Misc

CBA Meetings and friends part 2

Round 2 of the recap of meetings from CBA in Orlando.  - Spent some time with Alex and Brett Harris. Twins, 19 years old, and started a movement called Rebelution. They are authors of the recent hit book Do Hard Things. Really impressed with who they are, what they are doing, and the vision and purpose behind their message. 

- Caught up with Margaret Feinberg. Margaret has a new book releasing soon called Sacred Echo, and she is also working on a very cool project right now for 2009. Margaret and her husband Leif are incredible people, and great to work with.

- Good to see Hayley and Michael DiMarco from Hungry Planet. Michael and Hayley are highly creative, write great books, and speak major truth into teenagers and students. 

- Have you seen the cover for Rob Bell's new book? Interesting. Look close to see the way the blocks are being used. Very creative. 

- Met with Stephen Brewster from Integrity. Had a great conversation regarding music, Catalyst, Integrity, Hillsong, blogging, and leaders. Look forward to working more with Stephen and Jay on a number of projects.

Who visits Christian bookstores?

So as you know based on my last post, I have been in Orlando the last two days at the International Christian Retail Show put on by the Christian Booksellers Association. More on day two visits later today.  But for now, I wanted to conduct an informal poll of sorts. This polling data quite possibly may end up in the hands of publishing executives at the Big 5 Christian publishers.

Here are the questions: 

1. Do you visit/shop at Christian bookstores? Yes or No

2. If yes, how many times have you visited in the past month? 

3. If no, how many times have you visited a Barnes & Noble or equivalent in the past month? 

Easy enough. Respond away. Mine- No. 5.

Orlando, Epcot, and Christian Booksellers

I'm in Orlando for a couple of days for the International Christian Retail Show, which is put on by the Christian Booksellers Association. A few highlights from today: - Gabe Lyons and Dave Kinnaman were the featured speakers at this morning's general session for all attendees. Plus they were on the cover of the daily ICRS Newspaper. I have secured several copies for my friends in Atlanta......

- UnChristian has now sold over 100,000 copies in 11 months. This is pretty incredible. When Gabe and Dave launched the book at Catalyst last year we had no idea that it would be such a big hit. Congrats to Dave and Gabe for the success and impact of the book. 

- Ran into Paul Young, the author of the uber popular book The Shack. His book was recently picked up by Faith Words, so he was at their booth signing copies. The line was really long, but I cut in to just say hi. Shout out from Paul to the Catalyst Road Trip Crew on their trip around the northeast US!

- Had lunch with Mark Batterson, who is soon to release a new book entitled Wild Goose Chase. Always great to hang with Mark. We discussed at length his upcoming trip in August to Scotland, and the fact he will be playing at St. Andrews, the birthplace of golf.

- Saw Tony Dungy roaming the halls, but wasn't able to get a picture with him. Bummer!

- Went to Epcot for dinner and watched the fireworks at sunset. Very cool. They use lasers, smoke, an LED ball (not wall) that is set up as the globe, and lots of fire. I think the Magic Kingdom fireworks show is much better, but the Epcot "illuminations" show is a good runner up. 

- Ran into Mark Steele and Kevin Anderson from Steelehouse Productions. Those guys are a blast to hang out with. Also ran into Mark Sanborn, the author of the Fred Factor, and soon to release book entitled The Encore Effect. 

- Went to a fun get together put on by Yates and Yates. They are celebrating their 20th year of representing authors and serving tons of clients as literary agents. Their client list is a who's who of Christian authors, including John Maxwell, Rob Bell, Charles Swindoll, Erwin McManus, John Eldridge, and many others. There were a ton of friends in the publishing industry at this celebration gathering, which is a testament to the friends Sealy, Susan, Matt, Curtis, Chris, and Jeana have made through the legal and literary agent work they have done over the years.

Catalyst- In the Know

We're launching a new "store" on the Catalyst website, and I wanted to let you in on a few cool deals before anyone else knows about it. Go to the Catalyst store and check it out. Free shipping, free giveaways, a pretty cool prize to try and win, plus some specials on books and resources you might be interested in. You are the first to know about these deals, so consider yourself a VIP or in the know, or both. Also wanted to provide a few pics from our creative brainstorming meeting last week (as promised a few posts ago). It was a blast- lots of ideas flying, snacks, laughing, balls being thrown, and fortunately nothing broke or no one injured!

[gallery]

Call and Response Rockumentary

Had the privilege a couple of nights ago to join around 50 leaders from the Atlanta area at the Carter Center to see a private screening of the upcoming documentary (rockumentary) titled Call and Response. Justin Dillon, the director, was there along with Erik Lokkesmoe, a good friend who originally informed me of this project. Erik is the founder of Different Drummer, a marketing agency that works with films, projects, and innovative initiatives.  Call and Response is an activist film designed to raise awareness regarding Slavery, forced labor, Child Soldiers, and Sex Trafficking, all four major issues in our culture today, including right here in Atlanta. The project involves a number of bands and artists who collaborated on a music concert that is pretty unbelievable, and highlighted throughout the film, all in an attempt to raise awareness on this issue. This documentary will release in September, and you need to make sure you see it, and take your friends with you. All of the proceeds from the film will be given towards projects designed to end slavery and sex trafficking around the world. And it will disturb you. In a good way. Believe me. 

Jeff Shinabarger has a great post on the film as well over at his blog. 

View the trailor below. 

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mS-0CHXfyIk]

Creative is step #1

As a follow up to Turning Ideas into Reality post from last month. We had a 1/2 day Catalyst Programming brainstorm meeting a few days ago (more pictures from that meeting to follow). When you combine that meeting with 7-8 previous meetings over the last couple of months, there are lots of ideas to consider and research. Around 500 true program ideas right now we have on the list to consider for Catalyst in October along with upcoming events (not all on the boards below). Yikes! The hardest part is deciding what NOT to do.

Many of you have asked about these black creative boards that we use incessantly in all of our planning and programming. You can order them through Don at StoryboardTools.com. His phone number is 724-229-0954 (thanks to Betsy for the correct info on this). Highly recommend them, plus some trusty 3 x 5 cards from your local office supply store, some silver push pens, and you're ready to go.

Young Influencers Archives

THE ARCHIVES

March 2009 Edition: 

 

February 2009 Edition: 

1. Barton Damer- motion graphics, animation, designer and illustration guru. Follow his blog here. 

2. Wendy Kopp- founder of Teach For America, an amazing organization that places recent college graduates as teachers in poor communities and underperforming schools across the country. 

3. John Bishop- pastor of Living Hope Church in Vancouver, Washington. This guy is the real deal. 

4. Kristian Stanfill- many of you are probably aware of Kristian. A talented songwriter and worship leader who recently released a new EP. Leads at North Point, Catalyst, and Passion events regularly. 

5. Jon Gordon- best-selling author of The No Complaining Rule and The Energy Bus. He is impacting major influencers in the business/corporate community. 

6. Austin Gutwein- founder of Hoops of Hope, and one of my heroes. Austin has impacted more people at 14 than most of us will during our entire lives.

January 2009 Edition

1.  Josh Loveless- leads the charge on Status, a ministry to students and young professionals in Orlando, and also brand director for Neue. 

2. Vicky Beeching- talented worship leader and songwriter born in the UK but now hanging out in the US. 

3. Jon Bell- works with The Image Group in Grand Rapids, and also leading the charge on Rob Bell's upcoming tour (you'll hear more about this later). Very involved with Heart Support, an online care community. 

4. Dave Barnes- uber talented musician, singer, songwriter,  and insanely funny and all-around good guy. Take time to watch some videos on his site. You will laugh. 

5. Lindsay Orr- founder of LUO, an initiative focused on setting children free from poverty, sickness, slavery and other injustices around the world. Talented artist as well. 

6. Scott McClellan- editor of Collide Magazine, and also purveyor of the Collide blog.

The December edition of the Young Influencers List. 

1. Tad Agoglia- founder of the First Response Team of America. This is an amazing organization and Tad is one of the winners of the CNN Heroes Award. 

2. Natalya Radford - worship leader at Crossroads Church in Costa Mesa, CA, as part of the Generate Student Ministry.

3. Tripp Crosby- sketch comedian, host and filmmaker. Founder of Green Tricycle Films and the maker of perhaps the funniest video ever at Catalyst featuring Lanny Donoho and Jeff Foxworthy. 

4. Jessica Flannery- co-founder of Kiva, an incredible organization that is a platform for micro-finance throughout the world. 

5. Rick Devos- founder of Spout, an interactive online community that is designed to connect and inspire film lovers.

November edition of the Young Influencers List. 

1. Cathleen Falsani- award winning Religion columnist for the Chicago Sun Times. Her recent book Sin Boldly is a refreshing take on faith in today's culture. Love her humor and wit. 

2. Kevin Palau- EVP of the Luis Palau Association. Among his many duties, Kevin spearheaded the Portland City Fest, which has helped churches, schools, the mayor's office, businesses, and local government all collaborate on service projects in the city of Portland. Amazing work. 

3. Santino Stoner- Partner with Dot Cross. Also Film Director on the very popular NOOMA series. 

4. Jay King- A and R guru at Integrity Music. Jay is one of the good guys in the music industry. He is out constantly finding new talent as well as handling current artists such as Hillsong United. 

5. Brian Pirkle- COO of BigStuf Events. You will usually find Brian with a headset on calling a show from the production area. 20 years from now will be the creative/technical producer for the Grammys, or the Oscars, or the Presidential Inauguration!

October edition of the Young Influencers List 

1. Daley Hake- talented musician and photographer from CA. Check out his work and some recent shots he took at Catalyst. He makes Carlos Whittaker look like a runway model! Daley- help me!

2. Steven Furtick- you've probably already heard about Steven and the incredible work happening at Elevation Church in Charlotte. Make sure to subscribe to his Sermon podcast. Prepare to be challenged. 

3. Justin Dillon- visionary and Director of the recent rockumentary Call and Response. Also a musician and former member of the band Dime Store Prophets. His work in fighting sex trafficking and slavery is inspiring.

4. Danielle Bennett- Virginia native, a Junior at USC (that's Southern Cal), and the most recent addition to the Catalyst team- our West Coast Catalyst intern. Danielle is gonna be president of something substantial someday. 

5. Aaron Keyes- gifted worship leader, and a fresh voice to worship leaders all over the world. Aaron has forgotten more scripture than I can remember. His approach to leading worship is fresh and extremely Biblical. 

6. Jonathan Bostic- if you need motion graphics, amazing videos, or just basic branding/graphics, Bostic is your man. Jonathan did the recent opening video and motion graphics display on the screens at Catalyst. He also helps out with Orange Conference, Passion Conferences, and does work with several bands and musicians.

September edition of the Young Influencers List:

  1. Brandon McCormick – Founder of Whitestone Motion Pictures. He is young, talented, and will soon be creating feature films.
  2. Jena Lee Nardella - Took over as Executive Director of Blood:Water Mission when she was 22, and has been running this great organization for the last 4 years.
  3. Matthew Emerzian - founder of Every Monday Matters. Writer, visionary and speaker whose book Every Monday Matters: 52 Ways to Make A Difference has sold over 100,000 copies.
  4. Brad Abare - Brad started Church Marketing Sucks, leads communications for The Four Square Church, and is a big idea guy.
  5. Charles Lee - Charles is the cultural catalyst and pastor at New Hope South Bay in CA, a founding member of Just One (addressing poverty and slavery), and a professor on the side.

August edition of the Young Influencers List 

Again, for all of you who like to try and read into things, there is no significance to order- simply listed alphabetical by last name.

1. Chuck Anderson- a great designer/illustrator in Grand Rapids who is doing work for the likes of Puma, Amp Energy Drinks, Honda, VANS, Nike, and Mountain Dew. He’s good. 

2. Alex and Brett Harris- twin 19 year old authors who have taken the teen world by storm with their best-selling book Do Hard Things. These guys are the real deal, and are challenging teens around the world to not settle for mediocrity. 

3. Daniel Homrich- founder of The Passport and Innocence Atlanta. Daniel is working on a number of projects in the Atlanta area and globally, specifically to bring attention to and raise awareness of issues of sex trafficking, slavery, and child pornography.

4. Anne Jackson- blog queen of the church leadership world. Anne recently moved to Nashville where she can get her fill of sweet tea on a regular basis!

5. Mark Reddy- founder of Karbon, a film/media company out of Sydney, Australia. Mark is a talented director, and currently working on a great project called The Disposable Ones in conjunction with Compassion International. He also has worked on a number of projects with Hillsong. 

July edition of the Young Influencers List

1. Jon Tyson- church planter in New York City. Launched Origins NYC, and is now set on helping plant churches and leaders in strategic cities around the world.

2. Blake Mycoskie- founder of TOMS Shoes. You may know about Blake's story already- if not, it is worth knowing and getting involved.

3. Bethany Hoang- director of the International Justice Mission Institute. Bethany is very involved in a number of projects around the world, is a graduate of Princeton Theological Seminary, and a frequent speaker.

4. Eugene Cho- pastor in Seattle of Quest Church. Also soon to launch a new organization focused on global poverty. You can watch a video introducing the idea here.

5. Carlos Whittaker- writer of the uber popular Ragamuffin Soul, service program director at Buckhead Church, and also worship leader and musician.

June edition of the Young Influencers List:

1. Jonathan Acuff- writer/blogger/consultant, and the voice behind the wildly popular Stuff Christians Likeblog.

2. Chris Heuertz- International Executive Director of an amazing organization called Word Made Flesh. Chris spends most of the year around the world serving the poorest of the poor, and has a new book out called Simple Spirituality due out in July.

3. Shannon Sedgwick Davis- Shannon is incredibly well connected, and is involved in a number of projects, including The Bridgeway Foundation and The Elders, which boasts some amazing names attached to this high level humanitarian project.

4. Tony Wood - leader of the College/Young Adults ministry at Crossroads Church in Corona, CA.

5. Lecrae- songwriter, rapper, musician and speaker. Lecrae is part of Reach Records, and very involved in the Memphis community.

May edition of the Young Influencers List.

1. Bobby Triplett- pastor of a great church plant called Element Church in Lakeland, FL.

2. Jared Herd- great new young communicator. former associate teaching pastor at Rock Harbor in Orange County, and frequent speaker at Big Stuf Camps, Orange Conference, North Point, and other student ministry environments.

3. Shauna Niequist- The author of Cold Tangerines, daughter of Bill Hybels, and former creative director at Mars Hill Bible Church.

4. Chris Capehart and Micah Davis- founders of Roov.com in Dallas, an innovative new social network community.

5. Elizabeth Paul- have you seen the latest commercials with Nancy Pelosi and Newt Gingrich, or Al Sharpton and Pat Robertson sitting together on a couch talking about solving the current global warming issues? Well, Elizabeth is involved in crafting those commercials.

6. Krish Kandiah- my friend over in Cambridge in the UK, who helps run the Evangelical Alliance in the UK, and is a budding author, speaker and thought leader for the global church. Started Slipstream which is a great network for young global leaders in the church.

April edition of the Young Influencers List:

1. Jamie Tworkowski- Founder, To Write Love on Her Arms

2. David Hodges- Singer, Songwriter, and Producer

3. David Platt- Senior Pastor, The Church at Brookhills, Birmingham

4. Matt Chandler- Lead Pastor, The Village Church, Dallas

5. Catherine Rohr- Founder, Prison Entrepreneurship Program

Drink Coffee. Do Good

If any of you were at Catalyst last year, you know that we provided coffee for every attendee. Well that coffee was Rwandan coffee, and provided by Land of a Thousand Hills Coffee Co. I recently spent a few minutes at their headquarters in Roswell, GA, getting a tour of their offices, coffee shop, and brewing center, and also spending time hanging with Jonathan Golden, the founder, and Robert Crow, who is the relationship director and works with churches and organizations around the country. Since Catalyst last October, they have now partnered up with several other events, and also are now working with several hundred churches in providing coffee for congregations on Sunday morning. Check out this story from the local Fox TV station that recently aired.

The coffee is great, but what is even better is the story behind the coffee- how hundreds of Rwandans are now being paid fair wages for their coffee growing. Literally, communities in Rwanda are being changed because of us choosing to drink their coffee. So make sure and check out Land of a Thousand Hills and get involved- order coffee for your office, your church, your home, or next party. Coffee with a Story.

Interview with Erwin McManus

I recently spent an hour with Erwin McManus on the phone interviewing him for a Filter private conference call. You can listen to an excerpt of the interview on the latest Catalyst Podcast, either via itunes or on the Catalyst website. 

We talked about Erwin's most recent book that has just released- Wide Awake: The Future is Waiting Within You. We also discussed his take on creativity, current challenges in the Church, and some of his most recent projects.

A few notable quotes from the interview: 

"As pastors, we should make sure we are spending 6 days a week listening, and one day a week talking."

"Our problem is not a deficit in resources in the Church today.... the problem is we haven't learned how to develop human talent in our church communities."

"We need to be doing more of what we are created to do, and less of what we are obligated to do."

"We have incredible communicators in the Church today.... the challenge is we're just not talking about anything the world cares about."

 

Obama and Evangelicals

 

 

Interesting article today in the New York Times regarding Barack Obama and whether he can attract young evangelicals, many of whom have voted largely Republican in the past. This is an interesting question that will be raised consistently over the next couple of months. 

My good friend Gabe Lyons is quoted in the article. Click here to read. 

Get Your Audience to Care

//www.pmthink.com/BusinessInnovationAtFedex01.jpg” cannot be displayed, because it contains errors. How do you get your audience to care about your latest innovation? Well, the latest issue of Fast Company has a great article on this topic. Chip and Dan Heath's regular column digs into the practical side of this problem. The article is entitled "Selling Your Innovation: Anchor and Twist." I highly recommend checking it out, particularly as it relates to making your idea "customer friendly" so people will relate and understand your concept.

And if you haven't read Chip and Dan's book Made to Stick, go out and get a copy. It is almost two years old now, but a great read. They are working on their next book that will release in 2009, and I recently received a short teaser for it. Good stuff. These guys are really smart!

What Magazines are you reading?

Reading magazines is a great way to stay up to date on culture, trends, news, and fresh ideas. Here are five (actually six) that I recommend you subscribe to: 1. Fast Company- what I believe is the best combination of business and innovation content available. Always great articles and lots of profiles on young business leaders.

2. Paste- if you are a music fan, definitely make sure you are subscribed. Paste is headquartered here in Atlanta, and run by friends Josh Jackson and Nick Purdy.

3. Wired- technology driven magazine. Sometimes a bit too futurist, but always great articles and ideas that are fresh. 

4. GOOD- a relatively new magazine that donates all revenue from subscriptions to several different charitable organizations of your choice. Really good design, and each issue focuses on areas of "social good" in culture, and also innovative trends in grassroots networking and marketing.

5. Risen and Relevant - both considered Christian magazines, even though both take a unique approach in terms of looking at culture and faith. Risen is more interview driven around celebrities, and Relevant focuses primarily on issues for twenty somethings. 

What magazines do you recommend that aren't on this list? 

A fun week at the Catalyst office

Spirit week here at Catalyst is wrapping up today, with our final celebration being Beach Day. Here are some pics from Spirit Week to give you a glimpse into the fun we have around here.

A few points of interest:

- The favorite day of the week for our interns (Ansley Lawhead, Lara Morris, and Sabrina Joseph) has been Beach Day, and after seeing the pic above, you can see that they were decked out from head to toe!

- On favorite team day, here were the schools represented by our team: Chad Johnson- Boston Red Sox, Dwayne Melton- Virginia Cavaliers, Ben Arment- Atlanta Falcons, Melissa Kruse- Stetson Mad Hatters, Sally Heffner- Alabama Crimson Tide, Jesse Phillips- U. of Cal Berkley, Beth Nelson- Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets, Dustin Ahkuoi- North Carolina Tar Heels, Ansley Lawhead- Georgia Southern Eagles, Chris Ediger- Oklahoma Sooners, Lara Morris- St. Louis Cardinals, Sabrina Joseph- Georgia State, Brian Cole- Virginia Tech Hokies, Jason Haynes- Georgia Bulldogs, and of course the Oklahoma Sooners for me. 

- Country Day made me not want to listen to country music for at least the next six weeks. However, I did have the guitar in the office for a few country favorites (Country Boy Can Survive, Seminole Wind, Garth Brooks).

- Relay races are actually a great way to take a break during the day. Seriously. You should try them at your office. Or at least timed races. For all of the type A's, it feeds the competitive juices for sure. 

- Dodgeball was the favorite activity. Our motto of work hard/play hard was truly demonstrated this week. 

 

Quack, Quack

So Ben Arment has been busting my chops the last couple of days during our spirit week here at Catalyst. And probably deservedly so. I wore a pretty ridiculous outfit on Monday, thanks to my father who wore the exact same outfit during the 70's and 80's as a football coach at Bristow High School in Oklahoma. And I must say, we used to kick some serious butt around the state on the football field. Tuesday was favorite team day, and of course I donned the Crimson and Cream to represent my Oklahoma Sooners. And yesterday was Country Day, which required wearing wrangler jeans (in the closet), a tacky western shirt (easy), red wing boots (done), and a few extra surprises- one of which was my endless supply of duck calls throughout the day. I know, it sounds redneck, but duck hunting is one of my favorite things to do, and duck calling is a huge part of duck hunting. I have to give props to my close friend Matt Weaver, who first introduced me to duck hunting back in 1997, on a trip to Mississippi. Since then, it has become a constant passion and lasting hobby.

When it comes to duck calling, you have to understand (which you won't) that it is both a science and an art. I an nowhere close to being a great duck caller, but figured I would give you a quick example of what my calling sounds like. I have recorded myself on my trusty MacBook Pro to give you a taste. Enjoy. 

[googlevideo=http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-490615519770550672&hl=en]

Lunch with Roov.com founders

Yesterday had lunch with Micah Davis and Ethan Fisher, co-founders of Roov, a very cool online community that connects folks at the local community level around their shared passions and interests, including jobs, hobbies, causes, and random areas of interest. Highly impressed with Micah, Ethan, and Chris Capehart (the other co-founder). These guys are young, entrepreneurial, and very intentional about creating community for our generation- not just connecting someone online, but also making it easy for those in the same city or community to connect IN-person. As Micah stated, the online environment is the means to an end, not the end.  Make sure to check out what they are doing, and also sign up to be part of the Roov experience. 

Greatest Leaders from the past 100 years

Ran across an interesting list from Time (from 8 years ago) on who they ranked as the greatest 100 leaders of the last century (the list came out in 2000). So thought I would attempt to put together my own top ten greatest leaders list from the last 100 years. Here you go:

1. Martin Luther King

2. Ronald Reagan

3. Winston Churchill

4. Mother Teresa 

5. Billy Graham 

6. Franklin Roosevelt

7. Nelson Mandela 

8. Walt Disney 

9. Gandhi 

10. Oprah Winfrey 

Do you agree? Who would you add or take off?

Recalculating our Leadership GPS

We had David Salyers at our office last week from Chick-fil-A. David is the VP of Marketing for the chicken sandwich giant, and a frequent speaker and consultant on leadership. He had some great points during his talk to our staff, specifically as it relates to the idea of Recalculating our leadership GPS. - We tend to think that Leadership is mainly about leading those who are subordinates or work FOR us.

- However, 360 degree leadership is first and foremost about leading ourselves. 

- 50% of our energy should go towards leading ourselves. 20% should go towards leading across (peers), 20% towards leading up, and only 10% towards leading down (those who work for us directly). 

- With this scenario, 90% of leadership is for everybody, regardless of whether you have a team you manage or not. We tend to think that the only kind of leadership is when we have a team we are managing, but that is not accurate. 

- Most of us view leading up as "brown nosing." Instead we need to recalibrate- leading up is not "sucking up." Sucking up is selfish, but truly leading up is serving. 

- A self serving leader is one who is usually money motivated, while a servant leader is one who is mission motivated.

- Significance is about impact we have ON others. Success is about comparing ourselves TO others. And comparison is the thief of joy. 

- We cross the line of selfless to selfish as leaders when what we receive goes from appreciation to expectation.

(Many of his thoughts on 360 Leadership he gave credit to Bill Hybels, and a talk that Bill gave at Leadership Summit several years ago). 

You can watch the video of David speaking to our staff here. 

 

Blog Archives by Year: