Couperspective: Catalyst: Tribes

Dear Reader:

This is a side project blog that I started with the purpose of posting my perspectives and experiences from Catalyst conference this past year. I say perspectives in place of "notes that I collected" because anything you read here will simply be my highly subjective responses to the revolutionary thinkers and leaders who shared from the Catalyst stage. In a place where pieces of gold lie all over the place, I tried to find the nuggets which to me seemed the most valuable, stuffing my pockets full of 30 pages worth of shining jewels.

I regret that I must leave many gold nuggets for others to acquire, because my pen can only write as fast as my hand can move, which is not as fast as some of these fine people can speak. As Reggie Joiner said, Catalyst is like trying to take a drink from a fire hydrant. Your mouth can only hold so much, and you're lucky to fill your mouth up to the full capacity anyways because you get so blown away with the volume and power of what you've just heard.

The other regret I have is that a blog is not the same as a notebook, and though this will be slightly more visually and sequentially organized, it will be more difficult to understand the full meaning and concept reading from this blog. I have placed my thoughts here in the most organized and understandable way that I can think of without the use of the stars, arrows, circles, and boxes which cover the pages of my notebook. Despite this disadvantage, I hope that you will hear something new nonetheless.

I have written for too long here. Read on below and enjoy the Catalyst experience, or as much of it as I could bring home to you. Enjoy. Together.

Sunday, October 12, 2008

Tribes - Seth Godin

People ask 2 questions: who's going to be there? and who's going to lead us?

people like to do things together, to be together
this togetherness makes tribes
it's a natural desire to be part of something
a crowd is not a tribe
a tribe is a group of people with a common interest, common leader, and a way of communication
it is extremely difficult and slow going for a tribe to be big and tight at the same time (side note: are we growing our church, or making people "tight" with God?)
it's not about entertainment, its about community, connection, unity
in our generation, people are not seeking a safe leader
Heretic: people who believe in something enough to accept criticism for doing it
heretics don't let rules or religion stand in the way of faith

LEADERS have to: