‘Catalyst One Day’ at Saddleback Church Empowers Christians for Leadership

By Lauren D'Avolio
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Andy Stanley, Rick Warren, and Craig Groeschel stands together. Twitter

Saddleback Church in Lake Forest, Calif., hosted a one-day Catalyst conference with two prominent speakers.

Andy Stanley and Craig Groeschel have unpacked the nuts-and-bolts of leadership, according to the event’s website.

Rick Warren, pastor and founder of Saddleback, recently Tweeted about the conference.

“I have so much respect for friends @andystanley and @craiggroeschel who taught all day,” he wrote.

Groeschel is the founding and senior pastor of LifeChurch.tv. Craig, his wife Amy, and their six children live in the Edmond, Oklahoma area where LifeChurch.tv began in 1996, according to catalystconference.com.

Groeschel’s creative leadership is changing the way church is done worldwide. Under his leadership, LifeChurch.tv has become one of the country’s first multi-campus churches, with more than 70 weekend services at 15 locations. LifeChurch.tv also partners with 200 network churches that view its messages every weekend. Groeschel is the author of several books, including The Christian Atheist, It, Chazown, Confessions of a Pastor, Love, Sex.

Stanley is a sought-after leadership communicator, author, pastor and the founder of North Point Ministries (NPM). Each Sunday, more than 33,000 people attend NPM’s five Atlanta-area churches. In addition, NPM has planted over 30 churches outside the Metro Atlanta area with a combined weekly attendance of more than 15,000. Nearly two million of Stanley’s messages are accessed from North Point websites monthly, including both leadership and sermon content, according to catalystconference.com.

The conference’s Twitter page, twitter.com/catalystleader, offers podcasts, quotes and other insights.

Catalystconference.com also says this conference will teach attendees how to:

Make Vision Stick

Understand the daily practices and commitments that turn ideas into reality.

Be More Decisive

Uncover the distractions, roadblocks and bureaucracy hindering you from making sound decisions.

Examine Assumptions

Discover what has momentum and what needs to go.

Prioritize the Value of Ministry/Family Balance

Establish boundaries to protect what you value most.

Make Better Staffing Decisions

Gain insight and perspective on finding the right people and keeping them on your team.

Improve Communication

Become better at preaching, communicating and overall content delivery.

Strategize and Execute

Determine how to plan effectively and make optimal decisions about resourcing specific ministry areas.

Other Catalyst One Day conferences are coming Nov. 7 in Chicago and Nov. 21 in Central Pennsylvania. The website says more dates are coming soon.

Catalyst was conceived as a Next Generation Leaders Conference in 1999 by Andy Stanley, Reggie Joiner, John Maxwell, Lanny Donoho and several young leaders. Catalyst was created to meet the felt need that existed within the church leader space for a leadership event that was focused on a new generation of church leaders, says the website.

Since inception, more than 100,000 leaders have made the annual trek to Atlanta to participate in the full Catalyst Conference experience, and this October, once again, more than 12,000 young leaders will gather to experience Catalyst up close. In addition, more than 3,000 leaders will gather for the Catalyst West Coast experience in Orange County and 3,000 more will gather for the first ever Catalyst in Dallas.

A message was left with Saddleback Church for their comment, but went unreturned because the church is closed on Fridays.

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