Feast your eyes upon the newly launched 2008 Catalyst Conference website. You’ll be the one who is oh-so-in-the-know when you explain to your less informed friends that you've already registered for a FREE airline ticket, courtesy of Catalyst. You'll also find out about main stage and Labs speakers, the event schedule, where to stay, and other details pertinent to this year's event. While you're there, register yourself and your group for Catalyst 2008 while rates are still low!

A double episode, featuring Nancy Ortberg and Craig Groeschel. Nancy served as a teaching pastor for eight years at Willow Creek, and currently is a founding partner of TeamWorx2. She is the author of the recent release Looking for God. Craig is the founder and senior pastor of LifeChurch.tv, and is the author of Chazown, Confessions of a Pastor, and Going All the Way.

Over the last few decades, the church has been pushed further and further onto the periphery of culture. Or in many instances, the church has simply retreated to the comfortable confines of its Christian subculture. But if we are going to turn the spiritual tide in America, the church needs to stop retreating and start incarnating the gospel.

Words are powerful. Words frame beliefs. Beliefs shape actions. As we use words and terms we need to stop and listen to see how the meanings of our words have subtly but significantly shifted in the minds of people.

Can you relate to being busy morning until night, only to get up the next day and do the same thing all over again?  Moses had the heart of a servant, but in Exodus 18, it is clear that he was doing too much.

Should it surprise us when people don’t get involved or even move from church to church, trying to find the one that best meets their needs? Even worse, should we be surprised when people walk away from this consumeristic version of Jesus altogether?

Our church culture has boiled down the gospel to three easy steps. The danger is that we may have domesticated the gospel in the process of trying to simplify and mass-communicate it. Far from summarizing the depth and breadth of the gospel, it can end up dismissing 99% of God’s Word.