{"id":108,"date":"2010-10-07T00:29:34","date_gmt":"2010-10-07T00:29:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.gallifant.com\/?p=108"},"modified":"2013-07-03T10:14:41","modified_gmt":"2013-07-03T15:14:41","slug":"catalyst-2010-lab-day","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.gallifant.com\/catalyst-2010-lab-day\/","title":{"rendered":"Catalyst 2010: Lab Day"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/span> Today was the kick-off for Catalyst East 2010!\u00a0 The day included an opening session followed by four “lab” sessions (the standard conference equivalent of a “break-out seminar”).\u00a0 At each time slot there were four different speakers communicating at four different locations at the Gwinnett Convention Center.\u00a0 The day was a fantastic jump-start for me.\u00a0 The day included Michael Hyatt (CEO of Thomas Nelson<\/a>), Tim Elmore (Founder of Growing Leaders<\/a>), Jonathan Acuff (Author & Blogger at StuffChristiansLike.net<\/a>), and Alan and Debra Hirsch (Authors of a number of books, including their recent release, Untamed<\/em><\/a>).<\/p>\n

Michael Hyatt spoke on Platform: What it is, Why you need it, and How you build it.\u00a0 Hyatt’s premise was that great leaders influence their audience.\u00a0 Thus, appropriate, efficient, and developed platform-usage is a necessity!\u00a0 The platform, regardless of the medium, isn’t a pedestal – a chance to make yourself known.\u00a0 Rather, it’s a connective opportunity to engage people and influence them where they’re at.\u00a0 Hyatt provided three steps to growing a platform:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Establish a command center<\/strong>: Use a website or a blog to deliver a concentrated message that you can control.\u00a0 Use compelling content to attract traffic, not design tweeks.\u00a0 Popular services include: WordPress, TypePad, Blogger…and I might add Squarespace, my provider of choice.<\/li>\n
  2. Set up embassies:<\/strong> Utilize Twitter, Facebook, Foursquare, and similar services to promote material.\u00a0 These assist the command center, but should never replace it.<\/li>\n
  3. Develop an intelligence agency<\/strong>: This allows you to know what people are saying about you, your product, or congregation.\u00a0 The most popular free service is Google Alerts.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    Overall, I realized the talk was an introductory talk to utilizing social mediums, but it was helpful nonetheless!\u00a0 You can access Hyatt’s presentation here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

    The next talk – and my favorite talk of the day – was by Dr. Tim Elmore on Generation iY.\u00a0 Generation Y is expected to be the largest generation that America has ever seen at 100 million strong.\u00a0 This generation must<\/em> be reached, trained, and developed in order to see society transformed.\u00a0 To begin, Elmore differentiated Gen Y from iY.\u00a0 Generation Y (those born predominantly in the 80’s) are activistic, compassionate, view technology as a tool, are ambitious about the future, and experience accelerate growth.\u00a0 Gen iY (born in the 90’s), so called because they have been impacted by all of the “i” products (iPads, iPhones, iPods, iChat, etc.), are slacktivistic (they want to care about a lot without any commitment), lack empathy, view technology as an appendage (they can’t go anywhere without it), are ambiguous concerning their future (have 20 different options), and experience postponed maturation.\u00a0 Elmore emphasized that postponed maturation concerns him more than any of the forementioned points.\u00a0 He cited one surveyor that said, “26 is the new 18.”\u00a0 This is what Elmore diagnosed as the “Neverland Syndrome:” a disease that plagues the minds of most Gen iYers.\u00a0 It’s the idea that entirely rejects growing up.<\/p>\n

    Now, a number of things contribute to delayed maturity, but the one that stood out to me was the effects of media technology.\u00a0 It’s ironic that the most social generation to live is also the least relational generation.\u00a0 Technology has dabilitated and atrophied the relational muscles of Gen iYers.\u00a0 These digital natives spend their lives before screens rather than people.\u00a0 Their emotional intelligence is handicapped because they only interact with those of their own kind.\u00a0 Overall, they are prone to postponed maturation unless Godly leaders step in and take initiative to raise them in active, Biblical, and responsible homes.<\/p>\n

    Elmore suggested that Gen iYers greatest needs are emotional intelligence, character development, and leadership perspective.\u00a0 The best way to equip them is through EPIC means:<\/p>\n

    E<\/strong> – Experienctial<\/p>\n

    P<\/strong> – Participatory<\/p>\n

    I<\/strong> – Image-rich<\/p>\n

    C<\/strong> – Connected<\/p>\n

    Elmore summarized this as using i<\/strong>mages and visuals that lead to c<\/strong>onversations that lead to e<\/strong>xperiences (or ice<\/strong>).<\/p>\n

    \"\"Michael Hyatt at Catalyst 2010<\/span><\/span>\"\"Jon Acuff at Catalyst 2010<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

    The 3:00pm session I attended was Jonathan Acuff on when a story intersects with a community.\u00a0 Acuff, a hilarious communicator, completely embodies this subject at his blog, Stuff Christians Like.\u00a0 Acuff’s gave seven things a community and a story need:<\/p>\n

      \n
    1. Space<\/strong> – enough space to have others tell their stories.<\/li>\n
    2. Bridges<\/strong> – good stories unite all of the elements of the story really well (the elements of the story such as the intro, body, and supporting points are not clearly identifiable).<\/li>\n
    3. Surprise<\/strong> – people are receiving enough messages every day and filing them mindlessly into familiar categories.\u00a0 Get creative and shake things up.\u00a0 Surprise is different than shock.\u00a0 Shock is offensive.\u00a0 Surprising gets people engaged.<\/li>\n
    4. Honesty<\/strong> – honesty is more important than talent.\u00a0 As media mediums increase and talent becomes more visible, honesty needs to increase in presence.<\/li>\n
    5. Patience<\/strong> – time needs to be treated well.\u00a0 The essential question to ask here is, “How do I give more of me to more of them well?”<\/li>\n
    6. Compassion<\/strong> – there’s a world’s difference between mockery and sattire.\u00a0 Sattire seeds conversations for great ideas, mockery chums the water for sharks.\u00a0 Mockery allows for quick laughs, but makes it hard to be loving later.<\/li>\n
    7. Meaning<\/strong> – There’s a difference between community and viral.\u00a0 Viral may be popular, but only for a moment.\u00a0 Community develops long-term meaning.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

      Acuff concluded on a serious note about looking to make yourself known.\u00a0 “Fame,” observed Acuff, “is a drug wrecking ministry.”\u00a0 Acuff boldly pleaded for believers to live in the most significant acceptance they’ll ever have – before an Almighty God.\u00a0 The ending became clear: “Don’t trade your story for fame.”<\/p>\n

      The last session I attended – unfortunately my least favorite session – was headed by Alan and Debra Hirsch.\u00a0 I don’t know if the Hirsch’s were informed or not, but there session was only 45 minutes and they spent the first 15 minutes outlining their new book.\u00a0 Nevertheless, they eventually arrived at some solid points on missional discipleship.\u00a0 Consumerism, noted Debra, is one of the most plaguing religions around today.\u00a0 It provides what rival religions provide: identity, meaning, purpose, and belonging.\u00a0 This consumerism drives the church today and treats the church like a service where people come to pay (tithing) in exchange for something they desire (to be entertained).\u00a0 Rather, the people of God need to come to be empowered and sent out to reach others.<\/p>\n

      My favorite part of the session was a parable Debra gave to conclude the talk.\u00a0 She drew two pictures: a square on one side and a circle on the other.\u00a0 She pointed to the square and likened it to a fence to box the sheep in.\u00a0 This is how most people keep their sheep reigned in.\u00a0 However, this method only looks at externals, and not the internals.\u00a0 Hirsch pointed at the circle and said that this was a well.\u00a0 One doesn’t have to worry about the sheep going far because they know where the water is.\u00a0 In the same way, we should be more concerned about presenting Jesus to people, not getting them to conform to behavioral norms.<\/p>\n

      Whew!\u00a0 Things have just begun…<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

      Today was the kick-off for Catalyst East 2010!\u00a0 The day included an opening session followed by four “lab” sessions (the standard conference equivalent of a “break-out seminar”).\u00a0 At each time slot there were four different speakers communicating at four different locations at the Gwinnett Convention Center.\u00a0 The day was a fantastic jump-start for me.\u00a0 The […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[209,208,3],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1Y9ZB-1K","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.gallifant.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/108"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.gallifant.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.gallifant.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.gallifant.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.gallifant.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=108"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/www.gallifant.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/108\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":741,"href":"http:\/\/www.gallifant.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/108\/revisions\/741"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.gallifant.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=108"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.gallifant.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=108"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.gallifant.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=108"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}