Brian & Bobbie Houston
First off, let me say that United rocked the house on Thursday. And then their Pastor spoke and rocked my heart! Here are the notes…
“Be a Church Builder instead of a Church Critic”
1 Chornicles 22:5-7 “I had it in my heart to build a house for God”
1 Kings 9:3-4 “My eyes and my heart will always be there”
Psalm 42:5 “a festive throng”
“don’t waste your energy trying to build the house that God said He would build…”
Judd Wilhite
So the second message I forgot about was Judd Wilhite’s (Central Christian Church in Vegas). It was titled “What do you see when you look in the mirror.”
Here are the notes that I took…
Photobooth – What do you see when you look in the mirror?
Guilty
Ugly
Small
Alone
Failure
Not Enough
Unworthy
Unloved
He wrote these on a glass mirror as he spoke on them. Then he asked the question, “what does God see?” He then proceeded to preach on the following and broke the mirror. Underneath the mirror was another mirror with an encouraging message on it… I think it was “hope” or “Jesus” or something. What I remember most was the fact that he accidentally hit the mirror too hard and almost broke the second one as well!
1 Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus through the will of God, to the saints that are at Ephesus, and the faithful in Christ Jesus:2 Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly4 even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blemish before him in love:5 having foreordained us unto adoption as sons through Jesus Christ unto himself, according to the good pleasure of his will,6 to the praise of the glory of his grace, which he freely bestowed on us in the Beloved:7 in whom we have our redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace,8 which he made to abound toward us in all wisdom and prudence,9 making known unto us the mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure which he purposed in him10 unto a dispensation of the fulness of the times, to sum up all things in Christ, the things in the heavens, and the things upon the earth; in him, I say,11 in whom also we were made a heritage, having been foreordained according to the purpose of him who worketh all things after the counsel of his will;12 to the end that we should be unto the praise of his glory, we who had before hoped in Christ:13 in whom ye also, having heard the word of the truth, the gospel of your salvation,– in whom, having also believed, ye were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise,14 which is an earnest of our inheritance, unto the redemption of God’s own possession, unto the praise of his glory.
So I was planning on sticking with the plan to only post about my forgotten experiences at Catalyst West, but I woke up early today and have been listening to an old CD that we made when i was at Life Church in ’02. For those of you who don’t know, we moved to the Temecula Valley in ’02 to start a Church that we named Life Church (not affiliated with the Oklahoma Church).
When we began the Church I had never really lead worship with a band before. And as I sit here listening to this CD from that first year my heart is overwhelmed with gratitude. So I thought I’d take some time to say some “Thank Yous”…
Thank you John Ruhlman for your leadership in those early years and for taking a chance on me and our team.
Thank you band for truly carrying me through the huge learning curve. I don’t think I ever realized how talented you all really were! Man, what I could do with a band like that today… 
Band:
Mike Meyerpeter – Bass
Dan Verkade – Keys
Rich Kettner – Egtr
Mike Huffman – Egtr
Brian McNeil – Drums (all the best drummers I’ve played with say they’re not drummers)
Amanda Smith – Vox
Crystal Johnson – Vox
John Matthews – Sound
Thank you to my wife for embarking on this crazy adventure that we call “Church Planting”!
Thank you to the C&MA & Don Brust for believing in and supporting us.
Thank you God for not striking us down with lightening when we messed up and wounded your people because of our arrogance!
Good Times!
Guy Kawasaki is a managing director of Garage Technology Ventures, an early-stage venture capital firm and a columnist for Entrepreneur Magazine. Previously, he was an Apple Fellow at Apple Computer, Inc. Guy is the author of nine books including Reality Check, The Art of the Start, Rules for Revolutionaries, How to Drive Your Competition Crazy, Selling the Dream, and The Macintosh Way. He has a BA from Stanford University and an MBA from UCLA as well as an honorary doctorate from Babson College.
Here is the Catalyst West presentation from Guy Kawasaki through my eyes…
1. Make Meaning
2. Make Mantra
Most Mission Statements suck!
Don’t create a Mission Statement, create a Mantra (2-3 words that describe your Church/Organization)
3. Jump to the next curve
For example, an Ice Making Company might look like this…
Ice 1.0 – We cut Ice during the winter
Ice 2.0 – We freeze our own Ice
Ice 3.0 – We sell you a freezer
Don’t define your Church/Organization by what you currently do, jump to the next curve!
4. Roll The Dice
5. Don’t Worry, Be Crappy!
Don’t wait for perfection to pull the trigger, take risks.
6. Polarize People!
Go for Mission Impossible.
Having someone/thing that hates you is better than someone/thing that is indifferent about you.
7. Let 100 Flowers Blossom
Go with what/who God gives you even if they’re not who you envisioned for the job/position.
8. Churn Baby Church
Continue to upgrade your Church/Product… 1.1, 1.2, 1.3, etc. Constantly be about evolution.
9. Nitch Thyself
Think in terms of Uniqueness vs. Value
Examples are Fandango and The Clear Card
10. Follow The 10, 20, 30 Rule
When giving a presentation plan on using no more than 10 Presentation slides, 20 minutes and a 30pt font. (I find it funny that he didn’t exactly follow this rule for his very own presentation).
11. Watch Out For Dangerous Bozos!
Don’t let the Bozos grind you down. “If you want to see what God thinks of money, look at who He gives it to.”
Check out some interesting stuff at http://church.alltop.com/
