highlight them with the mouse on my laptop, then cut the quote, and paste it into my Twitter update box.

I'm old school. I still sign in to Twitter.com. I'm not into apps. Sometimes I find a quote that I love, then highlight it, cut it, and paste into the Twitter box - only to be sorely disappointed that it has 20-30 letters more than the 140 the box will allow.

Sometimes I find myself in a real quandary. I love the quote. It won't fit, but I'm dying for you all to see and share the wisdom with me. Should I trim it? Is that allowed? Would Mark Twain be irritated if I changed "for" to "4" or too to "2"?

Normally, I just leave the quote alone and it never makes it to my Twitter timeline. But a few days ago I bumped into one, highlighted it, cut it, pasted it, found that it didn't fit, and almost moved on to another quote... but I couldn't shake it. The words struck a nerve with me. They were about me. They were about so many of us.

How could I share it? If I trimmed it even a little bit, it was so good that it might lose some of its oomph. It sounds silly, but I was in a full-fledged Twitter-quotation-dilemma. I trimmed it, posted it, and it was only moderately well received or retweeted. However, it had a major impact on my heart and I haven't stopped thinking about it. Today, I have decided to share it with you. Read it over a few times. It's from C.S. Lewis (the Narnia guy). He says,

"Christianity, if false, is of no importance, and if true, of infinite importance. The only thing it cannot be is moderately important."

WOW! It's so simple, but so profound, and yet so heavy, like a ton of bricks falling down on the hot air balloon of my moderately important religion.

He's right. If Christianity is a lie, we have wasted a huge amount of time and money and energy on it all. If it's a lie, then Bill Maher is right - it's a big ‘ol mythical waste of our time. But if it is true, not the pastor, not the broadcast, not the bestseller about it, but if the premise of Christianity itself is true - if a modest man named Jesus walked the earth and chose to die for me (and for you), then it can never be moderately important - it must, in every way, mean everything to us. But it rarely does.

If the Creator of the Universe sees me, knows the number of hairs on that extra hairy spot underneath the toenail of my big toe, and actually gives a flying flip about me, then it's time I live like it. Thanks for keeping it real C.S. Sorry I butchered your quote on Twitter. Thanks for letting it butcher my moderately important religion.

Shaun King, founder of HopeMob, is a Mashable award winning techie-humanitarian. His social media projects have received over 100 million visits and raised $5 million for charity.

    I was simply a ‘next generation leader' looking to make a mark on my world. I was ready to step into the mysterious journey of pursuing Jesus by embracing; courage, danger, adventure, mission and calculated risk. The Lord would use Catalyst to change my world or more accurately His World, forever. Someone other than Jesus believed in me. That was all I needed.

I was pastoring Gateway Church, a church I had the opportunity to plant from scratch. I was sitting in my office when 9-11 rocked our world. That evening I was in New York City and I would serve there for the next 3 weeks as a first responder with the Salvation Army.

Another crisis would awaken my soul as it flooded our media. Katrina! I was now trained by the American Red Cross as a First Responder. I was deployed. Catalyst had etched a ‘key' word into my brain. LEADERSHIP. I was in Baton Rouge and overheard the need for leadership. I stepped in. I had no idea what was about to happen to my life. I ended up leading 10 counties in Louisiana with 8 large mass shelters under my leadership. It would become the classroom of my greatest leadership experience.

A well-intentioned friend spoke some hard words into my life, unknowingly. He said, "That's great that you get to go to all the ‘BIG" crisis', but do you take the Church with you?" That was the birth of CPR-3. I believe in the Church. I wanted to be a catalyst for ‘the RED cross' the cross that cared for both the physical (the American Red Cross) and the spiritual (the blood stained cross of Jesus) needs of people.

An earthquake in Haiti would be the final ‘catalyst' to move me into the full time arena of crisis, catastrophe and extreme poverty. CPR-3 is a faith-based organization with a driving passion to 'Breathe Life and Hope into our World.' CPR-3 supports relief, rehabilitation and development initiatives.

Humanity at its core demands compassion for the overlooked. People who live in extreme poverty, people who experience crisis in their lives and people whose lives are devastated by catastrophe are looking for Hope. For those who are blessed, there is a responsibility for what we choose to do with the resources that have been entrusted to us. History will surely report how we chose to respond to the overlooked. Thankfully, what is written is up to us.

People turn to God during times of crisis. The Church historically shines during crisis. The faith based community is one of the greatest providers of resource, love and care. Through strategic partnership and amazing coaching from years of great teaching at Catalyst, the Lord had prepared me for ‘my' moment....His divine purpose for my life would now be realized to its fullest potential.

I had learned the skills of partnership, networking, lifelong learning and strategic thinking from some of the sharpest minds of our time. I would now be asked to take those technical and tactical elements from the classroom to the field of play. Andy Stanley says, "To be the best next generation leader you can be, you must enlist the help of others." Jim Collins shouts out, "make sure you have the right people on your bus." The authors of the Starfish and the Spider, clearly define the role of a catalyst ‘movement.' "A catalyst initiates a circle then fades away into the background. He develops an idea, shares it with others, and leads by example. He is like the architect of the house: he's essential to the long-term structural integrity, but he doesn't move in."

The Church is the Hope of the World when it is working as God intends. The CPR-3 structure is a decentralized movement that allows Church, Business, Schools and Hospitals to "BE the Church."

I resigned my role of Lead Pastor and launched CPR-3. Since July of 2010, the Lord has allowed us to make a significant impact in Haiti. It would NOT be through ‘my' efforts, but by those whom the Lord would bring along side of our new mission. There was a freedom for "Leaders to Lead" and "Catalysts to be Catalyst."

Today, 18 months later, CPR-3 through strategic partnerships has built 550 homes/shelters; built 4 training centers for skill development and micro-enterprise, training Haitian men and women how to provide for their families; established 3 schools; provided over 1,000 Water Filtration Systems; are partnering in the feeding initiatives that see 65,000 children fed each day; and has now partnered with a Haitian Community in establishing a full hospital caring for physical needs. CPR-3's "2 Partner" program connects, Churches 2 Churches - Schools 2 Schools - Business 2 Business and Hospitals 2 Hospitals.

To learn more about how you can partner with CPR-3 please go to www.cpr-3.com

I pray that our Catalyst family will pursue both Passion for God and Compassion for People in a world searching for Hope. Together we can Breathe Life and Hope into our World.

By Dan O'Deens - Executive Director; CPR-3

If you have a CATALYST STORY OF IMPACT, email ashley.williams@catalystspace.com