UPDATE: We did it! We now have enough to purchase equipment to share some great stories! If you feel left out and really wanted to donate towards the 12 stories, be sure to check out our website for more information on the other 3 goals still remaining!

Stories are powerful. Hearing a story of triumph can encourage those who are struggling to keep fighting. Hearing a story of a life surrendered to God can motivate the church to serve and love on an even greater level.

I recently heard a story of a person that first came to Catalyst Church on Easter. I hear she loves it at Catalyst. I hear she is crazy about serving Jesus through Catalyst. And, she’s growing in her relationship with Jesus. Her story is one of a divine encounter…with a yard sign! How crazy is that. She found the church she had been craving for AND she is loving her Savior like never before because she saw a yard sign. That’s awesome!

Here is why we need to share that story:

1. Someone put that yard sign out and they need to know that because of that crazy act of service lives are being changed (and much like a ripple effect in a pond, lives will continue to be changed through this one act of service).
2. People selflessly go without every week to contribute financially to God’s work at Catalyst Church and they need to hear how God is working. We could not have purchased those Easter yard signs without the partners of Catalyst Church who generously honor, trust, and put God first in their finances every week.
3. We all need to hear and see what God is doing, and that has to increase our faith and desire to see Jesus move greatly in our area.

Stories can be a catalyst for life change. We are committed to doing a much better job, over the next year, to share all these great stories of God moving in and through Catalyst. The greatest message of all time demands the best platform we can give it. We have some great ideas and plans to get these great stories out, BUT we need your help to do it right!

We are looking to purchase lighting, a microphone, and a backdrop. We are ghetto fabulous, but our current situation doesn’t work. We aren’t looking for thousands of dollars, we have done our homework and we have found a solution that will only cost $250. We are hoping to see 25 people donate $10 each towards this. We want 25 people to see these stories and know that they contributed towards making this possible.

Would you help us broadcast these great stories, and help make this a Summer-2-Remember by donating $10 today?

Our Goal Has Been Reached! Thanks for helping!!!

Through 20 donations, $251 of our $250 goal has been reached

Churches typically slow down around summer time. People sleep in, go on vacation, go to the beach and a million other distractions that keep them from consistently attending church. At Catalyst, we do things slightly different than most churches. So… this summer is going to be a summer of growth (at least spiritual growth), and a Summer 2 Remember!!!

To accomplish this, we have a few items outside our normal operating expenses that we would love to have people generously AND sacrificially give towards. I’ll explain each of the 5 items over the next few days, but for today I want to explain our goal of seeing 50 People Baptized by the end of summer!

I love baptisms, for one I get to hold people under water (for a really long time if I don’t like you!). Here are a few other reasons I love baptisms 1) It’s commanded by Jesus, 2) We see people publicly proclaiming Jesus as Savior (usually to friends and family attending for the first time), 3) Those serving have a greater resolve to keep going as they see first hand how their sacrifice and service is changing lives, 4) Those watching the baptism hear the Gospel from multiple people and in a variety of ways.

Here’s the awesome part, we have around 20 souls that are ready to be baptized now. I’ve been waiting simply because I want our church body to see LIVE these baptisms, and experience has proved that if we do the baptizing off campus, those who are far from God and those who need to hear the stories most…simply wont attend.

Here’s another awesome part, most portable baptistries start in the $2,000 range, BUT we have found one that would work GREAT for us and it is ONLY $350!!!!

Here’s a chance for you to invest in something that matters! Here’s a great opportunity for you to make this a Summer 2 Remember! Would you donate (any amount) towards the purchase of our first portable baptistry? You can securely and safely donate today by clicking the image below!

UPDATE: We did it! We now have enough to purchase our first baptistry! If you feel left out and really wanted to donate towards the baptistry, be sure to check out our website for more information on the other 4 goals still remaining!

• CEOs of Fortune 500 companies read an average of four to five books a month.
• “You’re the same today as you’ll be in five years except for the people you meet and the books you read.” -Charlie Jones
• “Not all readers are leaders, but all leaders are readers.” -Harry S. Truman
• “You don’t have to burn books to destroy a culture. Just get people to stop reading them.”

To become better leaders and better followers of Jesus, a few people that are frequently at the Catalyst Offices are intentionally going through a book a month. We’d like to invite you to join us! Some books will be about leadership, some will be about discipleship, and some will be for an upcoming Teaching Series at Catalyst. For each book we read, we will have a different exercise to help us put into practice what we have read together.  Most (if not all) will be correspondence through email and blogs, which is great because your schedule won’t need to change at all!

Would you like to stay up to date with the books we are reading? Email Stephanie@CatalystChurch.tv, and she would be thrilled to let you know what book we are reading, and what exercise we are going through! Wether you do this with us or not, you should still focus on reading a lot more this summer! It will be far more beneficial than most of what we waste our time on.

Here’s something a mentor shared with me about a year ago,  ”The hardest thing to find is a worship pastor. You can find musicians and singers. Trying to find a worship pastor with a heart that loves Jesus and a heart that leads people, will wear you out and keep you from getting where God wants to take you.”

Thanks Angela and Brendan for taking on such a huge responsibility and for giving it your all!

They carry a huge burden every week. They carry the burden of seeing lost people connect with Jesus, seeing casual Christians become fully engaged disciples, the burden of practicing enough to eliminate distractions, the burden of where to practice and when to practice with so many schedules, the burden of seeing more and more people use their gifts and talents to serve the body of Christ by joining the worship team, the burden of getting up at 6:00 every Sunday, the burden of setting everything up in a portable environment every Sunday, the burden of tearing it all back down every Sunday (all while trying to lead and connect with people), and the biggest burden of all is to be people who passionately pursue Jesus above all and lift his name higher than anything else EVERY SINGLE WEEK. Day after day, they carry more than you will ever know!

Im not saying we are where we want to be. Im not saying we don’t have a lot to work on, and a lot that we are working through. BUT I am saying, Im pretty freakin pumped about where we are 8 months into this.

If their service means something to you, or if their service has helped you chase after Jesus more, why don’t you honor them (completely different than worshiping) by sending them a thank you card or a note on facebook! Or, better yet, commit to praying for them for the next 30 days! I promise if you honor them and pray for them, we will see more and more people connect with Jesus!

Stories encourage the heart and motivate people to even greater steps of faith. We all have stories, would you be willing to share yours?

Here are a few of the stories we’d love to hear…

• people coming to church who swore they never would
• people finding life in Christ through Catalyst Church
• people finding significance and purpose through serving at Catalyst Church
• people connecting with God on a deeper level through Catalyst Church
• people being blessed because of sacrificially obeying and giving regularly or generously
• marriages restored because of the ministry of Catalyst Church
• addictions overcome because Catalyst Church exists

These stories are huge. People need to be encouraged by what God is doing in the lives of others. We want to feature as many stories as possible on our website. Your story of God changing your life could be the catalyst to someone else finding life and hope and forgiveness through a relationship with Jesus.

So, you are invited to share your story or stories through email. Could you share your story with us? Email your story to –  mystory@catalystchurch.tv today!