Catalyst

I am not going to Catalyst.

Catalyst for those of you who don’t know is quote, “The Catalyst Conference is the largest gathering of young leaders in the country, but it pains us to call it just a conference. Catalyst is more that just a three-day event—its a movement, a convergence, an experience where you find yourself fully immersed in learning, worship and creativity. Catalyst brings people together—the influencers, the do-ers, the cultural architects, and the change agents who will reclaim our communities and culture for good. Pure leadership adrenaline.”

Wow, it would seem they have it all. And there were more paragraphs after that.

Now this is not just going to be a bitter rant because I can’t go. That’s only partially true. I may be too old to go anyways. But lets look at the several sides of this rant.

1. The Catalyst conference itself. I thought about the other day and it came to me. It is the adult Passion conference. You get to recapture that college experience without actually being a student, but now you can get your job (church staff types) to pay for it and you get out of work for a few days. Its Atlanta which is where all the hip people are. It has Andy Stanley and while that isn’t Louie Giglio, its pretty much the same. All the cool p&w bands will be there, it has it all. There is a lot of pink involved and that is always cool. I think there is more here to talk about (some help?), but moving on.

2. Another leadership conference. Man, I was hoping there would be another one somewhere. I mean really, no one is talking about leadership these days . . . this opens up the rant to an idea that will be explored over and over here on the bb blog. I want to have a series of conferences around the nation known as the “Anti-Conference Conferences.” One would be on FOLLOWING, preliminarily called “The Valley,” another one is on MEDIOCRITY, “striving for the average” or something like that. There are more, and these will continue to be flushed out.

3. Young leadership conference. Because you know old people suck. Next generation leaders are where it is at. All those seniors are dying off anyways.

4. Cultural Architects and change agents. Need I say more?

5. Social justice. Not mentioned in the above paragraph, but much a part of Catalyst. Again there will be much more on this topic in the future . . . but I wonder if the young leaders have ever heard of Pacific Garden Mission? Or Amy Carmichael? Just some thoughts.

gotta get back to my work experience.

Log

I have been “logging” for quite some time. Its just it has been out loud (emphasis on loud) and the only people who have been benefitting from it are my cube mates and my wife. And I don’t know if they would use the word benefit. I wanted to call that tlogging, or vlogging or even slogging, but it turns out all of those are taken. I actually have been avoiding blogging, claiming all I needed was my out loud rantings and the face to face arguments of those around me. Well, they have just about heard everything I have to say so I need a new, bigger audience. Besides its not like there aren’t too many blogs out there or that blogging is so 4 years ago.

I have have also tried jlogging at various times over the years (journaling) and it never seems to take. Half the time I write something and I find myself thinking that the whole world needs to be reading this. I know it is supposed to be between God and me, and that should be good enough . . . but what’s the fun in that. Maybe it is again back to the whole bigger audience thing.

So that brings me to here and me to you. It may mean you’ll get my thoughts on the Girlscouts, juice boxes, working out, or why the Emergent church didn’t invent helping the poor.

And if no one is reading this, at least it gives me the false satisfaction that my opinions are changing the world.

Hat

I got a new hat the other day. It is a driving hat. My wife does not like it. I think this makes me like it more.

It started the other day when a friend of mine and I were discussing how a baseball hat just doesn’t cut it anymore. You have to take it up a notch these days. So I went to Target with my $15 gift card left over from my birthday. I was looking originally for a fedora. I thought I could be all Brad Pitt and everything. It turned out it didn’t look very good. But then I found this hat. I had one when I was in junior high. It looked good then and it is working now.

Get used to it.

ASAP

I do not like the term ASAP. Give me a real deadline. If you want it as soon as possible—what does that even mean? Possible to me or possible to you? I could “possibly” do it in a couple of months. Do I need to drop everything for your ASAP job or does someone else’s ASAP job trump yours?

ASAP to me means you don’t have a real deadline, you just think you want it now and you don’t necessarily care how it will affect others. Possibly you did not plan appropriately and thus have created an emergency for me. You have all heard that quote before.

So if you want me to get right on your project, give me a tangible deadline, some boundary, some real timeframe. Otherwise you are like the guy who claps at me on the basketball court, wanting the ball. Listen if you clap at me you are definitely not getting the ball. If you ASAP me, you are at the end of the list.

Introduction

I like butterscotch, cold beans on a hot hamburger, John Piper, tortilla chips dipped in Ketchup, soccer, design, toffee, sun chips, stuffchristianslike.net, slot cars, the prairie, John Denver, Johnny Cash, Bill Simmons (the Sports Guy), McDonald’s, the suburbs, minivans, Louie Giglio, construction, and Mountain Dew.

I do not like watermelon, most potato salads, Rob Bell books, people who don’t tolerate narrow minded people, cats, Kinkos, foreign cars, leadership conferences, Panera Bread Co., authentic community, and skinny straws.

I struggle with anger, consistency, compassion, kindness, memory, getting enough sleep, laziness, and eating well.

There will be much more like this to come. Sorry.