Investment

Ryan and I are at conference called Catalyst at the moment. Someone asked why we go to conferences and why do we go to the states? It's a great question and the opening day of Catalyst nailed it for me.

We had the privilege to sit and listen to:

• A pastor who leads one of the largest churches in the states and is recognized as one of the top church communicators on leadership. Andy Stanley
  
• A janitor who decided to write a book for his kids that no one wanted to publish so he published it himself. The book about his spiritual journey "The Shack" has been the NY Times no 1 for 20 weeks. William P Young
  
• One of the worlds top business speakers and author of the book "Good to Great" - Jim Collins.
• One of the leading voices of racial reconciliation and author - Brenda Salter McNeil
  
• A 28 year old guy who started a church 2 years ago with 7 families and now sees over 5000 gather each week. A few weeks ago they baptised 1000 new Christians - Steven Furtick.
• Seth Godin - recognised as the worlds leading guru on marketing.
• Leader of Lifechurch.tv Craig Groeschel, who as well as growing a local church through multiple campuses has a passion to see the church unite over denominational and theological lines and are leveraging their resources to assist the worldwide body of believers.

And that was just one day. If you are reading this and you attend a church one of the best things you can do is invest in the development of your pastor and leaders. Do they have to go to the states no but outside of the Global Leadership Summit I don't think I have seen this sort of breadth of speakers in the UK at one time. But they need to hear voices that will build them up, challenge them, stretch them and inspire them.

I believe if you grow the leader and you will grow your church so invest in their training and development.