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VERGE Conference 2012 + Catalyst DISCOUNT!

January 28, 2012


I want to personally invite you to VERGE 2012, a four-day experience for church leaders, students, entrepreneurs, artists, urban innovators, business leaders, community development specialists, non-profit leaders, church planters and everyday leaders - anyone pursuing the mission of God, in community, whatever the context, for the sake of the Gospel.

Verge will resource you to make disciples who make disciples in every sphere and domain of society, advocate for the poor and oppressed, mobilize urban and global mission leaders, and champion movements of gospel-centered missional communities

Made up of pre-conferences, post-conferences, two-days of challenging main sessions, music, workshops, networking opportunities and more, Verge 2012 is here to encourage, build up and renew all kinds of leaders engaged in the mission of God to redeem and renew.

That is why Verge 2012 is For The Gospel, For The City, For The Nations.

Be sure and use the CATALYST DISCOUNT CODE, CAT12, which gets you $30 off your registration price!

Verge 2012 Conference | Austin, Texas | Feb 28 - Mar 2, 2012 | www.verge2012.org

With you for the mission of Jesus,

Michael "Stew" Stewart

| Founder/Director Verge Conference & Verge Network
Twitter | Facebook | Web

| Pastor of Missional Communities
The Austin Stone Community Church
Twitter | Facebook | Web

 

End of the Week Links

January 27, 2012


From Catalyst:

  1. 7 Steps For Creating a Creative System to be Creative by Jeremie Kubicek
  2. SHARE YOUR CATALYST STORY OF IMPACT!!!
  3. Apply to be a Catalyst INTERN!
  4. Beyond the Words- the Truth of a Story by Aaron Harris
  5. Wow, It's been 21 Years by Christine Caine

 

From the Web:

  1. Poisonous Root by Pete Wilson
  2. Why Vision is More Important Than Strategy by Michael Hyatt
  3. 21 Essential Community Management Resources from Mashable
  4. People Matter- 3 Temptations Leaders Face
  5. 3 Relevant Ways to Gain Influence by Tim Peters

Super Early Bird Deadline + Win TWO Tickets to One Day ATLANTA

January 26, 2012


TODAY is the SUPER Early Bird Deadline for Catalyst ONE DAY ATLANTA.

This is your chance to get the best rates on Catalyst ONE DAY tickets.

Catalyst ONE DAY Atlanta is focused on practical leadership. Andy Stanley & Craig Groeschel will be sharing their experience, insights & strategies for creating healthy culture. Not only will you be learning from their personal experience, there will be multiple sessions of Q&A and candid conversation. See what attendees in Houston said about their experience.

For more info, call us up! 678.225.3130 and ask for Jon Hout or go online: CatalystOneDay.com

HELP US SPREAD THE WORD AND YOU COULD WIN two tickets!

HERE'S HOW TO ENTER:

Tweet this: Register for Cat1Day in Atlanta. Best prices end TODAY 1/26! + Win TWO tickets! http://ow.ly/8H7zz

Do You Trust Your Team?

January 25, 2012


Trust is a huge part of having a highly functional team.

One of the greatest talks I’ve ever heard on TRUST and the importance of trust on a team is from Andy Stanley.

In fact, listen to a leadership podcast that Andy recorded. Great insights on this podcast. Highly recommend that you and your entire team take time to listen to this podcast together, and then discuss it. Our team did recently, and was incredibly valuable.

Here are a few main points and thoughts after listening to Andy talk about Trust vs. Suspicion:

1. Being trustworthy doesn’t mean you’ll be flawless and not make mistakes. Give your team freedom to make mistakes and then being willing to own up to it.

2. A great statement in terms of trust: I’ll do what I said I would do, and if not, I will tell you.

3. As leaders, if our team fears our response when they mess up, because they’ve seen our response and don’t want to deal with that, we need to change our response. Our response as leaders is determined by my personal maturity and security.

4. Ultimately, we create a culture of trust by trusting, and trusting more, and trusting even more.

5. Three things to blame when something goes wrong- blame a person, blame human nature, or blame the system. But many times, when the system is at fault and to blame, we still want to blame a person.

6. The tendency when something bad happens, or one of your team members acts in an untrustworthy fashion, is to try and create a system or a policy that will keep it from happening ever again- managing towards the lowest common denominator. One person messing up causes the entire system to change. This is not the right thing to do. All you’ll do is create a culture where everyone thinks you don’t trust them, and perhaps end up running off your best people on the team who are incredibly trustworthy because rules and regulations have been set up for one person, and not for everyone.

By Brad Lomenick, check out more of his thoughts here & follow him here!

Beyond the Words - the Truth of a Story

January 24, 2012


Stories are powerful. They are like guides that lead us through a narrative and into a world that lives between the words - revealing so much more than the mere words themselves. A story contains the power to ignite desire in a person; the power to portray a principle; the power to create a new space in which one can take refuge; and even the power to invoke a visceral response in the listener. Stories are like food for the soul - nourishing it and helping it grow. More than anything, stories contain the power to heal.

Several years ago, after a man I barely knew boldly shared his story while at a men's retreat I finally mustered the courage to tell my own story of brokenness, sexual abuse and addiction - deciding to spare no detail and let everything out of all the dark recesses of my heart and mind. It was one of the most uncomfortable and painful moments of my life. I could not even look at the other guys in the room. I just knew that when I looked up they would all have run out of the room to go pray for me and my heathen ways.

After the second hour into my story when I finally did look up, they hadn't left - they were actually engaged with me and many of them crying for me during parts of the story where I could not yet cry for myself.
After that retreat I went home and shared the details of my story with all my closest friends. I wanted to share about this hope and healing I had encountered. However, I did not expect what happened next - through telling my story others around me were finding healing as well. Yet, not because of some enlightened truth in my story or the eloquence of my speech but because in the telling of my story I had inadvertently invited them to begin to tell their own stories.

As a result of sharing my story over those first few months, I began to experience amazing healing in my life. The hope that came as I spoke the words of my story began creating a new space of healing, a space that hung between the words of my story. The telling of my story ushered in newfound freedom and peace that seemed to permeate every ounce of my being.

I had been hiding my story for years, fearing that telling my story would drive people away. Yet, telling my story seemed to have the opposite effect. The more I shared, the more others shared with me. It seemed as though others were starving for a deeper connection through the sharing of our stories, our lives.

I have realized that in a world that offers numerous ways to connect on a daily basis, we are starving for a much deeper connection than Twitter and Facebook can offer. We all want more than the contrived stories of life presented on people's Facebook page or the polished stories presented by the leaders around us. We want authenticity.

We want the truth!

A starving person will likely tell you that what they want most is for the ache of hunger to go away but in reality their desire is actually for something much deeper - healing nourishment. They want to live - hunger is just the voice to that deeper desire.

The same thing applies to stories. We may not even know why we are starving so much for authenticity but it is for more than stopping the hunger for connection. It is for the healing nourishment of what a story offers to a person - the hope of new life.

In my silence my story had power over me - yet, in telling my story it released its suffocating grip on me and began to grip others and pull them toward life and healing along with me. The nature of my story did not change once I began to speak it aloud, yet the nature of its power was radically changed from that of bondage to that of freedom. Yet that power could only be realized once I spoke it with my mouth. Only then did the power of my story become a catalyst for change in my life and the life and stories of others.

Are you willing to go beyond the words and to the truth of your story? Who around you may be waiting on you to tell your story and invite them into a healing space? Had that man several years ago not told his story, I am afraid my life would have been bleak in comparison to my life as it is now.

Share your story. Experience healing. Share healing.

Aaron Harris is a native Atlantan and currently resides in Sandy Springs. By day, he is a transactional attorney in the Atlanta area and moonlights as an artist and writer. His artworks can be found in many private and corporate collections throughout the United States. Through his writings he uses his own personal story to address hard subjects like addiction and abuse in order to bring light into dark areas otherwise often ignored. Connect further at Aarons's blog or follow him on Twitter.

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